The cheapest courier services available to online sellers in the UK

With your delivery costs having an impact on both your profit margins and customer satisfaction, it’s crucial that you’re aware of the best and cheapest courier service for your business.

Every courier builds its shipping rates from the same handful of inputs: the weight and dimensions of the package, the delivery speed you need (same-day, next-day, chosen-day or standard), and whether you’re paying for insurance, tracking or delivery confirmation. Most of them will be able to negotiate discount rates based on your business needs and the number of parcels you dispatch.

Below is a rundown of the UK’s leading courier companies, with the cheapest shipping rates and the best value for domestic shipping flagged as we go.

Royal Mail

Royal Mail not only offers a wide range of shipping services, but as the UK’s national postal service, it is also a highly trusted choice for many online retailers.

When it comes to getting the best value delivery prices, Royal Mail is one of the most cost-effective solutions for smaller and lighter weight parcels.

Buying postage online is cheaper than paying at a Post Office counter. At the time of writing (September 2026), a small parcel up to 2kg costs £3.95 by 2nd Class online, £5.15 by 1st Class or £3.65 with Tracked 48, so for small parcels the tracked service now costs less than 2nd Class. For the full price guides, visit Royal Mail’s prices page here.

Medium parcels (up to 20kg and 61 x 46 x 46cm) cost more. With Tracked 48 bought online, prices range from £5.55 for 2kg to £11.85 for 20kg.

Royal Mail’s 1st and 2nd Class prices are exempt from VAT, but its Tracked 24 and 48 prices include VAT. Factor that in when comparing prices.

1st and 2nd Class include up to £20 cover for lost or damaged goods, and Tracked 24 and 48 include up to £75, although if the product you’re shipping is worth more, you may want to pay for extra cover. Plain 1st and 2nd Class don’t include tracking, so if your customer service depends on it, use Tracked 24 or 48, or add Signed For if a signature is enough.

On pickup, if your annual spend with Royal Mail tops £20,000, you’re eligible for free weekday collection from your business premises.

If you spend less than that, your weekday collection costs £1,275 a year (ex VAT), or £2,500 for a timed weekday slot. Saturday collections start at £360 a year.

If you send at least 1,000 items a year, or more than 20 parcels a week, you can open a Royal Mail business account and use Royal Mail 24 and 48, which come with volume discounts and delivery confirmation with GPS mapping. Below that volume, Click & Drop is free to use once you register, and it gets you Royal Mail’s online prices.

Evri (formerly Hermes)

As a popular courier service, Evri keeps its delivery costs fairly straightforward, and like Royal Mail, it works out cheaper for businesses sending lighter packages.

Evri takes parcels up to 15kg and 120cm long.

Evri prices by weight band, with a lower rate for small parcels (up to 45 x 35 x 16cm). You can drop parcels at a ParcelShop or book a courier collection. A small parcel up to 1kg costs £3.04 dropped off or £4.04 collected, and Next Day on the same parcel costs £3.90 dropped off. If your customer is happy to collect from a ParcelShop too, anything up to 5kg goes for £2.62.

While Evri includes up to £20 free cover as standard, there are certain items that it won’t provide compensation for should the item get lost, damaged, or delivered late.

If your product is worth more than £20, you can pay to upgrade the cover, up to £999.

DPD

Unlike Royal Mail and Evri, DPD is often a better fit for businesses shipping higher value and/or larger parcels/consignments. DPD builds its reputation on time-critical delivery services, so it fits if you sell scheduled delivery windows or specific time slots.

DPD’s standard service is next-day delivery, and you can pay extra for delivery by 12:00, by 10:30 am, or on a Saturday or Sunday. That quick turnaround can be a significant selling point to customers.

Another great thing about DPD is its excellent customer service.

Predict, its notification service, gives customers a one-hour time slot on the day of delivery at no extra cost. Every price includes parcel tracking and delivery confirmation.

By using DPD, your customers will also benefit from flexible delivery choices, with the option to have their parcel delivered to either a business or residential address, or to one of DPD’s roughly 12,000 Pickup shops and lockers.

Although DPD may not be the cheapest courier service on the market, they do offer good value for money based on the additional services it includes.

For more information about DPD prices, take a look at the company’s tariff guide.

DPD Local

DPD Local (previously Interlink Express) runs on the same technology as its sister company DPD, but it sells itself on a local service with nationwide reach.

Like DPD, its standard service is next-day delivery, which helps if you give customers a choice of delivery speed at checkout.

For current prices, get a quote through DPD Local Online.

