ShipStation vs Pirate Ship: Which Is Better? [2024]

ShipStation vs Pirate Ship – Are you looking for the perfect shipping solution for your business? For any eCommerce business irrespective of the size and type, customer satisfaction is entirely based on how well you’ve managed the order fulfillment of the products ordered. 

Although order fulfillment is easy, shipping is not the easiest thing to handle. Luckily, there are several services that provide both small and large businesses access to the best shipping rates without hidden markup or monthly fees. 

In this article, we’ll be comparing two popular services – ShipStation and Pirate Ship and help you understand which shipping service offers the low and best rates. 

ShipStation vs Pirate Ship: Overview

ShipStation

ShipStation is a multi-carrier shipping solution designed to streamline the fulfillment process for eCommerce vendors. 

It offers a large number of integrations that let users import orders automatically from the most popular sales channels and shopping carts. 

Being one the most popular shipping software solutions out there, it is partnered with FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL, and other carriers. Moreover, its six-tiered subscription plan is designed for everyone.

So, wherever your sales are coming from, it is likely that ShipStation will be there to meet them. And it also makes it easier to process orders when you get them. 

Pirate Ship

Pirate Ship is another cloud-based simplest transport software solution that allows small corporations to get access to the most inexpensive postage and print transport labels for domestic and global programs.

Whether you want to buy shipping labels for small or enormous quantities, Pirate Ship makes everything easy. It offers affordable shipping rates for USPS-approved postage with no hidden costs, markup, or monthly fees. 

You can access a wide range of features like turning addresses into shipping labels, customizable shipping notifications, automatic address validation, postage rate shipping, and international shipping. 

Moreover, it also provides tools for the dimension of a package, address input, collection the weight, postage purchase integration, mobile shipping label printing, etc. 

ShipStation vs Pirate Ship: Pricing 

ShipStation

ShipStation offers six different plans. The price you’ll pay is primarily based on the number of accounts your business requires and a number of shipments you send per month. 

Here is the detailed information on ShipStation pricing:

Plans	Price	Number of Users	Shipments	Service	Support
Starter	$9.99 per month	1	50/month	Branded Labels & Packing Slips	E-mail & Community Forum Support
Bronze	$29.99 per month	1	500/month	Branded Labels & Packing Slips	Live Chat, E-mail & Community Forum Support
Silver	$49.99 per month	2	1500/month	Customized Labels & Packing Slips	Live Chat, E-mail & Community Forum Support
Gold	$69.99 per month	3	3000/month	Customized Labels & Packing Slips	Live Chat, E-mail & Community Forum Support
Platinum	$99.99 per month	5	6000/month	Customized Labels & Packing Slips	Live Chat, Phone Support, E-mail & Community Forum Support
Enterprise	$159.99 per month	10	10000/month	Customized Labels & Packing Slips	Live Chat, Phone Support, E-mail & Community Forum Support

You can sign up for a plan by providing your credit card information. Before going for any plan, remember that you can always add more users to your account for just $5 per user. 

Pirate Ship

Pirate Ship is entirely free to use with no fees. As an independent shipping service for the United States, you can get the cheapest rates and USPS offers. 

Pirate Ship passes through ‘Commercial pricing’ with no late fees, markup, or monthly costs. Thus, with no commitments or extra costs, you get discounts that USPS offers commercial shippers 

USPS shipping rates come in three pricing tiers:

1. Retail Pricing: The most expensive shipping rate pricing tier.
2. Commercial Pricing: The most discounted shipping rates with savings of up to 89% for small packages via a secret service this pricing level offers.
3. Priority Mail on Pirate Ship: It is up to 9% cheaper than commercial pricing with extra savings of up to $1.02 based on the zone.  

Visit here for more information on Pirate Ship. 

ShipStation vs Pirate Ship: Features 

Both ShipStation and Pirate Ship provide a wide range of tools that you’ll require to print shipping labels and packing lists. Here are a few features that ShipStation and Pirate Ship offers:

ShipStation

• Inventory: View real-time stock levels and set low-stock alerts
• Multi-Channel Synch: Have orders imported over automatically from your online store
• Dropshipping: It supports dropshipping even if you are the dropship supplier or the dropship seller
• Automation: Create a set of rules which are automatically applied for an order that fits the right criteria
• Reports: Help you gather data regarding orders and shipments 
• International Shipping: Users are automatically enrolled in Stamps.com’s Global Advantage program
• Shipment Tracking: Send automatic shipping confirmation emails to your customers, and you’ll also get live updates
• Custom Views: Choose from different layouts and decide on which sidebars you’d like to display 

Pirate Ship

• Ship from Spreadsheet: Easily turn your spreadsheet into shipping labels. It even lets you import address and orders details from eCommerce services 
• International Labels: Custom forms are available which are used to decide whether your recipient will need to pay import taxes or duties
• Saved Package Presets: Ship tons of the same size packages to your customers 
• Customized Notifications: You can schedule an email that sends the tracking number to your recipient
• Address Auto-Complete: Its duplicate shipment button lets you easily create a new label depending on a previous shipment data

ShipStation vs Pirate Ship: Ease of Use

ShipStation

You can sign up for a free 30-day trial by yourself. Once you log in, you’ll be directed to a short tutorial video that shows the basics of setting up an account.  

Then, you can easily connect it with your shopping cart and favorite marketplaces. Remember that your orders are automatically imported once you’ve integrated your shopping cart. 

Pirate Ship

Pirate Ship has an easy and simple interface, and it only takes three steps to buy and print postage. 

Irrespective of the number of packages you are shipping, all you have to do is to measure the weight and dimensions of the package, buy and print it on the postage, then pin it on the package and hand it to USPS. 

Furthermore, it provides a batch workflow feature that supports unlimited batch shipping label processing.

ShipStation vs Pirate Ship: Customer Support

ShipStation

Every user can have access to ShipStation’s customer service through live webinars, live chat, email, phone, and social media. 

You can also access its community forum, videos, help center, guides, and blogs. Navigate to this page for more information on support policy. 

Pirate Ship

For all its features, it offers extensive relevant articles and guides which you can view from here. You can also connect to their customer support through email – support@pirateship.com. Or open the website and use the live chat option at the bottom right-hand corner.  

Summing Up: ShipStation vs Pirate Ship

Although both are amazing services, they are totally different. Pirate Ship is only USPS, so if you want to do any international delivery, ShipStation is a perfect choice. Though, if you are just starting out and want to ship in the United States, go for Pirate Ship as it is relatively affordable. 

Moreover, it is also important to consider the features and functionality of both services. Hopefully, the above article has helped you to know which shipping service meets your needs. 

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