After the comparisons of Australia Post and Stamps.com plugins, let us now compare USPS shipping plugins offered by both WooCommerce and ELEX.
United Stated Postel Service (USPS) is one of the largest shipping carriers in the United States. It is an independent agency of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States, including its insular areas and associated states. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.
There are a very few plugins that list in the best WooCommerce USPS Shipping plugins list. In this article, we will compare WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method, ELEX WooCommerce USPS Shipping Plugin with Print Label, and
ELEX Stamps.com Shipping Plugin with USPS Postage for WooCommerce.
We will compare these plugins based on some factors that are crucial for smooth WooCommerce shipment management, and also see the advantages of one over the other.
Factors for comparing the WooCommerce USPS Shipping Plugins
- Services
- Printing shipping labels
- Shipment tracking
- Parcel packaging methods
- Special/Extra services
- Price
Let’s discuss each factor in detail...
1. Services
For WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method and ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin, you need to signup for a USPS account to access real-time rates. For ELEX Stamps.com USPS Plugin, you would need a Stamps.com account.
At the time of writing this article, the following USPS Domestic and International services were available in all the three versions of WooCommerce USPS plugins.
Services | WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method | ELEX WooCommerce USPS Shipping Plugin | ELEX WooCommerce Stamps.com USPS Shipping Plugin |
First Class Mail | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Flat Rate | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Priority Mail | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Priority Mail Express | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Standard Post | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Media Mail | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Media Mail Parcel | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Library Mail | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Retail Ground (Standard Post) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Parcel Select Ground | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
USPS Parcel Post | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
USPS Parcel Select | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
USPS Critical Mail | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Priority Mail International | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Priority Mail Express International | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Priority Mail International Flat Rate | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Global Express Guaranteed (GXG) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
First-Class Mail International | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
International Postcards | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
First Class Package Service International | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
There are several sub-services that fall under the above services. These services are based on packages and the location of the destination address. You can check out all the available services for WooCommerce, ELEX USPS, and ELEX Stamps.com’s version for more details. Also, all three USPS plugins offer Flat Rate Boxes.
In addition to this, all three plugins offer price adjustment feature. The only difference here is that while the WooCommerce’s version allows you to only apply markup with percentage value or fixed amount value, the ELEX USPS and ELEX Stamps.com USPS plugins allow you apply markup as well as a discount, with percentage value or fixed amount value.
2. Printing shipping labels
The WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method does not offer label printing feature, by default. You need to use their WooCommerce Stamps.com API for shipping label generation. You can check the respective Stamps.com API for its capabilities or check our comparison article on Stamps.com.
Shipping document | WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method | ELEX WooCommerce USPS Shipping Plugin | ELEX WooCommerce Stamps.com USPS Shipping Plugin |
Domestic & International Labels | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Customs declaration | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Dispatch Note | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
SCAN Form | ❌ | ✅ (3152 & 5630) |
❌ |
Following screenshot shows a sample e-VS label generated using ELEX WooCommerce USPS Shipping Plugin.
Both ELEX USPS and ELEX Stamps.com USPS plugins offer customizations for shipping labels. You can select label size, format, default services for bulk shipment and so on. While the former uses e-VS postage, the latter comes with Stamps.com postage. The ELEX USPS plugin is certified for USPS eVS.
Read Label Generation section of ELEX USPS and ELEX Stamps.com USPS plugins to know the features in detail.
Apart from this, if you want to bulk generate Stamps.com shipping labels, you can use the Stamps.com Bulk Label Printing Add-On. For auto-generating and mailing labels, you can check out Stamps.com Auto-generate and Email Add-On.
3. Shipment tracking
Just like label generation, the shipment tracking feature is not available in WooCommerce’s version of USPS plugin.
The ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin generates a tracking ID for each package when the shipment is created. You can view the shipment tracking ID in the USPS shipment tracking meta-box of each order. The customers can view the tracking ID in their Account’s Orders page or in the email sent to them. The plugin allows you to disable the shipment tracking for customers or entirely for your store.
