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

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shippo-vs-shippypro
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shippo-vs-shippypro.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shippo-vs-shippypro.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shippo-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

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.

- Shippo: grade C, 61.9/100, rank #411 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shippo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shippo.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

### 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

### 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:
- 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 | Shippo | ShippyPro | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 59 | 70 | ShippyPro +11 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 64 | Shippo +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 46 | Shippo +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 52 | 51 | Shippo +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 5 | Shippo +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 25 | Shippo +52 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 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

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

### 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, 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.


## For agents

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

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