Most 3PL comparisons go wrong at the same step: the buyer lines up headline per-order rates, picks the lowest, and meets the real differences on the second invoice. How storage is billed, what the monthly minimum applies to, which carrier surcharges pass through and how hard the contract is to leave move the total more than a few cents per order, and they're the lines a sales call rarely leads with.
The ten criteria below cover those lines and the rest, in the order a founder or ops lead usually raises them. Each comes with the question to ask and what a straight answer sounds like, and a weighted scorecard at the end turns the answers into one number per vendor. Where it helps, we say how Simpl, a 3PL in Austin, answers the same question, including where our answer may not fit you.
1. Warehouse location and customer fit
Start with geography, because it sets your shipping cost and transit times before you negotiate a single rate. A 3PL's location decides how many zones your average package crosses, and zone count is the biggest lever on parcel cost after weight.
Ask where their fulfillment centers physically sit and where the bulk of your customers are. If you sell mostly to the coasts and your 3PL runs a single Midwest warehouse, you pay for the distance on every order. If they claim national next-day coverage, ask which carrier and which service level backs that claim, then ask what it costs.
One central warehouse is a tradeoff you can put in days. Simpl ships everything from a single warehouse in Austin, Texas, to all 50 states and more than 200 countries. By ground, that's an estimated 1–2 business days after an order ships to Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth; 2–3 to Oklahoma City; 2–4 to Denver, Chicago and Atlanta; and 3–5 to Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle. Those are planning estimates, not measured delivery scans, and actual times vary by carrier, service and ZIP. If nearly all of your customers are on one coast, a warehouse on that coast will beat a central one on ground days. If they're spread across the country, a central point is the fairer average. Ask any 3PL for the same thing: where the warehouse is, and estimated ground days to your top five customer metros.
The second half of this criterion matters as much as the first. Who does this 3PL actually serve? A warehouse set up for pallet-in, pallet-out B2B freight has its staffing, slotting and software tuned for that work, not for picking single units into mailers, so a 200-unit DTC fulfillment run is a different operation for them even if they'll take it. You want a partner whose core book of business looks like yours in order profile. Most Simpl clients are founder-led ecommerce brands of one to three people shipping parcels direct to consumers, and our processes are built around that. If a 3PL can't tell you plainly who they're built for, ask to see an account that looks like yours before you go further.
2. Pricing structure and the full rate card
A per-order price means nothing until you know what it includes and what gets billed on top. That's true whichever way the quote is built, and quotes come in two shapes.
An itemized quote lists receiving, storage, pick and pack, packaging and shipping as separate lines, plus any special-project or value-added fees. It's precise, and it takes work to total, because you have to apply every line to your own order mix. A bundled quote, which is how Simpl prices, puts picking, packing, packaging and postage into one per-order rate, so the monthly number is easier to see; the work is finding out what sits outside the bundle. The transparency test is the same either way. Ask for the full rate card before the demo, not after, and for every charge that can appear on an invoice, including the ones outside a bundle: storage, returns, surcharges, special projects. If you can price a month from the document alone, the quote is complete. If it takes a follow-up call to learn what a line costs, itemized or bundled, it isn't yet.
Storage is the line item that surprises people. Ask how storage is billed. Some 3PLs bill by cubic foot, which tracks the space you actually occupy: a lean month costs less and a stocked-up month costs more, and to forecast it you need your inventory's cubic volume by month, including the peak stock you receive early. Others bill by storage type, which is easier to forecast because a bin, a shelf or a pallet costs the same whether it's full or half-empty, and that's also the tradeoff: you pay for the slot, not the space inside it. Simpl bills storage by type: $3 a month for a small bin, $5 for a large bin, $15 for a shelf, and $40 for a pallet. Our per-order pricing starts at $7 and includes picking, packing, packaging, and postage. Receiving is free for every client; the one exception is an inbound shipment that doesn't follow our receiving requirements, which is billed at $45 per person-hour under our terms of service. Ask every 3PL what receiving costs, because a per-item or per-hour receiving fee on every restock adds up faster than it looks.
Postage deserves its own question. Ask how carrier rate changes and surcharges reach your invoice: passed through at cost, marked up, or already inside a flat rate. Then ask how much notice you get when something changes. At Simpl, postage is inside the flat per-order rate; carrier surcharges, when they apply, are billed per our terms. Ask any 3PL to name which surcharges can show up on an invoice (peak, residential, oversize, address correction) and to show you one on a sample order.
