Route vs SHIPAID at a glance
| Route | SHIPAID | |
|---|---|---|
| Model (per listing) | Licensed package protection, returns and exchanges, tracking | Branded order guarantee you run, plus returns portal and tracking |
| Who resolves a claim | Route (“fast issue resolution”) | You, from the SHIPAID dashboard |
| Listed price | Free to install; additional charges per route.com/pricing | Free to install; 9% of shipping-guarantee revenue earned through the app |
| App Store rating | 4.0 from 376 reviews | 4.8 from 25 reviews |
| 1–2★ reviews | 88 (23%) | 1 (4%) |
| Our relationship | None | Affiliate |
Listings checked 15 Oct 2026. SHIPAID has only 25 reviews, so its rating rests on a small sample.
The real difference: who carries the risk
With Route, the protection is licensed and Route resolves the issue, so a lost parcel is not paid from your margin. The trade-off is that Route sets the rules. In our read of all 88 of Route’s one- and two-star reviews, 39 mention claims denied, slow or unpaid, and 3 describe accounts ended after claims. One merchant wrote: “We woke up to an email that Route was offboarding us immediately due to profitability concerns.”
With SHIPAID, you keep the guarantee revenue minus the 9% fee and pay for replacements yourself. You decide every case, but a bad month of losses is yours. SHIPAID’s only negative review (Feb 2024) is about marketing emails, not claims, and says: “There's no reason to give spammy app owners a percentage of your hard earned sales.”
Run the numbers before you choose
Example only: if 500 customers a month add a $3 guarantee, that is $1,500 of guarantee revenue. SHIPAID’s 9% is $135, leaving $1,365 to cover replacements. If your lost and damaged orders cost less than that, self-insuring wins; if they cost more, insured protection is safer. Route does not list a price on the App Store, so ask it for a quote. Put your own order count, fee and loss rate into the shipping protection calculator.
Verdict: who should pick which
- Pick Route if you would rather not carry loss risk yourself, ship high-value orders where one loss hurts, or want returns, exchanges and tracking in the same app. Read the claim terms carefully: claims are the second-biggest complaint in its negative reviews (support is first, with 44 of 87).
- Pick SHIPAID (try SHIPAID affiliate link) if your loss rate is low and predictable, you want to keep most of the protection revenue, and you want the final say on every case.
- Either way, organise the claims. Whichever protection you offer, Claimify Our own app gives customers a branded portal to file damaged, lost and warranty claims and puts every case on one dashboard in your Shopify admin. Check carrier deadlines with the claim deadline checker.
Leaving Route already? Our Route alternatives page groups all 88 negative reviews by complaint, with quotes.
Insure or self-insure? Run your numbersEnter orders, protection fee, take rate and loss rate. See whether self-insuring beats paying for protection.Open the shipping protection calculator