Direct contracts beat aggregator rates at volume; aggregators beat them on day one with zero volume commitment.
| Dimension | An aggregator | A direct courier contract |
|---|---|---|
| Volume needed | None | Usually 500+/month to negotiate |
| Rates | Marked-up rack rates | Your negotiated card |
| Carrier choice | Many, instantly | One — yours |
| Ops overhead | One place | Per-courier ops |
Pick An aggregator if…
You're under ~300 orders/month or still finding your lanes.
Pick A direct courier contract if…
A single carrier covers 80% of your orders at volumes they respect.
Photo: Austin Distel / Unsplash
The third option worth pricing
Pakka Parcel is the hybrid: bring your own rate cards where you have them, use platform rates where you don't.
Whatever you choose, run the same five real orders through both options before committing — cost per delivered order beats every comparison table, including this one.
Pakka Parcel quotes every enabled carrier per order — so 'which is cheaper' stops being a research project.
See how →A fair warning about comparison posts
Courier pricing, pincode counts and remittance cycles change quarterly — verify the current numbers on each provider's site before deciding. This page reflects the market as of October 2026 and our honest reading of where each option fits; we publish Pakka Parcel, so read our row with that bias in mind.