Two more questions worth asking on pricing. First, is there a monthly minimum, and what does it apply to? Standard ecommerce fulfillment accounts at Simpl have a $750 monthly minimum, billed pay-the-difference: if a month's order charges come in under $750, we bill the shortfall so order charges reach $750. Storage, returns and any surcharges are billed on top of that. In shipments, it works out to roughly 90–100 orders a month for light packages on standard shipping; heavier, larger or faster shipments reach it with fewer orders. Merch-drop fulfillment is exempt, and FBA-prep-only accounts have a different minimum of 1,000 units a month. Second, is there an onboarding or setup fee? Some 3PLs charge one; ShipBob's own guide to fulfillment costs lists setup fees among the charges to watch for. Simpl doesn't charge one. Get both answers in writing, because a low per-order rate stapled to a high minimum and a setup fee is not a low price.
3. Platform integrations
Your 3PL sits downstream of your store. If the connection between your cart and their warehouse is clean, orders flow and inventory syncs without you touching anything. If it's held together with a nightly CSV export, you find out the hard way during a sales spike.
Ask which platforms they integrate with natively, and confirm yours is on the list by name. Native means a real, maintained connection, not a one-time data dump. Platforms outside a 3PL's native list often connect through a third-party connector, which works fine, but ask who maintains it and who you call when it breaks. If you run Shopify 3PL fulfillment, that integration should be first-class, since that's where most DTC volume lives.
Simpl integrates natively with Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Squarespace on the storefront side, and with Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, and TikTok Shop on the marketplace side. Square, Wix and Shift4Shop connect too. Need something custom, such as a headless build or an ERP? Ask us about API integrations.
The follow-up is about what the integration does once it's live. Does inventory sync in real time, so your store never oversells a SKU you're out of? Can it route orders and select shipping methods automatically based on rules you set? Do tracking numbers sync back to the order so your store's own shipping notification goes out without anyone copying and pasting? An integration that only imports orders and does nothing else is doing half the job. Ask to see the sync in action during the demo, not on a slide.
4. Accuracy and turnaround commitments
A 3PL's job is to ship the right thing, fast, without you watching. The way to test that promise before you sign is to make them put numbers to it.
Start with accuracy. Ask for their order accuracy rate as a percentage, and treat anything under 99.5% as a reason to keep asking. Then ask the more important question: what happens when they get one wrong? A number with no accountability behind it is marketing. The answer you want is that they eat the cost of the fix. Simpl runs 99.99% order accuracy, and when we do miss, we cover the correction, both the return shipping and the re-fulfillment, at our cost. The cost coverage is what turns the percentage into a commitment.
Next, turnaround. Ask two things: what's the same-day ship cutoff, and how fast do they receive new inventory? The cutoff tells you how late an order can come in and still go out today. It doesn't tell you how often orders that make the cutoff actually ship that day, so ask for that rate too. At Simpl, 98.8% of orders received by 12pm CT on a business day ship the same day, measured from September 21 to October 23, 2026. Receiving turnaround tells you how quickly a new shipment becomes sellable inventory. If it sits on a dock for a week, you're out of stock on paper while your product is in the building. Simpl turns receiving around in one to three days.
Get these numbers in writing as part of the agreement. A cutoff time and an accuracy commitment that live only in a sales conversation are not commitments.
5. Peak-season capacity
Every 3PL looks capable in March. The test is November. Peak season, whether that's Q4 for you or a product launch or a viral moment, is when order volume can jump several times over baseline in a matter of days. You want to know your partner has already thought about that before it happens to you.
Ask how they staff for peak and how much extra volume they can absorb without their commitments slipping. A 3PL that runs lean year-round and hires temp labor two weeks before Black Friday is telling you something about how your December will go. Ask specifically whether their ship cutoff and accuracy hold during peak, or whether those numbers quietly become "best effort" once volume climbs.
Ask about inbound, too. Peak tests receiving as much as shipping. You need your restock put away fast enough to sell it, not stuck in a receiving backlog. If your receiving window stretches from three days to three weeks in October, your holiday inventory is stuck on a dock during the only month that pays for the year.
There's no single right answer here, but there is a wrong one: vagueness. A 3PL that can walk you through how last peak actually went, with numbers, is a safer bet than one that assures you it'll be fine.
6. Contract terms
Read the contract as carefully as the rate card, because it decides how easy it is to leave if the relationship doesn't work. Four things matter most.
First, the monthly minimum. The dollar figure came up under pricing, but the structure belongs here too, because a minimum is a contractual floor. Ask whether it's pay-the-difference, where you're billed the shortfall only in a month you fall short, or a flat monthly fee you owe regardless of volume. Ask what it applies to, since a minimum that excludes postage is a bigger commitment than the number suggests.
