Free shipping software · Editorial
Three tools say “free”
and mean three different things.
Pirate Ship, Shippo, and EasyShip each market a free tier. One is free in the sense you would expect. Two are not. Here is how each one works and when the math tilts.
The three flavors of free
What each tool actually charges
Flavor 01 · Truly free, no strings
Pirate Ship
$0/mo, $0/label, unlimited. Pirate Ship earns from the USPS commercial-rate spread, not from you. Print 10 labels or 10,000 — the tool fee stays zero. No seat caps, no feature gating on the free product (there is no paid product). Carrier coverage is USPS and UPS only; no FedEx, no DHL.
Catch: one platform integration (Shopify) plus a CSV import. Fine for single-channel sellers; painful past two marketplaces.
Flavor 02 · Pay-per-label, no monthly
Shippo
$0/mo, $0.05/label. Shippo's starter plan has no monthly fee, but you pay $0.05 every time you print a label. At 10 labels/month that is fifty cents. At 500 labels/month that is $25. At 2,000 labels/month it is $100, which is when Shippo's paid plans (with bundled labels) become cheaper than pay-as-you-go.
Catch: Shippo's real value is the API. If you are not a developer or a brand building a custom checkout, the dashboard is a less comfortable daily driver than Pirate Ship or ShipStation.
Flavor 03 · Free under a volume cap
EasyShip
$0/mo, $0/label, capped at 50 shipments/month. The free plan is actually free on cost, but EasyShip meters by shipment count. Cross 50 in a month and the plan stops accepting labels; you either wait for the next month or upgrade to the Plus plan at $29/mo (then $0/label, no cap).
Worth it because: EasyShip is the only one of the three with international-first pricing, a duties and taxes calculator, and 250+ courier integrations. If you ship internationally at all, the cap is not the issue — the feature set is.
Not free · For comparison
Stamps.com and ShipStation
Neither offers a free tier. Stamps.com is $19.99/mo; ShipStation starts at $9.99/mo. Both reference "trials" that are not free in the affiliate sense (Stamps.com's is a 4-week paid-if-retained period). Skip them unless the automation or deeper USPS discounts are worth the subscription to you. See our full shipping software comparison for the math.
The math, at every volume
What each tool costs per month
Tool cost only. Postage is the carrier's price and identical across tools; see our full comparison for postage figures. A Pirate Ship 5 lb label and a Shippo 5 lb label for the same route quote the same USPS commercial rate.
| Orders / month | Pirate Ship | Shippo | EasyShip |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $0.00 | $0.50 | $0.00 |
| 30 | $0.00 | $1.50 | $0.00 |
| 100 | $0.00 | $5.00 | $29.00 |
| 300 | $0.00 | $15.00 | $29.00 |
| 500 | $0.00 | $25.00 | $29.00 |
EasyShip jumps from $0 to $29 at 51 orders (free-plan cap). Shippo scales linearly with labels. Pirate Ship stays at $0 forever.
Real postage, same across tools
All three quote the same USPS commercial rates
Pirate Ship, Shippo, and EasyShip all resell USPS Commercial Plus pricing. Postage does not change by tool. This is a live 5 lb rate table for our sample route:
- 01 FedEx Ground FedEx 4d $23.37 +$13.73
- 02 UPS Ground Saver UPS 5d $9.64 cheapest
- 03 USPS Ground Advantage USPS 5d $10.43 +$0.79
Close call Only $0.79 (8%) separates the cheapest from the runner-up. Free USPS home pickup or a closer drop-off can erase this gap. Pick by convenience, not price, at this margin.
Decision guide
Which one to pick
- US-only, under 1,000 orders/mo, one or two sales platforms → Pirate Ship. No cost, no cap, covers USPS and UPS. The clear default.
- Building a custom checkout, need a shipping API → Shippo. The pay-per-label model is the lowest-friction way to start; migrate to a paid plan when label volume makes that cheaper.
- Shipping internationally (including US to Canada) → EasyShip. The duties and taxes calculator and 250+ courier coverage are unique. Upgrade past the 50-order cap is cheap ($29/mo) relative to what international mistakes cost without the tool.
- Over 100 US orders/mo across 3+ platforms → Skip the free tier. ShipStation's $29.99 plan pays for itself in saved labor; it is the wrong question to try to save $30 here.