# Ship24 vs Shippo

> Shippo scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against Ship24's 55 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do shipping tracking. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ship24-vs-shippo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ship24-vs-shippo.md (~2,100 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ship24-vs-shippo.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ship24-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 Ship24's 55 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do shipping tracking.

- 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
- 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

### Ship24 (C)

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

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

### 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:
- Reliability, 59 against 45
- Security & auth, 52 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 61 against 52

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Ship24 | Shippo | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 59 | Shippo +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 83 | Shippo +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 64 | Ship24 +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 52 | Shippo +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Shippo +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 77 | Ship24 +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 52 | 61 | Shippo +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55 · C** | **61.9 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Ship24 | Shippo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Ship24 Limited | Shippo |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.ship24.com/public/v1` | `https://api.goshippo.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for shipping tracking | $0.045 per transaction | $0.02 per call |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Ship24's Terms and Conditions. The Node SDK and the AI plugin on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service under Shippo's terms of use. The SDKs and the goshippo/ai repository (skills and MCP bridge) are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 12 | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.ship24/tracking-mcp` | `com.shippo/shippo-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-01 | 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 | 0 stars, 79 npm/wk | 3 stars, 73k npm/wk, 20k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Ship24 or Shippo?

Shippo scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against Ship24's 55 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

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

Ship24 needs an API key. Shippo takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

Yes. Ship24 has a hosted endpoint at https://api.ship24.com/public/v1 and Shippo at https://api.goshippo.com.


## For agents

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

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