TrackMy.Shop vs AfterShip — Full Lifecycle vs Post-Purchase Tracking

TrackMy.Shop vs AfterShip: Full Order Lifecycle vs Post-Purchase Tracking

If you've been searching for a way to keep customers informed about their orders, you've probably come across AfterShip. It's one of the most well-known names in post-purchase tracking, and for good reason. But depending on what kind of business you run, AfterShip might solve only half your problem -- or it might be exactly what you need. Let's walk through both tools honestly so you can figure out which one fits.

What Each Tool Actually Does

AfterShip is a post-purchase tracking platform. It connects to over 1,200 shipping carriers worldwide, pulls in tracking data once a package has shipped, and presents that information on a branded tracking page. It also sends email and SMS notifications as shipment statuses change -- things like "shipped," "in transit," "out for delivery," and "delivered." It's polished, reliable, and focused squarely on the carrier tracking experience.

TrackMy.Shop is an order lifecycle management tool built for businesses that make, customize, or assemble products before shipping. It gives you a visual Kanban board to manage orders through custom workflow stages, barcode scanning for hands-free production floor operations, and branded customer tracking pages that show every step from "Order Received" through production all the way to delivery. It integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Invoice Ninja, and any custom system via REST API.

The Fundamental Difference: Post-Purchase vs Full Lifecycle

Here's the core thing to understand: AfterShip's tracking starts when you print a shipping label. Everything before that moment is invisible to AfterShip and, by extension, invisible to your customer.

For a lot of businesses, that's completely fine. If you sell products that sit on a shelf ready to ship, the gap between "order placed" and "shipping label created" might be a few hours. Your customer gets a tracking notification the same day, and AfterShip handles the rest beautifully.

But if you run a business where orders spend days or weeks in production -- a custom furniture shop, a print shop, a small-batch food producer, a jewelry maker -- then your customers are sitting in silence during the most anxiety-inducing part of the wait. They ordered something custom. They're wondering if you even started on it. And the "where's my order?" emails start rolling in.

TrackMy.Shop fills that gap. Your branded tracking page shows customers real stages like "Design Approved," "In Production," "Curing," "Quality Check," and "Ready to Ship" -- not just carrier scan events. The tracking experience starts the moment you receive the order, not the moment you hand it to FedEx.

Feature Deep Dive

Branded Tracking Pages

Both tools offer branded tracking pages with your logo and colors. AfterShip's tracking pages are mature and well-designed, with options for product recommendations and marketing content on the page. TrackMy.Shop's tracking pages are focused on showing real production progress through your custom workflow stages -- customers see a visual timeline of exactly where their order is in your process.

Workflow and Order Management

This is where the tools diverge completely. AfterShip doesn't manage your orders or workflow at all. It's a tracking layer that sits on top of whatever you already use for order management.

TrackMy.Shop is your order management system. You get a Kanban board where you can drag orders between stages, barcode scan-to-move functionality for your production floor, custom workflow stages that match your actual process, and AI-powered order parsing that can read paper forms and emails. It's the tool your team uses day-to-day to manage work, and the customer tracking page is a natural extension of that internal workflow.

Notifications

AfterShip excels at automated email and SMS notifications tied to carrier shipment events. It has robust notification templates and supports multiple languages. TrackMy.Shop sends automatic email notifications when orders move between your workflow stages, so customers get updates at meaningful production milestones, not just shipping checkpoints.

Integrations

AfterShip integrates broadly -- Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and many more e-commerce platforms. TrackMy.Shop integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Invoice Ninja, and offers a REST API for custom integrations. AfterShip has broader e-commerce platform coverage; TrackMy.Shop covers the major platforms and adds flexibility through its API.

Who Is Each Tool Built For?

AfterShip is ideal for:

• E-commerce stores that ship ready-made products quickly
• Businesses whose main tracking concern starts at the shipping label
• Stores that want to turn tracking pages into marketing touchpoints with product recommendations
• High-volume shippers who need carrier tracking across dozens of carriers

TrackMy.Shop is ideal for:

• Businesses that make, customize, or assemble products before shipping
• Workshops, print shops, bakeries, jewelers, and small manufacturers
• Teams that need a production management tool, not just a tracking layer
• Anyone whose customers ask "what's happening with my order?" before it ships

Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: Drop-shipping store selling phone cases. Orders come in, you or your supplier pulls a case from inventory, slaps on a label, and ships it same-day. AfterShip is the right pick. There's no meaningful production stage to track, and AfterShip will handle carrier notifications smoothly.

Scenario 2: Custom woodworking shop making personalized cutting boards. An order comes in, you confirm the design with the customer, cut the wood, engrave it, apply finish, let it cure for 48 hours, inspect it, and then ship it. That's a week or more of silence if you're using AfterShip alone. With TrackMy.Shop, the customer sees each stage on their tracking page, and your team manages the entire workflow on a Kanban board with barcode scanning at each station.

Scenario 3: Subscription box company. You assemble boxes on a schedule and ship them out in batches. AfterShip handles the post-ship tracking well. But if your assembly process is multi-step and you want customers to know their box is being packed, TrackMy.Shop gives you that pre-shipment visibility.

Pricing Comparison

AfterShip offers a free plan with 50 shipments per month. Paid plans start at $11/month and scale based on shipment volume, with additional features like advanced analytics and custom domains on higher tiers.

TrackMy.Shop offers a free plan with 30 orders per month. Paid plans start at $19.99/month and include unlimited workflow stages, barcode scanning, branded tracking pages, and integrations. There are no per-shipment fees.

AfterShip's entry price is lower, but you're comparing different things. AfterShip is a tracking notification layer. TrackMy.Shop is your entire order management and tracking system. If you'd otherwise need a separate tool to manage your production workflow, TrackMy.Shop can replace multiple tools.

Can You Use Both Together?

Absolutely, and for some businesses this makes a lot of sense. Use TrackMy.Shop to manage your production workflow and show customers pre-shipment progress. Once you hand the package to a carrier, AfterShip takes over with detailed carrier tracking, delivery estimates, and post-delivery notifications.

This gives your customers full visibility from order placement through production and all the way to their doorstep. It's the best of both worlds, though it does mean paying for two tools.

The Bottom Line

AfterShip is an excellent tool for what it does -- post-purchase carrier tracking with polished branded pages and notifications. If your products ship quickly and the carrier journey is the main thing customers want to track, AfterShip is a strong choice.

TrackMy.Shop is built for the businesses that AfterShip can't fully serve: the ones where the real story happens before the shipping label gets printed. If your customers are waiting through a production process and you want to replace silence with transparency, TrackMy.Shop gives you the workflow tools and the customer-facing tracking pages to make that happen.

The right choice depends on where your customers' anxiety lives. If it's "is my package lost in transit?" -- AfterShip. If it's "did they even start making my order yet?" -- TrackMy.Shop.