USPS
Ground Advantage
2 to 5 days$11.40
all-in · no surprises
No monthly fee on Free, up to 50 a month
Pay for labels. Not for access.
A Stamps.com alternative with no monthly fee
Pay for labels. Not for access.
GoatLabels Free has no monthly subscription for up to 50 shipments a month: you fund a prepaid wallet and pay rate-shopped carrier prices per label. Past 50 a month, Pro is a flat $40 with no minimum term.
Four carriers, no monthly fee up to 50
USPS, UPS and FedEx rate-shopped on every domestic parcel, DHL on international lanes: live all-in prices, and nothing billed monthly on Free, up to 50 shipments a month.
DHL: international
Live quotes
One all-in price each.
Quote = debit
No later invoice.
Same via API
Free on every plan.
A prepaid wallet, not a monthly bill
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto — top up once, spend it label by label.
Prepaid
Spent only on labels.
No fee
Quiet months on Free cost $0.
Accepted voids credited
Back to the balance.
Side by side
How is GoatLabels different from Stamps.com?
Both print carrier labels from your desk. The interesting difference is not the printing: it is whether a month you ship nothing in still sends you a bill.
| GoatLabels | Stamps.com | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay before the first label | Nothing. Fund a prepaid wallet with whatever you like and buy the first label from it. | A monthly subscription billed whether you print that month or not. Current plan prices are in the dated facts below. |
| A month with no orders | On Free, nothing: the wallet balance just sits there until the next sale. On Pro, $40 a month until you cancel it; there is no minimum term. | The subscription still bills. Its pricing page offers upgrade, downgrade or cancel, with no pause listed. |
| Carriers on one quote | USPS, UPS and FedEx rate-shopped side by side, each as one all-in price; DHL on international lanes. | UPS, USPS, FedEx and DHL Express with a rate comparison tool, and international carriers from the Professional plan up. |
| Getting an order in | Store sync, the REST API, or just paste the DM or drop a screenshot — Billy drafts the label. | Store integrations and manual entry inside their software. |
| How labels are funded | Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH bank transfer, or crypto into one prepaid balance, spent label by label. | A prepaid postage balance, topped up by hand or by auto-fund, plus the subscription billed separately. |
| Voiding a label | After the carrier accepts the void, the all-in amount posts back to your prepaid wallet as spendable balance. | An electronic refund request per unused label; approved refunds return to the Stamps.com balance. |
Stamps.com is a trademark of its owner and is not affiliated with GoatLabels. Their plans, trial terms, and carrier list change — compare against their current pricing page before you decide.
Why do shippers leave the subscription?
The fee is the product you use least
A subscription makes sense when it buys capacity you use every month. For most small shippers the fee buys admission to software, and admission is exactly the thing a pay-per-label wallet makes free. On GoatLabels Free the only cost is the labels you print, up to 50 shipments a month.
Your volume is lumpy, your bill shouldn't be
A drop month and a dead month cost a subscriber the same fee. A prepaid wallet bends with the volume instead: top it up before the rush and print all week; on Free (up to 50 shipments a month) the quiet weeks that follow cost zero, and a rush month past 50 needs Pro ($40 a month, no minimum term), which you can cancel when volume drops.
Several carriers beat one default
Cutting the fee is half the saving; the other half is never defaulting to a single carrier. Every domestic parcel gets quoted against USPS, UPS and FedEx at once (DHL on international lanes), and the all-in number you pick is the exact amount that leaves the balance.
And when Stamps.com is the right choice
- You lean on NetStamps sheets or postage printed for mail rather than parcels — printing postage for envelopes is Stamps.com's original home turf.
- Your office workflow is built around their software for mail as well as parcels, and nobody wants to retrain it.
- You need a carrier or mail class GoatLabels doesn't quote: our carriers are USPS, UPS and FedEx on domestic parcels and DHL on international lanes, and that is the honest list.
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.
Switching from Stamps.com
The same label at the end. No subscription under it.
