ShipStation Reviews

Pros

The user interface, the dashboard and ease of the settings.

Cons

Can't think of any. Keep up the great work

Alternatives Considered

Shiptheory

Reasons for Choosing ShipStation

I trialled both Ship Theory and Ship Station together at the same time. For me Ship Station wins hands-down...

Switched From

Shiptheory

Reasons for Switching to ShipStation

ShipStation's dashboard, user interface, nagigation settings are so much better. I also like how so much better the automated rules are to setup and configure. ShipStation also has build-in and pre-intregrated carriers that give you live rate pricing.

Pros

The workflows, batching, labelling, general UI and UX and the user-centric engineering make it obvious this was designed by product managers who have done ecommerce, rather than their competitors who are software engineers first and have no clue what store owners actually want.

Cons

The inventory managenet is one way; anything you sell on any channel will decrement Shipstation's inventpry, but it won't then push the new stock count out to connected stores. Also therefore no support for kitting and bundling. They recommend you check out other integration partners but most of those cost 300+ per month which is 6x what I'm paying for Shipstation. They have competitors who offer these features free or cheap, but the competitors lack in the order/shipping management features.

Alternatives Considered

Linnworks

Reasons for Choosing ShipStation

Shipstation's order management, shipping management and labelling (including the Shipstation Carrier Services which is like a proxy prepay account for some couriers we don't qualify for direct integrations with) is literally best in class. None of the others come close.

Switched From

Multiorders and Veeqo

Reasons for Switching to ShipStation

Cost, and best-in-class features, reliability and availability.

Pros

It is generally reliable and easy to implement and use.

Cons

I do not like that the customer support is very weak and ineffective.

Pros

It is super easy to implement, it has a lot of features to make your job faster and it has good customer support if you have a bit of patience.

Cons

I don't like that I can not put insurance into auto re charge for more than $100.00

Alternatives Considered

ShippingEasy

Reasons for Choosing ShipStation

Because Shipstation offered better rates and I like their UI more.

Switched From

ShippingEasy

Reasons for Switching to ShipStation

Because Shipstation offered better rates and I like their UI more.

Pros

Integration is a cinch. YOu really need next to no technical knowledge to set this up on most platforms. Once you create all the rules anyone and I mean anyone can just come in and fulfill all your orders.

Cons

Honestly, I would say that I wish it was free but it is as I like to say WEP - Worth Every Penny, and it doesn't really cost very much.

Pros

The ai chat bot was great. Very well trained. I was excited, but could only go so far before I needed a human. Then things went to hell. Never could get it working to know how well it works.

Cons

There are many problems and the labels were misleading so it was impossible to know what the real problem was. Is it a bug? Is it misconfiguration? Is it just something I don't understand because the explanations on the page weren't clear? I couldn't say and live chat was not helpful at all. He couldn't understand the simplest questions so after 2 hours of trying to get the app connected to our store, and Loom video after Loom video I made to make it easy for him to comprehend, I had to give up trying. Even though his vocabulary was large, it's pretty clear, because of his lack of comprehension, that English was not his first language. But if he knew his job, the language shouldn't have even been a problem. If the shipping app doesn't connect to your ecommerce store, and I showed him pictures to make it crystal clear (it said no shipping options), he should have been trained enough to know what to do to fix it. He didn't even understand the question.

Pros

It’s pretty awesome. We had trouble before we found this with high shipping rates. This product saved us money and gave us a great way to manage and integrate all our shipping and orders. We are grateful.

Cons

Nothing. Even the customer service chat is good - ideally I’d like a phone number for customer service but that’s ok.

Alternatives Considered

WordPress

Reasons for Switching to ShipStation

We found better rates and ease of use with ship station.

Pros

What I like most is the ability to print directly onto adhesive labels. It sounds like a small thing, but having to print out labels on a paper, and then cut/fold them, and then place into a label sleeve takes a lot of time and effort when packaging a large number of orders. ShipStation allows me to print and stick in one easy step.

