WooCommerce Shipping Plugins That Actually Work

Eighty-seven. That's how many shipping-related plugins come up when you search the WooCommerce marketplace right now. Some are fantastic. Some haven't been updated since 2022. A few will break your checkout so badly you'll get support tickets at 2 AM.

I've tested and deployed more than two dozen of these over the years. Here's what actually works in 2026 — and what's not worth your time.

How WooCommerce Shipping Works Out of the Box

Before we talk plugins, let's be honest about WooCommerce's default shipping. It's... bare bones. You get:

• Flat rate shipping
• Free shipping (conditional on cart total or coupon)
• Local pickup

That's the entire feature set. No calculated carrier rates, no delivery date estimates, no table rate logic. For a basic store with a handful of products shipping domestically, it works. For anything beyond that, you need plugins.

The good news is that the plugin ecosystem is massive. The bad news is that "massive" also means "overwhelming and inconsistent."

The Plugin Categories You Should Know

Let me break the landscape into categories so you know what you're shopping for:

Most stores need something from 2-3 of these categories. Let's go through the best in each.

Table Rate Shipping: The Plugin Most Stores Actually Need

If you only install one shipping plugin, make it a table rate plugin. It lets you build rate tables like: "If the cart weighs 0-2 lbs and ships to Zone A, charge $5.99."

WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping (by WooCommerce)

Price: $99/year Rating: 8/10

This is the official one from Woo. It's well-maintained, gets regular updates, and integrates tightly with the core plugin. You can create rates based on weight, item count, price, and shipping class.

The setup UI is a spreadsheet-style table. Each row is a rule. It's intuitive once you understand that rows are evaluated top-to-bottom and the first match wins (unless you set it to calculate all matching rows).

Where it falls short: no per-product rules. If you need "Product A always ships for $3 regardless of what else is in the cart," this plugin can't do it natively. You'd need shipping classes as a workaround, which gets clunky.

Table Rate Shipping by Flexible Shipping

Price: Free (basic), $99/year (PRO) Rating: 9/10

This is my go-to recommendation. The free version handles weight-based and price-based tables, which covers 70% of use cases. The PRO version adds per-product rules, shipping classes, and conditional logic.

What I like: the UI is cleaner than the official plugin. You set up "shipping methods" and within each method, define rules. It feels more logical.

The free version limitation that matters: you can only create one table rate method per shipping zone. PRO lets you create unlimited methods, which you need if you want to offer both "Standard" and "Economy" with different rate tables.

My Honest Take

If you're on a budget, start with Flexible Shipping free. If you outgrow it or need the advanced rules, upgrade to PRO. The official WooCommerce plugin isn't bad — it's just not as refined for the same price.

Live Carrier Rates: Getting Real-Time Quotes

Customers see calculated rates from USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL directly in your checkout. The plugin talks to the carrier API and returns actual shipping costs.

WooCommerce Shipping (Official USPS/DHL)

Price: Free (built into WooCommerce) Rating: 7/10

WooCommerce includes a free integration with USPS and DHL through its WooCommerce Shipping feature. You get discounted rates (similar to Shopify Shipping discounts) and can print labels directly from the orders page.

The catch: it only supports USPS and DHL. No UPS, no FedEx. And the label printing is basic — no batch printing, no packing slips, limited customization.

For a small store shipping mostly via USPS, it's a solid free option.

WooCommerce UPS Shipping Plugin

Price: $79/year (various vendors offer this) Rating: 7/10

Multiple developers offer UPS integration. The most reliable ones are from PluginHive and Jejedev. They connect to the UPS API, show real-time UPS rates at checkout, and some include label generation.

Setup requires a UPS developer account and API credentials. It's not hard but it's more steps than USPS. You'll need to request production access after testing, which can take a few days.

ShipStation for WooCommerce

Price: Starts at $9.99/month Rating: 9/10

ShipStation isn't just a plugin — it's a full shipping platform. The WooCommerce plugin syncs your orders to ShipStation, where you rate-shop across all major carriers, buy labels at discounted rates, print packing slips, and manage tracking.

If you ship more than 50 orders a month, ShipStation is worth every penny. The rate comparison alone saves most stores $2-4 per package. Over 50 packages, that's $100-200/month — the subscription pays for itself immediately.