Second, the term and renewal. Ask how long the initial commitment runs and whether it auto-renews. Auto-renewal clauses with long notice windows are how brands get stuck in a contract for a year after they've already decided to leave. Simpl's standard agreement runs a three-month term that auto-renews, with 60 days' notice to exit; the full terms of service are public, and the contract length and cancellation page covers it in plain language. Ask every 3PL for the same two numbers, then read the clause yourself.
Third, what happens to your inventory if you leave. Ask, in writing, how a wind-down works and who pays to ship your product to its next home. The best time to learn the exit terms is before you sign, not the day you want out. If you're moving from one 3PL to another, the step-by-step guide to switching 3PLs covers the overlap period and the checklist.
Fourth, what happens to your inventory if the 3PL fails. It's rare, but it's the scenario where you lose the most, so ask it plainly: how long have they been operating, who holds title to stock in their building, how quickly can you get it out, and what rights does the agreement give them over your goods if invoices go unpaid. Warehouse agreements commonly include a clause on that last point, so read it in any contract before you sign. What happens to your inventory when a 3PL shuts down goes through the scenario in detail.
7. The support model
Something will go wrong. A carrier will lose a truck, a SKU will get mis-slotted, a customer will email you about a package that never showed. The question isn't whether problems happen, it's who picks up when they do.
Ask how support works. Is there a named person who knows your account, or do you file a ticket into a queue and wait for whoever's next? The difference shows up on your worst day, when a ticket number is the last thing you want and a person who already knows your setup is the first.
Ask about response time, and ask them to commit to it. "We'll get back to you" is not a commitment. A same-day response during business hours is.
Ask who handles carrier claims. When a package is lost or damaged in transit, someone has to file the claim with the carrier and chase it, and you want to know up front whether that's you or them, and what coverage applies. Simpl files the carrier claim on shipments we sent; insured shipping is available, and coverage and declared value depend on the carrier.
Simpl gives every client a dedicated account manager, a real person you reach by email who responds the same day, often faster. When something breaks, you email someone who already knows how your orders are supposed to look. Ask any 3PL you're evaluating whether they can say the same, and ask for the response-time commitment in writing.
8. Product-type capability
Standard fulfillment is picking a unit off a shelf and putting it in a box. Plenty of brands need more than that, and a 3PL that only does the standard case will quietly turn your requirements into your problem.
Make a list of everything about your product that isn't a plain single-SKU shipment, and ask about each item by name:
- Kitting or assembling multi-item sets before they ship.
- Subscription boxes that go out on a recurring cadence.
- Amazon FBA prep done to spec so inbound shipments aren't rejected at the fulfillment center.
- TikTok Shop or other marketplace orders that need channel-specific handling.
- Oversized or heavy items, and which carrier surcharges they trigger.
- Fragile goods such as glass or candles, and what their breakage experience looks like.
Each of those is a real capability, not a checkbox, and you want to hear specifics. Simpl handles kitting and assembly, subscription boxes, FBA prep, heavy and oversized items, and fragile goods, and packs breakables carefully enough that breakage stays near zero. On oversized items, the carrier's oversize surcharge applies per our terms, so ask any 3PL to show you that line on a sample order rather than taking "we can do that" on faith. Our list isn't the point, though. Make any 3PL prove they've handled your specific product, not a generic one.
9. Technology and what it shows you
The warehouse management system is the window you get into your own operation. Good software means you always know what's in stock, what shipped, and where it is. Bad software means you're emailing your 3PL to ask questions you should be able to answer yourself.
Ask which WMS they run and ask for a live look during the demo. Don't accept a screenshot. You want to see the actual dashboard a client uses. Simpl runs on ShipHero, and clients get real-time inventory visibility and real-time shipment tracking without having to ask.
Walk through the questions you need answered on a normal Tuesday: how many units of a SKU are on hand right now, whether a specific order has shipped and what its tracking number is, and when your last inbound shipment was received. If the answer to any of those is "email us and we'll check," the software isn't doing its job.
If a 3PL pitches AI-driven forecasting or replenishment alerts, treat it as a follow-up question rather than a headline. Ask what data the tool runs on, whether you can export your own order and inventory history at any time, and what happens to the recommendations when your sales pattern changes. A dashboard you can trust matters more than a prediction you can't check.
Ask about tracking on the outbound side, too. Every shipment should generate a real tracking number from a recognized carrier that updates as the package moves. Simpl ships via UPS, USPS, and FedEx. Every shipment generates a carrier tracking number that updates in real time, and there are no regional consolidators or crowdsourced last-mile networks in the mix. You and your customer should both be able to follow a package without calling anyone.
10. References from brands like yours
Every 3PL will tell you they're great. References are how you check. The specific ask matters here: don't request references in general, request references that look like you.
