ShipWave vs EasyPost: Full Comparison (2025)

ShipWave and EasyPost are fundamentally different products serving different needs:

Choose ShipWave if you want to ship packages today without coding.
Choose EasyPost if you're building shipping into your own software.

Let's compare costs for a business shipping 500 packages/month:

Hidden cost with EasyPost: You need developers to build, maintain, and update your integration. That's often $5,000-20,000+ in initial development plus ongoing maintenance.

ShipWave reality: Sign up, connect stores, ship. No developers needed.

Key insight: EasyPost gives you more raw capabilities. ShipWave turns those capabilities into a usable product without coding.

Do you have developers?

If NO: ShipWave is your only option. EasyPost requires coding to use at all. There's no web interface for creating labels—it's purely an API.

If YES: Ask these questions:

• Are you building a shipping product? (marketplace, 3PL, shipping SaaS) → EasyPost makes sense
• Do you need 100+ carrier integrations? → EasyPost has more carriers
• Is shipping a core product feature? → EasyPost gives more control

If you answered "no" to all three, ShipWave is still probably better—why spend developer time on shipping when you could use it to improve your actual product?

Both platforms provide carrier discounts:

ShipWave advantage: Pre-negotiated commercial rates available immediately. No setup, no carrier accounts needed.

EasyPost advantage: Connect your own carrier accounts (if you have negotiated rates) or use their USPS rates. Access to 100+ carriers for global logistics.

Here's something interesting: ShipWave is actually built on top of EasyPost's API for carrier integrations.

This means ShipWave gives you:

• EasyPost's carrier network and reliability
• Plus a complete web interface
• Plus pre-built e-commerce integrations
• Plus customer notifications
• Plus billing dispute detection (unique to ShipWave)
• Plus claims automation (unique to ShipWave)
• All without paying EasyPost's API fees or writing code

Think of ShipWave as "EasyPost + everything you'd need to build on top of it" — already built for you.

EasyPost's approach: "We provide the API. You build everything else."

ShipWave's approach: "Connect your store in 2 clicks. Start shipping."

Choose ShipWave if you:

• Want to ship packages today without technical setup
• Run an e-commerce store on Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, etc.
• Don't have developers (or don't want to use them for shipping)
• Need discounted rates with minimal effort
• Want a visual interface for shipping operations
• Value automated billing dispute detection and refund recovery

ShipWave is for: Business owners, operations teams, and sellers who want shipping software that works out of the box.

Choose EasyPost if you:

• Are building shipping into your own software product
• Have developers to implement and maintain API integration
• Need access to 100+ carriers globally
• Want granular control over shipping logic in your application
• Are building a shipping SaaS, marketplace, or 3PL
• Need standalone address verification or tracking APIs

EasyPost is for: Developers and product teams building custom shipping solutions. It's infrastructure, not end-user software.

90%+ of businesses should choose ShipWave.

EasyPost is a powerful API, but most businesses don't need to build custom shipping software. They need to ship packages.

If you're reading this comparison trying to decide, you almost certainly want ShipWave. The fact that you're comparing "shipping software" options means you want software—not an API to build software with.

Start with ShipWave: It's free, takes 5 minutes, and you'll be shipping immediately. If you later discover you need EasyPost's API capabilities for a custom project, you can add that separately.