Best 3PL Companies for Ecommerce Brands: A Fair Comparison

Of the seven fulfillment companies a founder-led ecommerce brand usually shortlists, only two publish a per-order price, and even those two confirm your exact rate in a quote. The bigger catch is the minimum. Simpl's $750 a month counts postage toward the floor; ShipMonk's doesn't, because its floor is built from pick fees alone; ShipBob has a minimum spend and a minimum order volume but publishes neither; eFulfillment Service has no minimum at all. Two floors with the same dollar figure can produce very different bills, so the useful comparison isn't who ranks first. It's which bill you can forecast from the website, what each floor means at your volume, how long each contract runs and where your stock would sit.

The seven here, in alphabetical order, are the companies founder-led brands actually weigh, with every figure taken from the company's own site. If a search engine or an AI assistant answered this question with Amazon, C.H. Robinson and GXO instead, that was a revenue ranking of the biggest logistics companies, which is a different list.

The shortlist at a glance

"Published" means the figure is on the company's own website. Where a company quotes everything, the table says so rather than guessing.

Provider	What it publishes about price	Monthly minimum	Contract	Ships from	Fits best
eFulfillment Service	Quote-based; no setup fees	None	No long-term contract	Traverse City, MI	Very small or seasonal brands that want no floor
Fulfyld	Per-order rate table by weight and volume, from $7.98 for 4 to 12 oz at up to 250 orders a month	None published	No long-term lock-in	Madison, AL	Brands that want published all-in rates; its written SLA credits apply from 1,000 orders a month
Red Stag Fulfillment	Custom quote	Not published	Month-to-month or long-term	Sweetwater, TN and Salt Lake City, UT	Heavy, bulky or high-value products
ShipBob	Fee categories only; US add-on rates in its help center	Spend and order-volume minimums exist; amounts not published	Not published	60+ fulfillment centers, US and international	Brands that want multi-warehouse reach and will quote for it
ShipMonk	Formula for the minimum; no dollar rates	80% of projected orders times the first-item pick fee	One-year term, auto-renews, 30 days' notice	US, Canada, UK and mainland Europe	Subscription, kitting and multi-region brands
ShipNetwork	Custom quote	Not published	Not published	Multi-site US network	Brands that want 1 to 2 day ground coverage from several US sites
Simpl Fulfillment	Starting at $7 per order, postage included; storage rates published; exact per-order rate by quote	$750, billed pay-the-difference	Three-month term, auto-renews, 60 days' notice	Austin, TX	Founder-led brands that want a flat per-order price and a named account manager

What each minimum actually covers

Minimums look comparable on paper and aren't. The same dollar figure can mean very different bills depending on what it's measured against.

Simpl's $750 a month is measured against per-order billing that already includes postage, packaging and up to three picks, so for light packages on standard shipping it works out to roughly 90 to 100 orders a month; heavier, larger or faster shipments reach it with fewer orders. If a month comes in under $750, you pay the gap. ShipMonk's minimum is built from pick fees only: its pricing page says the floor is your projected monthly order volume multiplied by your first-item pick fee and reduced by 20%, with postage, storage, receiving and packaging billed on top. ShipBob confirms both a minimum monthly spend and a minimum order volume but doesn't publish either number. Fulfyld doesn't publish a minimum. eFulfillment Service says it has none. Red Stag and ShipNetwork quote case by case.

A worked example makes the difference visible. Suppose you ship 100 light orders a month. At Simpl that's about the minimum, and the $750 covers postage. At ShipMonk, if your quoted first-item pick fee were $3 (it doesn't publish one), the floor would be $240, but postage, storage and receiving would arrive as separate lines. The honest comparison is the full month's bill, not the number labelled "minimum." Our 3PL pricing guide walks through every line item.

Biggest logistics companies are a different list

If you ask a search engine or an AI assistant for the best 3PL companies, you often get the largest third-party logistics providers by revenue. Armstrong & Associates' Top 50 U.S. 3PLs list ranks Amazon, C.H. Robinson and GXO Logistics at the top, with UPS Supply Chain Solutions, Ryder and DHL Supply Chain close behind. That's a real answer to a different question. C.H. Robinson's business is built around freight brokerage and managed transportation, GXO describes itself as the largest pure-play contract logistics provider in the world, and most of that tier sells enterprise contracts with pricing you won't find on a website. A brand doing 200 or 2,000 orders a month wants a warehouse that connects to its store, picks and packs each order, ships it the same or next day and sends a bill it can forecast. That's the market the seven companies on this page compete in. Amazon is the exception at the top of that list: its Multi-Channel Fulfillment service is, in Amazon's own words, a 3PL that ships orders for any off-Amazon channel, it's open to businesses whether or not they sell on Amazon, and it has a public rate card. What separates it from the seven here is that your stock sits in Amazon's network under Amazon's fulfillment and storage policies rather than at an independent warehouse with an account manager; we cover that trade in our FBA alternatives guide.

