Pitney Bowes Alternative: Print Labels From a Phone
Pitney Bowes SendPro pairs software with a leased postage meter. I'd Ship That prints the same USPS and UPS labels from a phone.
Pitney Bowes vs I'd Ship That, Feature by Feature#
| Feature | Pitney Bowes | I'd Ship That |
|---|---|---|
| USPS Support | Full USPS, but package rates depend on your SendPro tier | Full USPS at commercial pricing below retail on every label |
| Full Price Shown Before You Buy | Quotes vary by meter model, lease term, and service tier | Every fee shown up front, no quote required |
| UPS Support | Available on SendPro shipping plans | Full UPS integration, rate-shopped against USPS |
| Free to Start | SendPro requires a paid plan to print labels | Free account, pay only for postage, Pro is optional |
| No Hardware Lease | C-series meters lease on 36-63 month terms with early-termination fees | $0 hardware, print from a phone, tablet, or any printer |
| No Meter Rental, Ink, or Reset Fees | Meter rental, ink cartridges $100+, and refill/reset charges add up | No consumables, thermal or plain paper both work |
| Mobile App (iOS & Android) | Desktop and dedicated-hardware oriented | Native iOS and Android apps, 4.8 rating |
| Real-Time Tracking | Tracking available | Real-time tracking across USPS and UPS |
| Package Insurance | Available as an add-on | Add coverage in $100 increments at checkout |
| Same-Day Setup | Meter shipment, install, and account provisioning can take days | Sign up and print your first label in about 30 seconds |
| Bulk Import & Batch Printing | Batch tools sit on higher SendPro tiers | The Workbench: bulk import, rate-shop, and batch-print hundreds of labels in one pass |
| Automatic Cheapest-Rate Selection | You pick the service manually | Ship Intelligence picks the cheapest valid rate and shows savings analytics |
What You Pay Pitney Bowes For, and What You Pay the Carrier For#
Here is the part a SendPro quote tends to bury. A postage meter is two costs, not one. First, the SendPro software subscription, commonly in the $15-$90 per month range depending on tier. Second, on the C-series, the leased meter itself: a monthly lease payment that often runs $25-$100+ per month on a 36-to-63-month term, plus a separate meter rental line, ink cartridges that run north of $100 each, and reset or refill fees. Add those up and you are frequently looking at $500 to $2,000+ per year in fixed hardware and software cost before you print a single label. On a phone, that number is $0. The second cost worth checking is postage itself. A physical postage meter was designed for letter mail, so before you compare anything, confirm whether your metered parcel labels print at commercial pricing or at Post Office retail, because the two differ and the gap compounds across volume. Work a real example at 2026 rates: a 1 lb USPS Ground Advantage parcel runs roughly $9.55-$12.90 at Post Office retail depending on zone versus about $7.61-$10.67 at commercial pricing, so commercial lands around $2 under retail on a single 1 lb parcel and the gap widens as weight and zone climb. A 5 lb parcel runs from about $9.70 at the nearest zone up to $19.19 at the farthest commercially, so distance drives the number. I'd Ship That prints below USPS retail with the full price shown before you buy, and rate-shops USPS against UPS on every order. Multiply that off-retail gap across a month of shipments, then add back the lease you are no longer paying, and the total-cost picture is a strong one for a small or mid-size shipper. Pitney Bowes still makes sense for a large mailroom running certified mail, presort, and high-volume letter metering. For sellers who mostly print parcels, the meter is a fixed cost solving a problem you do not have.
What Moving Off Pitney Bowes Actually Changes#
Keep costs low during migration#
Run both platforms in parallel and move only lanes where the new stack clearly saves money.
- Migrate one channel at a time.
- Benchmark real orders before full cutover.
- Hold rollback criteria for the first two weeks.
Accelerate migration with staged rollout#
Move low-risk shipments first, then shift high-volume flows once presets are validated.
- Create new label presets before launch.
- Train packers with real order scenarios.
- Track fulfillment speed daily during transition.
Protect fulfillment continuity#
Prioritize operational stability over aggressive cutover timelines.
- Run fallback playbooks for label or carrier outages.
- Review claims and late-delivery impact weekly.
- Keep legacy access until KPIs stabilize.
