Cheapest way to send a small parcel (up to 2 kg) in the UK with tracking: Royal Mail vs Evri vs DPD vs InPost vs brokers

TL;DR — fastest path

• If the box is 8 cm deep or less and the recipient can collect from a locker: InPost Small to a locker or shop is the lowest published price, £1.99. It costs £2.89 to a home address. InPost prices by size, not weight (up to 15 kg), and the label is a QR code, so no printer is needed. Source: inpost.co.uk/send/parcel-prices, observed 2026-11-07. The page does not state the VAT basis or the included cover.
• For a box up to 45x35x16 cm and 2 kg: Evri's own price page has the cheapest published direct-carrier prices, all including tax. Delivery to a ParcelShop costs £2.62 for anything up to 5 kg. Home delivery for "1-2kg Small" costs £3.52 if you drop it off, or £4.52 if Evri collects. £20 cover is included. Source: evri.com/our-services/our-prices, observed 2026-11-07.
• Royal Mail Tracked 48 small parcel: about £3.75 online versus £4.70 at a Post Office counter, under the price guide valid from 5 October 2026. These figures come only from search snippets because royalmail.com returns 403 to automated fetches. Earlier 2026 snippets show £3.65 online and £4.45 at the counter. Buy online, because counter prices are much higher.
• Brokers are not automatically cheaper. Parcel2Go and Packlink show prices excluding VAT. Parcel2Go's "DPD Drop Off Small" was from £5.60 exc VAT, while DPD's own site claims "from £2.99 inc VAT". Packlink's "up to 2kg" band is from £2.80 exc VAT and does not say which carrier.
• Skip Parcelforce for this size. express48 starts at roughly £11.95 to £13.60, but the weight band is unclear. It suits higher value or heavier items, with £150 standard cover.
• Needs a human: any exact quote from a broker quote form (ParcelMonkey, Parcel2Go, ParcelHero), or anything from royalmail.com, parcelforce.com, parcelhero.com and postoffice.co.uk, all of which blocked automated fetches.

Verify first

1. InPost locker prices are unchanged. Fetch inpost.co.uk/send/parcel-prices. Expect Small 8x38x64 cm at £1.99 to a locker or shop and £2.89 to home, Medium at £2.59/£3.99, Large at £3.99/£5.99. If the prices differ, re-explore inpost.co.uk.
2. Evri price table. Fetch evri.com/our-services/our-prices. Expect "1-2kg Small" at £3.52 drop-off and £4.52 collection to home, and "Delivery to a ParcelShop" at £2.62 for 0-5 kg. If not, re-explore the Evri section.
3. Royal Mail October 2026 tariff. Open royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2026-09/online-price-guide-october-2026-v1-ta.pdf in a real browser, since automated fetch returns 403. Expect a Tracked 48 small parcel (2 kg) at £3.75 online, Tracked 24 at £4.80 online, and compensation up to £75. If it differs, re-explore Royal Mail through the "our-prices-october-2026-v1.pdf" counter guide.
4. DPD direct price. Fetch send.dpd.co.uk. Expect "from £2.99 (£2.49 plus VAT)" and £50 cover included. If not, re-explore DPD. The products page only returned a banner.
5. Packlink bands. Fetch packlink.com/en-GB/. Expect up to 1 kg from £2.25, up to 2 kg from £2.80, up to 5 kg from £4.06 and up to 10 kg from £4.60, all exc VAT. If not, re-explore the packlink.com section.

