The Quick Verdict: Which App Fits a Growing Shopify Shop?
If you are shipping 300 to 3,000 labels a month from a Shopify store, AfterShip Shipping is the choice that still fits at the top of that range. All three tools here buy and print labels in bulk, so the question is not whether you can clear a morning's orders. The difference is that AfterShip Shipping sits in a suite covering shipping, tracking, returns, and warranty, each sold as its own subscription.
Shippo sells multi-carrier label buying on a volume ladder. ShippingEasy sells batch shipment processing on plans banded by shipment count. For the wider field, see our comprehensive ranking of shipping software.
Choose AfterShip Shipping if:
- You print in bulk every morning and want labels merged into one PDF with packing slips in the same run
- You want shipping rules on the Pro plan that can match all your conditions or any of them
- You want Smart Carrier Recommendation, available on every plan, which excludes services with a high exception rate for that origin and destination, based on AfterShip tracking data
- Your volume is climbing and you want a self-serve plan that still covers it
- You expect to add tracking or returns later and would rather buy from the vendor printing your labels
Choose Shippo or ShippingEasy if:
- You want a plain monthly ladder from Shippo and expect your shipping needs to stop at printing labels
- Your day is one large uniform batch and you want ShippingEasy to step your plan up as volume rises
The Batch Test: Buying and Printing 50 Labels
Fifty labels is the run that decides whether a morning stays calm, so start from the baseline you already know. Shopify's own help centre documents bulk selection of up to 250 orders, with a maximum of 100 shipping labels printed at the same time.
This is the screen you will open every morning. Here is what each vendor documents for the job. Shippo creates up to 100 labels at a time, which it calls a batch, in guidance updated 17 August 2026, and prints the shipping label and the packing slip together on one page. ShippingEasy processes up to 200 shipments at once, documented 8 February 2024, keeps domestic and international orders in separate batches, and gives you a Print Packing Slips box to bring slips out alongside the labels. AfterShip Shipping documents a three-step flow on all plans, updated 17 August 2026, with Create and print label as a single action, labels merged into one PDF, and packing slips produced in the same run. No per-run label cap is published for AfterShip Shipping.
Line those three up and the shape is the same. Buying and printing in bulk, getting one merged file to send to the printer, and pulling packing slips in the same pass are common ground here, not the thing that separates them. AfterShip Shipping buys and prints labels in bulk on every plan.
What AfterShip Shipping documents about the orders that are not ready is worth knowing. Shipments missing required data are skipped, and the confirmation dialog names which ones and why. You finish with a list of what is still waiting on you, rather than a gap in the stack you find at the end of the day when a customer asks where their order is.
One note if you are following along with a tutorial. Accounts created on or after 31 July 2026 use the Fulfillments portal, so older screenshots show you a different interface from the one in front of you. A companion piece looks at how these tools compare on time-saving.
Pricing Explained: What You Actually Pay at 100, 500 and 1,000 Shipments
The arithmetic at three volumes, all on monthly billing:
At 100 labels a month: Shippo Pro at $19, ShippingEasy Growth at $19.99, or AfterShip Shipping Essentials at $11. ShippingEasy's free plan is limited to 25 shipments per month. That cap is on its plans overview, updated 6 May 2025.
At 500 a month it is Shippo Pro at $29, ShippingEasy Basic at $29.99, or AfterShip Shipping Essentials at $35.
At 1,000 a month, Shippo Pro at $54, ShippingEasy Plus at $49.99, or AfterShip Shipping Essentials at $47. AfterShip Shipping Pro is $89 a month and covers up to 2,000 labels a month, the number to hold if your order count is still climbing.