Parcelforce

Part of the Royal Mail Group, Parcelforce tends to be more cost-effective when shipping heavier or larger parcels. It now shares a collection and delivery network with Royal Mail, though it still sells its own services.

Unlike Royal Mail, which offers 1st class (next day delivery) and 2nd class (around 3 working days) delivery options, Parcelforce’s delivery options are more specific, letting you choose delivery by 10 am or by noon the next working day (express10 and expressAM), by close of business the next working day (express24), or within two working days (express48). There are weekend options too.

Each of the courier service’s delivery options has a 30kg weight limit for individual parcels, as well as a limit of up to 1.5m length. Volume is capped at 220 litres.

Longer parcels, up to 2.5m and 500 litres, can go on express48large. Parcelforce will collect from you, or you can drop parcels at any of more than 11,000 Post Office branches or its 54 depots.

All services additionally provide free parcel tracking, as well as cover against loss or damage, and the next-day services refund you if the delivery is late. The weekday services all include £150 cover as standard, and express10 and expressAM refund 100% of the delivery cost if your parcel arrives later than the stated time.

With express24, you get a 50% refund if Parcelforce misses the next working day.

If you send 15 or more parcels a week, you could save even more on your rates with a Parcelforce Worldwide account.

That means up to 45% off standard contract rates, plus online tools to manage billing, reports and invoices.

For current prices, take a look at Parcelforce’s prices page.

InPost (formerly Yodel)

InPost bought Yodel in 2025, and the Yodel brand was retired on 17 July 2026. Yodel’s to-door network now trades as InPost, alongside the locker network InPost has built in the UK: 13,721 lockers and 5,491 shop drop-off points at the end of 2025.

For smaller sellers, YodelDirect has become InPost Direct. It prices by weight, from £1.66 (ex VAT) for a parcel up to 1kg up to £4.99 at 10kg, and includes £50 cover as standard. You can drop parcels at an InPost locker or shop, or book a collection from your door. Anything between 10kg and 15kg has to go door-to-door, from £8.69.

InPost’s locker-to-locker service prices by size rather than weight, from £1.99 for a small parcel up to 15kg, which suits heavy but compact items. The catch is that your customer collects from a locker instead of getting a doorstep delivery. Regular InPost Direct senders can get up to 10% off through its rewards scheme, and higher-volume retailers will need to talk to InPost about a contract.

DHL

DHL sells UK parcel delivery through two separate businesses, and they’re priced very differently.

DHL eCommerce UK (formerly DHL Parcel UK) handles domestic parcels. Next-day delivery starts at £3.78 including VAT for a parcel up to 5kg dropped at one of its 50-plus depots, and it takes parcels up to 25kg. Tracking and £50 contents cover come as standard. You can also drop at one of its 3,500-plus ServicePoints, mostly in local convenience stores, which costs more, or have a driver collect from your home or work address within a one-hour window.

DHL Express, the international arm, runs DHL Service Points. Its prices are set by seven free envelope and box sizes, from £7.85 for a UK envelope up to 0.5kg.

DHL Express offers three ways to send: DHL Service Point, DHLitNow and DHL by Phone.

DHL Service Point allows you to drop your parcels off at more than 1,600 high street and retail park locations, including Ryman, Safestore and TGJones (the former WHSmith high street stores). You don’t need an account, and the packaging is free.

Alternatively, you can opt to use DHLitNow, which gives you the option to book online to arrange a collection from your home or office. You will also have the option to select pre-9:00 or 12:00 deliveries, as well as insurance services.

The other option you have is to use DHL By Phone, where you can arrange for a collection by calling the customer service line. For anything bigger than the largest Service Point box, or over 70kg, use DHLitNow or DHL by Phone.

You don’t have to register for an account, whichever service you use, but regular senders can open a business account.

DHL Express Service Point parcels come with free tracking online or by WhatsApp and a signature on delivery where available.

Get a quote and compare DHL’s courier services and DHL prices by visiting the company’s website.

CollectPlus and Royal Mail Shops

The Collect+ you might remember, where you booked delivery online and Yodel carried the parcel, has gone: it is now InPost Direct. In September 2025, International Distribution Services (the owner of Royal Mail) also bought a 49% stake in Collect+, with PayPoint keeping the other 51%.

Close to 8,000 of Collect+’s 14,000-plus stores are being rebranded as Royal Mail Shops. You can drop off pre-paid Royal Mail parcels there, buy Tracked 24 and 48 postage and print labels in store, and most shops open seven days a week, into the evening. Collect+ says it will keep working with its other carrier partners, so check which carrier your label is for before you pick a shop.

