An Post or a courier? Choose per parcel, not per year
How Irish online shops actually decide between An Post and a courier like DPD — by weight, destination, and speed, parcel by parcel — and how automation rules make the choice for you.
Short answer
For most Irish online shops it is not An Post or a courier — it is An Post and a courier, chosen per parcel. Weight, size, destination, and speed decide it: light, letterbox-friendly parcels usually suit An Post, while heavier, bulkier, or time-critical parcels usually suit a courier such as DPD. Shipping software with automation rules can make that call order by order so you are not deciding at the packing bench.
The annual-decision trap
Shops tend to pick a carrier once — whoever quoted well the year the shop started — and then force every parcel through that choice. The parcel mix drifts, the rate card changes, and nobody re-decides, because re-deciding feels like a procurement project.
The better frame is smaller: which carrier suits this parcel? Answer that well, automatically, and the annual question mostly disappears.
What actually decides it
- Weight and size. Light parcels that fit postal bands are where An Post is at its best; heavy or awkward boxes tend to price better with a courier.
- Destination. Domestic, UK, EU, and rest-of-world can each favour a different service — the same shop often splits by destination alone.
- Speed. When next-day matters, courier networks are built for it. When two or three days is fine, postal services usually win on cost.
- Delivery experience. Consider what your customer sees: tracking granularity, delivery windows, redelivery and collection options.
- Your own rates. Both An Post and DPD price per account. The comparison that matters is your rates on your parcel mix, not a public rate card.
The cost that never appears on a rate card
Switching between two carrier systems by hand — two logins, two label flows, two places tracking numbers live — quietly costs more than most rate differences. It is also where mistakes come from: the address typed twice, the tracking number pasted into the wrong order.
That admin cost is why many shops never split traffic even when the numbers say they should. Remove the admin and the split becomes free.
Codify the choice with rules
EirLink runs An Post and DPD side by side on your own accounts, and its automation rules turn your carrier policy into something that executes itself: rules match on weight, destination country, order value, or tags, and set the carrier, service, and sender address. First matching rule wins; no rule matching falls through to your default.
The human stays in charge. You can override the carrier on any order before the label exists, and if a rule points at a carrier whose credentials are disconnected, the order surfaces as an exception instead of silently shipping with the other carrier.
Quick answers
Is An Post cheaper than a courier?
For light parcels in postal weight bands, usually — but it depends on your negotiated rates and your parcel mix. The honest answer is to compare your own rates on your five most common parcels, not a public rate card.
Can I use An Post and DPD on the same Shopify store?
Yes. EirLink runs both side by side: each order gets a carrier — chosen by you or by an automation rule — and labels bill to the matching account.
Do I need accounts with both carriers?
Yes, one with each you want to ship with. EirLink works through your own An Post eCommHub and DPD Ireland accounts, which keeps your rates and carrier relationships direct.