USPS
Ground Advantage
2 to 5 days$11.40
all-in · no surprises
Built for hobby-to-side-business volume.
Your fee-free shipping desk.
A Stamps.com alternative for Etsy sellers
Your fee-free shipping desk.
For an Etsy shop shipping up to 50 orders a month, GoatLabels has no monthly fee on Free where Stamps.com bills a subscription, plus USPS, UPS and FedEx rate-shopped on every domestic parcel with DHL on international lanes, and Billy AI drafting labels from order details. Past 50 a month, Pro is $40 a month.
Four carriers for odd-shaped parcels
Ceramics, tubes, bulky knits: USPS, UPS and FedEx quote every domestic parcel, DHL international ones, and the weird shapes are where several quotes beat one.
DHL: international
Live quotes
One all-in price each.
Quote = debit
No later invoice.
Etsy sync
Tracking pushed back.
Slow months cost nothing
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto into a prepaid wallet — spent only when a label prints.
Prepaid
Spent label by label.
No fee
January bills zero.
Accepted voids credited
Back to the balance.
Side by side, at Etsy volume
How does GoatLabels compare with Stamps.com for an Etsy shop?
The comparison changes shape at hobby volume: features matter less, and the fixed fee matters enormously. Here is where the two differ for a shop shipping dozens of parcels a month, not thousands.
| GoatLabels | Stamps.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost in a slow Etsy month | Zero. The wallet balance waits; nothing bills on the calendar. | The subscription bills whether five orders came in or none. Current plan prices are in the dated facts below. |
| Cost per label at hobby volume | Just the rate-shopped all-in label price. Nothing amortises on top of it. | The fee divided by your label count rides on every parcel, and the entry plan also caps how many shipping labels you can print a month. |
| Getting Etsy orders in | The Etsy connector syncs orders into To Ship and pushes tracking back when you print. | Etsy import is supported inside their software. |
| The convention-stand sale | Paste the buyer's message or screenshot it — Billy drafts the label with no listing behind it. | Manual order entry in their web app or PC software. |
| Carriers competing per parcel | USPS, UPS and FedEx, each quoting one all-in price on every domestic order; DHL on international lanes. | UPS, USPS, FedEx and DHL Express with a rate comparison tool, and international carriers from the Professional plan up. |
| Funding | Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto into one prepaid balance, spent label by label. | Subscription billing plus postage purchases. |
Stamps.com is a trademark of its owner and is not affiliated with GoatLabels. Etsy is a trademark of Etsy, Inc. Plans and carrier coverage change — compare against each company's current pages before you decide.
Why do handmade shops drop the subscription?
At Etsy volume, the fee IS the cost
Ship eight parcels a month and a postage subscription can add more per label than the difference between any two carriers. The single biggest saving available at hobby volume is not a cleverer rate — it is deleting the recurring fee entirely.
Handmade parcels are odd parcels
Ceramics, prints in tubes, bulky-but-light knits — exactly the shapes where a single carrier's rate table punishes you. USPS, UPS and FedEx quoting every domestic parcel means the mug and the tote bag each get their own cheapest path.
Your shop is bigger than your shop
Etsy is the storefront, but the craft-fair sale, the Instagram commission, and the repeat buyer who just DMs you are all real orders too. Billy drafts labels from a pasted message or a screenshot, so the off-Etsy half of your sales lives in the same queue.
And when Stamps.com is the right choice
- You mostly mail flats and envelopes — printed sheet postage for mail is Stamps.com's original strength, and parcels are our whole game.
- Your volume is high and steady enough that the subscription amortises to pennies per label and the desktop workflow is muscle memory.
- You need a mail class or carrier outside USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL — that is the honest list of what GoatLabels rate-shops.
