ShipVAT vs VAT Engine
ShipVAT
shipvat.comVAT Engine
vat-engine.appSide by side
| Figure | ShipVAT | VAT Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $49/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Tax Engine Software | 8.7 (#4) | 7.3 (#17) |
| Coverage | Documented coverage includes 27 EU countries, the UK, all 50 US states plus DC, 13 Canadian provinces and Australia. | The product describes coverage of all 27 EU member states and 37 merchant-facing tax classes mapped from 88 official categories. |
| Integrations | The home page says ShipVAT works with Paddle, LemonSqueezy, PayPal and other payment stacks. | Shopify processing is described for an authorized connected store; Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and Sylius are listed as planned platform-specific connectors. |
| Purpose | ShipVAT provides an API for calculating VAT, sales tax, and GST across supported jurisdictions. | VAT Engine provides an EU VAT API for calculation and compliance workflows aimed at ecommerce and finance teams. |
| Support | The pricing page lists community support for Free, email support with a 24h SLA for Pro, and dedicated support for Enterprise. | Alpha support is best-effort through the public contact channel, with no service-level commitment. |
Plans
In their own words
ShipVAT
ShipVAT provides an API for calculating VAT, sales tax, and GST across 93 jurisdictions. The maker lists the EU, UK, US, Canada, and Australia among supported regions, and describes economic nexus threshold intelligence for all 50 US states and beyond. API functions include tax calculations, rate and threshold lookup, transaction and customer management, VAT validation, compliance reports, webhooks, and address validation. ShipVAT says rates include a source URL, verification timestamp, and effective dates, with tax data curated from official sources. Developers can use a TypeScript SDK, OpenAPI 3.0, Swagger UI, and curl examples. Endpoints use Bearer-token authentication with test and live key formats. The API is described as working with Paddle, LemonSqueezy, PayPal, or any payment stack. The Free plan costs nothing and allows 100 API calls per month. Pro costs $49 a month for 50,000 calls; Enterprise pricing is custom and its listed call limit is unlimited.
VAT Engine
VAT Engine is an EU VAT API for calculation and compliance workflows, aimed at ecommerce and finance teams. It runs on the web and through an API, and covers all 27 EU member states with 37 merchant-facing tax classes mapped from 88 official categories. It imports VAT-rate and SME-threshold data from the European Commission’s Taxes in Europe Database. Calculations can use a transaction date to select a reviewed rate version when one is available; periods without coverage are marked unverifiable.
Results can become transaction records. Source profiles, OSS thresholds, quarter previews, and accountant exports use the same model for review. The dashboard provides API-key generation, rotation, revocation, scoped permissions, usage tracking, two-factor authentication, backup codes, and activity logs. Shopify processing is described for an authorized connected store; platform-specific connectors for Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and Sylius are planned. Alpha access is free, with no payment method required. Availability, limits, support, pricing, and features may change during alpha. VAT Engine does not submit returns or provide legal or tax advice.