Moving Off Pitney Bowes: Key Takeaways#
- A postage meter is legacy letter-mail hardware; parcels only need a printed label, which needs no meter, ink, or reset fee.
- SendPro is two costs: a monthly software subscription plus, on the C-series, a multi-year meter lease with rental, ink, and reset charges on top, often $500-$2,000+ a year before postage.
- Check whether your metered parcels print at commercial or Post Office retail pricing; commercial runs about $2 under retail on a 1 lb Ground Advantage package in 2026 and the gap widens with weight and zone.
- Total cost is lease plus postage: dropping the meter removes the fixed cost, and discounted labels cut the per-package cost on top.
- The 2026 increases (USPS +5.4%, UPS +5.9%) compound on every label you print at retail, so the further you are from commercial pricing, the more waiting costs each month.
- Migration risk is low: move parcel labels to the app now and let the meter lease expire on its own term.
How to Price a Postage Meter Against a Phone#
Comparing Pitney Bowes to a label app is not a feature-grid exercise, it is an accounting one. Two costs deserve separate attention: the recurring lease and subscription, and the postage level your parcels actually print at, which may be commercial or may be closer to Post Office retail depending on your setup. Separate those two before you decide.
Start with the fixed cost. Add your SendPro subscription, the monthly meter lease, the meter rental line, and amortized ink and reset fees into one annual number. Then take that number and divide by how many parcels you actually shipped last year. That is the fixed overhead riding on every single package, and it is a cost that simply does not exist on a free account you print from a phone.
- Total your last 12 months of SendPro invoices: subscription, lease, meter rental, ink, and reset or refill fees combined.
- Pull one real 1 lb and one real 5 lb parcel from your history and compare the rate you paid to 2026 commercial pricing (roughly $7.61-$10.67 for a 1 lb Ground Advantage parcel depending on zone).
- Divide your annual meter fixed cost by your parcel count to get the overhead each package carries before postage.
- Run the same package mix through Ship Intelligence to see the cheapest valid USPS-or-UPS rate per order, then compare all-in against the meter total.
- Confirm you can see the full label price up front, with no per-quote variability by tier or meter model.
Leaving SendPro Without Breaking the Meter Lease Early#
You do not have to fight the meter contract to start saving. The clean move is to stop sending new parcel volume to it while it runs out its term, and route those labels to the app immediately. Fixed lease payments continue either way, so every parcel you print off-meter at a discounted rate is pure savings from day one.
Keep it concrete during the transition. Pick your busiest parcel channel, print a real day of its orders in I'd Ship That, and confirm the barcodes scan and tracking lands before you move the next channel. If your meter still handles letter mail or certified mail, leave it on that lane and let it retire naturally.
- Route all new parcel labels to the app now; leave letter and certified mail on the meter until the lease expires.
- Print one busy channel's full day of orders end to end, confirm scans and tracking, then move the next channel.
- Set a rollback line, for example more than 2 label errors in a day pauses that channel until the preset is fixed.
- Once volume is steady, load orders into The Workbench and batch-print the day in one pass instead of one label at a time.
- Diary the lease end date so you cancel the meter the moment the term closes rather than auto-renewing.
Common Mistakes When Switching From Pitney Bowes#
| Mistake | Why It Hurts | Better Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Assuming you need a postage meter to ship parcels at all | You pay a multi-year lease and consumables for hardware that only benefits letter mail. | Print USPS and UPS parcel labels from a phone or standard printer; keep the meter only if you still run letter or certified mail. |
| Comparing postage only and leaving the lease out of the math | SendPro looks cheaper per label than it is because the meter lease, rental, ink, and reset fees are invisible at the order level. | Total the annual fixed cost, divide by parcel count, and add that overhead back onto every metered label before comparing. |
| Assuming your metered parcels already print at commercial rates | If they are actually printing near Post Office retail, you overpay about $2 on a 1 lb parcel and more on heavier packages without realizing it. | Pull a recent metered label, compare it to commercial pricing, and print at commercial USPS pricing below retail while rate-shopping USPS against UPS so the cheapest valid rate wins. |
| Waiting for the lease to end before doing anything | Every parcel you keep printing on-meter overpays while the fixed lease runs regardless. | Route new parcel volume to the app immediately; the lease cost is sunk, so off-meter discounted labels save from day one. |
| Rate-shopping every order by hand | At higher volume, manual service selection eats hours a week and still misses the cheapest valid option on busy days. | Let Ship Intelligence pick the cheapest valid rate automatically and review the savings analytics weekly. |
Migration Checklist from Pitney Bowes#
- Total your last 12 months of Pitney Bowes cost: SendPro subscription, meter lease, rental, ink, and reset fees.
