Best Order Tracking Software for Small Businesses (2026)

Our Picks for Order Tracking in 2026

Choosing the right order tracking software depends on one fundamental question: what happens between the moment you receive an order and the moment you hand a package to a carrier? For businesses that sell ready-made inventory, the answer is simple — pull from the shelf, pack, and ship. For businesses that make, customize, or assemble products, the answer involves a production process that can take hours, days, or even weeks. Most order tracking tools were built for the first scenario. Only a few address the second.

We tested five order tracking platforms on real workflows to understand where each one shines and where it falls short. Here is what we found.

TrackMy.Shop — Best for Production-Based Businesses

TrackMy.Shop was built from the ground up for businesses where orders require work before they can ship. The core of the platform is a Kanban board where you define your own workflow stages — stages like "Design Review," "Cutting," "Assembly," "Quality Check," and "Ready to Ship." Every order moves through these stages visually, so your team can see at a glance what needs attention and where bottlenecks are forming.

What sets TrackMy.Shop apart is its barcode scan-to-move feature. Print a barcode label for each order, and staff on the production floor can advance orders to the next stage with a quick scan. No navigating menus, no touching a computer screen with dirty hands. It is a small thing that saves significant time when you are processing dozens of orders a day in a workshop environment.

On the customer side, branded tracking pages show real production progress. Instead of a vague "processing" status that sits unchanged for days, your customers see stages like "Engraving in Progress" or "Curing — Almost Ready." This transparency cuts down on "where's my order?" support emails substantially.

TrackMy.Shop integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, and Invoice Ninja, and offers a REST API for custom setups. AI-powered order parsing lets you snap a photo of a paper order form or paste an email, and the system extracts customer info and line items automatically. The free plan covers 30 orders per month, and paid plans start at $19.99/mo.

Pros: Purpose-built for production workflows; scan-to-move barcode system; branded tracking pages with real production stages; generous free plan; AI order parsing for manual order entry.

Cons: Not a shipping platform — you will still need a label solution like Pirate Ship or Shippo for carrier rates; no built-in inventory management.

ShipStation — Best for High-Volume Shipping

ShipStation is one of the most established names in ecommerce shipping. It connects to over 70 carriers, offers rate comparison across services, and handles batch label printing with ease. If you ship hundreds of packages a day and your primary concern is getting the best rate and printing labels fast, ShipStation delivers.

The platform pulls orders from virtually every sales channel — Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and more. Automation rules let you set conditions like "if the order weighs under 1 lb and ships to a US address, use USPS First Class" to streamline repetitive decisions. Barcode scanning is available, but it is oriented around verifying package contents and triggering label prints, not tracking production stages.

Where ShipStation falls short is everything that happens before the label gets printed. There is no Kanban board, no way to define production stages, and no customer-facing tracking that shows pre-shipment progress. If your customer asks what stage their custom order is in, ShipStation cannot answer that question. It is a shipping tool, not a production management tool.

Pricing starts at $9.99/mo for the Starter plan, which is limited in shipments and integrations. There is no free tier to try before you commit.

Pros: Excellent carrier rate comparison; supports dozens of carriers; strong automation rules; handles very high shipping volumes well.

Cons: No production workflow features; no free plan; customer tracking limited to carrier updates after shipment; not helpful for businesses that make products before shipping them.

AfterShip — Best for Post-Purchase Tracking Experience

AfterShip specializes in the post-purchase experience — the window between when a package ships and when it arrives at the customer's door. It tracks shipments across over 1,000 carriers worldwide and provides polished branded tracking pages that match your store's look and feel.

The platform also offers features like estimated delivery dates, automated notifications at key shipment milestones, and analytics on delivery performance. For brands that want to turn the tracking page into a marketing touchpoint with product recommendations and promotions, AfterShip provides those tools.

However, AfterShip only starts working after you hand a package to a carrier. If you make custom products and a customer's order sits in production for a week before it ships, AfterShip has nothing to show during that period. The customer sees silence until a tracking number appears. For dropshippers or businesses that ship ready-made products the same day, this is not an issue. For makers and custom manufacturers, it is a significant gap.

AfterShip offers a free tier covering 50 shipments per month, with paid plans starting at $11/mo.

