An independent reference for international shipping from the United States
Last reviewed on April 27, 2026.
IntlMail.com is a reference site for U.S. senders shipping packages internationally. It compares the four carriers most U.S. shippers actually choose between — USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL — and explains the rules at the destination country that determine whether a parcel arrives smoothly or gets stuck in customs.
The goal is plain: when you sit down to send something abroad, you should be able to look up the carrier options, the form you need, the country's de minimis threshold, and a realistic delivery window in one place — without wading through carrier marketing pages or piecing together forum threads.
People shipping a one-off gift, family parcel, or document abroad and looking for the cheapest sensible option.
Shop owners working out which carrier matches their average parcel and which destinations need extra customs care.
Readers who need to fill in a CN22, CN23, or commercial invoice and want a plain-English walkthrough.
Side-by-side breakdowns of USPS vs UPS, USPS vs FedEx, USPS vs DHL, UPS vs FedEx, UPS vs DHL, and FedEx vs DHL, plus a full four-carrier matrix.
Destination-specific pages covering de minimis thresholds, VAT/GST, prohibited categories, typical delivery windows, and which carrier tends to make sense. See all country guides.
Plain-English walkthroughs for the parts that trip people up: customs forms and prohibited items, with the glossary for unfamiliar terms.
Free, browser-only utilities: a rate calculator on the home page, a delivery time estimator, and a weight unit converter for filling out customs forms.
Pages are written and reviewed in-house by people who ship internationally. The starting points are the carriers' published service guides, the destination country's customs authority, and standard postal-union documentation (the Universal Postal Union for CN22/CN23 forms, for example). Where two sources disagree, we err on the side of the customs authority because that is the body that actually clears the parcel.
Rates and de minimis thresholds in our guides are reference figures, not live quotes. They are reviewed periodically — the "Last reviewed" date at the top of each substantive page tells you when. For the price you will actually pay, run the carrier's own quote at the time of shipment; account discounts, fuel surcharges, and remote-area fees move the number.
Pick the path that matches what you're trying to do.
Compare rates Country guides Customs forms