Head to head · Shipping rates · October 2026 research run
Shippo vs ShippyPro
Shippo scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against ShippyPro's 48.7 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ShippyPro leads on reliability. Both do shipping rates.
Which one, for what
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 64
- Agent ergonomics, 64 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 5
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 25
Watch for
No idempotency key on label purchase or other writes. Only the Reporting API accepts one
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
- Reliability, 70 against 59
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 | Shippo | ShippyPro | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 59 | 70 | ShippyPro +11 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 83 | 64 | Shippo +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 64 | 46 | Shippo +18 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 52 | 51 | Shippo +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 5 | Shippo +35 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 77 | 25 | Shippo +52 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 61 | 58 | Shippo +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 61.9 · C | 48.7 · D |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Shippo | ShippyPro |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Shippo | Italian Valley S.r.l. |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.goshippo.com | https://api.shippypro.com |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Price for shipping rates | $0.01 per call | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Shippo's terms of use. The SDKs and the goshippo/ai repository (skills and MCP bridge) are MIT | Proprietary service under ShippyPro's Terms & Conditions. Both OpenAPI files state the licence as Proprietary |
| Tools exposed | 4 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | com.shippo/shippo-mcp | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | none |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 3 stars, 73k npm/wk, 20k PyPI/wk | none |
Verdicts
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.
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
Shippo
- Build and test with a shippo_test_ key. Test and live object IDs are separate, and the hosted MCP server has no test mode
- Send
Authorization: ShippoToken <key>, not Bearer, and pinShippo-API-Version: 2018-02-08 - Before retrying a failed POST /transactions, list recent transactions. There is no idempotency key, and a second purchase is a second charge
- Pass
async: falseon shipments and transactions, or poll the object until its status leaves QUEUED - Set
resultson list calls (under 200). Defaults vary by resource, and list calls are limited to 50 a minute on live keys
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, Shippo or ShippyPro?
Shippo scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against ShippyPro's 48.7 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ShippyPro leads on reliability.
Do Shippo and ShippyPro need an API key?
Shippo takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ShippyPro needs an API key.
Can an agent call Shippo and ShippyPro without installing anything?
Yes. Shippo has a hosted endpoint at https://api.goshippo.com and ShippyPro at https://api.shippypro.com.
Other comparisons with Shippo or ShippyPro
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/shippo-vs-shippypro.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/shippo.json·/api/v1/tools/shippypro.json - From a terminal
anchor compare shippo shippypro(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "shippo", "b": "shippypro"}at/mcp, no key