Domains

www.royalmail.com — main benchmark, but blocked to automated fetch

• Access (2026-11-07, observed): HTTP 403 on /sending/uk/prices and /tracked-48. Prices below come only from search snippets of royalmail.com pages and PDFs.
• Pricing (first-party claim, search snippet, 2026-11-07):
  • The "Online price guide valid from 5 October 2026" (royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2026-09/online-price-guide-october-2026-v1-ta.pdf) shows a 2 kg small parcel at £3.75 for Tracked 48 and £4.80 for Tracked 24 online.
  • Product-page snippets give counter prices of £4.70 for Tracked 48 and £6.05 for Tracked 24.
  • A "valid from 1 July 2026" online guide also exists, so there appear to be four 2026 tariff points: 5 Jan, 7 Apr, 1 Jul and 5 Oct.
• Earlier 2026 (first-party claim, undated snippets): Tracked 48 small parcel at £3.65 online and £4.45 at the counter, and Tracked 24 at £4.65 online, from the "online-parcel-price-reduction" and Tracked 48 pages. 1st Class small parcel (0-2 kg) was £5.15 online versus £5.45 at the counter. 2nd Class small parcel was £3.95 online versus £4.25 at the counter.
• 7 April 2026 change (third-party, eBay UK announcement, observed 2026-11-07):
  • Tracked 48 small and medium parcels rose by up to £0.55 per item, and Tracked 24 by up to £0.65.
  • 2nd Class parcels rose by £0.45 to £1.20, and 1st Class parcels by £0.85 to £1.75.
  • Tracked 24 and 48 now cost less than the equivalent 1st and 2nd Class parcels.
• Rules (first-party claim, snippet): Tracked 24 and 48 compensation is up to £75 or the item's value, whichever is lower, and valuables are excluded. An older Royal Mail help page says Royal Mail 24/48 carries no compensation, which contradicts this. Small parcel means up to 2 kg, and 45x35x16 cm fits. A snippet also cites a rule of H+W+D no more than 90 cm with no side over 60 cm, which still needs checking in the PDF.
• Gotchas:
  • The counter price is about £1 or more above the online price.
  • royalmail.com/surcharges lists correction charges for wrong size or weight. It exists, but this run did not read it.
  • A third-party snippet says collection costs an extra 30p per item. This is unverified.
  • VAT basis was not verified this run.

www.evri.com — cheapest published direct-carrier table for 1-2 kg

• Access (2026-11-07, observed): /prices returns a "can't find that page" body. The working page is /our-services/our-prices.
• Pricing (observed 2026-11-07; the page says "Standard prices include tax"; no effective date, footer © 2023):
  • Delivery to a home or work address, "pay online prices", Standard drop-off / Next Day drop-off / Standard collection:
    • Postable (<1 kg): £2.70 / £3.49 / not offered
    • 0-1kg Small: £3.04 / £3.90 / £4.04
    • 0-1kg Standard: £3.29 / £4.12 / £4.30
    • 1-2kg Small: £3.52 / £4.60 / £4.52
    • 1-2kg Standard: £4.79 / £5.48 / £5.78
    • 2-5kg: £6.59 / £7.55 / £7.58
  • Delivery to a ParcelShop, Standard / Next Day: £2.62 / £3.20 for every band up to 5 kg; 5-10 kg £5.87 / £6.82; 10-15 kg £9.01 / £10.61.
• Rules:
  • "Small" means up to 2 kg and up to 45x35x16 cm. The page does not define "Standard" dimensions.
  • £20 cover is included on most items, and cover can be upgraded up to £999 (upgrade price not shown).
  • Tracking and a 1-hour delivery window are included.
• How: Drop off at a ParcelShop or Locker. Labels can be printed at home or free in-store with Print in ParcelShop. A QR code option is not mentioned on this page.
• Gotchas:
  • A £2.75 location charge can apply to some Next Day postcodes.
  • A "Standard" 1-2 kg parcel costs £1.27 more than a "Small" one (£4.79 versus £3.52), so measure the box.
  • Frequent-seller discounts need 40 or more parcels a month.

inpost.co.uk — lowest headline price if the parcel fits the locker

• Access (2026-11-07, observed): /prices returns 404. The working page is /send/parcel-prices.

• Pricing (observed 2026-11-07; VAT basis not stated; no effective date, © 2026):

  Size (cm)	To locker or shop	To home
  Small, 8x38x64	£1.99	£2.89
  Medium, 19x38x64	£2.59	£3.99
  Large, 41x38x64	£3.99	£5.99

  Every size has a maximum weight of 15 kg, and the page says "pricing is based on parcel size, not weight".

• How: Buy a digital QR label in the app or on the web, with no printing, and drop off at any InPost Locker or Shop. A recipient collecting from a locker has 3 days.

