# Karrio vs Ship24

> Ship24 scores 55 (C) on agent readiness against Karrio's 48.7 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Karrio leads on reliability, security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do shipping tracking. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-ship24
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-ship24.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-ship24.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-ship24.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

Ship24 scores 55 (C) on agent readiness against Karrio's 48.7 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Karrio leads on reliability, security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do shipping tracking.

- Karrio: grade D, 48.7/100, rank #617 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/karrio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/karrio.json
- Ship24: grade C, 55/100, rank #522 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ship24.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ship24.json

## 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 45
- Security & auth, 44 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

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

### Ship24 (C)

Good for: An agent that only needs tracking events across many couriers, by webhook or by lookup, from a tracking number alone.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 68
- Agent ergonomics, 68 against 57
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 29

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where Karrio loses 7 points for them

Watch for: No status page was found. `status.ship24.com` doesn't resolve, and neither the site nor the docs link to one


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Karrio | Ship24 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 76 | 45 | Karrio +31 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 81 | Ship24 +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 68 | Ship24 +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 37 | Karrio +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Karrio +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 29 | 80 | Ship24 +51 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 52 | Karrio +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **48.7 · D** | **55 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Karrio | Ship24 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Karrio, Inc. | Ship24 Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.ship24.com/public/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for shipping tracking | not published | $0.045 per transaction |
| 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 Ship24's Terms and Conditions. The Node SDK and the AI plugin on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.ship24/tracking-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-06-23 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-04-08 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-04-08 | 2026-08-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 799 stars, 338 PyPI/wk | 0 stars, 79 npm/wk |

## 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.

**Ship24.** The REST API and the hosted MCP server share one public OpenAPI 3.1 spec, numbered rate limits with Retry-After, and tracker creation that is idempotent by payload. No status page, SLA or security certification was found, API keys carry no scopes, and the API agreement and data processing agreement named in the terms aren't published.

## Before you call either

### Karrio

1. Run your own instance with Docker Compose and call it at `http://localhost:5002`. Don't rely on `api.karrio.io`, which didn't resolve on 8 October 2026
2. Don't run `npx karrio-mcp` or `npx -y @karrio/mcp`. Neither name is published on npm, so build the server from `packages/mcp` in the repository
3. Change the default `admin@example.com` and `demo` login before the instance is reachable, and upgrade to 2026.1.32 or later so passwords aren't stored as MD5
4. Don't blind-retry `POST /v1/shipments` with a `service` set or `POST /v1/shipments/{id}/purchase`. Fetch the shipment and check its status first, since no idempotency key exists
5. Use a test-mode API key while building. Send it as the HTTP Basic username or as `Authorization: Token key_...`

### Ship24

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer apik_...` to `https://api.ship24.com/public/v1`. The same key works on the MCP server, which lists tools without a key but answers 401 on calls
2. Store the `trackerId` or set a unique `clientTrackerId`. Tracking numbers aren't unique, and any changed field on a repeat `POST /trackers` creates a second tracker that uses quota
3. Allow up to 60 seconds for the first `POST /trackers/track` or `POST /tracking/search` call, since results are fetched from the courier synchronously
4. Cache `GET /couriers`. It is limited to one request a second and returns the whole courier list, and courier auto-detection usually makes `courierCode` unnecessary
5. Check for `quota_limit_reached` and `no_active_subscription`. `POST /tracking/search` needs a separate per-call plan, and the free plan blocks at 10 shipments a month

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Karrio or Ship24?

Ship24 scores 55 (C) on agent readiness against Karrio's 48.7 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Karrio leads on reliability, security & auth and payments & pricing.

### Do Karrio and Ship24 need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Karrio and Ship24 without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Karrio. Ship24 has a hosted endpoint at https://api.ship24.com/public/v1.

### Are Karrio and Ship24 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 Ship24.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-ship24.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-ship24.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "karrio", "b": "ship24"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare karrio ship24`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/karrio.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ship24.json

## Other comparisons with Karrio or Ship24

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- [Easyship vs Karrio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easyship-vs-karrio.md)
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- [Karrio vs Shippo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-shippo.md)
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- [EasyPost vs Ship24](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easypost-vs-ship24.md)
- [Easyship vs Ship24](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/easyship-vs-ship24.md)
- [Sendcloud vs Ship24](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sendcloud-vs-ship24.md)
- [Ship24 vs ShipBob](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ship24-vs-shipbob.md)
- [Ship24 vs Shippo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ship24-vs-shippo.md)
- [Ship24 vs ShipStation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ship24-vs-shipstation.md)