eFulfillment Service

eFulfillment Service, or EFS, has shipped from Traverse City, Michigan since 2001 and leads with three promises on its homepage: no setup fees, no minimum order requirements and no long-term contracts. It also states 99.9% order accuracy and a dedicated account manager for every client, and says its single Michigan location reaches most US addresses in two to four days by ground. Pricing itself is quote-based.

That no-floor model is the fairest entry point on this list for a brand that ships a few dozen orders a month, or a seasonal brand that goes quiet for stretches. The trade is the footprint: one warehouse in northern Michigan is a long ground ride to the West Coast and the Southeast, and you'll need a quote before you can model a month. EFS also does Amazon FBA prep; our Simpl vs eFulfillment Service comparison covers that side.

Fulfyld

Fulfyld is the only company here besides Simpl that publishes an actual per-order price. Its pricing page shows a rate table by package weight and monthly volume: a 4 to 12 oz order on standard shipping starts at $7.98 at up to 250 orders a month, all-in with postage, five picks and standard packaging, and the rate steps down as volume grows. Extra items cost $0.50 each after the fifth pick. Storage runs from $2.50 a month for a small bin to $32 for a pallet. The page also says "No long contracts," that the first two hours of receiving are free at onboarding, and that orders in by 1 PM ship the same day.

Fulfyld runs one warehouse, in Madison, Alabama, and makes a point of it ("One warehouse. Zero hand-offs."). Its other distinctive feature is a written SLA: its guarantees page commits to same-day shipping, order accuracy and 48-business-hour dock-to-stock with defined account credits if it misses, but the SLA is available by request for brands shipping 1,000 or more orders a month, and total credits are capped at 20% of the fees billed in a calendar quarter, not counting carrier fees and third-party pass-through charges. If you ship under that volume, the published rates are the draw; the credits aren't yours yet. Full detail in our Simpl vs Fulfyld comparison.

Red Stag Fulfillment

Red Stag's homepage opens with the filter: "Products bigger than a toaster or heavier than 10 pounds? We should talk." It ships from two locations, Sweetwater, Tennessee and Salt Lake City, Utah, offers "month-to-month flexibility or a long-term contract," and backs its operation with guarantees on shrink, mispicks and late shipments under the line "Guaranteed. Or we pay you." Pricing is a custom quote only, and Red Stag says plainly that if you're not a fit it will refer you to a better-matched 3PL.

If your product is heavy, oversized, fragile or expensive, this is the specialist on the list, and splitting stock between an East and a West site can shorten ground transit for that kind of freight compared with one warehouse, depending on where your stock is placed and where your orders go. If you ship light apparel or supplements, its guarantees and freight handling are built for a different problem than yours. Whether that costs you more is something only its quote can answer, since Red Stag publishes no rates, and its own fit filter may send you elsewhere before you get that far. Our Red Stag vs Simpl comparison goes deeper on the guarantees and the fine print.

ShipBob

ShipBob is the name most Shopify founders hear first, and its reach is the reason: ShipBob says it operates more than 60 fulfillment centers across the US, Canada, the UK, the EU and Australia, and it can split inventory across them so orders ship from the nearest site. Its pricing page lists four fee categories (implementation, receiving, warehousing, and picking, packing and shipping each order) without amounts; the per-order fulfillment fee, the minimum spend and the implementation fee all come from the quote. Its affordable fulfillment page confirms "a minimum monthly spending requirement for fulfillment and minimum order volume requirements" without stating either, and frames "even just a thousand orders monthly" as a starting point, which tells you who the network is built for.

Its add-on rates for US fulfillment centers are published in its help center, which gives you something to check the quote against: extra picks are $0.35 a unit beyond the picks your plan includes (US B2C pricing), receiving is $40 for the first two hours and $45 an hour after that, and storage is $5 a bin, $10 a shelf and $40 a pallet per month, prorated daily (US additional services pricing). Paying by credit card adds a 3% processing fee to each of those. The contract term isn't on the pricing page either, so ask. ShipBob suits a brand that has outgrown one warehouse and wants two-day ground coverage nationally. What you can't do is forecast a month's bill from its website; the add-on rates are the part you can check before the call. Our ShipBob pricing breakdown lists every published rate with its source.

