PrivateMile vs Shipday: an honest comparison.
Shipday is popular with restaurants and local businesses, particularly for its links to third-party courier networks. PrivateMile is built for fleets running their own drivers end to end, priced by order volume. Here is how they differ.
The honest version
Who each one is for.
Both tools run real delivery operations. The difference is what kind of operation, and what you pay as it grows.
Choose PrivateMile if
You run your own drivers as the core of the operation and want depth there — planning against the clock, enforced proof, cash collection, driver pay from completed routes and real reporting — with couriers as an overflow option rather than the model.
Choose Shipday if
Most of your deliveries are handed to third-party couriers rather than your own drivers, and the value you want is the marketplace connection rather than fleet depth.
Side by side
PrivateMile vs Shipday, feature by feature.
PrivateMile plans start at $150/month for 2,500 orders with every feature included. Shipday has a free tier and paid plans; check the current tiers and what each includes on their site.
| Feature | PrivateMile | Shipday |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing basis | Monthly plan by order volume; no per-driver fees | Free tier plus paid plans — see their site |
| Starting price | $150/month (2,500 orders — 5,000 tasks) | See their current pricing |
| Free trial | Yes — 15 days, full access, no card | Trial offered; see their site for terms |
| Route optimization | Yes — with preview and confirm before applying | Available — check the current plan structure |
| Auto-dispatch | Yes — nearest, round-robin, load-balanced, zones | Yes — including hand-off to courier networks |
| AI copilot in plain language | Yes — create, assign and query orders conversationally | Not listed as a feature when checked |
| Proof of delivery | Yes — photo, signature, notes, QR-verified parcels, OTP handoff | Yes — photo and signature |
| Driver app offline mode | Yes — queue, sync, conflict-safe replays | See their site |
| Cash on delivery | Yes — cash, card, cheque recorded at the door | See their site |
| Customer tracking page | Yes — white-label, your domain | Yes — branded |
| Store integrations | Yes — Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Ecwid, Zapier, API | Integrations and API — see their site |
| Driver pay & fleet costs | Yes — pay from completed routes, fuel and cost per vehicle | See their site |
| Onboarding & migration help | Included on every plan | Varies by plan |
The Shipday column describes their publicly listed offering as we understood it in Sep 2026. Plans change — confirm the details on their site before deciding, and tell us if something here is out of date.
Where the two differ most
Own fleet or somebody else’s. This is the real fork. Shipday’s distinguishing strength is handing deliveries to third-party courier networks when you do not have a driver. PrivateMile assumes the drivers are yours: their pay, their vans, their proof, their performance, all measured.
Both models are legitimate. Which one fits depends on whether delivery is a cost you want to outsource or a part of the product you want to own — and on density, since your own drivers get cheaper per delivery with every extra stop per hour while courier fees stay roughly flat.
Depth on the fleet side. If the drivers are yours, the questions become: what did that van cost per mile, what is each driver owed for the routes they actually drove, which route is quietly twice the cost of the others, and was the proof captured. Those are the questions PrivateMile is built to answer.
What is included. Every PrivateMile feature is on every plan, including the $150 one — route optimization, QR-verified proof, OTP handoffs, the AI copilot, white-label tracking and all store integrations. Compare that against which capabilities sit in which tier elsewhere.
What switching looks like
Most teams run both side by side for a few days on the trial: same orders, same drivers, two boards. Import is a CSV, the driver app installs from the App Store or Google Play, and tracking pages go live with your logo the same day. If something you rely on today is missing here, we would rather tell you before you switch than after.
Pricing
Priced by volume. Never per driver.
Per-driver pricing punishes you for growing. We don’t. Every plan includes all four apps and support — pick by monthly order volume, and scaling your fleet never means renegotiating your stack.
Every plan starts with a 15-day free trial — full access, no card required.
What’s in the box
- Dispatch board, driver app & tracking pages
- Every feature — nothing sold as an add-on
- Route optimization & live ETAs
- Offline-capable driver app (iOS & Android)
- AI copilot, automations & integrations
- White-label branding on customer pages
- Onboarding & migration help included
- Cancel anytime — no long-term contract
15-day free trial on every plan. Questions first? Talk to us.
Can PrivateMile hand deliveries to a third-party courier?
There is a carrier hand-off for orders you do not want to run yourself. If a specific courier network is central to your model, ask us before switching and we will tell you plainly what is supported.
We use couriers at peak and our own drivers the rest of the time. Does that work?
Yes, and it is the structure most growing fleets settle on: own drivers for the predictable base load, couriers for peaks and the long tail. The important part is seeing both in one place.
Is there a free plan?
No — plans start at $150/month for 2,500 orders, with a 15-day trial that includes everything and needs no card. The trade is that nothing is gated to a higher tier.
Other comparisons
How PrivateMile stacks up.
Run one real day on both. Then decide.
Import a day of orders on the 15-day trial and compare with your current board side by side — no card, and we help with migration.
Questions first? Tell us about your delivery day — or sign in.