Best Shiply Alternative UK — 2026 Comparison

Shiply is one of the best-known names in UK removal quotes — but it's not the only option. Before you post your job there, it's worth understanding how the model works, what it costs drivers, and whether there's a better alternative for getting genuinely competitive prices.

How Shiply works

Shiply operates as a reverse-auction marketplace. You post your job and registered couriers or removal drivers bid for it. You pick the best quote and pay a deposit to Shiply. Sounds straightforward — but the business model has a significant effect on the prices you're quoted.

Shiply charges drivers a success fee on every job they win. Shiply does not publish its rates; its terms describe only "a tiered percentage" calculated per quote. Published summaries and driver reports put the fee at roughly 3.9%–9.9%, with a minimum of about £6 and the percentage falling as the job value rises. That fee gets passed on to you inside the bid you are shown — a driver who needs to earn £300 has to quote a little over £320 to cover it.

How We Got The Move is different

We Got The Move operates on a completely different model. Drivers pay zero commission. The only fee in the whole transaction is a £9.99 booking deposit paid by the customer when they accept a bid. That's it.

Because drivers keep 100% of their quote, they can afford to bid lower. The same driver who has to quote £350 on Shiply can quote £300 on We Got The Move and still earn the same amount. The competitive pricing you get is genuine.

Side-by-side comparison

	We Got The Move	Shiply
Commission on drivers	£0 — zero	~3.9–9.9%, tiered (min ~£6)
Customer fee	£9.99 on acceptance	Deposit (variable)
Driver incentive to bid low	High — they keep everything	Lower — they lose a cut
Free to post	Yes	Yes
Driver reviews	Yes	Yes
Coverage	UK wide	UK wide

How much does a house move actually cost?

Before you can tell whether a Shiply quote is fair, it helps to know the going rate. These are typical 2026 UK prices for a standard move with a man-and-van or small removal team, based on jobs posted on We Got The Move:

Move size	Local (under 20 miles)	Long distance (150+ miles)
Studio / single room	£120 – £250	£300 – £500
1-bed flat	£180 – £350	£400 – £700
2-bed home	£280 – £500	£550 – £900
3-bed home	£400 – £700	£750 – £1,300
4-bed+ home	£600 – £1,000+	£1,000 – £1,800+

For a fuller breakdown by property size, distance and city, see our average removal costs UK guide and our man with a van cost guide.

Budgeting a move: what the commission actually adds

Here is why the platform model changes your bill. Say a driver needs to clear £300 to do your move at their genuine rate:

• On Shiply (roughly 6.9% at this job value): the driver has to quote about £322 so that, after Shiply takes its fee, they still net £300. You pay the higher quote, plus your deposit.
• On We Got The Move (zero commission): the driver quotes £300 and keeps all of it. You add a single £9.99 booking deposit — total £309.99.

On this example that is roughly £12 less for the exact same driver doing the exact same job. Be realistic about the size of that gap: because Shiply's percentage tiers down as jobs get larger, the saving is modest on big moves, and on small jobs the two work out close to level. The bigger lever on what you pay is how many drivers compete for your job, not the platform's cut.

What about the quality of drivers?

Shiply has a large driver base built over many years, which means good coverage for obscure routes or specialist loads. We Got The Move is growing quickly, with particularly strong coverage in major UK cities and popular routes.

For most standard house removals, van hire, and delivery jobs in and between UK cities, both platforms will return multiple bids. The key difference is the price floor — ours is lower because drivers aren't losing a commission slice every time.

Comparing the big players? AnyVan charges drivers even more — see our AnyVan alternative guide, Bark alternative, and Compare My Move alternative for the same breakdown.

Want the head-to-head? See Shiply vs AnyVan, or our full rundown of sites like Shiply covering all six UK options.

Shiply alternatives: your questions answered

Is there a cheaper alternative to Shiply? Usually, yes. Because We Got The Move charges drivers no commission, they can quote their genuine rate instead of adding a success fee to cover a platform cut. On mid-sized and larger jobs that usually means a lower bid for the same work; on small jobs the difference is slim.

Why are Shiply quotes sometimes higher than expected? The commission Shiply charges drivers is built into the price you're quoted. A driver who needs to clear £300 has to bid £350+ to absorb the fee, so the winning quote is rarely the true market rate.

Is Shiply safe to use? Shiply is an established platform with a large driver base, reviews and deposit handling, so plenty of people use it without issue. The trade-off is usually price, not safety — which is exactly why it's worth comparing quotes before you commit.

Do you have to pay upfront for a Shiply alternative? Not with We Got The Move. Posting your job and receiving bids is free; you only pay the £9.99 booking deposit when you choose to accept a bid. There's no obligation to accept any quote you receive.

What are the best sites like Shiply? The closest websites like Shiply are bid-based marketplaces where drivers compete for your job: We Got The Move, AnyVan and uShip all work this way. The difference is what the platform takes — We Got The Move charges drivers nothing, Shiply charges a tiered success fee of roughly 3.9–9.9%, and AnyVan does not publish a figure, with driver reports commonly putting it around 20–25%. Lead-selling sites like Bark and Compare My Move work differently: they sell your details to firms who then call you.

Are there any companies like Shiply that don't charge drivers commission? That is the main thing that sets We Got The Move apart from other companies like Shiply. Every comparable marketplace takes a percentage of the driver's fee; we take none, so the bid you see is the driver's real price rather than their price plus a platform cut. Our only charge is the £9.99 booking deposit, paid by you when you accept a bid.

Which alternative is best for me? If your priority is the lowest honest price, a zero-commission marketplace will usually win. If you also want to weigh up lead-selling sites like Bark or Compare My Move, see our Bark alternative and Compare My Move alternative guides.

Which should you use?

If price matters to you — and for most people it does — We Got The Move will typically return lower bids for the same job. Post for free, compare what comes in, and pay just £9.99 when you accept. There's no obligation to accept any bid you receive.

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