Cin7 vs Pirate Ship

Cin7 is a cloud inventory and order management platform for product businesses that sell across several channels. The company started in New Zealand and in 2021 acquired DEAR Systems, whose product became Cin7 Core; the original platform continues as Cin7 Omni for larger, more complex operations. Both keep stock, orders, purchasing and fulfilment in sync across webshops, marketplaces, wholesale buyers and physical stores.

Core covers multi-warehouse stock, purchasing and supplier management, light manufacturing with bills of materials and assembly, a B2B wholesale portal, point of sale and integrations with Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce and accounting tools such as Xero and QuickBooks. Omni adds deeper EDI, 3PL and retail features for higher volume and more custom processes. Pricing is subscription based with tiers that scale by users, sales channels and order volume, and implementation and onboarding services are often recommended.

Cin7 fits growing brands that have outgrown spreadsheets or the inventory features of a single store platform, especially those mixing B2C and B2B. It is expensive for small single-channel shops, needs real setup effort and has a dense interface. Katana is stronger for manufacturing-centric businesses, Linnworks for marketplace-heavy sellers, Zoho Inventory and inFlow are cheaper for smaller catalogues, and NetSuite suits companies that want a full ERP.

Pirate Ship is free shipping software for US-based sellers that provides access to discounted USPS and UPS rates without a subscription, markup or minimum volume. The company earns its revenue from carrier partnerships rather than from users, so small businesses pay only the postage itself, often at the commercial rates normally reserved for high-volume shippers.

Sellers can create single labels in a few clicks or import orders from Shopify, Etsy, eBay, WooCommerce, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Amazon and other platforms, as well as from spreadsheets, and print labels in batches for whole order lists. The rate comparison shows every USPS and UPS service side by side, including cubic pricing for small heavy parcels, and international shipments get the required customs forms generated automatically. Tracking updates and customizable email notifications go to customers, saved package presets speed up repeat shipments, and the reporting shows postage spend over time.

Pirate Ship is the default recommendation for Etsy sellers, small Shopify stores, eBay resellers, crafters and anyone shipping occasionally from the United States. It is not a full fulfillment or warehouse system: there is no inventory management, the carrier list is limited mainly to USPS and UPS, and businesses outside the US cannot use it. ShipStation and Shippo support more carriers, automation rules and multi-user workflows for growing operations, while Easyship is better for sellers focused on cross-border shipping with duties and taxes shown at checkout.