The downside: it's another platform to learn and manage. And the real-time rate display at checkout requires their "Rates at Checkout" add-on, which costs extra.

Shippo for WooCommerce

Price: Free (pay-per-label) or $10/month Rating: 8/10

Shippo takes a different approach — no monthly fee on their basic plan. You pay per label (starting at 5 cents). Their WooCommerce plugin shows multi-carrier rates at checkout and handles label creation.

For stores doing fewer than 200 labels/month, the per-label model is cheaper than ShipStation. Above that, the economics flip.

What I particularly like: Shippo's rate accuracy. The quotes shown at checkout are very close to what you actually pay for the label, which means fewer surprises.

Tracking Plugins: Because "Where's My Order?" Is Your #1 Support Ticket

AST (Advanced Shipment Tracking)

Price: Free (basic), $129/year (PRO) Rating: 9/10

This is the tracking plugin for WooCommerce. Period. The free version lets you add tracking numbers to orders, auto-detect the carrier, and send tracking emails to customers.

PRO adds a tracking page on your site (so customers check there instead of emailing you), integration with PayPal tracking requirements, and auto-import of tracking from shipping platforms.

The tracking page feature alone makes PRO worth it. Instead of customers going to USPS.com or FedEx.com, they stay on your site. That's good for brand experience and reduces support load.

TrackShip

Price: Free to $8.99/month Rating: 7/10

TrackShip auto-tracks all your shipments and sends proactive notifications at each status change — shipped, in transit, out for delivery, delivered. It works alongside AST.

The value proposition: instead of customers checking tracking manually, you push updates to them. It's a nice experience but the setup can be fiddly, and the free tier is limited to 50 shipments/month.

Conditional Shipping: Show the Right Options to the Right Customers

Conditional Shipping and Payments

Price: $79/year (by Jejedev) Rating: 8/10

This plugin lets you show or hide shipping methods (and payment methods) based on conditions: cart contents, customer role, billing/shipping address, cart total, etc.

Real use case: you sell both regular products and hazardous materials. HazMat items can only ship via Ground, not Air. This plugin hides air shipping options when a HazMat item is in the cart.

Another common one: hiding Cash on Delivery for international orders while keeping it for domestic.

WooCommerce Advanced Free Shipping

Price: Free Rating: 7/10

If all you need is smarter free shipping rules (not just "free over $50"), this free plugin does it. Free shipping for specific product categories, for logged-in customers only, for certain shipping zones, or combinations.

It's lightweight and does one thing well.

International Shipping: Duties, Taxes, and Landed Cost

Zonos (formerly iglobal)

Price: Transaction-based fee Rating: 8/10

If you ship internationally and want to offer Delivered Duty Paid (DDP), Zonos calculates duties and taxes at checkout so the customer knows the total upfront. No surprise customs bills.

The integration is solid. The cost is a percentage of the order total, which adds up on high-value items. But it's either that or angry customers who get hit with unexpected duty charges.

WooCommerce Advanced Shipping Packages

For splitting orders into multiple packages (common with international shipping where you have weight limits per parcel), look at the "Advanced Shipping Packages" plugin. It lets you define rules for how items get grouped into packages before rates are calculated.

My Recommended Plugin Stack

Here's what I'd install for different store sizes:

Just Starting Out (< 30 orders/month)

Growing Store (30-200 orders/month)

Established Store (200+ orders/month)

Before You Install Anything

A few things that'll save you headaches:

Check the "Last Updated" date. If a plugin hasn't been updated in 6+ months, be cautious. WooCommerce updates frequently, and stale plugins break things.

Read the 1-star reviews. Not because the plugin is bad, but because 1-star reviews reveal specific issues. "Doesn't work with [other plugin]" or "Broke my checkout" are things you want to know before installing.

Test on a staging site. Seriously. Shipping plugins modify your checkout flow, which is the most important page on your entire site. Don't experiment on production.

Check PHP version requirements. Some newer plugins require PHP 8.1+. If your hosting is on an older version, the plugin will silently fail or throw fatal errors.

The WooCommerce shipping ecosystem is mature enough in 2026 that there's a good plugin for almost every scenario. You just have to know which scenario is yours. Start with the free stack, grow into paid options as your volume demands it, and test everything before it touches a real customer.