What Stamps.com's own pages say, checked 2026-10-23
- Stamps.com lists Basic at $14.99 a month for individuals and small offices, with 1 user and up to 25 stamps and 10 shipping labels a month; Professional at $29.99 a month for busy offices, with 3 users and unlimited stamps and labels; and Multi-Location from $49.99 a month for organizations with multiple locations, with unlimited stamps and labels, 10 users per location and 2 locations included. (Stamps.com pricing)
- Stamps.com does not charge the subscription during its 30-day trial; after it, the subscription bills monthly from the original sign-up date unless you cancel first, and postage, carrier services and add-ons such as insurance are charged on top of it. (Stamps.com pricing)
- Postage comes out of a prepaid account balance, topped up by at least $10 at a time or by an auto-fund setting that buys more when the balance falls to a level you choose. (Stamps.com Help: Fund Your Account Balance)
- Stamps.com says it supports UPS, USPS, FedEx and DHL Express, with international carriers listed from the Professional plan up. (Stamps.com pricing)
- Its SERA REST API signs in with OAuth 2.0, accepts an Idempotency-Key header on POST calls, publishes an OpenAPI specification and offers a staging environment with no service or transaction fees. (Stamps.com/Endicia REST API (SERA) reference)
- An unused label with tracking is refunded through an electronic request, due within 28 days of printing for USPS and 30 days for UPS and DHL, and approved refunds return to the Stamps.com account balance within 21 days. (Stamps.com Help: Request a Label Refund)
- Refund Assist, a setting you switch on, files refund requests for USPS labels not scanned within 21 days of printing and credits part of the approved refund to the account balance. (Stamps.com Help: Refund Assist)
- You can cancel by phone with the Customer Care Center, Monday to Friday 6am to 6pm Pacific Time, or online under My Account, Manage Account, Account Settings, Change/Cancel Plan, then the close-account link. (Stamps.com: How to Cancel Your Account)
- Stamps.com bills at the end of each billing cycle, so closing the account after the trial can still bring one more service fee plus any applicable taxes. (Stamps.com: How to Cancel Your Account)
- After you close the account, the remaining postage balance is refunded within 4 to 8 weeks except promotional postage, and the subscription runs to the end of the current cycle with no refund for unused time. (Stamps.com Help: Close Your Account)
Checked on from Stamps.com's own pages. Plans, fees and policies change, so confirm on the vendor's current page before you decide. Stamps.com is a trademark of its owner and is not affiliated with GoatLabels.
An Etsy order's short trip
From sold to shipped between kiln loads.
The Etsy connector syncs each sale into the To Ship queue and pushes tracking back to the buyer when you print. The commission from Instagram and the craft-fair sale take the other door: paste the message or drop the screenshot, and Billy drafts the label and validates the address. Every domestic parcel gets quoted against USPS, UPS and FedEx (DHL on international lanes), and the all-in price debits a prepaid wallet funded by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto, never a subscription.
1
Any order shape in
Etsy sync, DM, or screenshot
maya_boutique
Hey! 2x hoodies (M) 1x tee (L) 😅 Ship to: Maya R. Austin, TX 78701
Shopify
Synced into To Ship
Etsy
Synced into To Ship
DM screenshot
- Order
- #1847
- Customer
- Jordan Lee
- Items
- 1x Hoodie (L)
- Address
- Brooklyn, NY
Drop the screenshot or paste the DM
Etsy syncs automatically; the fair sale and the DM commission get pasted in — one queue for all of it.
2
Billy AI
Billy AI
The studio assistant your fee never included.
- Reads a pasted message, a screenshot, or a spoken address
- Fills the addresses and the package details
- Validates the address before a cent is spent
- Rate-shops USPS, UPS and FedEx (DHL on international lanes) and hands back a draft to confirm
Drafted. Checked. Yours to confirm.
3
Clean label out
Bought from the wallet
Paid from your prepaid balance
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto
$12.47
Label purchased
USPS Priority Mail — all-in rate
$12.47
Tracking goes back to the Etsy buyer automatically. On Free, no monthly fee joins the ledger.
