# EasyPost vs Shippo

> Shippo scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against EasyPost's 54.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. EasyPost leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do shipping rates. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-shippo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-shippo.md (~2,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-shippo.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-shippo.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Shippo scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against EasyPost's 54.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. EasyPost leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do shipping rates.

- EasyPost: grade C, 54.3/100, rank #468 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/easypost.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/easypost.json
- Shippo: grade C, 61.9/100, rank #317 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shippo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shippo.json

## Which one, for what

### EasyPost (C)

Good for: An agent that quotes rates across carriers, buys a label, verifies an address, follows tracking by webhook and requests a refund from one merchant account, mainly on US carriers.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 77
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 61

Watch for: No OpenAPI spec was found in the docs or in the EasyPost GitHub organisation. The reference is prose and tables, with a Postman workspace

### Shippo (C)

Good for: An agent that quotes and buys parcel labels across USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL Express for a small or mid-size shipper, with a free test mode and public unit prices.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 59 against 53
- Schema & documentation, 83 against 55
- Security & auth, 52 against 47
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 22

Watch for: No idempotency key on label purchase or other writes. Only the Reporting API accepts one


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | EasyPost | Shippo | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 59 | Shippo +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 83 | Shippo +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 64 | Shippo +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 47 | 52 | Shippo +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 22 | 40 | Shippo +18 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 77 | EasyPost +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 61 | EasyPost +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.3 · C** | **61.9 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | EasyPost | Shippo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Simpler Postage, Inc. (d/b/a EasyPost) | Shippo |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.easypost.com/v2` | `https://api.goshippo.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for shipping rates | not published | $0.01 per call |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the EasyPost Master Customer Agreement. The official client libraries on GitHub are MIT, with the Go library under ISC | Proprietary service under Shippo's terms of use. The SDKs and the goshippo/ai repository (skills and MCP bridge) are MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.shippo/shippo-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-25 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-25 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 149 stars, 100k npm/wk, 42k PyPI/wk | 3 stars, 73k npm/wk, 20k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**EasyPost.** Docs written for agents (llms.txt, a Markdown copy of each page, a JSON page index), seven official SDKs and free test keys make the REST API easy to start on. No OpenAPI spec or idempotency keys were found, every key has full account access, and the status page shows a connectivity outage on 23 July 2026 that affected all operations.

**Shippo.** Per-label and per-call prices are public, test keys are self-serve, and the OpenAPI spec, llms.txt and Markdown docs are open to a fetch. Label purchase has no idempotency key, API keys carry no scopes, and the status page logged carrier-side incidents on most days between July and October 2026.

## Before you call either

### EasyPost

1. Use a test API key while building. It buys no postage and contacts no carrier, and test tracking codes simulate each tracking status
2. Don't blind-retry `POST /shipments/:id/buy` after a timeout. Retrieve the shipment first and check for `postage_label`, since no idempotency key exists
3. Send the API key as the HTTP Basic username with an empty password on the REST API, and as a Bearer token on the MCP server
4. Handle `errors` as either an array of objects or an array of strings. The docs say both shapes occur
5. Pass a scoped `carrier_accounts` list when rating. Only the first 60 accounts are rated and the call doesn't fail when more are enabled

### Shippo

1. Build and test with a shippo_test_ key. Test and live object IDs are separate, and the hosted MCP server has no test mode
2. Send `Authorization: ShippoToken <key>`, not Bearer, and pin `Shippo-API-Version: 2018-02-08`
3. Before retrying a failed POST /transactions, list recent transactions. There is no idempotency key, and a second purchase is a second charge
4. Pass `async: false` on shipments and transactions, or poll the object until its status leaves QUEUED
5. Set `results` on list calls (under 200). Defaults vary by resource, and list calls are limited to 50 a minute on live keys

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, EasyPost or Shippo?

Shippo scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against EasyPost's 54.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. EasyPost leads on maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Do EasyPost and Shippo need an API key?

EasyPost needs an API key. Shippo takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call EasyPost and Shippo without installing anything?

Yes. EasyPost has a hosted endpoint at https://api.easypost.com/v2 and Shippo at https://api.goshippo.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-shippo.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-shippo.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "easypost", "b": "shippo"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare easypost shippo`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/easypost.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shippo.json

## Other comparisons with EasyPost or Shippo

- [EasyPost vs Easyship](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-easyship.md)
- [EasyPost vs Sendcloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-sendcloud.md)
- [EasyPost vs ShipStation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-shipstation.md)
- [Easyship vs Shippo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easyship-vs-shippo.md)
- [Sendcloud vs Shippo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sendcloud-vs-shippo.md)
- [Shippo vs ShipStation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shippo-vs-shipstation.md)