ShipStation Pricing & Plans: Which to Choose in 2025?

ShipStation primarily charges you based on your monthly shipment volume with curated plans spread across four packages: Starter, Growth, Scale, and High-Volume.

These pricing plans grant you access to ShipStation’s negotiated shipping rates with popular carriers like UPS, FedEx, DHL, and more, to save your business money.

Feeling a bit skeptical? You can try it out for 30 days at no cost to see if it’s the right fit for your business.

Key Takeaways

  • ShipStation will charge you depending on your monthly shipment volume.
  • Use the 30-day free trial to test ShipStation without commitment.
  • ShipStation offers highly discounted rates with popular carriers.

How Much Does ShipStation Cost Monthly & Annually?

ShipStation assigns you one of its four plans (Starter, Growth, Scale, or High-Volume) automatically based on the number of orders your e-commerce business ships monthly.

Hence, there’s no annual plan for extra savings. That way, ShipStation allows for flexibility in monthly shipment volume.

Here’s a table showing how much each plan costs:

Plan Monthly Shipments Monthly Cost
Starter   50 $9.99
Growth (Bronze)   500 $29.99
Growth (Silver)   1000 $59.99
Scale (Gold)   2000 $99.99
Scale (Platinum)   5000 $149.99
Scale (Enterprise)   7500 $229.00
High-Volume Unlimited $399.99

How to Sign Up for a ShipStation Plan?

Signing up to use ShipStation is quick and straightforward, as shown below:

  1. Go to the ShipStation website.
  2. Enter your details and click “Get Started.”
  1. Once you’re inside the ShipStation dashboard, you can use the free trial version, or upgrade to a paid plan by clicking the link at the top of the page.
  1. Choose a plan based on your monthly shipments. Click “Update Plan” to proceed.
  1. Enter your payment details and click “Save.”
  1. Congratulations! You now have a paid ShipStation plan, allowing you to save money by accessing discounted carrier rates for your shipments.

What Features Are Available on ShipStation Pricing Plans?

All ShipStation plans already give you access to some of the lowest shipping rates across USPS, UPS, DHL, FedEx, and GlobalPost. However, you get more goodies as you climb its pricing ladder.

Here’s a table showcasing the features you can expect for each ShipStation plan:

Features Starter Growth Scale High-Volume
Users 1 1-2 3-10 15
Customer support Email, Live Chat Live chat, email, 24/7 support, phone support (8 am - 6 pm CT, workdays) Live chat, email, 24/7 support, phone support (8 am - 8 pm CT, workdays) Live chat, email, extended phone support
Access to 300+ integrations
Branded tracking, labels, and more
Customizable packing slips
Product bundles
Branded domains
Automated rate shopper
Auto-split
ODBC
Cubiscan

Given that the Growth and Scale plans also house some sub-plans, you’ll find that some of the usage limits change as you increase your monthly shipment volume. 

For instance, you can only add 3 users on the Scale 2,000-shipment plan, but you get to add 7 more users on the Scale 7,500-shipment plan.

What ShipStation Pricing Plan Should You Choose?

You don’t choose a ShipStation pricing plan but are assigned one based on the number of monthly orders that your business handles. This is a consumer-friendly approach since smaller businesses on a tighter budget pay less while growing and established sellers pay for what they use as well.

shipstation rates comparison
An example of the shipping options you get with ShipStation.

Likewise, you don’t need to inform ShipStation when your number of orders meets the threshold for moving up or down the plans – the change is applied automatically.

However, you can decide to limit the number of orders you want ShipStation to process, and use another shipping provider for the rest. This will somewhat give you control over what ShipStation plan you’re assigned.

Note that you’re rewarded for being on the more expensive plans since you’ll have access to better customer support and extra features like customizable packaging slips, besides other add-ons.

How to Save Money With ShipStation?

You can save money with ShipStation by scaling your business faster and increasing the monthly shipment threshold to access higher-tier plans. That’s because you’ll reduce the per-shipment cost as you upgrade.

For example, the Starter plan costs ($9.99/50 =) $0.2 per shipment, while the next plan (Growth) costs ($29.99/500 =) $0.06 per shipment.

Furthermore, you can save money by maximizing the 30-day free trial

So, you’ll be connected to shipping partners at amazing rates until after the free trial ends.

Do ShipStation Plans Have Hidden Fees?

There are extra fees at ShipStation that you have to be aware of, as these fees will affect the final service cost. For example, you will get charged for:

  • Onboarding additional users
  • Integrating your own directly negotiated carrier rates
  • Getting add-ons
shipstation add-ons
Some ShipStation add-ons.

Some of these add-ons are bundled with your plan on the higher tiers, but you’ll have to pay for them separately on lower plans. I’ve summarized what they do, and their monthly cost, in the table below.

Add-On Functionality Monthly Cost
Auto-Split Automates shipment settings for multiple orders based on pre-set rules $15
Cubiscan Autopopulates weight and dimension details $50
Dropship manager Streamline your dropshipping operations with automatic order-to-shipping processing $149
ShipStation 3PL Run an efficient, automated shipping service for your clients, powered by ShipStation $50
Inventory Sync Manage inventory better across multi-channel stores $30
ShipStation ODBC Connect and configure your custom ODBC order source with ShipStation $50
Product Bundles Create product bundles for easier shipping and better upselling $10
Rate Shopper Save money with lower rates by comparing services $149
Shipping API Use ShipStation’s API to enhance shipping across your custom e-commerce projects $75
ShipStation Returns Optimize returns to prioritize exchanges over refunds and improve customer satisfaction Free

If you’re determined to use your pre-existing carrier accounts, then here’s a breakdown of the extra fees:

Plan Monthly Fee
Starter $5
Growth (Bronze) $20
Growth (Silver) $30
Scale (Gold) $40
Scale (Platinum) $60
Scale (Enterprise) $95
High-Volume Per shipment

In my opinion, this mostly makes sense for bigger e-commerce channels that have negotiated unbeatable rates with certain carriers and want to still enjoy ShipStation’s offerings on other carriers or features.

Who Should Buy a ShipStation Pricing Plan?

You should buy a ShipStation pricing plan if your business does a significant amount of sales and you want to save money on shipping. It’s also handy for business owners who don’t know how to negotiate favorable shipping rates with carriers.

Furthermore, ShipStation is the ideal software for scaling businesses with multiple sales channels. The toolkit will consolidate your orders in one place for label printing and final shipping, making your business easier to manage.

Finally, its add-ons bring a lot more automation, ease, and smoothness to your business.

For instance, multiple channel sellers can sync their inventory such that the availability of items listed across different e-commerce marketplaces is updated automatically after every order.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, you can get a refund at ShipStation, which will be issued to the same credit/debit card used to make the payment. However, the possibility of getting a refund is dependent on what service you’re requesting the refund for – the subscription, add-ons, or third-party services offered by ShipStation.

You can use a credit card or PayPal to pay for your ShipStation plan and added services.

Yes, you can schedule a demo with ShipStation by filling out a form on its website

One of its product experts will get in touch with you to take you through available offerings, helping you decide if the service matches your requirements.

ShipStation offers discounted UPS rates likely to be lower than what you can typically get with UPS directly. However, you should compare your local UPS rate with what ShipStation is offering to determine the best deal for your business.

Start Shipping for Lower

ShipStation’s pricing structure is fair since you only pay more as your sales volume increases. Also, its pricing is transparent, allowing you to calculate the cost as your business scales.

Finally, you’ll get access to more features as the number of orders increases, such as extended phone support and more user accounts for easier business management.

Do you want to use ShipStation to get the best shipping rates for your business? 

Then click here for a free trial.

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