# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-shippypro.md (~2,250 tokens)
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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/karrio-vs-shippypro.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: 2026-10-09

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.

- Karrio: grade D, 48.7/100, rank #717 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/karrio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/karrio.json
- ShippyPro: grade D, 48.7/100, rank #718 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shippypro.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shippypro.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 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

### ShippyPro (D)

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 | Karrio | ShippyPro | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 76 | 70 | Karrio +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 64 | Karrio +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 46 | Karrio +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 51 | ShippyPro +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 5 | Karrio +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 29 | 25 | Karrio +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 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

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_...`

### ShippyPro

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer <API key>` and POST a JSON body with `Method` and `Params` to `https://api.shippypro.com/v1/<Method>`. Parameter names are case-sensitive
2. Check `Status` and `ErrorMessage` in every `Ship` response. HTTP 200 with `Status` 2 means no label was created
3. Before retrying a failed `Ship` call, look the order up by `TransactionID`. v1 has no idempotency key, and each label counts against the plan
4. Test with the Generic carrier. `Ship` and `Edit` calls on a real carrier create real labels
5. Stay under 20 calls per 10 seconds, and use webhooks for tracking. The docs advise against `GetTracking` in 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.


## For agents

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

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