Head to head · Shipping rates · October 2026 research run
Karrio vs ShippyPro
Karrio and ShippyPro score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 48.7 (D) and 48.7 (D). ShippyPro leads on security & auth. 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 70
- Agent ergonomics, 57 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 5
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 A European shipper or logistics platform with its own carrier contracts that already holds a ShippyPro Enterprise plan and wants rates, labels, pickups and tracking across many regional carriers through one API.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 51 against 44
Also in its favour
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where Karrio loses 7 points for them
Watch for
The help centre says APIs can only be activated with an Enterprise plan, which has no public price and starts with sales
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Karrio | ShippyPro | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 76 | 70 | Karrio +6 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 68 | 64 | Karrio +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 57 | 46 | Karrio +11 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 44 | 51 | ShippyPro +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 5 | Karrio +35 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 29 | 25 | Karrio +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 56 | 58 | ShippyPro +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | 0 | |
| Total | 48.7 · D | 48.7 · D |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Karrio | ShippyPro |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Karrio, Inc. | Italian Valley S.r.l. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | https://api.shippypro.com |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| 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 ShippyPro's Terms & Conditions. Both OpenAPI files state the licence as Proprietary |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-06-23 | none |
| 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 | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| 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.
ShippyPro
Two OpenAPI 3.1 files, a published limit of 20 calls per 10 seconds and a 99.5 per cent monthly SLA with service credits are public. API access needs an Enterprise plan arranged through sales, no changelog or SDK was found, and label creation on v1 has no idempotency key.
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_...
ShippyPro
- Send
Authorization: Bearer <API key>and POST a JSON body withMethodandParamstohttps://api.shippypro.com/v1/<Method>. Parameter names are case-sensitive - Check
StatusandErrorMessagein everyShipresponse. HTTP 200 withStatus2 means no label was created - Before retrying a failed
Shipcall, look the order up byTransactionID. v1 has no idempotency key, and each label counts against the plan - Test with the Generic carrier.
ShipandEditcalls on a real carrier create real labels - Stay under 20 calls per 10 seconds, and use webhooks for tracking. The docs advise against
GetTrackingin bulk
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Karrio or ShippyPro?
Karrio and ShippyPro score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 48.7 (D) and 48.7 (D). ShippyPro leads on security & auth.
Do Karrio and ShippyPro need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Karrio and ShippyPro without installing anything?
No hosted endpoint is listed for Karrio. ShippyPro has a hosted endpoint at https://api.shippypro.com.
Are Karrio and ShippyPro 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 ShippyPro.
Other comparisons with Karrio or ShippyPro
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/karrio-vs-shippypro.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/karrio.json·/api/v1/tools/shippypro.json - From a terminal
anchor compare karrio shippypro(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "karrio", "b": "shippypro"}at/mcp, no key