Cons

What I like least is because it is not affiliated with an official carrier service (FedEx, USPS, etc) I have to actually go and drop off the packages. A carrier will not come to my business to pick it up.

Pros

It integrates with everything we need - far more than any other tool

It also provides the best out of the box reporting of any tool

Cons

Some of the functionality is just kind of weird compared to other tools we've used. Most of it is quite similar, but we run into things that aren't great from a user experience standpoint ocassionally.

Pros

very easy to use to send lots of different packages

Cons

somewhat limited on carriers that can be used

Pros

When we implemented it, it was a big step up from ShippingEasy in terms of feature set and ease of use.

Cons

Their software is not updated in a timely manner, so when Shopify makes an update , ShipStation no longer works and you are sitting waiting for 6+ months for them to actually fix it so that you can get orders out without the fear that things are not going to work.

Pros

In today's eCommerce industry, brands have to be listed on multiple marketplaces to survive and it's hard to keep track of all orders without a hub. ShipStation is the perfect hub to see orders from every single marketplace, without needing to login to every back end individually. The discounts with ShipStation are comparable to their competitors.

Cons

If you go over 500 shipments a month, your monthly bill with them will increase. We sometimes buy labels from Shopify because the discount per package is cheaper. Wish there was a way to quickly import orders without having to build a document to use ShipStation to send out marketing materials.

Pros

It's pretty flexible and relatively easy to use. It works with all our existing equipment and systems. It links to Quickbooks to pull orders and provides the tracking information back. The scanning features greatly improved our the speed and accuracy of our shipping process.

Cons

Shipstation Connect does not AutoStart consistently. We have issues from time to time where we need to unplug and re-plug devices for Shipstation to recognize them. We do not have this issue with the same equipment and other systems.

Alternatives Considered

XPS Ship, Fishbowl and Shippo

Reasons for Choosing ShipStation

Better functionality, better and more reliable the working with 3 separate programs, price comparisons, and pack scanning.

Reasons for Switching to ShipStation

We do a lot of shipping and have a large Quickbooks file. Shipstar was too slow for us. Some of the other options were more complicated or did not have a good connection to Quickbooks.

Pros

1) Import orders from multiple ecommerce platform
2) One software for multiple shipping carriers and method
3) Great email notification for clients, multiple options of emails and multiple templets
4)inventory tracking
many other good futures

Cons

1) Depend on package you have with ship station support can take long time to answer your question. No phone support for any users and only email support for lowest package. This is not acceptable. When I need to ship and I have issue I need to call somebody and fix problem ASAP. If you send email you can wait who know how long to resolve issue. Live chat is available only for selected ship station clients ( base on how much you are paying = selected package of ship station) and it may take very long time to actually chat with somebody ( we are talking hours in some cases before you are at top of chat queue )
2) you have to press button to read package weight if you have scale attached. This is very annoying if you ever used software with automatic scale. You place package on scale and software already know what you shipping. ( or alarm you when scale is 0 = nothing on scale ). I had packages returned because I did not press "read" scale button and package was over weight compared to postage purchased. Same goes the other way. You pay more for postage if your package is less than what you estimate in your ecommerce platform.
3) FedEx international shipping has big problem. Ship station does not print commercial invoice for international packages. You technically can print label but than you have to go to FedEx and fill out commercial invoice form. I do not understand why it can not be printed at the same time with label. All info is already available ( item, price etc) on ship station after importing order. Ship Station print all required paper work for USPS international packages
4) address verification is not strong future on a software . I am comparing it to a stamps.com again. If client place wrong address on a form ship station will tell you that address is not valid but will not tell you what is wrong and will not suggest correction. Stamps.com will suggest correct zip code , street name , apartment number if it is missing etc. Ship station will only tell you " invalid apartment number" or "apartment not found"
5) international imported addresses create issue sometimes if client used other than English address form. German , Japanese, Spanish language use soft punctuations and different letters like ~ or ę ó ś ć and many similar. Ship station when import such address create strange characters replacing original with something like @##@$%% and if you print it I can guaranty package will not be delivered to a clients since local post office will not recognize street name or town.
6) some countries are not recognized by ship station as international address. Republic of Ireland is not recognized. If client place that name on order form Ship station assign USA address to it. Since this is official name if country my client always put it than way and not Ireland in Country section. They would have to put Ireland instead ( Ireland in country field create correct international destination) Same goes to United Kingdom but England will be correct ( it may be few others - just do not remember )

