Comparison
Shipyu vs AfterShip (2026)
AfterShip is a post-purchase platform: shipment tracking plus branded tracking pages, returns, notifications, and estimated-delivery features, sold as subscription tiers. Shipyu is a shipment tracking API: one POST creates a tracker, and HMAC-signed webhooks deliver every status change. They overlap on tracking and diverge almost everywhere else — this page is an honest account of where each one wins.
The short answer
Shipyu costs less per shipment than AfterShip at every volume AfterShip publishes a price for. AfterShip gates its tracking API and webhooks behind the Premium plan, which starts at $70/month for 500 shipments; Shipyu charges $0.020 per tracker with no platform fee, no seats, and no quota, so 500 trackers cost $10. At 1,000 shipments a month the figures are $118 against $20, and at 3,000 they are $359 against $60 — roughly six times. Their cheapest extra shipment is $0.08 on Essentials, four times Shipyu's $0.020, and Essentials cannot call the API at all. Choose AfterShip anyway if you want a full post-purchase suite — branded tracking pages, returns, and customer notifications — or if you need their 1,200+ carrier network against Shipyu's 100+, or if procurement requires their ISO 27001 certification. Choose Shipyu if you are building the tracking experience yourself and want a cheaper, published, usage-based data layer underneath it, with a free test mode that needs no card.
What each one costs
What you would pay each month
AfterShip gates its tracking API and webhooks behind the Premium plan, so Premium is the comparable tier. Essentials is shown too — it is cheaper, but it cannot call the API at all.
Shipyu
$20.00
$0.0200 per shipment
No platform fee, no seats, no quota. Test mode is free.
AfterShip Premium
$118.00
$0.1180 per shipment
Includes a 1,000-shipment quota; extras bill at $0.12.
At 1,000 shipments a month, AfterShip Premium costs 5.9× more than Shipyu — $98.00 more every month.
Cheaper than Premium, and still 3.0× Shipyu's price — but AfterShip's published feature table lists the tracking API and webhooks as Premium and above, so Essentials cannot be used as a tracking API at any volume.
$0.020
Shipyu, per tracker
$0.08
Essentials, per extra shipment
$0.12
Premium, per extra shipment
AfterShip figures are their published monthly prices, each shown on their pricing page as "starting at", read from their pricing calculator on . Only volumes their calculator publishes a price for are shown — nothing here is interpolated. AfterShip bills 18% less on annual billing, and their Premium plan publishes a higher API rate limit than Shipyu's (10 req/sec against our 100 requests/minute). Prices change — check their page before deciding, and tell us if anything here is out of date.
The same figures as a table — Shipyu against both AfterShip plans at every volume AfterShip publishes a price for:
| Shipments / month | Shipyu | AfterShip Essentials | AfterShip Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | $2.00 | $11.00 | $70.00 |
| 300 | $6.00 | $23.00 | $70.00 |
| 500 | $10.00 | $35.00 | $70.00 |
| 1,000 | $20.00 | $59.00 | $118.00 |
| 2,000 | $40.00 | $109.00 | $239.00 |
| 3,000 | $60.00 | $159.00 | $359.00 |
| 5,000 | $100.00 | $239.00 | $579.00 |
| Per extra shipment | $0.020 | $0.08 | $0.12 |
In AfterShip's own words
Quoted directly from their pricing page and plan comparison, so you can check the claims above against the source rather than take our summary of them.
“Tracking API & webhooks”
“Starting at $70/month — 500 shipments per month — $0.12 per extra shipment”
“Starting at $11/month — 100 shipments per month — $0.08 per extra shipment”
“10 req/sec”
Side by side
Every Shipyu claim below is implemented and verifiable in our codebase. Where we could not confirm AfterShip's behaviour from their published documentation, the row says so rather than guessing.
Carrier network
Edge: AfterShip- Shipyu
- 100+ carriers including USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL, normalized into one status model.
- AfterShip
- AfterShip publishes normalized tracking across 1,200+ carriers, with particularly deep regional and postal coverage.
If your parcels move through regional or postal carriers outside the major networks, check coverage before switching — this is AfterShip's clearest advantage.
What the API costs
Edge: Shipyu- Shipyu
- Usage-based: $0.020 per tracker, falling to $0.015 at volume across six brackets. No platform fee, no seat licences, no monthly quota.
- AfterShip
- AfterShip's tracking API and webhooks require the Premium plan, which starts at $70/month and includes 500 shipments. At 1,000 shipments a month Premium is $118 and at 3,000 it is $359; Shipyu is $20 and $60 at the same volumes.
Premium's smallest bundle is 500 shipments, so a team tracking 100 parcels a month still pays $70 — $0.70 per shipment against Shipyu's $0.020.
Which plan includes the API
Edge: Shipyu- Shipyu
- There is one product. Every account can call every documented endpoint, and a free test key is issued at signup.
