ShipStation is shipping software for online sellers. It pulls in orders from wherever you sell, prints labels in batches, and sends customers their tracking.
It was founded in 2011 and bought by Stamps.com in 2014. Since June 2026 it has been part of ShipStation Global, formed when its parent company merged with WWEX Group. More than 130,000 companies use it, by ShipStation’s count.
The UK version connects to more than 200 carriers, with Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, DHL, Parcelforce and InPost among them. On the selling side it covers Amazon, eBay, Etsy, OnBuy, Not on the High Street and TikTok Shop, along with stores on Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento.
One screen for every carrier
Automation rules apply the same shipping decisions to every matching order, so nobody has to pick a service by hand each time. Depending on the plan, customers also get a branded tracking page and a returns portal.
On Trustpilot, ShipStation UK rates 4.1 from 54 reviews. Reviewers mention how easy it is to use, and how much time the automation rules save.
Shopify orders in, tracking out
With a Shopify store connected, orders flow into ShipStation to be shipped, and the tracking flows back. ShipStation sends the selling channel a shipment notification, tracking number included, as soon as a label is created, and keeps the order’s status in step on the store. Marketplace orders from Amazon or TikTok Shop come back the same way, through their own channel connections.
Because the notice goes out with the label, the customer can have a tracking number before the parcel has left the building. For a parcel sent on a label bought somewhere else, the V2 API can record a fulfillment with the carrier and tracking number, and ShipStation tells the customer and the order source it has shipped without printing anything.
When a Shopify order changes after import
ShipStation prints from its own copy of each order, made when the order comes in. If a customer changes their address or swaps an item in Shopify after that, the change has to reach ShipStation’s copy before the label is printed.
Through the V1 API, an integration can send an order again under the same order key, and ShipStation updates the existing order rather than adding a second one. The whole order goes each time, because partial updates aren’t supported. Only orders still open in ShipStation can be changed this way. Once an order is shipped or canceled, it stays as it is.
UK carriers: ShipStation’s rates or your own
For Royal Mail and Evri, ShipStation sells labels on its own carrier accounts. Royal Mail’s Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 come with no volume requirement, and domestic Evri labels are open to UK-based ShipStation accounts.
Sellers with a carrier contract bring it with them. Royal Mail and DPD UK accounts link in minutes. Evri Business accounts connect as well, while Evri Personal accounts can’t. The seller’s own rates then apply inside the same screens and shipping rules.
ShipStation API V2 and plan access
API access comes with the Standard and Premium plans in the UK. The current version, V2, grew out of ShipEngine, a sister shipping API that was renamed ShipStation API in February 2025. It allows up to 200 requests a minute and authenticates with a single API key.
V2 can send webhooks when a label is created, a shipment is created, a tracking event comes in, or orders are imported from a sales channel, among others. Accounts on the ShipStation API also get sandbox keys for testing.
Its release notes show new features most months since October 2024, including purchase orders in March 2026 and products in August 2026.
The older V1 API still runs, with its own webhooks for new and shipped orders. ShipStation has marked it for retirement at a future date, so new work starts on V2.
From label to cost
ShipStation already sits between the selling channels and the carriers, so its webhooks are a good place to hang other work. A new label can update the warehouse and the order’s cost, a tracking event can flag a parcel stuck in transit, and an order changed in Shopify can be sent back in before anyone prints it.
Shipping shows up twice on an order, once as what the customer paid and again weeks later on the carrier’s invoice, and the gap between the two is worth tracking per parcel. For a shipping job of your own, this is how to size it.