• Gotchas:

  • You cannot change size at the locker. If the parcel does not fit, tap "My parcel doesn't fit", then cancel and rebook in the app. Unused labels are refunded.
  • Labels can be cancelled only before sending.
  • Prohibited items have no claim.
  • Included cover is not stated on this page.

www.yodeldirect.co.uk / www.inpostdirect.co.uk — Yodel consumer sending is now "InPost Direct"

• Access (2026-11-07, observed): yodeldirect.co.uk/send-a-parcel returns a 308 permanent redirect to inpostdirect.co.uk. The Door-to-Door link still points to yodeldirect.co.uk.
• Offers (observed 2026-11-07): Locker to Door, Shop to Door, Shop to Shop, and Door to Door collection. Weight bands are up to 1 kg, 1-2 kg, 2-5 kg and over 5 kg. Parcels over 1 m long need full dimensions.
• Pricing: Only "from £1.66 (exc VAT)" is published. Everything else needs the quote flow, which was not used.
• Rules: Locker to Door and Shop to Door include "£50 cover as standard". Locker services use a QR code, and shop labels can be printed in the shop for free. A rewards scheme offers up to 10% off.
• Gotchas: Older search snippets show Yodel Direct locker prices of £2.24, £3.32 and £4.99 exc VAT. These are stale, so do not reuse them.

send.dpd.co.uk — DPD consumer site ("DPD Online")

• Access (2026-11-07, observed):
  • dpd.co.uk/content/products_services/send-a-parcel.jsp returns 404.
  • send.dpd.co.uk/products-and-services/ returned only a banner: "from just £2.99", full tracking included.
• Pricing (first-party claim, search snippets of send.dpd.co.uk, 2026-11-07):
  • "Send a parcel from £2.99 (£2.49 plus VAT)", which includes VAT.
  • Large parcels are "from £3.74 (£3.24 plus VAT)", up to 1 m long and 230 cm girth.
  • Drop-off at Pickup points is the no-collection option. Site counts differ: one page says 16,000 Pickup and drop-off points, another says 11,000 shops.
• Rules (first-party claim, snippet): Cover up to £50 is included. Maximum weight is 30 kg.
• Gotchas:
  • The size and weight that the £2.99 "from" price applies to is not published, so it needs a quote.
  • Parcel2Go notes that DPD cannot carry battery-containing items such as phones and laptops.
  • The Post Office also offers in-branch DPD (postoffice.co.uk/mail/in-branch-dpd, not fetched).

www.parcelforce.com — overkill for 2 kg; blocked

• Access (2026-11-07, observed): HTTP 403. mailcoms.co.uk's 2026 Parcelforce page and postoffice.co.uk's express48 page also returned 403.
• Pricing (first-party claim, snippets):
  • The April 2026 UK and International guide (parcelforce.com/sites/parcelforce.com/files/2026-03/pfw-uk-and-international-services-and-prices-april-2026-v1-ta.pdf) says express48 is "from £13.60".
  • The "Our prices" page snippet says online prices are "From £11.95".
  • A Post Office snippet appears to tie £13.60 to 5 kg.
  • The weight band for 2 kg is unclear, so do not quote it.
• Rules (first-party claim, snippet): express48 includes £150 standard cover, and enhanced cover goes up to £2,500 per item. Parcelforce prices include VAT at 20% (Post Office snippet). Booking online and dropping off at a Post Office or depot is cheaper than the counter.

www.parcel2go.com — broker; prices shown exc VAT

• Access (2026-11-07, observed): service and courier pages load.
• Pricing (observed 2026-11-07):
  • The site headline is "from £1.99 exc VAT", not tied to any service.
  • "DPD Drop Off Small" is from £5.60 exc VAT, with a 5 kg maximum and 0.53 m maximum length. It is drop-off only, with 1-2 day delivery and a 1-hour slot.
  • The Evri courier page showed no Evri prices in its extracted text.
• Rules: Tracking is included on all bookings. There is a price-match promise. "Parcel Protection up to the value of £10,000" is offered, but its cost was not stated. A "No Printer Required" filter shows label-free services, either a QR code at drop-off or the driver bringing the label.
• Gotchas:
  • Prices exclude VAT, so add VAT before comparing with Evri, DPD or Royal Mail direct prices that include it.
  • A third-party search snippet quoted the same DPD service at £4.89, or £3.91 discounted, plus a "DPD20P2G" code. Neither was seen on the page today, so they are stale or unverified.
  • The page shows two drop-off counts: 6,000 DPD locations and up to 2,500 shops.