- AfterShip
- AfterShip's published plan comparison lists "Tracking API & webhooks" as available on Premium and Enterprise, and not on Free or Essentials — so the cheaper plans cannot be used as a tracking API at any volume.
Cost of exceeding your plan
Edge: Shipyu- Shipyu
- There is no quota to exceed. Every tracker bills at its graduated bracket rate, and crossing a bracket never re-prices the trackers below it.
- AfterShip
- Shipments beyond the plan quota bill as overage: $0.08 per extra shipment on Essentials and $0.12 on Premium — four and six times Shipyu's $0.020 per tracker.
Worth modelling if your volume is seasonal: a quota sized for peak is idle spend in the quiet months, and a quota sized for the average bills overage at peak.
Published price ceiling
Edge: Shipyu- Shipyu
- The rate card runs to 1,000,000 trackers a month and is on the pricing page. At 25,000 trackers the bill is $500, computed from the same published brackets.
- AfterShip
- Above roughly 5,000 shipments a month both Essentials and Premium show "Contact sales" rather than a price, so budgeting past that point requires a sales conversation.
Free access for developers
Edge: Shipyu- Shipyu
- Test mode is free forever and needs no card. Deterministic test tracking numbers return realistic timelines, so an integration can be verified end to end before spending anything.
- AfterShip
- AfterShip has a Free plan, but its published feature table does not include the tracking API or webhooks on that plan, so the API itself cannot be evaluated without paying.
Webhook signing
Edge: Comparable- Shipyu
- Every delivery is HMAC-SHA256 signed as t=<timestamp>,v1=<signature>, so receivers can verify origin and reject replays. Secrets rotate from the console.
- AfterShip
- Also HMAC-SHA256 signed, sent as a base64 digest in an aftership-hmac-sha256 header and verified against the request body.
Both products sign. The schemes differ in encoding and in whether a timestamp is bound into the signature, but neither leaves you verifying unauthenticated payloads.
Retry schedule
Not verified- Shipyu
- 5 attempts on failure at 1 minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours, and 12 hours, each with ±20% jitter. The schedule is published, so you can design your receiver around it.
- AfterShip
- AfterShip retries failed deliveries. We could not retrieve their published schedule programmatically — see their webhook documentation for current behaviour.
Published rate limits
Edge: AfterShip- Shipyu
- 100 requests/minute and 1,000 requests/hour per client, with X-RateLimit-Limit, -Remaining and -Reset on every response.
- AfterShip
- AfterShip's plan comparison publishes an "API rate limit" of 10 requests/second on Premium — roughly 600 a minute — and a custom limit on Enterprise.
Their Premium limit is about six times Shipyu's 100 requests/minute. If you need sustained burst throughput rather than steady webhook-driven traffic, this is a real advantage and worth weighing against the price difference.
Security certification
Edge: AfterShip- Shipyu
- Encryption in transit and at rest, hashed API keys with timing-safe verification, TOTP two-factor, SSRF-validated webhook endpoints, and credential redaction in stored logs — all published at /security. No third-party audit certification.
- AfterShip
- AfterShip publishes ISO 27001 certification and GDPR compliance, and offers enterprise SSO and SLAs on its Enterprise plan.
If your procurement process requires a certified vendor, this is a genuine gap on our side and no amount of published detail substitutes for the audit.
Request logs
Not verified- Shipyu
- Full request and response bodies for 90 days, with credentials redacted before storage and role-scoped access.
- AfterShip
- Not verified against their documentation at the time of writing.
AI agent access
Edge: Shipyu- Shipyu
- Official MCP server at /api/mcp with seven tools, so Claude Code, Cursor, and other agents create and read trackers directly.
- AfterShip
- No official MCP server found in AfterShip's published documentation as of August 2026.
Machine-readable documentation
Edge: Shipyu- Shipyu
- OpenAPI 3.1 at /api/openapi with no auth required, plus /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt as plain text for agents and crawlers.
- AfterShip
- Public API reference with an interactive playground and a Postman workspace.
Both are documented well for humans. The difference is an unauthenticated spec endpoint an agent can fetch and act on without a browser.
Product scope
Edge: AfterShip- Shipyu
- Shipment tracking only. No branded pages, no returns, no notification builder — the API is the product.
- AfterShip
- A full post-purchase suite: tracking, branded tracking pages, returns, estimated delivery dates, email and SMS notifications, and storefront apps.
This cuts both ways, and which way depends entirely on whether you want to own the customer experience or buy it.
Which one should you choose?
Choose AfterShip if…
- You want branded tracking pages, returns, and customer notifications working this week rather than building them yourself.
- You ship through regional or postal carriers outside the major networks — AfterShip's 1,200+ carrier network is materially broader.
- You would rather install a storefront app than write an API integration.
- You need a long-established vendor with the compliance and procurement history that a larger company brings.