Ask for two or three current clients in your vertical and roughly your volume tier. A glowing reference from an enterprise brand shipping 50,000 orders a month tells you nothing about how a 3PL treats a brand shipping 300. You want to talk to someone whose operation resembles yours, because their experience is the closest preview of what yours will be.
When you get on the phone with a reference, ask what the sales team won't tell you: how fast support actually responds when something breaks, whether there have been billing surprises, what happened the first time they had a problem, and whether they would sign again today.
If a 3PL can't produce a reference in your tier, ask why. Sometimes the honest answer is that brands your size are new to them, or that no client has agreed to take calls. Neither is disqualifying on its own, but score this criterion on what you could verify, not on a general testimonial, and weigh the gap against the rest of the card.
How to compare two quotes that are built differently
Quotes rarely arrive in the same shape. One 3PL quotes an all-in per-order rate with postage inside it. Another quotes a pick-and-pack fee, packaging at cost, and postage passed through from the carrier. A third adds a per-item receiving fee and a per-order platform fee. Lining up the headline numbers tells you nothing.
The fix is to price the same real orders through every quote. Pull ten orders from last month that represent your mix: a couple of single-item orders, a couple with three or four items, your heaviest, your lightest, and one going to each coast. Give every 3PL the same ten, with weights, dimensions, item counts and destinations, and ask for the full charge on each one with postage included. Now you're comparing dollars, not models.
Then check what the minimum applies to. Many 3PLs apply their minimum to fulfillment fees only, with postage excluded, so their stated minimum looks lower than one that already includes postage. A minimum that excludes postage can take more orders to reach than a higher minimum that includes it. How 3PL minimums work walks through that math, and the 3PL pricing guide covers each fee line and what a normal range looks like.
A weighted scorecard for comparing 3PLs
Take the ten criteria into every demo and score each answer from 1 to 5. Multiply each score by its weight, add the ten products, and divide the total by five. The weights add up to 100, so a vendor that scores 5 on everything totals 500 and lands at 100; one that scores 5 on pricing (100 points) and 3 on the other nine (240 points) totals 340, or 68 out of 100. The weights below are a starting point for a DTC brand. Shift them toward whatever your operation depends on most, keeping the total at 100: a subscription brand should put more weight on product-type capability, and a brand with a hard Q4 should move weight to peak capacity.
Criterion | Weight | What a 5 looks like |
|---|---|---|
1. Location and customer fit | 10 | Ground-day estimates to your top metros; typical clients match your order profile |
2. Pricing structure | 20 | Full rate card up front with every line priced; storage billing explained with a sample month; minimum, what it applies to, and setup fees stated in writing |
3. Platform integrations | 10 | Native, maintained connection to your platform; real-time inventory and tracking sync shown live |
4. Accuracy and turnaround | 15 | Accuracy rate with at-their-cost correction; same-day cutoff and receiving turnaround in the contract |
5. Peak-season capacity | 10 | Can describe last peak with numbers; cutoff and accuracy hold when volume spikes |
6. Contract terms | 10 | Pay-the-difference minimum; clear term, renewal, and exit terms; wind-down costs and inventory rights stated |
7. Support model | 10 | Named account manager; response-time commitment in writing; they file carrier claims |
8. Product-type capability | 5 | Has handled your specific requirements, with examples and the surcharges shown |
9. Technology | 5 | Live dashboard covers inventory, order status, receiving, and tracking without a ticket |
10. References | 5 | Two or three current clients in your vertical and volume tier who would sign again |
Two rules keep the scorecard honest. Score only what you saw or received in writing, not what the salesperson said would be fine. And if any single criterion scores a 1, treat it as a veto regardless of the total. A 3PL that scores 92 and has no exit clause is still a 3PL with no exit clause.
Where Simpl fits, and where it may not
Simpl is one warehouse in Austin, built around founder-led ecommerce brands, with per-order pricing that already includes picks, packing, packaging and postage, real-time inventory visibility in ShipHero, and a named account manager instead of a ticket queue. Our answers to the ten criteria are above, in the sections where they apply.
Two honest caveats. If nearly all of your customers sit on one coast, a warehouse on that coast will beat Austin on ground transit days; score us down on criterion 1 and see whether pricing and support make up the gap. And if you're well under the roughly 90–100 light-package orders a month that reach the $750 minimum, you'd be paying for volume you don't have yet. For most brands at that size, keeping self-fulfillment a little longer is the more honest answer than signing with any 3PL, ours included.
If you want to score us, get a quote and we'll walk through the whole rate card, minimum included. If you'd rather compare first, see how we stack up as a 3PL for small brands or read the pricing page before you book.