What does ShipStation cost as my order volume grows?

How ShipStation pricing works

You pick two things: a plan, and a monthly shipment tier. The plan sets the features. The tier sets how many shipments you can process each month. The headline price on ShipStation's pricing page is for the lowest tier, 50 shipments, so the number you see first is not the number you will pay once you ship more.

The page offers monthly billing or annual billing, with a 20% saving for annual. It also offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card, and a 90-day refund promise if you are not satisfied. You can change plan or move to a higher or lower tier at any time. Downgrades take effect at the start of the next billing cycle.

Plans and tiers (monthly billing, as of November 2026)

Shipments a month	Starter	Standard	Premium
50	$14.99	$29.99	$349.99
500	$39.99	$89.99	$449.99
1,000	$79.99	$149.99	$599.99
10,000	Starter tiers stop at 5,000	$449.99	$1,099.99

ShipStation shows more steps than these, including 100, 2,000 and 5,000 shipments on Starter and everything up to 100,000 on Standard. Use its tier selector for your exact volume. Premium tiers run well past 10,000, for example $1,349.99 at 15,000 and $2,249.99 at 30,000.

Users included in each plan

ShipStation's help center says US plans include 3 users on Starter, 10 on Standard and 15 on Premium. Every person who uses ShipStation needs their own login. If you need more users than your plan includes but no more shipments, you can add users for a monthly fee per user, and the fee varies by region. The help center also lists automations as basic on Starter and unlimited on Standard and Premium.

What support each plan includes

• Starter: email and chat support.
• Standard: email, chat and phone support.
• Premium: a dedicated account manager.

ShipStation's help center says every plan includes the same core tools: connections to 200 or more carriers, carrier discounts of up to 90%, tracking notifications for customers, address validation and automated rate comparison. So the plan you choose changes users, automation, support and volume, not whether you can print a label at a discounted rate. The free trial sign-up form asks for your current monthly shipments, which is a quick way to see which tier it expects you to need.

Extra costs to plan for

• Postage and insurance. You pay for these separately. USPS postage is prepaid, and you can set an auto-refill. UPS and FedEx are billed after the fact, as they are today.
• Extra users. ShipStation says it adds no fees beyond your subscription unless you add users beyond your plan's 3, 10 or 15, or use certain add-ons. The per-user fee varies by region, so read it in your account before you add a fourth person on Starter.
• Add-ons. Dropshipping, 3PL (outsourced warehouse) and fulfillment are listed as add-ons. The page does not give prices, so ask.
• Premium integrations. Connecting a shop is free, except where a channel is flagged as a Premium Integration.
• Older accounts. Plans registered before July 8, 2025 may pay fees to connect carriers. Newer plans do not pay to connect your own carrier accounts.

What it costs per shipment

Dividing the monthly price by the tier shows how the bill behaves:

• Starter at 50 shipments: about 30 cents each.
• Starter at 500: about 8 cents each.
• Starter at 1,000: about 8 cents each.
• Standard at 1,000: about 15 cents each.
• Standard at 10,000: about 4.5 cents each.

Software is cheap per parcel once you ship in volume. The real question is whether you need what the higher plan adds, not the cost of a label.

A worked example (made-up figures)

A candle shop ships 450 parcels a month, selling on its own store and a marketplace. It sits in the 500 tier. On Starter that is $39.99 a month, or $479.88 a year on monthly billing. Annual billing takes 20% off, which is about $383.90. In a good month it grows to 700 and has to move to a higher tier. It should check the new price before the busy season starts, not after, because the tier is chosen by shipments, not by revenue.

If the same shop grows to 1,000 shipments, Starter is $79.99 and Standard is $149.99. That is $70 more a month, so the extra features and phone support must save at least that in time or errors.

What each plan adds in practice

Starter is ShipStation's entry plan for small businesses setting up and managing their shipping: it pulls orders from your shops into one list and prints labels. With email and chat support only, it suits an owner and a packer or two. Standard is the plan ShipStation marks as most popular. It adds phone support and is aimed at businesses needing more advanced capabilities, such as automation rules. Starter includes 3 users and basic automations, and Standard includes 10 users and unlimited automations. Premium is built for larger businesses with complex shipping and logistics, and adds a dedicated account manager. At $349.99 for 50 shipments it is priced for companies, not for small shops.

The jump from Starter to Standard is the one most growing sellers face. At 1,000 shipments the gap is $70 a month, or $840 a year. Ask whether the extra users, phone support and automation save you that. If one rule saves your packer 30 minutes a day, it probably does. If you only wanted phone support, it may not.

Using the trial well

• Connect every shop, not just your main one, so you see the real order list.
• Print ten labels on your busiest carrier and compare the rate to what you pay today.
• Try one automation rule, such as picking a box size by item count.
• Count how many minutes a batch of 50 orders takes, and multiply by your monthly volume.

When the bill is worth it

ShipStation is worth paying for when:

• you sell on several channels and want all orders in one list;
• you ship hundreds of parcels a month and the label time adds up;
• you want rules that pick the carrier and package for you;
• you want branded tracking pages and returns.

It is less worth it when you ship a few dozen parcels a month, use one carrier, and could buy labels from the carrier's own site for free. Free and cheaper options exist. My guide to ShipStation alternatives compares them, and the guide to multichannel inventory management software covers the stock side, which shipping tools only partly handle. ShipStation does offer inventory features, but I treat them as a bonus, not the heart of the product.

How I'd approach this

Use the free trial with your real orders for two weeks. Count your shipments for the last three months, take the busiest month, and add 25% for growth. Price that tier on Starter and Standard. If Starter covers your users and support needs, stay there. If not, look at whether a cheaper tool does the job before you pay for the extra plan. And if you are stitching together shipping, stock and orders from three tools, tell me about it on a quick call, because the cheapest fix is often fewer tools, not a better one.