Docs · Shipping & carriers

Rates, routing and labels

You never choose a carrier per order unless you want to. Forto quotes live rates in your checkout, then routes each parcel to the best option across its own carrier accounts and any accounts you bring — and prints the label.

Rates in your checkout

With Shopify CCS enabled, Forto injects live carrier-calculated rates into checkout per destination and cart. Without CCS (Basic/Starter Shopify plans), Manual Rate Mode uses your Shopify shipping zones at checkout while Forto’s engine still picks the actual carrier at fulfillment — same routing, same labels, just fixed checkout prices you control.

How routing decides

Forto’s decision engine prices each shipment across every connected account and picks the carrier and service. It routes with a balanced strategy by default, weighing price against delivery time; on Starter it picks the cheapest option. The routing strategy is Forto’s setting, not one you choose or manage.

The engine only picks options that can actually serve the lane: a cheap service that can’t pay duties at the border isn’t eligible for an order whose duties were paid at checkout.

Bringing your own carrier accounts

If you have negotiated carrier contracts, connect them in Settings → Carriers. Your accounts then compete in routing alongside Forto’s pool. When your account wins, the label bills to your account at your rate — Forto adds only a flat per-label fee and takes no percentage of your rate. Connecting your own accounts is available on Growth and up; how many accounts you can connect and the per-label fee depend on your plan — see the compare table.

BYOC is additive, never either/or

Connecting your own accounts never turns Forto’s pool off. Every parcel gets the best of both worlds — whichever account wins that shipment.

Labels and batches

·Labels generate per order in Fulfillment, with customs documents attached electronically.
·Batch printing runs a whole queue in one pass (Growth and up).
·Labels ship from your store’s origin address in Denmark.

How orders count against your plan

Each order counts once: as a label when it ships on a label purchased through Forto, or, on Enterprise contracts that ship cross-border on their own carrier account, as a quoted order when Forto calculated its landed cost at checkout. Past your plan’s monthly limit, extra orders are billed from your wallet after the month closes; on the free plan label purchases stop until the next month instead. The limits and per-order fees are in the limits section of Pricing.