Should I integrate FedEx or UPS into my Rails app?

Question

I'm working on integrating a shipping solution into a Rails ecommerce app. We're only going to use one shipping provider. So the question is: FedEx or UPS?

I'm wondering what Rails developers think about the tech side of this question.

What do you think about the APIs, ease of integration, focus on developer's needs between FedEx and UPS?

I was leaning towards FedEx, but from looking at the developers resources sections of both sites, it seems that UPS might be more developer friendly.

Also, I'm going to be using Shopify's active_shipping gem: http://github.com/Shopify/active_shipping

And I also based my app off the Spree Ecommerce solution, but I don't think that's particularly relevant to the question. Spree wrote a wrapper to integrate active_shipping with the Spree system.

Thanks.

Answer 1

They are about the same.

I've used the FedEx web services for shipping integration and they are very straightforward. They give sample code downloads for each service and step that you would need in order to ship and track packages and print any documentation you would need. UPS looked to be about the same when I did research into their services, however I ended up using direct database connections (ODBC) from their desktop shipping application to integrate instead (using a scan gun to fill in information was a better route for us, and what they call "EDI" integration was a better fit for my company).

For this question, IMO, the question you may want to be asking is "how do the shipping services themselves meet the needs of the customers...and help make me money?". Both will be comparable from a technical aspect, and both have always been helpful in answering questions when I call if I don't understand something when setting up integration (They make money when you succeed and lose money if you get frustrated and switch!).

So, focus on:

1. Shipment Prices
2. Service Options (how much can I grow in the future? Do you need worldwide shipping?)

Basically, they aren't different enough to make a decision based solely on the technical aspects. It would make more sense (assuming this is to actually ship products and not a just for fun project) to focus on what would be a better overall business decision.