Choose Shipyu if…
- You are building the tracking experience yourself and want a clean data layer under it, not a UI you have to theme around.
- Your volume is uneven and you would rather not pay for a quota in quiet months or pay overage at peak.
- You want to evaluate the API properly — in code, against realistic data — before a card or a conversation is involved.
- Your team works through AI agents and you want shipment tracking available to them directly.
- You want the operational contract in writing: retry schedule, rate limits, and retention published so you can design against them.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shipyu a drop-in replacement for AfterShip?
Not in general. Shipyu replaces AfterShip's tracking API — creating trackers, normalizing carrier statuses, and delivering webhooks. It does not replace AfterShip's branded tracking pages, returns management, or notification builder. If you use those features, moving to Shipyu means building or sourcing them separately.
Does Shipyu support as many carriers as AfterShip?
No. Shipyu covers 100+ carriers, including USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL. AfterShip publishes support for 1,200+ carriers, with deeper regional and postal coverage. If your shipments move through carriers outside the major networks, confirm coverage before switching.
How does Shipyu's pricing compare to AfterShip's?
Shipyu is cheaper at every volume AfterShip publishes a price for. AfterShip's tracking API requires the Premium plan, starting at $70/month for 500 shipments, rising to $118 at 1,000, $239 at 2,000, $359 at 3,000, and $579 at 5,000. Shipyu charges $0.020 per tracker with no subscription, so the same volumes cost $10, $20, $40, $60, and $100. That is roughly six times cheaper across most of the range, and 35 times cheaper at 100 shipments a month, where Premium's 500-shipment minimum means you still pay $70.
How much does the AfterShip tracking API cost?
AfterShip's tracking API and webhooks require the Premium plan or above. Premium starts at $70 per month and includes 500 shipments, with extra shipments at $0.12 each. Published monthly prices rise to $118 at 1,000 shipments, $239 at 2,000, $359 at 3,000, and $579 at 5,000; above roughly 5,000 the plan shows "Contact sales" instead of a price. The cheaper Essentials plan starts at $11/month but its published feature list does not include API or webhook access. Figures read from AfterShip's own pricing calculator in August 2026 — check their page for current pricing.
Does AfterShip have a free tracking API tier?
No. AfterShip has a Free plan, but its published plan comparison lists "Tracking API & webhooks" as available only on Premium and Enterprise. The API cannot be evaluated on the Free or Essentials plans. Shipyu issues a free test key at signup that never expires and needs no card, so the whole integration — including webhook delivery and signature verification — can be verified before paying anything.
Is there a cheaper alternative to AfterShip for shipment tracking?
For the tracking API specifically, Shipyu is cheaper at every volume AfterShip publishes: $0.020 per tracker against a Premium subscription that starts at $70/month. The comparison is only fair for the API, though — AfterShip's plans also include branded tracking pages, email and SMS notifications, returns, and analytics, none of which Shipyu provides. If you need those, the right comparison is the whole suite, not the per-shipment rate.
What happens if I go over my shipment quota?
With Shipyu there is no quota to exceed — every tracker bills at its graduated bracket rate, and crossing a bracket never re-prices the trackers below it. AfterShip's plans include a monthly shipment quota and bill overage above it at $0.08 per extra shipment on Essentials and $0.12 on Premium, which is four to six times Shipyu's $0.020 per tracker.
Can I try Shipyu without a credit card?
Yes. Test mode is free forever and requires no payment method. Test keys are issued as soon as your email is verified, and deterministic test tracking numbers return realistic timelines, so you can verify the whole integration — including webhook delivery and signature verification — before going live.
Does Shipyu sign its webhooks?
Yes. Every delivery carries an HMAC-SHA256 signature in the form t=<timestamp>,v1=<signature>, binding the timestamp into the signature so receivers can verify origin and reject replays. Failed deliveries retry five times at 1 minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours, and 12 hours, each with ±20% jitter. AfterShip also signs its webhooks, using a base64 HMAC-SHA256 digest in a dedicated header.
Can AI agents use Shipyu?
Yes. Shipyu runs an official MCP server at /api/mcp with seven tools covering trackers, webhooks, and usage, so Claude Code, Cursor, and other MCP-capable agents can create and read trackers directly. Because test keys are free, an agent can verify an integration end to end without spending anything. We found no official MCP server published by AfterShip as of August 2026.
Sources and accuracy
AfterShip information on this page was compiled on . Every AfterShip price and plan detail above was read directly from their own pricing calculator and plan comparison on the date shown, at the monthly billing setting; AfterShip advertises 18% less on annual billing. Prices are shown on their page as "starting at", and only volumes their calculator actually publishes a price for appear here — nothing is interpolated or estimated. Carrier counts and webhook signature details come from their public documentation. Pricing changes: check the links below for current figures before deciding, and if anything here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.