Two carriers run a ground truck to your customer's porch, and the marketing pages will not tell you which one your box favors. So we put identical cartons through both networks on two lanes on 2026-08-09 and read each carrier's own service page the same day. The dollar rows and the weekend rules below all carry that date.
Neither network lets you order the residential product by name. The destination address routes the parcel; the quote screen just shows the price.
A 16 × 12 × 10 in carton at 12 lb and an 18 × 16 × 12 in carton at 25 lb, from Berkeley Heights, NJ to a mid lane and a coast lane. One note on naming: our rate rows label the FedEx ground network by its network name, and the residential leg of that network is what FedEx sells as Home Delivery, so a house address puts these exact parcels on Home Delivery trucks.
| Carton | Destination | UPS Ground | FedEx Ground |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 × 12 × 10 in, 12 lb | Atlanta, GA | $21.94 2-3 business days | no ground rate returned |
| 16 × 12 × 10 in, 12 lb | Los Angeles, CA | $29.03 4-5 business days | $40.88 4-5 business days |
| 18 × 16 × 12 in, 25 lb | Atlanta, GA | $29.52 2-3 business days | $37.55 3-4 business days |
| 18 × 16 × 12 in, 25 lb | Los Angeles, CA | $48.97 4-5 business days | $63.77 4-5 business days |
UPS took every contested rung in this capture — $29.03 against $40.88, $29.52 against $37.55, $48.97 against $63.77 — and its Atlanta windows ran a day tighter. The missing cell is honest data too: FedEx offered no standard ground rate on the lighter Atlanta box through our checkout that morning, only its economy tier at $17.57 with a 4-5 day window. Rate cards are renegotiated constantly and a different seller's contract could flip any row, which is the argument for quoting your own carton rather than trusting anyone's table, including this one.
The Home Delivery page says the service “delivers packages 150 lbs. or less to residences every day of the week,” reaching “over 98% of the U.S. population on Saturday and nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population on Sundays,” with contiguous-U.S. delivery in 1–5 days (fedex.com, read 2026-08-09).
The UPS weekend page states “UPS offers Monday through Saturday delivery service for residential and commercial parcels,” that for ground residential packages on Saturday “there are no additional fees,” and flatly that “there are no deliveries on Sunday” (ups.com, read 2026-08-09).
Saturday is a draw. Sunday belongs to FedEx alone, on the residential ground side of the market. Weekdays, both networks work houses as a matter of course, and the price comparison above is what should decide between them.
FedEx also publishes the claim that Home Delivery “reaches more residential locations than UPS Ground on the weekend” — a carrier talking about its rival, quoted here as exactly that. The UPS Sunday gap is partly covered elsewhere in its lineup: UPS Ground Saver parcels can finish in postal hands, and the final-mile handoff guide explains what that changes at the doorstep.
These two products are interchangeable for most cartons under 70 lb, so the cheaper quote on your specific lane should win by default. In our capture that was UPS, consistently, but the gap was widest coast to coast and narrowest nearby.
A parcel that must land on a Sunday has one ground option, and it is not UPS. A parcel leaving late Friday for a Saturday doorstep works on either network, at no residential surcharge on the UPS side per its weekend page.
FedEx publishes the same limits for Home Delivery as for its commercial ground service: 150 lb, 108 inches of length, 165 inches of length plus girth. Past any of those, the conversation moves to freight review rather than a parcel label.
Compare both networks on your parcel The full UPS against FedEx weight ladder
Both carriers revise these pages without notice, and both reprice their networks through the year. Everything above is what stood on 2026-08-09.
In our 2026-08-09 capture, UPS Ground won every rung where both networks priced the box: $29.03 against $40.88 on a 12 lb carton to Los Angeles, and $29.52 against $37.55 on a 25 lb carton to Atlanta. Negotiated tiers differ by seller, so treat the pattern, not the exact gap, as the finding.
Both deliver Saturday to homes. The split is Sunday: FedEx says Home Delivery reaches nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population on Sundays, while the UPS weekend page states there are no deliveries on Sunday. Both statements read 2026-08-09.
No menu offers it. FedEx routes a ground parcel onto Home Delivery when the destination is a residence, so a quote screen shows one FedEx ground price and the address does the sorting afterward.
To Atlanta, UPS Ground returned a 2-3 business day window against 3-4 for the FedEx ground network on the 25 lb box. To Los Angeles both quoted 4-5 business days. Short of the Mississippi the UPS window ran a day tighter; coast to coast they matched.
On the 12 lb carton to Atlanta the FedEx ground tier returned no rate through our checkout, and only its slower economy tier priced the box at $17.57. A carrier declining a lane-weight cell is normal, and it is exactly why quoting both networks on your own parcel beats any table.