Shippo is a multi-carrier label platform organised around an account and a plan, with a Starter tier that is free for up to 30 labels a month and a Pro tier listed at $17/mo (per goshippo.com/pricing, checked 2026-07-28). SMKlog approaches the same job from the opposite end: describe one box, take one live price, pay as a guest, and have nothing left running afterwards.
The box in the table below went through the SMKlog calculator on 2026-07-28. The plan figures beside it were read off Shippo's own pricing page the same day.
Everything in this list was read directly from goshippo.com/pricing on 2026-07-28. We have not paraphrased the numbers or filled gaps from memory, and where the page did not state something we have left it out.
That is a coherent product and a fair price for what it does. It is aimed at somebody who ships often enough that a monthly relationship makes sense, and it earns its keep through volume, integrations and multi-user access.
To keep this concrete we picked a box most sellers would recognise: a 12 × 12 × 12 in carton at 15 lb, going coast to coast. Every figure below is the whole amount collected at checkout, with SMKlog's charge already inside it, and none of the rows were reordered or trimmed.
| Carrier | Service | Price | Transit window returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $25.18 | 5-6 business days |
| FedEx | Ground Economy | $28.50 | 7-8 business days |
| UPS | Ground Saver | $28.71 | None returned |
| UPS | Ground | $33.90 | 6-7 business days |
| FedEx | Ground | $42.39 | 7-8 business days |
Buying that USPS row costs $25.18 and nothing else. No plan starts, no renewal date gets set, and there is no label count to watch. If the same carton is the only thing you ship this quarter, the arithmetic against a subscription is short.
Note the empty transit cell on the UPS Ground Saver row. That service came back without a window attached on the day we quoted, so we have printed the gap rather than inventing a number to fill it.
Feature grids tend to blur vendors together. These four rows are the ones that change what you actually do on a Tuesday afternoon with a box on the kitchen table.
| What you are comparing | Shippo | SMKlog |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring cost | $0 on Starter, $17/mo on Pro | $0 to quote and buy a single label |
| Label allowance | 30 a month on Starter | No label count; the Free plan meters quotes, not purchases |
| Getting started | Account creation on every tier | First three quotes need no account, and checkout runs as a guest |
| Carriers advertised | USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL Express and 40+ for comparison | USPS, UPS and FedEx, US domestic parcels only |
Two honest caveats belong here. Shippo quotes carriers we do not, including DHL Express, and it sells into international lanes; we sell US domestic parcel labels and nothing else, with no store integrations and no fulfillment. If either of those matters to you, the comparison is already settled and it is not settled our way.
A monthly charge is a bet that you will ship steadily. Shippo's Starter tier removes that bet at low volume, and its Pro tier is priced to pay back when the label count climbs. The moment your shipping goes quiet for six weeks, though, a plan is still a plan, and that is the situation SMKlog is shaped for.
We are not fee-free in every direction. Our Free plan allows 15 quotes a month, three of them before you make an account, and the paid tiers listed on our pricing page lift that ceiling. What we do not do is put a wall between you and buying a single label.
Counting carriers is the least useful comparison in this category. What decides your bill is the box, the ZIP pair and the service, which is why we put a real carton and a real route in the table above instead of a logo wall.
Its Starter tier carries no monthly subscription charge and covers up to 30 labels a month, per goshippo.com/pricing checked 2026-07-28. You do still create an account to reach it, which is the practical difference from buying a single label as a guest.
Not as a blanket claim, and we will not make one. Shippo's Starter tier is free at low volume, so on a straight USPS label the deciding factor is which commercial rate each side lands on for your exact box. Quote the box on both and compare the total, which is the only comparison that settles it.
The number you see is the number you pay. For a 12 x 12 x 12 in carton at 15 lb running Newark to Los Angeles on 2026-07-28, the cheapest live rate came back at $25.18 with USPS Ground Advantage, and that figure already contains our charge.
No. We have no platform integrations, no order sync in the Free tier, and no fulfillment arm. If pulling orders out of a storefront automatically is the job, a platform like Shippo is built for it and we are not.