ShipHero sits in an unusual spot. Its own product pages today are overwhelmingly about software — order management, inventory management, returns, picking and packing, live carrier rate shopping, pick-to-light, labour management dashboards, a 3PL client portal. It is, in the main, a warehouse management system.
So brands looking for a “ShipHero alternative” are usually asking one of two very different questions:
“I want different warehouse software.” Then you are comparing software, and most of this list will not help you.
“I do not actually want to run a warehouse at all.” That is the more common one. You looked at ShipHero, realised the answer involved you leasing space, hiring pickers and owning the operation, and decided you would rather hand the physical work to someone else.
This guide is for the second question. If you want out of warehouse operations entirely, here is who does the work for you.
We publish this as Shipo, so yes, we have a horse in this race. But we’ve tried to be fair — each option below has a genuine “best for” so you can find the right fit, even if it isn’t us.
Quick comparison
| Provider | Why you’d move here from ShipHero | What you give up | Pricing style |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shipo | You want the physical work handled, and your orders lean Northeast | Control of the operation, and a multi-region footprint | Transparent, predictable |
| ShipBob | You want the work handled and a dashboard that still shows you everything | One accountable building for every unit | Quote-based |
| ShipMonk | Marketplace channels, not software, are what you are actually behind on | Direct control of how orders are picked | Quote-based |
| Red Stag Fulfillment | Your units are heavy enough that damage is the real cost line | Fit for light, fast-moving parcel goods | Quote-based |
| Shipfusion | You want the software and the building to come from the same company | The ability to run your own logic on your own floor | Quote-based |
| ShipCalm | You want someone to design the operation you were about to build | A bill that is easy to read line by line | Quote-based |
| Falcon Fulfillment | You want fewer layers between you and your inventory | Scale, and the redundancy that comes with it | Quote-based |
1. Shipo — if you decided you do not want to run a warehouse
Best for: DTC and Amazon brands on the East Coast who want predictable costs and a person who answers.
ShipHero’s model hands you the software and leaves the operation with you. Ours is the reverse: we operate a single 55,000 sq ft warehouse in Wilmington, Delaware, and the only thing you run is your business.
One building means one inventory pool, so DTC units and Amazon FBA prep units live on the same shelves. That is the part brands underestimate when they price out running their own space — not the rent, the reconciliation.
Inventory held in the warehouse is not subject to Delaware state sales tax, and Wilmington’s position on the I-95 corridor puts the dense Northeast within 1–2 days by ground.
We are listed in the Amazon Service Provider Network under FBA Prep & Packaging — a directory listing, not an endorsement — and the facility is an FDA-registered food facility, which covers supplements and ingestibles many prep centers will not touch. FDA registration is not FDA approval or endorsement.
The honest trade-off: we are a service provider, not a software vendor, and we are one building, not a network. If what you wanted was a WMS to run your own floor, we are not it, and no amount of conversation will change that. Say so early and we will not waste your time.
2. ShipBob — if you want the work handled but still want a dashboard
Best for: brands that want outsourced fulfillment with self-serve visibility.
ShipBob runs a large multi-node network and positions around a self-serve dashboard on top of it.
This is the closest thing on the list to a compromise between the two questions in the intro. You do not operate anything, but you still get a screen to look at. Be honest with yourself about which half you actually wanted — brands who liked ShipHero for the control, rather than for the reporting, tend to be disappointed by any outsourced option, including ours.
Pricing is typically quote-based.
3. ShipMonk — if marketplaces, not software, are what you are behind on
Best for: brands selling across many channels at once.
ShipMonk describes itself as a leading 3PL for D2C ecommerce brands and advertises 99.9% accuracy. Its published services include marketplace fulfillment covering FBA, Prime and crowdfunding.
If your bottleneck turned out to be channel coverage rather than warehouse software, that list is the argument. Treat the accuracy figure as what it is — a vendor’s own published claim — and ask every provider on your shortlist, us included, to state theirs and say how it is measured.
Pricing is typically quote-based.
4. Red Stag Fulfillment — if damage is your real cost line
Best for: products where damage and shrinkage cost more than picking does.
Red Stag states it has shipped over a billion pounds of goods, and it offers Amazon FBA prep and Seller Fulfilled Prime alongside its core work.
Weight is the one variable on this page that overrules everything else, including the software question. No WMS you could have licensed would have stopped a heavy unit being crushed by a process designed for poly mailers. If your goods are heavy, start here and work backwards.
Pricing is custom quote.
5. Shipfusion — if you want the building and the software from one company
Best for: brands that want the operator and the system to be the same vendor.
Shipfusion emphasises owned warehouses and real-time inventory visibility, and it publishes a pricing page rather than gating everything behind a call.
For someone leaving a WMS this is the nearest analogue: the software is still central, but the company running it also runs the floor. The published price is genuinely useful for a first sanity check. What you give up is the thing you were originally shopping for — the ability to run your own logic on your own floor.
Pricing is published in outline and quoted in detail.
6. ShipCalm — if you want the operation designed for you
Best for: brands that want help designing the operation, not just running it.
ShipCalm describes itself as “more than a 3PL” and lists beauty and cosmetics fulfillment and Amazon FBA prep among its services.
There is a specific case for this one. If you were evaluating ShipHero because you were about to build an operation from scratch, the missing piece may have been the design, not the software. Buying the design is a legitimate answer. Just note that a bundled bill is harder to unpick a year later than an itemised one.
Pricing is quote-based.
7. Falcon Fulfillment — if you want fewer layers
Best for: growing brands that want fewer layers between them and the people touching their inventory.
Falcon operates at a smaller scale than the national networks.
Smaller usually means the person who answers is the person who can fix it, which is worth real money. It is not a software answer and it does not pretend to be. Check depth in your specific category before you commit.
Pricing is generally quote-based.
How to choose
Settle software versus service first, and settle it honestly. If you own or lease space and employ staff, you need a WMS and this is the wrong list. If you do not want to be in the warehouse business, you need a 3PL. Brands lose months comparing the two categories against each other as though they were substitutes.
Price the operation you were about to build. Software is the visible cost. Rent, racking, pickers, cover for the week someone is ill, and the cost of a peak you guessed wrong about are the invisible ones. Do that arithmetic before you conclude that in-house is cheaper.
Ask what happens when it goes wrong at 4pm. With your own operation the answer is you. With a provider it is a named person, or it is a ticket queue. That difference does not appear on any rate card and it is the thing you will remember.
Count your inventory pools. If Amazon prep sits in one place and DTC in another, you are financing the same stock twice and reconciling two sets of numbers every month. Fixing that usually beats shaving cents off a pick fee.
The honest bottom line
If you genuinely want to run your own warehouse and the missing piece is software, stay in the software conversation. ShipHero and its direct competitors are the right shortlist and nothing on this page replaces them.
If the real conclusion was “I do not want to run a warehouse,” then you are shopping for a 3PL and the question becomes shape. Orders in many regions and volume to match? Go distributed. Northeast-weighted, with Amazon and DTC stock you would rather hold in one pool? That is the problem we built Shipo to solve.
Either way, get two or three real quotes modelled on your own numbers before you sign anything.
Want a transparent quote?
We’ll model your real per-order cost so you can compare apples to apples — no obligation.
Competitor details reflect general, publicly reported information and industry norms as of 2026 and may change. Verify current pricing and services directly with each provider.