Best practices for securing cheaper shipping rates

Negotiate better rates

None of the shipping rates above are set in stone, especially for businesses sending parcels on a regular basis.

Most courier companies will flex to meet your needs, and the discounts can be substantial once you are dispatching a large volume of parcels.

In our experience, couriers will often offer even better rates to businesses that can be flexible with their requirements and tailor their shipping arrangements to suit the courier’s operations.

Raise it with your account manager, regardless of which provider you use.

Consider the use of a shipping aggregator

Shipping aggregators such as Whistl Parcels (formerly Parcelhub), GFS, and Parcel2Go buy parcel delivery in bulk and pass the reduced rates back to you. Parcel2Go also runs a shipping calculator that compares courier prices across carriers, so you can check you’re getting the cheapest shipping rates available for each shipment.

Look at using multiple couriers

As reflected in the prices above, different couriers will be more cost-effective for businesses shipping certain parcel types – lighter-weight goods, heavier goods, smaller parcels, longer parcels, etc.

Volume gets you a cheaper shipping rate. But if your catalogue spans very different weights and dimensions, splitting shipments across two or three couriers usually beats loyalty to one.

Explore your opportunities with an inventory management system

Although not specific to securing cheap rates from the off-bat, it can be worth considering the use of an inventory and order management system with advanced shipping capabilities.

Some systems calculate the cheapest courier service for each order at the point of dispatch, reading weight, dimensions, and destination off the order itself instead of making a packer check a rate card.

Advanced inventory management solutions should also provide a business rules engine so that you can automate even more of your shipping and fulfillment processes, along with customized functionality for enterprise businesses.

Look beyond initial cost

Be mindful that the cheapest option may not always be the best for your business, and you should always take into consideration the reviews of other online sellers, as well as the overall level of service they offer.

So, there we have it. A list of not only the cheapest, but also the most effective delivery services in the UK, depending on your needs and requirements.

Frequently asked questions

Which is the cheapest courier service in the UK for small parcels?

On published prices, the cheapest shipping rates for small parcels now come from InPost and Evri. InPost Direct starts at £1.66 (ex VAT) for a 1kg parcel, InPost’s locker-to-locker service at £1.99, and Evri’s ParcelShop-to-ParcelShop service at £2.62 for anything up to 5kg. Royal Mail’s cheapest small-parcel option online is Tracked 48 at £3.65, which now costs less than 2nd Class. Heavier parcels reshuffle the order. Price your two heaviest weight bands separately instead of picking one courier service for everything.

How do I get discount rates from a courier?

Volume and flexibility. Most courier companies will negotiate shipping rates once you are dispatching consistent weekly volume, and reliable couriers will often quote better numbers to sellers who can move their pickup window to suit the carrier’s routing. If you are not there yet, a shipping aggregator buys parcel delivery in bulk and passes the discount rates on, which gets you most of the way there.

What is the cheapest way to handle international shipping?

For low-value, lightweight items, Royal Mail International Standard is usually the cheapest shipping rate out of the UK. For anything time-sensitive or high-value, DHL Express and Parcelforce offer faster delivery speed with the tracking and delivery confirmation that customs-heavy destinations expect. Run every international shipment through a shipping calculator before you quote a delivery cost at checkout, because duties and surcharges move the number more than the headline rate does.

Do I need a courier that offers next-day or overnight shipping?

Only if your listings promise it. Express delivery and same-day delivery services cost more than standard shipping, so the question is whether the conversion lift covers the shipping cost. DPD and DPD Local both include next-day delivery as standard, which makes them the simplest option when urgent delivery is part of your offer. If most of your orders are not urgent, offering scheduled delivery on a cheaper service keeps more margin in the box.

What if my shipment is too large for standard parcel delivery?

Standard parcel services top out between 15kg (Evri and InPost) and 30kg (Parcelforce). Past that, you are into freight delivery: LTL freight for palletised goods, and cargo vans or box trucks for bulky or awkward consignments. Parcelforce express48large covers the middle ground for long items, and aggregators such as Parcel2Go quote pallet delivery alongside parcel rates so you can compare the two properly.

Do I need a specialist courier service?

Most ecommerce sellers do not. Specialist operators such as a medical courier service or a legal courier service exist for chain-of-custody, temperature control, and same-day document work, and they price accordingly. If you are shipping standard retail goods, a mainstream courier with tracking and delivery confirmation covers it. Spend the difference on shipping supplies and packing quality instead, because damage claims cost more than the couriers do.