# Karrio vs Shippo

> Shippo scores 61.9 (C) 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-shippo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-shippo.md (~2,200 tokens)
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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-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 Karrio's 48.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Karrio leads on reliability. Both do shipping rates.

- 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
- Shippo: grade C, 61.9/100, rank #355 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shippo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shippo.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 59

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

### 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:
- Schema & documentation, 83 against 68
- Agent ergonomics, 64 against 57
- Security & auth, 52 against 44
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 29
- Transparency & trust, 61 against 56

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

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Karrio | Shippo | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 76 | 59 | Karrio +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 83 | Shippo +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 64 | Shippo +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 52 | Shippo +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 29 | 77 | Shippo +48 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 61 | Shippo +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **48.7 · D** | **61.9 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Karrio | Shippo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Karrio, Inc. | Shippo |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `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 | 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 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 | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.shippo/shippo-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-06-23 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-04-08 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-04-08 | 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 | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 799 stars, 338 PyPI/wk | 3 stars, 73k npm/wk, 20k PyPI/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.

**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

### 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_...`

### 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, Karrio or Shippo?

Shippo scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against Karrio's 48.7 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Karrio leads on reliability.

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

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

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Karrio. Shippo has a hosted endpoint at https://api.goshippo.com.

### Are Karrio and Shippo 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 Shippo.


## For agents

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

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