Etsy first. Everything else too.
A connector for the shop, AI for the fair table.
Etsy syncs into To Ship and gets tracking pushed back when you print — and so do Shopify, WooCommerce, eBay and Wix if the side business grows sideways. The sales that never touch a storefront, from the market stall to the DM commission, go through Billy with nothing to connect.
Shopify
Etsy
WooCommerce
eBay
Wix
Sized for a shop of one.
Everything a handmade shop ships with.
Everything a handmade shop ships with.
Nothing a side business shouldn't pay for.
No seat fees, no software licence, no monthly fee on Free, up to 50 shipments a month. The five features below are the ones that decide what an Etsy parcel actually costs and how long it takes to leave the studio.
One prepaid wallet,
five ways to fund it
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH bank transfer, and crypto all top up the same balance, and every method buys identical rates, carriers, and features. Void a shipment and, after the carrier accepts the void, the credit lands back in the wallet.
Wallet balance
$1,247.36
USD
AI
Billy, for the orders
with no listing
A commission in the DMs, a sale at the fair table, a repeat buyer who just messages you — Billy reads a pasted message or a screenshot into a drafted, address-validated label. Included unlimited on Free.
Billy
LIVE
Where's the package to Maya?
It's in transit via UPS. Expected Friday, Aug 7.
1Z8923A6B05G4123456
In transit
Austin, TX → Dallas, TX
Ask Billy anything...
No fee riding on
every parcel
At hobby volume a subscription becomes a per-label surcharge you can see with simple division. On Free (up to 50 shipments a month) the label price is the entire price, and a slow month bills nothing at all.
Shipment summary
UPS Ground
$12.49
Insurance
$0.75
Fuel surcharge
$0.32
Total
$13.56
Four carriers for
handmade shapes
USPS, UPS and FedEx quote every domestic parcel side by side; DHL joins on international lanes. Odd-shaped and bulky-but-light packages — the handmade specialty — are exactly where the winning carrier changes parcel by parcel, and where a single default quietly overcharges.
Compare rates
UPS
$12.48
FedEx
$13.22
DHL
$14.10
USPS
$11.79
Duties inside the quote where DDP applies
An API waiting,
if the shop grows
If the side business becomes the business, the REST API is already there: JSON, one Bearer header, idempotency keys, signed webhooks, unlimited calls on every plan. Nothing to migrate to later.
POST /v1/shipments
{
"to": { "name": "Maya" },
"from": { "name": "Alex" },
"service": "ups_ground",
"label_format": "pdf"
}
Webhook delivered
Label ready
CL-1038 · Brooklyn, NY
The studio has no desk for desktop software
Ship from the workbench.
Etsy sellers pack at the kitchen table, the studio bench, the fair booth — not at a desk with a postage meter. The queue, the quotes, and the buy button all fit on the phone next to the tape gun.
Paste the DM, snap the thread, or drop the screenshot — Billy pulls the name, the address, and the parcel out of it.
No install and no desktop client: the browser is the whole product.
USPS, UPS and FedEx come back as all-in prices on one screen, DHL on international lanes.
Buy from the prepaid balance and one-tap print to a share sheet or a thermal printer over Wi-Fi.
Hands covered in glaze? Hold the mic and say the address — Billy drafts it and reads the rate back.
Included on every plan
Tell Billy the order, keep your hands free.
Hold the mic, say who the parcel is going to, and Billy looks up the buyer, rate-shops USPS, UPS and FedEx (DHL on international lanes) on the box in your hands, and queues the label against your prepaid balance. It remembers repeat buyers and saved box sizes — useful when half your sales are the same mug to different cities. This is the real product, not a render.
goatlabels.io/dashboard/shipments — Billy
Listening
"Where's Maya's package?"
Out for delivery
CL-1039 · Austin, TX · by 6 PM
Plain English in — names, addresses, weights, carriers, services · remembers repeat buyers and saved boxes · reads the all-in rate back before a cent leaves the wallet · phone, browser, or Telegram on Pro.