www.packlink.com — broker; Packlink's UK site is packlink.com/en-GB/

• Access (2026-11-07, observed): packlink.co.uk does not resolve (DNS failure). packlink.com/en-GB/ loads.
• Pricing (observed 2026-11-07, all exc VAT, carrier not named): up to 1 kg from £2.25, up to 2 kg from £2.80, up to 5 kg from £4.06, up to 10 kg from £4.60.
• Rules: The tool "is completely free; you only pay for the shipping service you choose". The page does not state cover, printerless options or drop-off versus collection.
• Gotchas: The carrier behind each "from" price is unknown without a quote. Prices exclude VAT.

www.parcelmonkey.co.uk — broker; quote form only

• Access (2026-11-07, observed): the homepage loads but publishes no prices. Quotes need the weight and dimensions form (quotev3.php), which was not used.
• Offers: The homepage lists UPS, Parcelforce, DPD, FedEx, DHL, Evri, DX, CitySprint, InPost Direct and zippd. Royal Mail and Yodel were not listed on the homepage.

www.parcelhero.com — blocked

• Access (2026-11-07, observed): HTTP 403 on /en-gb. No prices were collected.

Dead ends

• royalmail.com/sending/uk/prices and /tracked-48 return 403. Use the PDF links in "Verify first" from a human browser.
• evri.com/prices is a "page not found" body. Use /our-services/our-prices.
• inpost.co.uk/prices returns 404. Use /send/parcel-prices.
• dpd.co.uk/content/products_services/send-a-parcel.jsp returns 404. The consumer site is send.dpd.co.uk.
• yodeldirect.co.uk/send-a-parcel redirects (308) to inpostdirect.co.uk, which publishes only a "from" price.
• packlink.co.uk does not resolve. Use packlink.com/en-GB/.
• mailcoms.co.uk, a third-party Royal Mail and Parcelforce rate reprint, returns 403.
• octolize.com hosts Royal Mail "Our prices January 2026", which is superseded by April, July and October 2026 tariffs.
• ShippyPro, Easyship and label-resizer blog figures (for example Royal Mail Tracked 48 at £3.61 "as of April 2026", or DPD shop-to-shop from £2.99/£3.99 ex VAT) are third-party and inconsistent. Do not use them.
• dpd.co.uk/pdf/dpd-tariff-guide.pdf is about 11 years old.

Observed prices

Prep checklist

• Weigh the parcel and measure the box in cm. Bands are size-based (InPost, the Evri Small/Standard split) as well as weight-based (Royal Mail, Evri, DPD).
• Check the depth: 8 cm or less qualifies for InPost Small, and 16 cm or less (within 45x35x16 cm) for Evri Small or a Royal Mail small parcel.
• Decide on delivery: recipient's home or a pickup locker or shop. Locker and shop delivery is the cheapest tier at both InPost and Evri.
• Know the item value. Included cover is Evri £20, DPD and InPost Direct £50, Royal Mail Tracked 24/48 up to £75 (snippet), and Parcelforce £150.
• Check the printer situation. InPost and InPost Direct lockers use a QR code. Evri and InPost Direct shops print free in store. Parcel2Go has a "No Printer Required" filter.
• When comparing brokers, add VAT. Parcel2Go and Packlink show prices excluding VAT.

Needs a human

• Reading royalmail.com, parcelforce.com, postoffice.co.uk and parcelhero.com pages and PDFs, which return 403 to automated fetches.
• Getting exact broker and DPD quotes for a specific weight and size. These need quote forms (ParcelMonkey quotev3, Parcel2Go quick quote, DPD quotes, InPost Direct), which were not used under the read-only rules.
• Payment and account creation for any booking.

Changelog

• 2026-11-07 — created (research run, nothing submitted).
• 2026-11-07 — reviewed (independent): tariff-count wording fixed; Packlink verify step given a re-explore pointer; blocked hosts added to hosts; spot-checked InPost and Evri price tables (unchanged).