Nothing about the pipeline requires a fee on Free, up to 50 shipments a month. Orders arrive however they arrive — a store sync, an API call, a pasted DM, a screenshot — and Billy drafts the label: addresses, package details, service. Every domestic parcel is quoted against USPS, UPS and FedEx at once (DHL on international lanes), and the all-in price you pick is debited from a prepaid wallet you topped up with card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto. Print from your phone or a thermal printer. The month you ship nothing, nothing bills.
1
Any order shape in
Store sync, API, 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
Connectors, REST API, DMs, and screenshots — one queue, no desktop software to install.
2
Billy AI
Billy AI
The assistant a postage subscription never included.
- Reads a pasted order, a screenshot, or a spoken address
- Fills the addresses and the package details
- Rate-shops USPS, UPS and FedEx at the all-in price, DHL on international lanes
- Hands the drafted label back for you 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
No fee cleared first, no software licence — just the label price leaving the balance.
Where your orders actually come from.
Connectors for the storefronts, AI for everything else.
Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, eBay and Wix sync into To Ship and get tracking pushed back when you print. And the orders that never touch a storefront, a DM, a comment thread, a screenshot, go through Billy instead of through manual entry in desktop software.
Shopify
Etsy
WooCommerce
eBay
Wix
Everything the fee used to gate. Ungated.
Everything a postage subscription sold you.
Everything a postage subscription sold you.
Without the subscription.
Live rates, store connectors, an address checker, batch printing — the features that justified a monthly fee are simply included here. The recurring cost is gone; the label price is all that is left.
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
AI drafting for orders
that are not records
A DM, a comment thread, a voice note, a screenshot — Billy reads any of them and drafts the whole label, then validates the address before a cent is spent. Included unlimited on the Free plan.
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 monthly fee
on Free
Fund the wallet, pay per label, and ship nothing in a quiet month without paying for the quiet month. Free covers 50 shipments a month; past that, Pro is one flat monthly plan with unlimited shipments.
Shipment summary
UPS Ground
$12.49
Insurance
$0.75
Fuel surcharge
$0.32
Total
$13.56
USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL
in one account
Live all-in prices side by side on every parcel (USPS, UPS and FedEx domestic, DHL on international lanes), and the number you pick is the exact amount that leaves your balance. Carriers competing per parcel means no default to trust.
Compare rates
UPS
$12.48
FedEx
$13.22
DHL
$14.10
USPS
$11.79
Duties inside the quote where DDP applies
A REST API
postage software never had
REST and JSON, one Bearer header, idempotency keys so a retry cannot double-buy a label, and signed webhooks for tracking and label events. Unlimited calls on every plan, funded from the same wallet as the dashboard.
POST /v1/shipments
{
"to": { "name": "Maya" },
"from": { "name": "Alex" },
"service": "ups_ground",
"label_format": "pdf"
}
Webhook delivered
Label ready
CL-1038 · Brooklyn, NY
No desktop software to install
The whole workflow fits in your pocket.
No client to install and no desk to sit at. GoatLabels runs where your orders actually happen: paste the message, snap the screenshot, buy the cheapest carrier, and print, all from the phone already in your hand.
Paste the DM, snap the thread, or drop the screenshot — Billy pulls the name, the address, and the parcel out of it.
No install, no desktop client, no import mapping: 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.
Hold the mic at the packing table and say the address — Billy drafts it and reads the rate back.
Included on every plan
Talk to Billy, not to a desktop client.
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), and queues the label against your prepaid balance, then answers for it afterwards. No software to update, and no subscription on Free to keep it running. 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 · nothing to install and nothing to renew · 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. No subscription line on top on Free, a carrier re-weigh posted as its own line on that shipment, and an accepted void credits the wallet rather than 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
An API the fee never bought you.
Postage subscriptions sold desktop software; this is a platform. REST, JSON, one Bearer header, real idempotency keys so a retried request cannot double-buy a label, and signed webhooks for tracking and label events instead of polling. Unlimited calls on every plan — including Free.
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 without a fee at the front door
No fee to clear first.
Free covers 50 shipments a month with the API, the store connectors, and Billy all unlimited underneath it — the quoted label price is what you pay from a prepaid wallet. Pro is a flat monthly fee for unlimited shipments: the plan for when volume, not access, is what you are paying for. Neither one is a minimum you have to hit before a label prints.