All-in quotes
The quote is the debit.
USPS, UPS and FedEx on the same domestic parcel, each an all-in number that is the exact amount leaving your prepaid balance, which matters when the margin on a hand-thrown mug is measured in single dollars. No adjustment invoice the day after, and an accepted void credits the wallet, not a card statement three weeks out.
CA → NY
2.6 lbs
12×8×4 in
Cheapest
UPS
Ground
1 to 5 days$9.85
all-in · no surprises
FedEx
Ground
1 to 5 days$11.20
all-in · no surprises
No carrier invoice the day after
Accepted void → credit back to the wallet you funded
Multi-currency display
Public API v1
Room to grow into, not a wall to hit.
Most Etsy shops will never call an API — and that is fine, because it costs nothing to ignore. But when the side business grows a website of its own, the same wallet that buys your Etsy labels answers REST calls: JSON, one Bearer header, idempotency keys, signed webhooks, unlimited calls on every plan.
Create, rate-shop, and buy in three calls
Signed webhooks for tracking and label events instead of polling
Real idempotency keys — a retried request never buys two labels
OpenAPI 3.1 spec, no SDK lock-in, unlimited calls on every plan
Read the API docs
Get an API key
$0 on every plan
curl https://api.goatlabels.io/api/v1/shipments
201 Created · 187ms
POST /api/v1/shipments
Authorization: Bearer sk_live_…
Idempotency-Key: ord_8421
{
"to": { "name": "Joyce", "city": "Berlin", "country": "DE" },
"parcel": { "weight": 2.6, "weight_unit": "lb" },
"service": "fedex_intl_priority"
}
Pricing sized for a side business
Free covers most Etsy shops whole.
Fifty shipments a month on Free is more than most handmade shops send, and the connectors, the API, and Billy are all unlimited underneath it — the quoted label price is what you pay from a prepaid wallet. Pro exists for the shops that outgrow that, with unlimited shipments. Free bills nothing for a month spent glazing instead of shipping, and Pro has no minimum term, so you can cancel it before a quiet month.
Pro
Most popular
$40
/ month
Unlimited shipments — no monthly cap
Unlimited address validation
Billy AI on Telegram 
— draft a label without opening the dashboard
— draft a label without opening the dashboard
API access still free and unlimited
Rate by plan
illustrative
Free
Pro
Pro: one flat monthly plan, unlimited shipments
Free
$0 / forever
A real shipping desk for a shop of one, with no subscription under it.
50 shipments a month, no monthly fee to print
USPS, UPS and FedEx on every domestic parcel; DHL on international lanes
Etsy sync with tracking pushed back to the buyer
Billy AI in the web app, unlimited — paste, screenshot, or speak
REST API with unlimited calls; fund by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto
Billy is not a paid tier
The assistant that reads a DM, a screenshot, or a voice note into a drafted label runs unlimited in the web app on Free. Pro adds Billy on Telegram.
Web, every plan
Telegram, Pro
Telegram, Pro
API free on every plan
GET /api/v1/shipments
200 OK · plan: free
Unlimited calls on Free — still unlimited on Pro.
Bring the invoice you pay today
High-volume shippers can ask about custom pricing, which we review account by account. Compare it against what you pay on
Stamps.comShippoPirate Ship
No contracts
No monthly fee to print
Free to sign up
Label prices are quoted live from USPS, UPS and FedEx on domestic parcels and DHL on international lanes as one all-in number — the same number that leaves your wallet. Stamps.com's plans move, so compare against their current pricing page rather than a figure on ours. Full pricing details
The shapes of a handmade business
One shop, four kinds of orders.
An Etsy storefront is rarely the whole story. These are the four places a handmade shop's parcels actually come from — and all four land in the same queue here.
