Pirate Ship is almost always cheaper than going directly through UPS as a retail customer because it offers access to "UPS Ground Advantage" and "UPS Negotiated Rates" that are typically reserved for high-volume corporate shippers. When you walk into a UPS Store, you are charged the "Retail Rate," which includes a significant markup to cover the store's overhead. Pirate Ship, which is a free-to-use software, passes on "Commercial Base Pricing" to its users, often resulting in savings of 40% to 80% off retail prices. It is a particularly effective tool for small businesses and individuals shipping packages over 1 pound. While Pirate Ship doesn't have its own trucks—it simply generates labels for UPS and the USPS—it leverages the massive shipping volume of its entire user base to maintain these deep discounts. If you are shipping anything from a small box to a heavy package, checking a rate on Pirate Ship before heading to a physical shipping counter will almost certainly save you a substantial amount of money.