Shopify shipping app comparison
Easyship vs ShipLab: which shipping app is right for your Shopify store?
Easyship and ShipLab both connect your Shopify store to global carriers, automate label creation, calculate duties and taxes, and show live rates at checkout. The fundamental difference is the business model: Easyship is an aggregator that earns on the shipping rates it resells, while ShipLab runs on your own carrier contracts and never touches the postage. This guide breaks down where each one wins. You can install ShipLab on the Shopify App Store or read the full product overview on extmag.com.
Quick verdict
- Choose Easyship if you have no carrier contracts of your own, want instant access to pre-negotiated rates across 550+ couriers, and value a built-in duties-and-taxes calculator with a global courier marketplace out of the box.
- Choose ShipLab if you already hold (or can negotiate) your own UPS, DHL Express, Canada Post, or TForce contract, want to keep 100% of your negotiated discount with zero rate markup, and need a Magento-style condition builder for shipping rules — at a fraction of the price.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Easyship | ShipLab |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free tier (capped shipments), then ~$29/month and up | $5/month base + $7/month per active carrier |
| Carrier model | Aggregator — pre-negotiated rates with a markup baked in | Direct — you bring your own UPS / DHL / Canada Post contract, no markup |
| Use your own carrier discount | Possible on higher tiers, but the platform is built around its own rates | Always — your contract, your discount, end to end |
| Carriers supported | 550+ couriers in their managed marketplace | UPS, DHL Express, Canada Post, TForce (more coming), plus Flat Rate fallback |
| Duties & taxes calculator | Strong — landed-cost estimates at checkout | Carrier-native landed cost (UPS) + paperless customs documents |
| Condition builder for shipping rules | Basic rule sets | Magento-style nested AND/OR groups: weight, cart total, country, product attributes, schedule |
| Live carrier rates at checkout | Yes, via Easyship's rate engine | Yes, called directly from the carrier APIs in your own account |
| Paperless commercial invoice (PLT) | Yes | Yes — DHL Paperless Trade and UPS Paperless built in |
| EORI / VAT / TIN per scope | Single value per account | Cascading values: default → direction → country |
| Multi-warehouse routing | Available on higher tiers | Built in, tied to Shopify Locations, every plan |
| Shopify Flow triggers and actions | No | Yes — "Label Created" trigger and "Create Shipping Label" action |
| Thermal printing (ZPL, EPL) | Yes | Yes, plus network printing via QZ Tray and el-Print |
| 3D bin packing | Box selection, no true 3D packing | Yes — automatic package selection by weight and dimensions |
| Languages supported in the app UI | English-first | EN, DE, ES, FR, IT, NL, PT |
The aggregator markup is the core trade-off
Easyship's pitch is convenience: sign up, get instant access to discounted rates across hundreds of couriers without negotiating a single contract. For a brand-new store with no shipping volume, that is genuinely valuable — you skip the carrier sales process entirely.
The catch is that those rates are Easyship's rates. The platform sits between you and the carrier, and the margin it earns lives inside the price you pay to ship. As your volume grows, the discount a carrier will give you directly tends to overtake the aggregated rate — but on an aggregator you can't fully capture that, because you're not the contracted party.
ShipLab inverts the model. You connect your own UPS, DHL Express, Canada Post, or TForce credentials and contract numbers. Rates shown at checkout are pulled live from the carrier API under your account, so they already include whatever discount you've negotiated. ShipLab never marks up, rebills, or takes a percentage of postage — the carrier bills you directly.
Pricing: predictable vs volume-coupled
Easyship offers a free tier with a capped number of shipments per month, then steps up through paid plans (roughly $29/month and higher) that unlock more shipments, branded tracking, and advanced features. The headline cost looks low, but the real cost is the spread between the rate you're charged and the rate the carrier would give you directly — which scales with every parcel you ship.
ShipLab is a flat, predictable subscription: $5/month base plus $7/month for each active carrier. Storage over the included quota is $0.55/GB, and total overage is capped at $100/month, so your worst-case bill is bounded. A store running both DHL Express and UPS pays $5 + $7 + $7 = $19/month all-in — and pays the carrier directly for postage at its own negotiated rate.
The decision usually comes down to volume. Below a few hundred shipments a month with no carrier contract, Easyship's instant rates are convenient. Above that, with your own contract, ShipLab's no-markup model almost always wins on total cost.
Condition builder: ShipLab's main feature win
Easyship gives you serviceable rule sets for showing or hiding shipping options. ShipLab ships with a Magento-style nested condition builder — the same engine merchants know from years of Magento 2 shipping configuration:
- Nested groups with AND / OR logic at any depth.
- Conditions on weight, cart total, destination country, EU/non-EU, product SKU, product ID, variant ID, custom attributes synced from Shopify.
- Product subselection: a rule fires only if at least one cart item matches a sub-rule.
- Schedule conditions: enable a rule only on certain days or times.
- Price actions: surcharge, discount, fixed override, percentage of carrier rate, free-shipping threshold.
If you migrated to Shopify from Magento, this is the rule engine you already know — your old Cart Price Rule logic maps over almost directly.
Where Easyship is still the better pick
- No carrier contracts yet. If you can't or don't want to negotiate directly with carriers, Easyship's pre-negotiated marketplace gets you shipping the same day.
- Courier breadth. 550+ couriers across regions is far more than ShipLab's focused UPS / DHL Express / Canada Post / TForce roster — useful if you ship through many regional carriers.
- All-in-one landed cost UI. Easyship's duties-and-taxes calculator and branded tracking pages are mature and polished out of the box.
ShipLab's roadmap keeps adding carriers, but today it is deliberately focused on the carriers where margin matters most for cross-border DTC.
Migration: moving from Easyship to ShipLab
- Get your own carrier credentials — UPS Client ID + Secret from the UPS Developer Portal, or DHL Express API keys from DHL MyAPI. (If you ship via Easyship's rates today, you'll need to sign your own carrier contract first.)
- Install ShipLab on Shopify, add a Shipper Account, paste the credentials, run the connection test.
- Recreate your rate logic in the ShipLab condition builder.
- Add ShipLab as a rate provider in Shopify Settings → Shipping and delivery.
- Disable Easyship, monitor labels for 48 hours, then cancel.
Historical orders, tracking numbers, and labels stay in Shopify; nothing is locked into either app.
FAQ
Is ShipLab cheaper than Easyship?
On the app subscription, usually yes — ShipLab starts at $5/month + $7 per carrier. But the bigger saving is on postage: ShipLab adds no markup to carrier rates, so at volume your own negotiated discount typically beats an aggregator's resold rate.
Does ShipLab take a percentage of my shipping costs?
No. The carrier bills you directly for postage. ShipLab only charges the flat app subscription, the per-carrier add-on, and any storage overage.
Do I need my own carrier accounts to use ShipLab?
Yes — ShipLab is a direct-contract app. You connect your own UPS, DHL Express, Canada Post, or TForce account. If you don't have one, most carriers will negotiate a contract based on your shipping volume.
Can ShipLab handle duties and taxes for international orders?
Yes. ShipLab generates paperless commercial invoices, supports EORI / VAT / TIN per scope, and uses carrier-native landed-cost where available (e.g. UPS). Customs documents are produced automatically for international shipments.
Can ShipLab show live rates at checkout?
Yes. ShipLab registers as a Shopify Carrier Service and answers checkout rate requests with live rates pulled from the carrier APIs under your own account.
Try ShipLab on your Shopify store
14-day free trial, no credit card required to install. Bring your own UPS or DHL account and have a label printed within the hour.