Shipping is the most crucial part when it comes to eCommerce platforms. A shipping solution that is best for your business must be chosen wisely. To help you with this, here is a detailed comparison between the two most popular shipping solutions, Shipstation & PluginHive.
A complete shipping solution for my eCommerce store
With PluginHive you get to display live shipping rates at checkout for your customers to choose from available shipping services, the ability to print shipping labels automatically, request carrier pickups, generate manifests for the pickup agent and track your orders.
Likewise, with Shipstation you get live shipping rates for Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce. This feature is not available for other platforms like WooCommerce. It also allows you to print shipping labels and track your orders.
| Shipping Process | PluginHive | ShipStation |
|---|---|---|
| Real-Time Shipping Rates At Checkout Page | Yes | Yes |
| One-Click Shipping Label Printing | Yes | Yes |
| Request Carrier Pickups From Your Store | Yes | Yes |
| Live Shipment Tracking With Notifications | Yes | Yes |
If you are looking for a solution with these specific functionalities you can either use PluginHive or ShipStation. Both will do the job for you. However, if you require an end-to-end shipping solution with live rates at checkout, pickup requests, generating manifests, etc which covers every aspect of shipping, PluginHive is the best option among the two.
Plugin/App or External Application
PluginHive is an integrated shipping solution that works within the eCommerce platform and makes your entire shipping process simple. With this, you get a user-friendly experience that saves you time. You login only to your eCommerce dashboard and you can completely handle the shipping and order fulfillment process from there. It easily integrates with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce and PrestaShop.
Shipstation is an external shipping solution, where you need to log in and enter all your store details in the independent app. You need to import orders from your store and may have to switch between multiple windows to complete the shipping process.
Solution with the best value for money
The subscription plan of both the shipping solutions are mentioned below
- With a starter subscription of 9$, PluginHive provides 100 labels and ShipStation provides 50 labels.
- With a subscription plan of 29$, PluginHive provides 1000 labels and ShipStation provides 500 labels.
- With a subscription plan of 49$, PluginHive provides 3000 labels and ShipStation provides 1500 labels.
- With a subscription plan of 99$, PluginHive provides unlimited labels and ShipStation provides 6000 labels
You can see the detailed pricing for both solutions below.
Shipping solution with a committed customer support team
All PluginHive customers get 24×7 customer support via email, telephone, chat support, and zoom call support.
Shipstation provides 12 hours of customer support via telephone call and chat.
Need for a shipping carrier account
PluginHive lets you add your own shipping carrier account. This way you can take care of your shipping requirements. Since you use your own account for rates & labels, PluginHive doesn’t charge you any commission. You pay according to the subscription plan that you have selected.
Shipstation allows you to use your own account or go with ShipStation’s carrier account. If you choose to go with their account, ShipStation might charge a certain commission for every shipment along with the subscription fee.
It is recommended to use your own shipping carrier for a seamless experience. If there is any delay or trouble in shipment, you can easily contact the carrier and check the order status. This way it takes less time to resolve the issues and it allows you to focus on more important aspects of your business.
Looking for a specific feature for your shipping needs?
If you need a comparison of each of the features and attributes of PluginHive and ShipStation shipping solutions, we have collated them in the table below.
| Specific Features | PluginHive | ShipStation |
|---|---|---|
| Integrated Platform Specific Solution | Yes | No |
| Global Coverage with Shipping Carriers | Yes | No |
| Live Carrier Calculated Shipping Rates at Checkout | Yes | No |
| Carrier Calculated Shipping Rates for Merchants | Yes | Yes |
| Per Label Fee | No | Yes |
| Automatic Shiping Label Printing | Yes | No |
| One-Click Shipping Label Printing in Bulk | Yes | Yes |
| Merchant’s Carrier Account is required | Yes | Optional |
| Live Shipment Tracking For Merchants | Yes | Yes |
| Live Shipment Tracking Notifications for Customers | Yes | Yes |
| Shipment Tracking Email Customization | Yes | No |
| Partial Order Fulfilment | No | Yes |
| Process Unlimited Orders | Yes | No |
| Request Carrier Pickups | Yes | No |
| Hold Shipments at Carrier Locations | Yes | No |
| Multi Carrier Shipping | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support via Email | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support via Live Chat | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support via Call | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support via Zoom Call | Yes | No |
| Partial Fulfillment | No | Yes |
Conclusion
Both PluginHive and Shipstation are the top shipping solutions in the market. PluginHive gives you an end-to-end shipping solution with the best customer service for every subscription. PluginHive focuses on each customer with equal emphasis and 24×7 customer support covering chat support, telephonic support, and zoom call support. You may check out the reviews which talk highly about customer support.
Even though ShipStation suffers in customer support, it covers more eCommerce platforms & integrates with more shipping carriers.
So, based on the detailed comparison above, I hope you will be able to choose the best shipping solution that fits your requirements and offers more value for money.