Then the fee for bringing your own carrier account. Shippo: $0.05 per label on the free Starter plan, updated 14 August 2026, nothing on Pro or Premier. Shippo's pricing plans may include additional per-label fees. ShippingEasy: $10 a month on Growth, $15 on Basic, $20 on Plus, documented 11 March 2024. AfterShip Shipping: 1 cent per label.
| Volume per month | AfterShip Shipping | Shippo | ShippingEasy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 labels | Essentials plan, $11 a month at 100 labels | Pro, $19 a month, 1 to 200 labels | Growth, $19.99 a month, 26 to 200 shipments |
| 500 labels | Essentials plan, $35 a month | Pro plan, $29 a month | Basic plan, $29.99 a month |
| 1,000 labels | Essentials $47 a month; Pro $89 a month to 2,000 labels | Pro plan, $54 a month | Plus plan, $49.99 a month |
| Own carrier account | A flat 1 cent per label, on every plan | $0.05 per label on Starter, free on Pro | $10 Growth, $15 Basic, $20 Plus, monthly |
Let's be honest about the free plans: AfterShip Shipping's is the smallest of the three, at 10 labels a month against Shippo's 30 and ShippingEasy's 25. At 10 to 100 orders a day, none of them covers even a week, so the free tier is a way to look around rather than a plan to run on. What matters is what you pay once you are shipping for real, and that is in the table above.
"If This, Then That": Comparing Shipping Automation Rules
Take the rule most growing shops write first: anything over five pounds goes ground, everything else goes express. All three tools let you build it, and on AfterShip Shipping rules come with the Pro plan, documented 8 August 2026.
In Shippo you set the condition on Order weight and the action on Carrier service level. In ShippingEasy you set the condition on Order weight and the action to Set Shipping Preset. In AfterShip Shipping you set the condition on Package weight and the action to Set carrier/service. One rule, three sets of field names, the same outcome at the printer.
Two more things are worth knowing about how AfterShip Shipping's rules behave.
The first is that a rule can require every one of its conditions to match, or fire as soon as any one of them does. A single parcel over five pounds or an order total over $200 can trigger the same rule, instead of being split across two, which keeps the list short enough to reason about at eight in the morning.
The second is Smart Carrier Recommendation, available on every plan. It excludes services with a high exception rate for that origin and destination, based on AfterShip tracking data. It is a setting you switch on, and what it changes is the pool your rules choose from: a service that has been failing on a lane stops being offered for that lane. Your rule still says ground over five pounds. What moves is which ground service it can hand the parcel to.
Beyond the Label: Why a Unified Platform Matters for SMBs
The label is the middle of the job, not the end of it. The moment it is printed the shopper starts wondering where the order is, and some share of what you ship is coming back.
At 10 to 100 orders a day both of those arrive every day rather than now and then, which is the point at which a shared inbox stops being a system and starts being a queue you never clear. The tooling that answers those questions is not the tooling that prints the label.
AfterShip sells shipping, tracking, returns, and warranty. Each one is its own subscription, bought separately, so none of it arrives inside a Shipping plan. AfterShip Tracking is the product for branded tracking pages and delivery notifications, the ones that answer the where-is-my-order question before anyone opens a ticket. AfterShip Returns is the product for a shopper-started returns page, where the customer picks the item, the reason and the resolution without emailing you about it. What a best-in-class branded tracking experience looks like on Shopify is its own comparison.
StackCommerce reduced WISMO tickets by 71% using AfterShip Tracking. That is a Tracking result.
"Their full-service platform works pretty well. Had a great experience with AfterShip Tracking and now I'm enjoying Aftership Shipping as well."
The Keratin Store, United States, Shopify App Store, 15 September 2023
The practical version for a shop your size is a sequencing question. You are choosing a label printer this month. In six months, when ticket volume starts to bite, you will be choosing a tracking page, and after that a returns page. Buying those from the vendor already carrying your shipment data turns each one into a subscription you switch on rather than another integration to scope, test and learn from scratch.
