Best Shipping Carrier in 2025? – Includes Cost Comparison!

Our shipping services cost comparison breaks down everything you need to know about using USPS, UPS, and FedEx.

The gift-sending season is almost here – and the U.S. Postal Service is making some changes 🥴

Starting October 5, 2025, through January 18, 2026, the U.S. Postal Service will temporarily raise prices on some package services for the holiday season. This includes Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select.

The change helps cover extra costs and is part of their plan to stay efficient during the busiest time of year.

The temporarily planned retail price increases are as follows: 

*Note that prices vary based on weight and zones. A zone is the distance from origin to destination, starting at 50 miles for zone 1 and up to 1801+ miles for zone 8. 

Priority Mail and USPS Ground Advantage: Zone 1-4

• +$0.40 increase for Zones 1-4, 0-3 lbs.
• +$0.60 increase for Zones 1-4, 4-10 lbs.
• +$0.95 increase for Zones 1-4, 11-25 lbs.
• +$3.00 increase for Zones 1-4, 26-70 lbs.

Priority Mail Zone 5-9

• +$0.90 increase for Zones 5-9, 0-3 lbs.
• +$1.45 increase for Zones 5-9, 4-10 lbs.
• +$3.25 increase for Zones 5-9, 11-25 lbs.
• +$7.00 increase for Zones 5-9, 26-70 lbs.

Priority Mail Flat Rate

• +$1.45 for Large Flat Rate Boxes
• +$0.90 for all other Flat Rate Products

USPS Ground Advantage Zone 5-9

• +$0.50 increase for Zones 5-9, 0-3 lbs.
• +$1.00 increase for Zones 5-9, 4-10 lbs.
• +$2.00 increase for Zones 5-9, 11-25 lbs.
• +$5.75 increase for Zones 5-9, 26-70 lbs.

Priority Mail Express

• +$1.10 for Zones 1-4, 0-3 lbs.
• +$2.00 for Zones 5-9, 0-3 lbs.
• +$2.00 for Zones 1-4, 4-10 lbs.
• +$4.85 for Zones 5-9, 4-10 lbs.
• +$3.90 for Zones 1-4, 11-25 lbs.
• +$9.00 for Zones 5-9, 11-25 lbs.
• +$9.75 increase for Zones 1-4, 26-70 lbs.
• +$16.00 increase for Zones 5-9, 26-70 lbs.

Priority Mail Express Flat Rate

• +$2.00 increase for Flat Rate Envelopes

Mailing commercial? Head HERE to see the commercial price increases.

Wondering about other shipping companies’ prices? Keep reading to view our shipping cost calculator!

*Note: I used the same info and zip codes with this online calculator to compare small, medium, and large package rates across USPS, UPS, and FedEx. Prices may vary by location. I included FedEx 4-Day instead of 2-Day since the latter was over twice as expensive. 😱 

Here’s the overall shipping services cost comparison for the major carriers…

*Note that this does NOT include the upcoming USPS price increases.

Of course, these are all arbitrary sizes and weights, but we can see a trend:

• If you have a lighter package, it’s probably best to stick with USPS since they’re by far the cheapest.
• The larger and heavier a package is, the cheaper it gets to go with UPS.

However, flat rate boxes can be an amazing deal if your package fits the dimensions!

USPS, FedEx, and UPS all have flat-rate options that can potentially save you a ton because the package costs the same to ship regardless of weight, and, in some cases, even destination!

The flat-rate shipping prices are as follows:

FedEx One Rate prices are a little different in that they are affected by distance. The FedEx website defines three different “zones” that determine shipping cost: 0-150 miles, 151 to 600 miles, and 601 miles and over.

There’s also another, lesser-known mailing method called USPS Media Mail!

If you’ve never heard of Media Mail, it’s a shipping service offered by the United States Postal Service that’s specifically designed to ship non-time-sensitive, educational materials, including books, manuscripts, printed test materials, educational reference charts, and more. The full list of acceptable items can be viewed on the USPS website.

Media Mail prices are generally much lower than other mailing services and start at about $4.47. So if you’re shipping an item that fits the bill and don’t mind it taking a little while to get to its destination (estimated time is 2-8 business days per the USPS website), Media Mail might be your best bet!

So the USPS comes out on top, judging by our shipping services cost comparison…

But there’s more to getting a great deal than just the price! You’ll get different benefits from each carrier, so here are some reasons you may want to choose one shipping company over the other.

• You can score a discount when you sign up for a FedEx account. The discount percentages vary by mail type, but they put a dent in those higher prices.

• FedEx is known to be very reliable. You can bet that your package will arrive during the given delivery window.

• UPS offers guaranteed express shipping. According to the UPS website, they make “more overnight, on-time, guaranteed deliveries in the U.S. than anyone,” so you know your parcels are in good hands. To compare, 2-day ground shipping from UPS is the same price as the 5-day ground shipping from FedEx.

• UPS may have the best rates for heavier packages. As we could see in the shipping cost comparison above, the price actually became lower in comparison to the other carriers as the weight increased.

• Both FedEx and UPS have unbeatable tracking systems. Both companies’ package tracking abilities are advanced enough that you can see where your package is every step of the way & even use their delivery managers to schedule the package arrival for a specific time. If you’re sending something super important, you may be comforted by the ability to keep an eye on it at all times.

• Both FedEx and UPS have a wide delivery location scope. While the USPS may be unable to deliver packages to rural or off-the-grid areas, the other companies can deliver packages nearly anywhere.

Here are some additional ways to cut costs while sending packages!

Need a present to send? Find all the best gift ideas here!