Whereas, the ELEX Stamps.com USPS Shipping Plugin works the same in terms of tracking shipments. The difference here is that you cannot disable the shipment tracking facility. The tracking IDs will be generated for all packages when the shipment is created.
Below screenshot shows shipment tracking IDs shown to customers, generated using ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin.
When a user clicks on the tracking, they will be redirected to the USPS website to view the current status of the package.
4. Parcel packaging methods
The WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method, ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin, and the ELEX Stamps.com USPS Shipping Plugin offer three parcel packaging methods.
They are –
- Individual Packing
- Pack into boxes with weight and dimensions
- Order Total Weight
What’s the difference?
In the WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method and ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin, when you select “Pack into boxes with weight and dimensions” option, you need to manually specify the box sizes, as shown in the screenshot below.
Also, the ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin goes a step ahead to handle unpacked items. You can choose to get the quote for the unpacked items by itself, use the fallback rate, choose to not return any quotes, or ignore the item.
Whereas, in the Pack into boxes with weights and dimensions method, the ELEX Stamps.com USPS Shipping Plugin offers pre-defined boxes with a selection of packing algorithm. You can choose the Volume-based or Stack First Algorithm for packing.
5. Special/Extra services
Apart from the general services returned from USPS, these plugins offer some special services as well.
Let’s look at them…
The WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method offers some special/extra services like:
- Flat Rates
- API rates
- Fallback rate
- Media Mail services.
The ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin offers the following:
- Media Mail
- Click-N-Ship Rates
- Standard API Services
- Option to choose Commercial or Retail rates
- Flat Rates
- Large Flat Rate Box
- Fallback rate
- USPS Tracking
- Insurance
- Signature Confirmation
- Signature Confirmation with Insurance
- Signature Requested
- Certified Mail
- Certified Mail RRE
- Signature Waived
- 10:30 AM Delivery
- Customs package handling services
Whereas the ELEX Stamps.com Shipping Plugin offers following special/extra services:
- Insurance
- Media Mail
- Flat Rates
- Fallback rate
- Option to prioritize Flat Rates
- ITN for international shipping
6. Price
Let’s look at one of the most important deciding that a store owner looks for.
Both WooCommerce and ELEX offer plugins on a subscription model. There are single-site, five-sites, and 25-sites licenses available.
The WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method comes at a cost of $79 for a single-site license. Whereas, the ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin and ELEX Stamps.com USPS Shipping Plugin come at $69 each. Based on the comparison we have seen, WooCommerce’s version seems expensive compared to ELEX. The ELEX’s plugins comparatively have more features at an affordable price.
The five-sites and 25-sites licenses cost the same at $99 and $199 respectively.
Conclusion
The WooCommerce USPS Shipping Method allows you to only access USPS real-time rates and set up box packing methods. For label generation and shipment tracking, you have to depend on an additional plugin. The plugin itself is priced at $79 (for single-site) with fewer features. If you decide to buy the WooCommerce Stamps.com API for label generation and tracking, the cost would go up, as the Stamps.com API is also priced at $79 (for single-site).
Instead, you could choose a smarter, functional, and a more economical solution with ELEX’s plugins. Whether you choose ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin or ELEX Stamps.com USPS Shipping Plugin, each plugin comes at a cost of $69, which is more affordable. Also the fact, the ELEX’s version has more features with label generation, shipment tracking, and so on, makes it a smarter choice. You can check reviews for ELEX USPS Shipping Plugin and ELEX Stamps.com USPS Shipping Plugin and hear what our satisfied customers have to say.
To explore more details about the ELEX USPS shipping plugin, go check out ELEX WooCommerce USPS Shipping Plugin with Print Label. For Stamps.com plugin, check out ELEX Stamps.com Shipping Plugin with USPS Postage for WooCommerce.
You can also check out other WooCommerce and WordPress plugins in ELEX.