ShipMonk

ShipMonk publishes no dollar rates at all, but it publishes something more useful than most: the rule for its minimum, quoted above. Two other terms are worth knowing before the quote call. Its terms of service set an initial one-year term that renews automatically for successive one-year terms unless you give 30 days' written notice before the end of the current one, and after the first 90 days ShipMonk may revise pricing without notice if your actual volume falls short of the estimate you gave at signing. The same terms allow a 5% pick-fee increase on each anniversary.

ShipMonk runs owned-and-operated fulfillment centers across the US, Canada, the UK and mainland Europe, per its locations page, and its platform is built for subscription boxes, kitting and multi-channel catalogs. That makes it a strong fit for a brand with international customers or assembly-heavy orders. For a brand with simple domestic orders, the open question isn't cost, which you won't know until the quote; it's the terms. A one-year term and a minimum built from your own volume estimate reward brands that can forecast their orders with confidence, and the repricing clause is the one to read if you can't. Our ShipMonk vs Simpl comparison covers the full fee picture.

ShipNetwork

ShipNetwork is a US-only network with fulfillment centers listed on its pricing page from West Hazleton and Scranton in Pennsylvania through Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Anaheim, and it claims to reach 98% of the continental US in one to two days by ground. Pricing is "built around your operation," which means a quote, and the site publishes no minimum or contract term.

It belongs on the list for a brand whose customers are spread across the country and who wants fast ground delivery without paying for air. Like ShipBob, Red Stag and EFS, it prices by quote, so plan on a call before you can model a month, and ask for the minimum and the term in writing while you're on it. Our ShipNetwork alternatives page compares it against the other networks here.

Simpl Fulfillment

Simpl publishes its headline price: fulfillment starts at $7 per order, and that flat rate includes up to three picks, packing, packaging and postage via UPS, USPS or FedEx. Carrier surcharges, when they apply, are billed per our terms. Storage is $3 a month for a small bin, $5 for a large bin, $15 for a shelf and $40 for a pallet. Receiving is free for every client, there's no onboarding fee, and onboarding takes five to seven days. Standard ecommerce fulfillment accounts carry a $750/month minimum, billed pay-the-difference. The terms of service set a three-month term that renews automatically unless you give 60 days' notice. Every client gets a dedicated account manager, a real person reachable by email with same-day responses.

The weaknesses are just as public. Simpl ships from one warehouse in Austin, Texas, so ground delivery is an estimated one to two business days to Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, two to four to Denver, Chicago and Atlanta, and three to five to Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle; a network with stock placed near both coasts can beat that there. The $750 minimum excludes the very smallest brands. There is a contract, not month-to-month terms. And beyond the starting rate and storage, there's no full weight-tier rate card online; you get your exact per-order price in a quote, the same as everyone else on this list. Orders in before 12pm CT ship the same day, accuracy runs 99.99% with errors corrected at Simpl's cost, and custom pricing starts at 5,000+ orders a month. The pricing page has the rest.

How to choose from this list

The seven companies above don't rank in a single order, because the right answer changes with your shape. Six questions narrow it quickly.

Volume against the minimum. Count a real month's orders, then ask what each minimum is measured against (fulfillment fees only, pick fees only, or the full per-order rate with postage). A lower-looking minimum can produce a higher bill.
Product. Heavy, bulky or fragile goods point to Red Stag. Subscription boxes and kitting point to ShipMonk, Fulfyld or Simpl. Light, simple orders open the whole list.
Where your customers are. If most orders go to one region, one well-placed warehouse is cheaper to run and simpler to count. If they're spread coast to coast and speed matters, a multi-site network earns its complexity.
Pricing model. A published rate (Fulfyld's weight-and-volume table, Simpl's starting rate and storage prices) lets you rough out a month from the website, though both confirm your exact rate in a quote. Quote-only pricing (ShipBob, ShipMonk, ShipNetwork, Red Stag, EFS) isn't worse, but get every line itemized in writing before you compare.
Contract and exit. Terms range from no long-term contract (EFS, Fulfyld) through Simpl's three-month auto-renewing term with 60 days' notice to ShipMonk's one-year auto-renewing term with 30 days' notice; Red Stag offers month-to-month or long-term, and ShipBob and ShipNetwork don't publish theirs. Read the renewal and notice clauses before the pricing.
Integrations. Confirm your store platform and marketplaces connect natively, and ask what happens when they don't.

Our guide to choosing a 3PL turns those into a checklist to run against each quote. If you sell on Shopify specifically, the best 3PL for Shopify breakdown weighs integration depth; if you're very small, best 3PL for small business looks at low-volume options; and if you want a warehouse near you in Central Texas, see the best 3PL companies in Austin.