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
Enough to run a small shop 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
The full REST API with unlimited calls and signed webhooks
Billy AI in the web app, unlimited — paste, screenshot, or speak
Store connectors included: Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, eBay and Wix
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 (plus DHL on international lanes) and shown 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
Who the missing fee matters most to
The lower your volume, the bigger the fee looms.
A recurring fee is a rounding error at a thousand labels a month and the whole cost story at ten. These are the sellers where dropping it changes the maths outright.
Seasonal and drop-driven sellers
TikTok Shop & live commerce
Volume that arrives in bursts fits a prepaid wallet better than a subscription. Pre-fund before a drop and print all night; on Free (up to 50 shipments a month) the quiet weeks after cost nothing.
4
carriers in one account
no monthly fee
bulk print
goatlabels.io/dashboard/shipments
Low-volume, every-week shippers
Etsy & independent creators
At a handful of parcels a week, a recurring fee can rival the postage itself. Pay-per-label means the cost of shipping is just the shipping.
One queue, no subscription
Order #1024 · pasted from a comment thread
Sellers living in the DMs
The orders desktop software never sees
got the dress! can you ship to Austin?
Label drafted · CL-1024
Devs automating the label step
REST and the UI, one balance
1
wallet behind the API and the dashboard
Real sellers, real words
Sellers who stopped paying for the months they didn't ship.
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
Stamps.com alternative FAQ
Updated
- Is there really no monthly fee on GoatLabels?
- None on Free. You fund a prepaid wallet (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH bank transfer, or crypto) and pay only the all-in label price when you print, and a month you ship nothing in bills you nothing. Free covers 50 shipments a month; past that, Pro is a flat $40 a month for unlimited shipments.
- How is that different from Stamps.com's pricing?
- Stamps.com charges a recurring subscription for access to its software, billed whether you print that month or not, with postage and add-ons charged on top; the plan prices we checked are in the dated facts on this page. GoatLabels Free charges nothing for access up to 50 shipments a month, and we make a small amount on each label; past 50 a month, Pro is a flat $40 a month for unlimited shipments.
- Which carriers can I use without a subscription?
- USPS, UPS and FedEx, all rate-shopped on every domestic parcel, and DHL on international lanes. Each quote is one all-in number, and that exact amount leaves your wallet balance when you buy, with no postage account to pre-load per carrier and no invoice arriving later.
- Will my postage cost more if I leave a subscription service?
- It depends on the parcel, so compare one. GoatLabels shows live, all-in label prices before you buy, the same on both plans, for USPS (up to 70 lb), UPS and FedEx on domestic parcels, and DHL on international lanes. High-volume shippers can ask about custom pricing, which we review account by account.
- What happens to money I put in the wallet?
- It sits as your prepaid balance until a label spends it. Void a label and, after the carrier accepts the void, the full all-in amount is credited back to the balance rather than drip-refunding through a card statement.
- Can I try GoatLabels while my Stamps.com account is still active?
- Yes, and it is the sensible way to switch. Free has no monthly fee for up to 50 shipments a month, so running both for a billing cycle costs you nothing extra: print a few real orders here, compare the all-in totals, then cancel the subscription once the numbers convince you.
- Does GoatLabels do anything Stamps.com doesn't?
- Billy, the built-in AI assistant, drafts a complete label from a pasted DM, an order screenshot, or a spoken address, so a message never has to be retyped into a form. There is also a full REST API with unlimited calls on every plan, funded from the same wallet as the dashboard.
Digging into the fee itself? Read what the monthly fee actually buys, or the step-by-step cancellation guide. Selling on Etsy? There is a version of this comparison for Etsy sellers, and one for small business shipping.
Test it against one real order before you decide.
See the real price first.
Drop the monthly fee.
Fund a wallet with card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, or crypto, paste in your next order, and compare the all-in USPS, UPS and FedEx rates (DHL on international lanes) against what the same parcel costs you today, subscription included.
No card required. No monthly fee on Free, up to 50 shipments a month.