- Divide that annual fixed cost by your parcel count to see the overhead on each package before postage.
- Compare one real 1 lb and one real 5 lb shipment against 2026 commercial USPS pricing.
- Open a free I'd Ship That account and confirm you see the full label price before you buy.
- Route new parcel labels to the app now and leave letter or certified mail on the meter until the lease ends.
- For batch days, load orders into The Workbench and let Ship Intelligence pick the cheapest valid rate.
- Diary the lease end date and cancel the meter at term rather than auto-renewing.
Real Migration Scenarios from Pitney Bowes#
A small seller can migrate quickly by moving one marketplace first and validating label flow end to end.
- Pilot with low-risk SKUs.
- Validate return workflow before scaling.
- Measure cost per label before and after.
Larger teams should sequence migration by channel and establish SOP checkpoints between phases.
- Move lowest-volume channel first.
- Standardize packing presets across team members.
- Track exception rate after each phase.
During peak periods, keep both systems available so fulfillment isn’t blocked by tooling changes.
- Delay final cutover until after demand spikes.
- Set daily KPI alerts for on-time dispatch.
- Use fallback labels for urgent orders.
Switching From Pitney Bowes: Questions People Ask#
I'd Ship That is a Pitney Bowes SendPro alternative for shippers who mostly print parcel labels: USPS and UPS rate-shopped on every order, native iOS and Android apps, and no meter, ink, or reset charges. Pitney Bowes still fits a large mailroom running certified mail, presort, and high-volume letter metering, which a label app does not replace.
Correct. A postage meter prints indicia for letter mail and stamps. For parcels, all you need is a shipping label, which is just a barcode and address on paper. I'd Ship That generates USPS and UPS labels you print on a thermal printer or a standard inkjet on plain paper. There is no meter to lease, no ink cartridge, and no reset fee. The meter is legacy hardware for a mail stream most online sellers do not run.
It depends on tier and meter model, but the trap is that it is two bills, not one. The SendPro software subscription commonly runs $15-$90 per month, and a leased C-series meter adds a monthly lease payment often in the $25-$100+ range on a multi-year term, plus meter rental, ink over $100 a cartridge, and reset or refill fees. That is frequently $500-$2,000+ a year in fixed cost before postage. On a free I'd Ship That account, that fixed cost is $0 and you pay only for the labels you print.
Worth checking, because it depends on how your meter and plan are configured. A physical postage meter was built for letter mail, and for parcels commercial and retail pricing still differ: a 1 lb Ground Advantage parcel runs roughly $9.55-$12.90 at Post Office retail depending on zone versus about $7.61-$10.67 at commercial pricing in 2026, so commercial sits around $2 under retail on a 1 lb parcel and the gap grows with weight and distance. Pull a recent metered parcel label and compare what you paid to those numbers. I'd Ship That prints below USPS retail with the full price shown before you buy, so you can see exactly where you land.
Meter leases are typically 36-to-63-month agreements with early-termination fees, so check your specific contract before you cancel. You do not have to wait to start, though. Open a free I'd Ship That account, move your parcel labels over now, and let the lease run out its term while you stop feeding it new volume. Many sellers keep the meter for any residual letter mail and route all package shipping to the app.
Yes, without the mailroom hardware. The Workbench (a Pro feature) lets you bulk import orders, rate-shop them together, and batch-print hundreds of labels in one pass. Ship Intelligence then picks the cheapest valid rate on each order automatically and shows savings analytics. That covers the batch workflow most sellers actually use SendPro's higher tiers for, minus the leased meter and the tier upgrade.
Switch from Pitney Bowes Today#
Free to start. Import your addresses and print USPS and UPS labels from the web app or a phone.
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