Pros

The user interface is great providing the info that the user required where it is needed while avoiding clutter. Additionall,y the setting and administration functions are streamlined and functional.

Cons

Rate shopping among different shipping carriers is cumbersome and not able to be automated in the system. If you primarily ship with a single provider, it is not much of an issue but if you like to shop for rates from different providers on an order-by-order basis, you will find this software slows you down because you must manually select each shipping method and compare rates manually rather than being able to select automatically based on business rules or logic around cost, delivery time, etc.

Pros

We've been involved in ecommerce for 20 years, and have tried *all* the ship programs. Shipstation is program we recommend to most people, and the one we've been using for the past 4+ years. The entry level subscription quickly pays for itself with their access to discounted USPS rates, free tracking on many shipments, and easy side-by-side rate comparisons. And if you're an eBay or Amazon seller, this is the best and easiest.

Cons

No program is a perfect fit for everyone. The mobile app is rubbish on Android, can't create batches, can't print, can't email a PDF. So basically you can confirm orders one at a time and just leave them there until you can log in with a PC. But they have a dedicated development team, I suspect it will improve over time. Also, creating manual orders is straightforward, but a bit cumbersome. They do a great job integrating with eBay, Amazon, Woo Commerce ... but not things like Wix and Shopify (unless you have the Plus account). Again, their team is pretty responsive, so I wouldn't be surprised to see integration of these (and more) in the near future. And a few little bugs on the site (the site freezes frequently on us, we have to log out and log back in). But we don't hesitate giving Shipstation a solid thumbs up.

Pros

-- Once you've overcome the slight learning curve (stated as a con below), the layout feels very natural and easy to navigate. Hovering beacons help provide tips throughout each screen.
-- Functionality. ShipStation is an incredibly robust platform with tons of aspects to it: multiple sales channels, customization, inventory management, shipping and tracking, customer logs, reporting, the features go on and on.
-- Love the handy calculator tool right on the main screen, which allows you to quickly calculate postage for any type of shipment.
-- Many tools to automate functions and make your work quicker and easier (e.g., setting up filters, rules, and batch actions).
-- Integrates with many, many, many other apps and tools.
-- Save money by using the discounted pricing you receive on postage through ShipStation.
-- Very thorough helpful articles in the Support Center. They also have a forum where you can submit suggestions and feature requests.

Cons

-- Interface is overwhelming at first. Would have loved to receive a short and sweet video introducing me to the main features and organization. The video I did receive upon signing up for the free trial was more of a marketing-focused pitch video, which served no purpose as I was already invested and ready to explore ShipStation.
-- The $9/month tier exists, but not readily available as an option when you’re ready to upgrade from your free trial. I had to submit a request via Live Chat to have this option provided. The lack of transparency was a bit disappointing after everything else felt so customer-oriented.

Pros

Shipstation is a fantastic shipping suite for our business. We use the integrations for Shopify, eBay, and Amazon. Orders are automatically imported and we are able to simple and efficiently manage shipments for UPS and USPS. Rates are automatically displayed, invalid address warning shown, and everything can be managed from a web-based UI with remotely connected printers using Shipstation Connect. We are able to use our UPS business account with the UPS integration for our set rates. Labels and Pack Slip templates are customizable and simple to set up. Our 4x6 Brother QL1000 continuous label printer works perfectly with Shipstation and Shipstation Connect, and we use standard letter paper for pack slips.