The Etsy storefront
Synced, tracked, done
Orders sync into To Ship, every parcel gets carrier quotes side by side, and tracking goes back to the buyer the moment you print. The storefront half of the shop runs itself.
4
carriers in one account
tracking pushed back
no monthly fee
goatlabels.io/dashboard/shipments
The seasonal rush
Holiday markets & drops
November triples and February disappears — the classic handmade curve. A prepaid wallet bends with it: fund the rush and print all week; on Free (up to 50 shipments a month) the quiet months cost zero, and a November past 50 needs Pro ($40 a month, no minimum term), which you can cancel in February.
No fee in the quiet months
Order #1024 · the label price is the whole cost
Commissions in the DMs
The orders with no listing
could you make one in blue? ship to Austin?
Label drafted · CL-1024
The occasional overseas buyer
Duties inside the same number
DDP
duties prepaid on DDP services, no surprise bill at the buyer's door
Real sellers, real words
Shops that ship without a subscription.
A video took off and I had 80 TikTok Shop orders by morning. I printed every label from my phone on the bus to the post office.
Early customer · TikTok
TikTok Shop seller
TikTok Shop
I run my Etsy shop from the kitchen. The AI reads the order, picks the carrier, the label prints. That's the whole workflow now.
Early customer · Etsy
Etsy maker
Etsy
The API is what every shipping API pretends to be. Idempotency that actually works.
Sasha R.
Staff engineer, marketplace
Etsy sellers' Stamps.com questions
Updated
- Why is a no-fee platform better for an Etsy shop specifically?
- Because Etsy volume is usually low and uneven, and a flat monthly fee is at its worst under exactly those conditions: divided across a handful of labels it becomes a meaningful per-parcel cost, and in a slow month it bills against zero labels. GoatLabels charges only the rate-shopped label price, so cost tracks sales.
- Does GoatLabels connect to my Etsy shop?
- Yes. The Etsy connector syncs orders into the To Ship queue and pushes tracking back to the buyer when you print. Orders from outside Etsy — a fair, a DM, a commission — can be pasted or screenshotted into Billy and land in the same queue.
- How does it compare with Etsy's own labels?
- Etsy's built-in labels are convenient for the platform's default carriers. GoatLabels quotes USPS, UPS and FedEx against every domestic parcel (DHL on international lanes) and shows one all-in price per carrier, which matters most on the odd-shaped, bulky-but-light packages handmade goods tend to be.
- What does GoatLabels cost an Etsy seller?
- Nothing recurring. Fund a prepaid wallet with card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto and pay the all-in label price per parcel. Free covers 50 shipments a month — more than most Etsy shops ship — with Billy and the connectors included.
- Do I get live rates without a subscription?
- Yes. Live, all-in label prices are quoted on both plans, including Free, across USPS, UPS and FedEx (DHL on international lanes), so you can compare carriers on the shapes handmade sellers ship before you buy.
- What about the orders that don't come through Etsy?
- Paste the message or drop a screenshot and Billy drafts the label — name, address, parcel — and validates the address before you buy. A market-stall sale and an Etsy order end up as the same kind of label in the same queue.
- Can I switch mid-month without losing anything?
- Yes. GoatLabels Free has no monthly fee for up to 50 shipments a month, so trying it while a Stamps.com billing cycle runs out costs nothing extra. Ship a few real orders, compare the totals, and cancel the subscription once the numbers have convinced you; our Stamps.com cancellation guide covers that step.
More on shipping an Etsy shop: shipping labels for Etsy covers the connector in depth. Weighing the fee itself? Read what the monthly fee actually buys, the cancellation guide, or the general no-monthly-fee alternative page.
Try it on the next parcel that sells.
Keep the craft.
Drop the subscription.
Connect your Etsy shop or paste the next DM commission, fund a wallet with card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto, and buy the cheapest all-in rate; on Free, nothing bills in the months the kiln is busier than the mailbox.
No card required. No monthly fee on Free, up to 50 shipments a month.