Stamps.com publishes three plans, at 14.99 USD, 29.99 USD and 49.99 USD a month, with a 30-day risk-free trial (per stamps.com/pricing, checked 2026-08-22). A monthly charge is only expensive relative to how many labels it covers, so the honest way to compare it against buying labels one at a time is to do the division and look at the answer.
Fourteen dollars a month is cheap across forty labels and eye-watering across one. Everything on this page follows from that single observation.
Read from stamps.com/pricing on 2026-08-22. The allowances matter as much as the headline prices here, because the entry plan is capped rather than unlimited.
Try it 30 days risk-freewith the ability to
Cancel any time.
The stamps side is genuinely distinctive. If part of your week is franking envelopes rather than boxing parcels, that is a job we do not do at all and no amount of parcel pricing changes it.
Straight division, with the sum printed so you can check it. Note the third row: Basic caps at ten shipping labels a month, so twenty labels means moving up to Professional and the calculation changes plan.
| Labels that month | Plan needed | Calculation | Fee carried by each label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 label | Basic, 14.99 USD | 14.99 USD ÷ 1 | 14.99 USD |
| 5 labels | Basic, 14.99 USD | 14.99 USD ÷ 5 | 3.00 USD |
| 10 labels | Basic, 14.99 USD | 14.99 USD ÷ 10 | 1.50 USD |
| 20 labels | Professional, 29.99 USD | 29.99 USD ÷ 20 | 1.50 USD |
One label a month is the case that makes the point. The fee alone would be larger than the postage on most of the parcels priced further down this page. Ten labels a month brings it to a dollar fifty each, which is a defensible price for address checking, reporting and phone support if you use them.
Both of these went through our calculator on the same afternoon, on the same lane, and the prices shown are the complete checkout amounts. Neither purchase would start a subscription or set a renewal date.
| Carrier | Service | Price | Transit window returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $9.91 | 2-3 business days |
| UPS | Ground | $10.69 | 3-4 business days |
| USPS | Priority Mail | $14.49 | 2-3 business days |
| UPS | 3 Day Select | $15.13 | 3-4 business days |
| UPS | 2nd Day Air | $16.58 | 2-3 business days |
| Carrier | Service | Price | Transit window returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPS | Ground Advantage | $9.48 | 2-3 business days |
| UPS | Ground Saver | $10.52 | None returned |
| UPS | Ground | $11.07 | 3-4 business days |
| FedEx | Ground Economy | $12.42 | 4-5 business days |
| USPS | Priority Mail | $17.66 | 2-3 business days |
Something counterintuitive still holds. The heavier parcel still priced lower, $9.48 against $9.91, though the gap has narrowed to well under a dollar since our last pull in July, when it was closer to a dollar forty. Weight ladders are not straight lines, and they do not sit still either.
Stamps.com is built around mail as much as parcels, so it helps to see how the pure parcel platforms price the same job before committing to any plan. The figures below were read from each vendor's own site on 2026-08-22.
| Alternative | Starting cost, published | Where it's aimed |
|---|---|---|
| Pirate Ship | No monthly or payment fee, earning instead from the carriers | A parcel-only shipper who never needs a stamp or Certified Mail |
| ShipStation | Starter opens at 14.99 USD/month and adds automation as the tiers climb | Order volume that needs a rules engine, not a single envelope |
| Shippo | Starter is free to 30 labels a month before Pro starts at 17 USD/month | Comparing USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL Express behind one login |
None of the three sells a postage stamp or Certified Mail the way Stamps.com does, which is usually the real reason to stay: Pirate Ship, ShipStation, Shippo. SMKlog does not sell them either; the case for us here is a single label bought without opening any of these accounts, priced in the two tables above.
Postage meters, Certified Mail and Registered Mail belong to the mail side of the business, not the parcel side. Stamps.com covers all three. We sell parcel labels, so if letters are half your volume this comparison is not close.
Thirty days risk-free is a fair offer, and canceling is described as available at any time. The failure mode is never the offer, it is the calendar. Put the end date somewhere you will see it before it renews.
There is no monthly line item here. Our charge is already contained in every price on this page, so the figure you see beside a service is the figure the card gets billed. The pricing page lays out where the paid tiers add value.
Three plans are published: Basic at 14.99 USD, Professional at 29.99 USD and Multi-Location at 49.99 USD, checked at stamps.com/pricing on 2026-08-22. Basic covers up to 25 stamps and up to 10 shipping labels; Professional lifts both to unlimited.
Divide the fee by your label count. At five labels the 14.99 USD Basic plan adds 3.00 USD to each one, and at ten it adds 1.50 USD. Below roughly ten labels a month the fee is usually larger than what the tooling saves you.
Whatever the live rate says. A 1 lb book box from Berkeley Heights to Atlanta quoted $9.91 with USPS Ground Advantage on 2026-08-22, and a 2 lb carton on the same lane quoted $9.48. Both figures include our charge and neither starts a subscription.
No. We do not sell stamps, meter mail, Certified Mail or Registered Mail. Our scope is parcel labels: US domestic from USPS, UPS and FedEx, plus international lanes to Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia. Mail-side products are outside it.
Pirate Ship, ShipStation and Shippo all sell parcel labels without a mail-side product attached, at three different price points. All three are priced from their own published pages in the alternatives table above, checked 2026-08-22.