Cons

The Shipstation android app does not work with Shipstation Connect very well in terms of printers, and there are UI issues with it. On top of that, the Shipstation web-based application does not work well on small browser screens, so it is currently almost impossible and very painstaking to print labels from a phone.

Pros

It is incredibly helpful when all is well and is a major benefit to businesses that ship.

Cons

I pay for "Silver service" which boasts "Live Chat support". There is no live chat support actually and we have submitted tickets via email that have gone unanswered for weeks. This dramatically impacts our business. What could take potentially minutes to sort out with tech support could feasibly cost us thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Customer support is immediately there for on-boarding new clients....but is entirely absent when it comes to upholding promises of live support, or sustaining proper functioning of customer accounts.
I get that times are tough and some delays can be expected, but to promise live chat support and then not respond for weeks on end just feels like negligence at this point. Just because its more profitable to focus on new accounts than it is to help existing customers doesn't mean its the right thing to do.  Please reallocate some resources to uphold your promise to provide customer service.

Pros

I liked the fact that this software synced with online sales through places like Amazon and initially seemed to work pretty well.

Cons

A few months ago, Shipstation released a new version and I have had many problems with it. It simply does not work as advertised. Things that were seamless before no longer work. The fact that they have not fixed these issues after a few months is very frustrating. I would not recommend them any longer for shipping.

Pros

Shipstation, above all, is very easy to use. The features list is really comprehensive and it works extremely well as an integral part of your online shipping program. Our needs were for a non-standard integration but their support team and API made it very easy for us to get up and running. Plus, with a 3rd party app, we seamlessly use Shipstation as an order pass-through to get orders into Quickbooks online. It's given us an ability to grow without increasing staff for mundane work!

Cons

We wish that an order wasn't tied directly to a singluar shipment. Our orders contain various products from various vendors and we'd prefer to keep a single order together and post multiple shipments to it, as opposed to needing to split and duplicate orders to ship multiple items for one reference. This and other annoyances are the most we could say negatively about Shipstation, but are not representative of a need to change in any way.

Pros

Once you do your basic set up you can start to keep track of your orders and for a long time, we can go back and edit orders from years back in case something new pops up with customer service

Cons

Since it is a web page it can fail and make your process stop.Sometimes the cache on your account makes it slow to check on order if you have high volume (customer support can assist on this).now that they are testing their new look sometims old SS can be hard to work and you ahve to go to the new look, and viceversa.

Pros

It's easy to use and integrates with just about every sales channel.

Cons

I removed some starts because Shipstation does not work well for users with a large number of product variations. This is because the Product page displays a MINIMUM of 100 products per page. In our case, each product has dozens of child variations, so the page attempts to load data for THOUSANDS of variations. At best, the page takes several minutes to load. More often than not, it times out and our browser throws a "Page Unresponsive" message.

There's already a setting to change the number of products displayed per page, but the minimum is 100. This whole problem could be solved by adding an option to display only 10 products per page. This would boost the page load speed by 1,000%!

Pros

I like the ease of syncing our orders with shopify, shipping them through shipstation, and having the tracking number then re-uploaded to shopify.

Cons

I had an issue a long time ago of not being able to change SKU or UPC numbers in my inventory. It has been a year and customer service never figured it out or replied to my most recent messages. We were able to edit the packing slips on our old plan, then they changed it so you had to be upgraded further to access that ability. We have an error on our old packing slip and am not able to get it fixed unless I pay an additional $100 for one month.

Pros

It has a very wide partner ecosystem and allows us to bring our orders all together into one system to check shipment tracking. The UI is clean and modern. The addition of an iOS app is a big plus and lets us fulfill orders on the go.

Cons

The ability to auto-correct addresses is great, but ShipStation should highlight these orders so that I can review what was corrected to determine if the change was good. Not all auto-corrects are...correct but overall it catches more of my mistakes then if there was no auto-correct. Support could use some improvement as some issues have required multiple attempts with different agents but generally I do get my issue reolved.