Shippo vs. ShippingEasy vs. AfterShip: Feature Breakdown
Here is the comparison on one screen for anyone who must show a manager. Asking is Shippo or ShippingEasy better in the abstract does not get you far. The question is which of the three fits your shop, on the six criteria that move a decision at your volume.
| Criteria | AfterShip Shipping | Shippo | ShippingEasy |
|---|---|---|---|
| The documented batch workflow | Three steps, one merged PDF, packing slips in the run; no cap published | Up to 100 labels per batch; label and slip on one page | Up to 200 per batch; domestic and international separate |
| Ease of setup | Shopify App Store; new accounts use the Fulfillments portal | Shopify App Store install | Shopify App Store install |
| Pricing transparency | Essentials, monthly: $11 at 100 labels, $35 at 500, $47 at 1,000; Pro $89 to 2,000 | Pro, monthly: $19 at 1 to 200 labels, $29 to 500, $54 to 1,000 | Monthly: $19.99 at 26 to 200 shipments, $29.99 to 500, $49.99 to 1,500 |
| Automation rules | Pro plan; package weight and order total, all or any; rules run at import | All plans; order weight, carrier service; Run automations for existing orders | All plans; order weight, Shipping Preset; rules re-run on existing orders |
| Shopify integration quality | Paid, unfulfilled orders sync in; one shipment per location; cancels carry through | Orders import automatically; tracking number syncs back on label purchase | Shipment status updates in Shopify on label creation |
| Room to grow | shipping, tracking, returns, and warranty, as separate subscriptions | Covers label buying, batching and rules | Covers batching, rules and plan auto-upgrade |
The Final Verdict: The Right Choice for Your Stage of Growth
Route by where your shop is going, not where it is. If your needs stop at buying and printing labels, Shippo or ShippingEasy will do that job as long as you need it. If you expect to keep growing, and to want tracking and returns next, AfterShip Shipping is the better decision: those arrive as separate subscriptions from a vendor you already run on. That is the practical answer to what the best shipping automation software for Shopify is: the one whose next product you will buy. For that matchup on its own, there is a direct AfterShip vs. Shippo breakdown.
Price in the rebuild before you switch. Rules do not migrate, and precedence differs: Shippo applies the first-listed rule, AfterShip Shipping the rule at the top of the list. Reproducing a mature rule set is work.
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Book a demoFrequently Asked Questions
Is Shippo or ShippingEasy cheaper for Shopify?
Any shippo vs shippingeasy pricing comparison turns on volume and whether you bring your own carrier account. On monthly billing, 100 labels lands on Shippo Pro $19, ShippingEasy Growth $19.99, or AfterShip Shipping Essentials $11. At 500: Shippo Pro $29, ShippingEasy Basic $29.99, AfterShip Shipping Essentials $35. At 1,000: Shippo Pro $54, ShippingEasy Plus $49.99, AfterShip Shipping Essentials $47. Then the carrier-account line: Shippo $0.05 per label on free Starter and nothing on Pro or Premier; ShippingEasy $10, $15 or $20 a month by plan; AfterShip Shipping 1 cent per label.
Which is easier to use, Shippo or ShippingEasy?
Compare the workflow you will actually run. Shippo creates up to 100 labels per batch and prints the label and packing slip on one page. ShippingEasy processes up to 200 shipments per batch, keeps domestic and international orders in separate batches, and prints packing slips via a checkbox in the same run. Both install from the Shopify App Store. Which shape suits you depends on whether your days are one uniform batch or mixed.
What is a better alternative to Shippo for a growing Shopify shop?
Shops outgrowing Shippo are usually asking one question: what still fits after the next growth step. The same question drives searches for ShippingEasy alternatives. AfterShip Shipping prints in bulk on every plan, adds rules on the Pro plan that match all your conditions or any of them, and includes Smart Carrier Recommendation on every plan. Its self-serve plans run to 2,000 labels a month. When the tracking page and the returns page become the next problems, AfterShip Tracking and AfterShip Returns are separate subscriptions from the same vendor.
