PackOS vs Pirate Ship
Labels for any store. Margin on every one.
No Shopify required. No carrier contract. Connect a store, upload a CSV, or just type an address — then rate shop USPS, UPS, and FedEx, buy in batches, and see exactly what each shipment made or lost. Free account; you pay for labels.
PackOS Labels is free, always
This is a factual comparison and it says where Pirate Ship wins.
The core difference
What each one is built to do
Pirate Ship buys discounted USPS and UPS postage, and keeps the label workflow about as short as a label workflow gets. Plenty of small shippers like it for exactly that reason, and if that is the whole job, it does it well.
PackOS Labels buys discounted USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL and Canada Post labels from one dashboard, in batches when you want them, and an unused label can be voided for a carrier-confirmed refund. Pair it with PackOS Checkout and every label carries the margin against what your customer paid for shipping. The account is free, always.
Detailed feature comparison
A side-by-side look at what each platform offers. A checkmark where a capability is built in, and a note where the answer depends on your own setup.
| Feature | PackOS | Pirate Ship |
|---|---|---|
| Discounted multi-carrier labelsBuy labels from USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL and Canada Post in one dashboard | Built inUSPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, Canada Post | Built inUSPS and UPS |
| Order import without writing codeShopify and WooCommerce order import, a CSV from any other platform, or a shipment typed by hand | Built inShopify, WooCommerce, CSV, or manual | Built inSeveral platforms and CSV; see Pirate Ship for the list |
| Batch label purchaseSelect your orders, pick rates, and print them all in one batch | Built in | See Pirate Ship for batch options |
| Void a label and see the refundVoid any unused label in one click from the dashboard | Built inVoid with carrier-confirmed refund | See Pirate Ship for refunds |
| Shipping margin per orderThe gap between what the customer paid and what the label cost | Built inAutomatic with both products | Depends on what your checkout collects |
| Teams, roles and warehousesInvite the people who actually pack and the people who actually pay, and save every ship-from address you dispatch out of | Built inIncluded | See Pirate Ship for account options |
Pirate Ship publishes what it supports, and its current postage rates, on its own site.
When Pirate Ship is the better choice
Pirate Ship is a label tool with a short, simple workflow. There are real situations where it is the right one to keep.
- You ship USPS and UPS and want a short workflowPirate Ship keeps the path from address to label short. If those two carriers cover what you send, it does the job it set out to do, and it keeps doing it without anything else to learn.
- Your account is one person at one addressPackOS Labels carries roles, more than one ship-from address and SSO because some shipping operations need that structure. If one person buys every label from one address, that structure is weight you would be carrying for nothing.
- You want to keep using a tool you already knowSwitching a shipping workflow costs attention. If Pirate Ship already fits the way your day runs, that is a good reason to stay — and PackOS Labels will still be free whenever you want to compare the two on your own shipments.
When PackOS is the better choice
PackOS Labels was built for anyone who buys labels — on Shopify, on WooCommerce, from a CSV, or one at a time by hand — and it records what each shipment made or lost while it does it.
- You want more carriers on the rate listRate shop discounted USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL Express, DHL eCommerce and Canada Post services without signing a carrier contract. Compare rates from every connected carrier side-by-side for every shipment. Every rate is shown before you buy, so you always see the exact price.
- You want to see your shipping marginWhen PackOS is present at both the checkout quote and the label purchase, it calculates the margin on that order for you. You don’t need to export data, run spreadsheets, or cross-reference two systems to know if shipping is making or losing money.
- Your account needs roles and more than one warehouseInvite the people who actually pack and the people who actually pay. Owner, Admin, Operations Manager, Warehouse and Viewer roles decide who can buy a label and who can see the money. Save every ship-from address you dispatch out of and pick the right one per shipment, instead of editing one address all day.
Switching
Moving from Pirate Ship
- Connect your Shopify or WooCommerce store, or import a CSV of your open orders.
- Your recipient addresses and item dimensions come across as columns in the CSV.
- Your wallet starts at zero; you pay only for the labels you buy, and there is no subscription to set up.
- Nothing to cancel on the PackOS side, and you can keep Pirate Ship alongside it while you compare the two.
The key differentiator
Where margin comes from
PackOS Checkout quotes the rate at your Shopify checkout using the real box, so the label side already knows what was collected for shipping. That is the number margin is measured against.
For merchants who use flat-rate or free shipping, margin visibility might not matter. But for merchants who pass carrier rates to customers at checkout and want to know whether shipping is a profit center or a cost center, this gap is worth weighing. A label tool on its own only ever sees the label side of the equation. Run PackOS Checkout and PackOS Labels together and PackOS sees both.
One order · Two numbers · One difference
Quoted at checkout
What the customer paid you to ship it
PackOS Checkout
Paid for the label
What the carrier charged you to move it
PackOS Labels
Margin
The difference, recorded on every order
Both products, on the same record
Run either product on its own. Run both and the same order carries both numbers.
FAQ
PackOS and Pirate Ship, answered
What does PackOS Labels cost?
Which carriers can I buy labels from?
Do I need a Shopify store to use PackOS Labels?
What is shipping margin and why do you track it?
Find out what shipping is really costing you.
PackOS Checkout quotes the real rate at your Shopify checkout. PackOS Labels buys discounted labels for any store and shows the margin on each one. Start with either.
- 14-day free trial on every Checkout plan
- Labels is free, always