If you're under every minimum

At a few dozen orders a month, any 3PL minimum can be most of the bill, ours included. eFulfillment Service's no-minimum model is the sourced exception on this list, and Fulfyld publishes rates at volumes down to zero. But for many brands at that stage the more honest answer is to keep packing orders yourself a little longer, until your volume, or the hours you spend packing, changes the math. Our in-house fulfillment vs 3PL comparison shows how to tell when that is.

We're Simpl Fulfillment, a 3PL in Austin that competes with every other company on this page, so weigh our entry with the same skepticism as the rest.

Sources

Updated October 2026

FAQs

What is the best 3PL company for a small ecommerce brand?

There isn't one best 3PL, because the right choice depends on your monthly volume, your products and where your customers are. For a brand shipping a few dozen orders a month, eFulfillment Service's no-minimum, no-long-term-contract model is the lowest-commitment entry on this list, and packing orders yourself a while longer is often the better answer. From roughly 100 light orders a month upward, Fulfyld and Simpl Fulfillment publish per-order rates you can forecast from, ShipBob and ShipMonk add multi-warehouse reach at quoted prices, Red Stag specializes in heavy or high-value goods, and ShipNetwork offers a multi-site US ground network.

Who are the biggest 3PL companies?

Armstrong & Associates' Top 50 list of US third-party logistics providers, ranked by 2025 gross logistics revenue, puts Amazon first at about $172 billion, a figure Armstrong & Associates takes from Amazon's Third-Party Seller Services segment and which includes seller commissions and related services, then C.H. Robinson second at $14.8 billion and GXO Logistics third at $13.2 billion, with UPS Supply Chain Solutions, Ryder and DHL Supply Chain also in the top fifteen. Those companies serve enterprise freight and contract warehousing; the fulfillment companies a small ecommerce brand would hire are a different market.

Which 3PLs have no monthly minimum?

eFulfillment Service states on its homepage that it has no minimum order requirements, and Fulfyld publishes rates starting at zero orders a month with no minimum stated on its pricing page. ShipBob's site says it has a minimum monthly spend and a minimum order volume without publishing the amounts, ShipMonk calculates its minimum as 80% of your projected orders times your first-item pick fee, and Simpl Fulfillment's standard ecommerce accounts carry a $750 a month minimum billed pay-the-difference. Red Stag and ShipNetwork quote case by case.

How much do 3PL companies charge per order?

Only two of the seven publish a per-order figure. Fulfyld's pricing page shows a 4 to 12 oz order on standard shipping from $7.98 at up to 250 orders a month, all-in with postage, five picks and standard packaging. Simpl Fulfillment starts at $7 per order including up to three picks, packing, packaging and postage, with carrier surcharges billed per its terms when they apply. ShipBob, ShipMonk, ShipNetwork, Red Stag and eFulfillment Service price per order only in a custom quote, though ShipBob's help center publishes its US add-on rates, such as $0.35 per extra pick and $5 to $40 a month per storage location.

Is Amazon a 3PL company?

Yes. Amazon is the largest third-party logistics provider in the US by revenue on Armstrong & Associates' list, and Amazon describes its Multi-Channel Fulfillment service as a 3PL that ships orders for any off-Amazon channel, open to businesses whether or not they sell on Amazon, with a public rate card and unbranded packaging by default. The practical difference from an independent 3PL is that your inventory sits in Amazon's fulfillment network under Amazon's storage and fulfillment policies rather than at a warehouse you chose with an account manager you can email. Brands weighing it against a dedicated 3PL should compare the full cost per order and how much control they keep.

Do 3PLs require contracts?

It varies more than the sales pitches suggest. eFulfillment Service and Fulfyld say they have no long-term contracts. Red Stag offers month-to-month or a long-term agreement. Simpl Fulfillment's terms set a three-month term that renews automatically unless you give 60 days' notice. ShipMonk's terms set an initial one-year term that renews for successive one-year terms unless you give 30 days' written notice, and allow repricing after 90 days if your volume falls short of your estimate. ShipBob and ShipNetwork don't publish a term length, so ask before you sign.

Is a 3PL with one warehouse worse than a network?

Not for every brand. One warehouse means one inventory count, one receiving process and simpler billing, and if most of your customers are within a two-day ground radius it can be the cheaper choice; Fulfyld, eFulfillment Service and Simpl Fulfillment each run a single site. A multi-site network such as ShipBob, ShipMonk or ShipNetwork earns its complexity when your customers are spread coast to coast and delivery speed drives conversions, because splitting stock lets orders ship from the nearest site.