Stamps.Com Review & Other Postage Printing Options
Stamps.com Review & Other Postage Printing Options
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Our thoughts on Stamps.com and Endicia.com along with other postage printing options for small ecommerce businesses.
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• Business: Helpful Information • Business: Review • Business: Small Business • Business: Tips & Tricks
Are you a small business owner looking to print postage when shipping your goods? Are you considering Stamps.com or Endicia.com for your postage printing needs? Or maybe you're just trying to find another option for printing postage? Either way, this article is our review about Stamps.com along with some alternative options.

Stamps.com Review


We've used Stamps.com on and off for many, many years now and have a bit of a love / hate relationship with them. On one hand, they provide a good postage solution for printing USPS postage which is how we ship most of our packages. At times I like using them and then I usually get fed up and cancel. Years go by and I try again and get fed up when I realized they haven't improved. So here are my thoughts and experiences.

Stamps.com Pros
  • Their software lets us easily print 4" x 6" shipping labels on a Dymo LabelWriter 4XL easily, at least when things work as they should.

  • There is a slight discount on some postage like Priority Mail. For example, a small flat rate box bought at USPS.com will cost you $7.20 while it's only $7.05 on Stamps.com.

  • You can print First Class stamps and postage labels, along with other classes of mail. USPS.com only lets you print Priority Mail postage.

Stamps.com Cons
  • Their support is not to my liking. You can email them and a day or two later you might get an answer to your question. Or you might now. In my case, those emails lead to a "please call us for help" reply. There is nothing worse than a tech company that can't provide tech support via email. More on this later.

  • You have to prepay for postage and are essentially storing these prepaid funds in an account until you later "buy" the postage you need (when you need it). Essentially, it's another "account" to manage and track with your business.

  • I like that the software can be installed as that adds speed (in theory) but it's cloud based (online only) so behind the scenes it's just as slow as a website.

  • The Stamps.com software feels like it was last updated 20 years ago. I remember when Stamps.com was new and the software today looks like it did back then. It's in serious need of a graphical update. Feels like the entire show is run by a guy in his basement.

  • The software doesn't give you much detail when things change or go wrong. It might give cryptic, 2 or 3 word messages but no real explanations when a package changes its delivery date or postage. Want details? You'll have to call each time for support as they won't help with this stuff via email.

  • There is a monthly fee of $15.99 even if you don't print any postage in a month.

  • They only want you to print a label once. Unfortunately, printer jams happen and while there is a way to print the postage a second time it's a pain. After that you'll have to put in for a refund and start over. This was supposed to reduce fraud which made sense decades ago I'm sure. But today, even sites like Etsy and the actual USPS.com site will load the label as a PDF that I can print as many times as needed.

  • It only works with USPS postage. You can't print UPS or FedEx labels here.

  • When you're ready to cancel Stamps.com you have to call them. UPDATE: It looks like you can now cancel from the software itself. Years and years of people complaining and they finally listened?

What About Endicia.com?


If you're not familiar with Endicia.com then all you really need to know is that this company was once a competitor to Stamps.com. Today, Endicia is owned by Stamps.com so it's all the same company.

In my case I was hoping to leave Stamps.com and move to Endicia.com. I contacted Endicia to make sure they offered support via email. Two days later I got a reply telling me that some things they can answer via email while others require a phone call. Hmm, two days to get a cryptic reply like that?

Then I realize that their email support tickets were formatted exactly like the Stamps.com support tickets. A little digging around and I learned that Stamps bought Endicia years ago. What's even more odd is that I mentioned my dislike of Stamps to one of the people in the "President's Office" via email prior to this. I explained how I was looking to move to Endicia and they never mentioned it was the same company. To me, this just felt dishonest. So leaving Stamps for Endicia isn't the solution.

Alternatives To Stamps.com & Endica.com


So what can you do if you ship packages via USPS? First off, make sure that USPS is still the best solution for your business! UPS and FedEx offer competitive pricing and often more reliable deliveries than USPS. They both offer easy ways to buy and print postage from their own sites as well.

But if USPS is your best option, as it often is for us, consider these alternatives to Stamps.com and Endicia.com. All offer USPS postage printing and all (except USPS.com) offer printing from other package delivery services.

Etsy / eBay
If you're selling on Etsy or eBay then just use the shipping label options they provide. These work well and are very easy to use. Etsy even offers great options to format the labels to a 4x6 size for label printers. They also provide UPS and FedEx options.

Amazon
If you sell your products on Amazon then you can use the merchant tools they offer when you get an order from their website. These will let you easily print labels for USPS, FedEx, or UPS as needed. The downside here is that formatting these to fit on a 4x6 label requires some extra work as they want to print on 8.5x11 paper or labels.

Another option for Amazon sellers is to use the Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) services. FBA is where you send your products to Amazon and they warehouse them for you and ship them to the customer when an order comes in. You can completely wash your hands of storage and shipping with this option.

USPS.com
Going right to the source can avoid monthly fees completely. Printing postage here is easy but they format the labels to fit on half of a 8.5x11 size piece of paper. You can save it to a PDF and resize for a 4x6 printer but it does add an extra step. The other issue here is that you can only print Priority Mail from USPS.com. Any First Class or other ground options aren't available online. You also won't get the discount Priority Mail rates here so expect to pay $7.20 for a small flat rate compared to $7.05 of the discounted places like Stamps.com, Etsy, etc. It's actually amazing the USPS is so behind the times here but easy to see why they aren't in the best financial shape when you understand how backwards they are.

ShippingEasy
A true competitor to Stamps.com / Endicia.com is ShippingEasy.com which gives you the added bonus of also printing postage for UPS, FedEx, and DHL Global. If you ship 50 or fewer packages per month there is no monthly fee to using ShippingEasy. If you do more than that then expect to pay $29 and up depending on volume. In addition to the "free under 50 packages per month" option they offer they also have a free 30 day trial for their other plans so this is a no brainer to try.

ShipStation
ShipStation is another option that provides multiple shipping options through USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL. Prices start at $9 per month while a free 30 day trial. They also integrate into many 3rd party shopping sites like Etsy, Amazon, Shopify, and so on.

How To Leave Stamps.com


The bottom line if you're looking to get away from Stamps.com and Endicia.com (which is owned by Stamps.com) is to cancel your account by calling 1-888-434-0055 Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time or trying to cancel online in the My Account section of the software.

Then you'll need to try one of the options listed above. For eBay, Amazon, and Etsy sellers, using their postage options is probably best. If you ship Priority Mail then try using USPS.com. If those aren't enough options try FedEx.com or UPS.com directly. Finally, if you need an all in one solution then ShippingEasy.com might be worth a try.

Note that these are my own opinions and none of the links in the article are affiliate links. Meaning, I get no payments or money of any kind no matter what shipping options you choose from this article.