There are a few Shipping plugins that provide the best shipping solutions for your WooCommerce store. They are designed to help you with all your shipping needs and eventually ship your products to your customers on time. Some of these plugins are dedicated to a particular shipping carrier while some of them like the Multi-Carrier Shipping plugin, provide multiple carriers in just one plugin.
FedEx, being one of the best shipping companies around, has quite a lot of WooCommerce plugins as well. These plugins offer a huge list of features that play a very important role in making the complete shipping process seamless. Though a lot of the FedEx shipping plugins are free to download, they offer very few features that are disappointing.
Currently, most of the FedEx Shipping plugins are offered by some third-party companies. Many seeking store owners find it difficult to choose the right plugin, while some of them end up buying the wrong plugin.
This is the reason why we have created this article. Here, we will compare the PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin and the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Method. We will cover all the important parameters that will ultimately help you choose the right plugin for your WooCommerce store. This way you would be able to make an informed decision and happily ship your products.
Let us first start with the list of the parameters that are necessary to compare these two plugins:
- Real-time shipping rates
- Adjust the returned shipping rates
- Packing Methods
- Print the shipping labels
- Shipment tracking
- Basic Troubleshooting
- Cost of the plugin
Real-time shipping rates
The PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin fetches the shipping rates directly from the FedEx servers. It does that by collecting the necessary data entered by the customer and also, your store details like address, currency, your FedEx account details, etc. And based on the weight and dimensions of the entire shipment, FedEx will send the accurate shipping rates which are further displayed on the Cart/Checkout page. This way, customers can choose from the list of shipping rates and finally purchase your product.
When it comes to calculating and showing the real-time shipping rates, both PluginHive and WooCommerce FedEx Shipping plugin do the same job. Both the plugin sends the request to FedEx APIs and fetch the shipping rates. Another good thing to know is that these plugins will fetch the accurate shipping rates for both domestic and international destinations, so you don’t have to worried about that.
Adjust the returned shipping rates
In order to achieve a certain business case, you can modify the plugin based on your requirement. For instance, sometimes you want to provide discounts on the returned shipping rates from FedEx. So, if you are looking to make some modification or change in the shipping rates then these plugins definitely will help you out. The PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin allows store owners to decrease extra shipping cost on the rate returned from FedEx. However, if you find that the shipping rates are a tad lower in cost then you can even add some extra amount. The plugin allows you to change the price by either adding or subtracting a desired value or by simply defining a percentage value.
The WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Method supports this feature as well. Similar to the PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin, store owners can set the desired value based on each shipping service. You can refer to the above image for the same. This plugin also supports both the flat rate as well as percentage value to increase or decrease the shipping cost.
Parcel Packing method
The PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin supports the following parcel packing methods:
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**Pack items individually**By using this type of packing method store owners will be able to pack their products individually and the shipping rates will be calculated per package. Thus, the total number of items in an order will ultimately decide the number of packages and the respective cost.
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Pack items into boxes with Weight and DimensionsThis packing method allows store owners to pack the items based on the pre-defined packages from FedEx. You can refer to the image given below as well. Now, if you want to create shipping boxes with custom dimensions and weight limits, it is possible to do that as well. This is a very useful option for the store owners who prefer custom shipping boxes over the default FedEx boxes.
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**Weight-based packing**This packing method is one of the widely-used and recommended packing methods. It allows store owners to set a Max Weight in the plugin settings and depending on this value the items will be further packed into a single parcel.
The image below shows the various FedEx boxes that are available in the plugin settings page.
The WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Method also supports multiple packing methods. However, it misses out on one of the most important packing methods, that is, Weight-based packing method. While the other two packing methods may or may not be sufficient for your business case, but even a reason like that cannot justify missing such an important option.
Print Shipping Labels
This has got to be one of the most important features in any shipping plugin. This feature allows the WooCommerce store owners to print the shipping labels directly from the WooCommerce admin page. The shipping label will contain the necessary details regarding the weight of the package, source address, destination address, service name, etc. In the PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin, store owners can automatically generate and print the shipping label after they create the shipment. This can be done right from the Order Edit page and it is very convenient as well. Moreover, store owners can even automate this process which will further save their time. Now, for some reason, if the store owner needs to print the return shipping label, then they can do that as well. You can refer the following image below for that.
On the other hand, the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Method doesn’t allow store owners to create or print the shipping labels right from the plugin. It only provides the integration between the WooCommerce and FedEx rates. Hence, if you want to print the shipping label then you would need to do that externally, which is a time-consuming process.
Shipment Tracking
Shipment tracking is another one of the most important parts of the entire shipping process. This is because of the fact that it has the direct relationship with customer satisfaction and security. Now, as soon as the package is shipped, the shipment tracking ID should be shared with the customer. And yes, the PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin allows you to do that. Shop owners can also choose whether they want to share the tracking details with their customers or not. They can even add a custom message that can contain the tracking ID link and the shipping date as well. If you enable a particular option in the plugin settings page, then the plugin can also automatically attach the tracking details along with the order completion email. This way the customer can quickly refer tracking details.
Whereas, the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Plugin does not support this feature. Shop owners, therefore, have to manually find the tracking details and then share it with their customer.
Basic troubleshooting
At times, when using a plugin, you might face some technical issues. And the reason behind the issues can be anything. This may happen because of an internal(plugin settings) or external(servers, WordPress issue, etc…) issue. Whatever may be the case, as soon as this happens, you would need a mechanism that will help you find the exact issue and fix it by yourself or get help from someone experienced. The PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin has a very structured way of debugging issues. This can be done from the settings page by enabling the option called Debug Mode. Thereafter, you can go to the Cart or Checkout or even Edit Order page to debug the issue. However, at any step, if you are not able to figure out the issue by yourself, then you can always rely on the PluginHive’s customer support.
Debug mode
The FedEx Shipping Method by WooCommerce has a similar debugging method. You have an option to enable the Debug Mode and figure out the issue in the Cart/Checkout page. If you would like to know more about the debugging options available in the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Method plugin then please follow this link.
Cost of the plugins
Before making the decision, you should note that almost all the features available in the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Method are available in the Free version of the PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin. So, if you have decided to pay for a plugin then it is better to go with the PluginHive FedEx Shipping Plugin as it just costs $69.
Whereas the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Method will cost you $79. Another good thing about this is that you can try some of the features in the free version of the PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin and then decide to go for the premium version. But, sadly you cannot do that in the case of WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Method as there is no free or basic version of the plugin.
Which one should you choose?
Deciding the right shipping plugin for your WooCommerce store might seem to be a tough job. To make it easier, you just need to evaluate the plugins based on the parameters. These parameters may depend upon your WooCommerce store’s needs. For example, if you do need to print shipping labels then go for the shipping plugin that offers that. However, based on our analysis the PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin proves to be highly feature-packed. It offers a huge range of functionalities that will definitely help ship products via FedEx.
If you have any query regarding this article or the integration of WooCommerce FedEx Shipping plugin with your WooCommerce then feel free to share your views in the comment section below. We will be more than happy to help you understand how this plugin can work together in fulfilling your shipping requirements.
Or in case you are wondering what more does the PluginHive FedEx Shipping plugin serve, I would request you to kindly visit the official product page here. If you need assistance regarding our plugins, you can also contact our support team. We are always happy to help.
About the plugin…
WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Plugin with Print Label
- WooCommerce requires at least 2.6 up to 3.2.
- The license entitles 1 year of support & updates.
- No monthly fees or yearly subscription.
- Extend support & updates after 1 year at 50% discount.
- Protected by 30 Day Money Back Guarantee.