Head to head · Shipping rates · October 2026 research run
Karrio vs Sendcloud
Sendcloud scores 62 (B) on agent readiness against Karrio's 48.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Karrio leads on reliability. Both do shipping rates.
Which one, for what
Karrio D
Good for A team that wants to host its own multi-carrier API with its own carrier contracts and can maintain a Django and PostgreSQL stack.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 76 against 68
Also in its favour
- Open source
Watch for
No release since 2026.1.32 on 23 June 2026, 107 days before this check, and fix pull requests opened in September 2026 were still open
Good for An agent shipping parcels for a European shop that wants many carriers behind one account, including its own carrier contracts on paid plans.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 68
- Agent ergonomics, 71 against 57
- Security & auth, 49 against 44
- Maintenance & community, 67 against 29
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 56
Also in its favour
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
Watch for
One OAuth scope, api, and key pairs with full account access. No read-only credential was found in the reviewed documentation
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Karrio | Sendcloud | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 76 | 68 | Karrio +8 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 68 | 89 | Sendcloud +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 57 | 71 | Sendcloud +14 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 44 | 49 | Sendcloud +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 37 | Karrio +3 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 29 | 67 | Sendcloud +38 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 56 | 72 | Sendcloud +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | -3 | |
| Total | 48.7 · D | 62 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Karrio | Sendcloud |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Karrio, Inc. | Sendcloud B.V. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | https://mcp.sendcloud.com/mcp |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | LGPL-3.0 for the server, SDK and modules. Code under ee/ is under the Karrio Enterprise licence and needs a subscription for production use. The MCP package in packages/mcp is Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Sendcloud's terms and conditions |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-06-23 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-04-08 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-04-08 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 799 stars, 338 PyPI/wk | none |
Verdicts
Karrio
A current OpenAPI 3.0.3 contract with 65 paths, a free LGPL-3.0 server and 30 carrier connectors suit a team that hosts it. The last release was 23 June 2026, the @karrio/mcp package the docs install is absent from npm, and api.karrio.io didn't resolve on 8 October 2026.
Sendcloud
API v3 has 29 public OpenAPI 3.1 specs, an llms.txt index, a dated changelog and a hosted MCP server with toolset filtering. OAuth has one scope, api, so a credential can't be limited to reading. The changelog records response fields removed from tracking events on 25 September 2026 with no earlier deprecation entry.
Before you call either
Karrio
- Run your own instance with Docker Compose and call it at
http://localhost:5002. Don't rely onapi.karrio.io, which didn't resolve on 8 October 2026 - Don't run
npx karrio-mcpornpx -y @karrio/mcp. Neither name is published on npm, so build the server frompackages/mcpin the repository - Change the default
admin@example.comanddemologin before the instance is reachable, and upgrade to 2026.1.32 or later so passwords aren't stored as MD5 - Don't blind-retry
POST /v1/shipmentswith aserviceset orPOST /v1/shipments/{id}/purchase. Fetch the shipment and check its status first, since no idempotency key exists - Use a test-mode API key while building. Send it as the HTTP Basic username or as
Authorization: Token key_...
Sendcloud
- Use API v3 at https://panel.sendcloud.sc/api/v3. The v2 create-parcel endpoint is closed to accounts created from April 2026
- Test with
shipping_option_codesendcloud:letter(returns usesendcloud:letterreturn). Any other label is billed unless cancelled within the carrier's deadline - Set
external_reference_idon every shipment so a retry returns the existing shipment (409) instead of a second label - Read the
errorsarray on synchronous announce responses. A carrier failure can arrive inside a success status - Connect MCP with
?toolsets=shipments,shipping-options,parcel-tracking,returnsto keep the tool list short. Create and cancel tools act on the live account
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Karrio or Sendcloud?
Sendcloud scores 62 (B) on agent readiness against Karrio's 48.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Karrio leads on reliability.
Do Karrio and Sendcloud need an API key?
Karrio needs an API key. Sendcloud takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call Karrio and Sendcloud without installing anything?
No hosted endpoint is listed for Karrio. Sendcloud has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.sendcloud.com/mcp.
Are Karrio and Sendcloud open source?
Karrio is open source (LGPL-3.0 for the server, SDK and modules. Code under `ee/` is under the Karrio Enterprise licence and needs a subscription for production use. The MCP package in `packages/mcp` is Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Sendcloud.
Other comparisons with Karrio or Sendcloud
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/karrio-vs-sendcloud.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/karrio.json·/api/v1/tools/sendcloud.json - From a terminal
anchor compare karrio sendcloud(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "karrio", "b": "sendcloud"}at/mcp, no key