Shipping software pricing: subscription, labels and postage

This guide separates the three amounts a small store pays for shipping: the software fee, any per-label fee, and the postage paid to the carrier. We read each product's own pages on 29 October 2026 and recorded what they state. ShipStation and Shippo are read in a US context and priced in US dollars; Sendcloud is read in a European context and priced in euros, and the two sets of prices are never converted or added together. Sendcloud's figures come from its English pricing page; its national pages show different amounts, so they are examples and not the price in every country. Sums marked as our arithmetic are calculated by us from those prices for stated examples; they are not averages of real stores and they exclude postage, insurance and tax. We did not test the products and make no claim about savings on postage, sales or growth. Plans and facts for each product are on its page: ShipStation, Shippo and Sendcloud.

The software fee is what you pay the shipping platform each month for access, and it is usually priced by how many shipments or labels you make. A per-label fee, where there is one, is an extra amount charged on each label on top of that fee. Postage is the carrier's price for a particular parcel and is paid separately in every case we read. A cheap plan can sit beside expensive postage, and a better plan does not change what a carrier charges for your route and weight, so compare the three amounts separately.

Four volumes a month: 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000. ShipStation counts shipments and Shippo counts labels, so the units are close but not identical; we treat one as the other only for these examples. For each volume the table uses the smallest published level that covers it. Prices are US dollars before tax and exclude extra users, postage and insurance. Brackets show the monthly equivalent when billed yearly: ShipStation takes 20% off, Shippo 10% (our arithmetic for the Shippo equivalents, from the stated yearly amounts).

How to read it (our arithmetic): at these four volumes Shippo Pro's list price is lower than ShipStation Starter's by $10.99, $10.99, $25.99 and $35.99 a month, and lower than ShipStation Standard's by $40.99, $60.99, $95.99 and $110.99. The plans are not equivalent. ShipStation Starter does not allow your own carrier account and includes 3 users; Shippo Pro does allow it and its entry level includes 5 users; ShipStation Standard includes 10 users. The table says nothing about postage, which is paid to the carrier in both cases.

Sendcloud adds a per-label fee to its monthly fee, so its cost depends on the number of labels as well as the plan. For each volume the table uses the smallest plan whose monthly label limit covers it: Lite covers up to 400 labels, Growth up to 1,000 and Premium up to 10,000. Beyond a plan's limit an extra EUR 0.15 a label applies, and each plan also has a yearly label cap. Amounts are euros from Sendcloud's English pricing page; its national pages show different amounts (for example the Italian page lists EUR 79 for Growth and EUR 159 for Premium on its default view, and the UK page is in pounds), so check the page for your country. Nothing is converted to dollars and postage is excluded.

Labels beyond a plan's monthly limit are billed at the higher rate, not blocked, so on the monthly limit alone a store slightly above it can pay less by staying than by moving up. Our arithmetic for 500 labels on Lite (limit 400, so 100 labels over): monthly billing EUR 35 + 400 x EUR 0.12 + 100 x EUR 0.27 = EUR 110.00, against EUR 164.00 on Growth; yearly billing EUR 28 + 400 x EUR 0.10 + 100 x EUR 0.25 = EUR 93.00, against EUR 132.00 on Growth. Printing 500 labels every month is 6,000 a year, above the yearly label cap of 4,800 that Sendcloud states for Lite, and the page does not say what happens when a cap is passed. We therefore do not say that 500 labels a month on Lite is allowed without consequences; the covering plan is the one shown in the table.

These two sets of figures differ in currency, in unit and in region, so we do not rank Sendcloud against ShipStation or Shippo on price. A European store compares European options; a US store compares US ones.

• ShipStation: you are responsible for postage and insurance. Prepaid USPS postage can be topped up automatically; carriers that bill afterwards, such as UPS and FedEx, bill you as before.
• Shippo: the Pro plan fee does not cover postage; it lets you connect carrier accounts and buy labels. The plan price rules apply to labels bought in the Shippo web app, not to labels bought through an e-commerce platform or a 3PL.
• Sendcloud: labels are bought at Sendcloud's rates or on your own courier contract. Its pricing page shows sample starting rates for named services, which differ by plan and are not a quote for your parcels.
• Surcharges: carriers can add surcharges, such as seasonal peak surcharges, that change what a label costs; the plan pages do not price them.
• No parcel figures here: a postage price needs the route, weight, dimensions, carrier and service, and a pricing page knows none of them, so we give no postage figure for a parcel.

Shopify and WooCommerce both have their own label tools. Shopify lets you buy, print and manage discounted labels from supported carriers in the admin; eligibility depends on the carrier and country, and the discount varies by Shopify plan. WooCommerce Shipping buys labels from the order screen at discounted rates for stores based in the United States that use US dollars, needs a WordPress.com connection and does not show live rates at checkout. Neither page prices these labels beyond that, and we did not read Shopify's billing page for labels.

A separate platform tends to earn its fee when one or more of these is true: you sell through more than one channel and want one order queue; you have your own negotiated carrier account; you need branded tracking, returns or automation rules; or you ship from a country the built-in tools do not cover. If you ship a few parcels a month from one store, the built-in tools or a free plan may be enough.

• The price of extra ShipStation users, and what ShipStation does when you pass the shipment level of your plan.
• Any postage price for a parcel, for any product.
• The per-label rate on Sendcloud's Free plan, which the page does not state.
• Prices outside the United States for ShipStation and Shippo, and outside Europe for Sendcloud, and Sendcloud's prices on its national pages, which differ from the English page.
• Easyship, Pirate Ship and Veeqo, which we did not read and do not compare here.