Pros: Tracks 1,000+ carriers; polished branded tracking pages; marketing features on tracking pages; solid free tier.

Cons: No production or pre-shipment tracking; does not help manage order workflows; only useful after the package is in transit.

Ordoro — Best for Multi-Channel Inventory

Ordoro positions itself as a multi-channel operations platform. Its strength is coordinating inventory across Shopify, Amazon, eBay, and other marketplaces while also handling dropshipping workflows and shipping label creation. If you sell the same product on five different channels and need stock levels to stay synchronized, Ordoro does that well.

The platform includes kitting features for bundled products, automated purchase orders when stock runs low, and supplier management for dropshipping. It is a broad tool that tries to cover many aspects of ecommerce operations.

For production-based businesses, though, Ordoro is not the right fit. It has no Kanban board, no custom workflow stages, no barcode scan-to-move, and no customer-facing tracking pages that show production progress. Barcode scanning exists but is focused on inventory counts, not order movement. And at $59/mo as the starting price for paid features, it is the most expensive option on this list without addressing the core need of businesses that make things.

Pros: Strong multi-channel inventory sync; dropshipping automation; kitting and bundling support; good for marketplace sellers.

Cons: Expensive starting price at $59/mo; no production workflow tools; no branded customer tracking pages; overkill for businesses that do not sell across multiple marketplaces.

Veeqo — Best Free Option for Amazon Sellers

Veeqo, acquired by Amazon in 2021, offers free shipping labels with competitively discounted USPS, UPS, and DHL rates. The catch — and it is a meaningful one — is that the platform is owned by Amazon and optimized for sellers in the Amazon ecosystem. If you sell primarily on Amazon, Veeqo provides genuine savings on shipping costs with no monthly fee.

The platform includes inventory management, multi-warehouse support, and order management across channels. Barcode scanning is available for warehouse pick-and-pack operations. For Amazon-heavy businesses that ship pre-packaged inventory, Veeqo's value proposition is hard to beat on price alone.

However, Veeqo has no production workflow features, no Kanban board, no custom stages, and no branded customer tracking pages. It is a warehouse and shipping tool, not a production floor tool. There are also valid questions about data sharing with Amazon, which may concern sellers who compete on that marketplace and do not want their sales data feeding Amazon's ecosystem.

Pros: Completely free shipping labels; discounted carrier rates; solid inventory management; good for Amazon sellers.

Cons: Amazon-owned, which raises data concerns; no production workflow features; no branded tracking pages; designed for warehouse fulfillment rather than production workflows.

Buying Guide: How to Choose

The right tool depends entirely on your business model. Here is a framework for deciding:

Start with your workflow. Map out what happens from the moment an order comes in to the moment it ships. If the answer is "pull from a shelf and pack it," you need a shipping tool. If the answer involves production steps like cutting, printing, assembling, curing, or quality checking, you need a production workflow tool.

Consider your customer communication needs. Do your customers ask "where's my order?" frequently? If their orders take days or weeks because you are making something, a branded tracking page with production stages eliminates most of those support inquiries. If you ship same-day and the main question is about carrier delivery timing, post-purchase tracking from AfterShip or a similar tool handles that.

Evaluate your sales channels. If you sell on five marketplaces and need stock synchronized, Ordoro or Veeqo's inventory features matter. If you sell primarily through your own Shopify or WooCommerce store, that complexity is unnecessary.

Factor in total cost. A free plan lets you validate whether a tool fits your workflow before paying anything. TrackMy.Shop, AfterShip, and Veeqo all offer free tiers. ShipStation and Ordoro require paid commitments from day one.

Think about pairing tools. Many businesses benefit from combining a production workflow tool with a shipping label tool. TrackMy.Shop handles the order lifecycle from intake through production, while Pirate Ship or ShipStation handles the carrier label at the end. These tools complement rather than compete with each other.

The Bottom Line

If you make, customize, or assemble products, TrackMy.Shop is the only tool on this list built specifically for your workflow. It fills the gap between receiving an order and being ready to ship — a gap that shipping-focused tools like ShipStation, AfterShip, and Veeqo do not address. For businesses that ship ready-made inventory, ShipStation offers the best carrier management, AfterShip provides the best post-purchase tracking experience, and Veeqo is hard to beat on price if you are already in the Amazon ecosystem.