Franking Machine vs Royal Mail Click & Drop: Which Is Cheaper?

A few years ago, if you were a business sending a lot of post, a franking machine was pretty much the only way to get cheaper postage. Now there's Royal Mail Click & Drop, a free online tool where you buy postage, print labels and book collections without leasing anything. So which is cheaper? It depends a lot on what you send.

How each works

Franking machine. You lease, rent or buy a machine, add postage credit, and frank each item at your desk. The machine weighs items and prints a Mailmark impression or label. You pay Royal Mail's franked prices, plus the machine's lease, ink and any software fees.

Click & Drop. You create a free Royal Mail account, enter each item's details online (or import orders from a marketplace or shop), pay online prices and print labels on an ordinary printer. You can drop items at a Post Office or postbox, or book a collection. Royal Mail's April 2026 online price guide says collection costs an extra 30p per item (checked October 2026).

Price per item

Here are the prices from 7 April 2026. Click & Drop prices come from Royal Mail's online price guide, franked prices from its Business Price Guide (both checked October 2026).

Item	Click & Drop	Franked	Cheaper option
1st Class letter	£1.80	£1.77	Franking, by 3p
2nd Class letter	91p	88p	Franking, by 3p
1st Class large letter up to 100g	£3.20	£2.86	Franking, by 34p
1st Class large letter 101g to 750g	£3.30	£3.28 to £3.30	Roughly level
2nd Class large letter up to 100g	£1.55	£1.52	Franking, by 3p
2nd Class large letter 101g to 250g	£1.90	£1.81	Franking, by 9p
2nd Class large letter 501g to 750g	£2.70	£2.50	Franking, by 20p

On letters and large letters, franking is cheaper per item, sometimes by a lot. But Click & Drop costs nothing to use, while a franking machine has monthly costs. And for tracked parcel services, Click & Drop has its own online prices (for example, Tracked 48 large letters up to 1kg at £2.85 in April 2026) that a franking machine may not match.

Royal Mail changed several parcel prices on 5 October 2026, so check both tariffs for parcels before you decide.

Volume break points

Since franking saves a few pence on most items but costs a monthly fee, the question is how many items you need to post to cover that fee. As an illustration, take £30 a month for lease, ink and software.

• Standard letters (3p saved each): about 1,000 a month to break even.
• 1st Class large letters up to 100g (34p saved against Click & Drop): about 89 a month.
• 2nd Class large letters 101g to 250g (9p saved): about 334 a month.

Below those volumes, Click & Drop is cheaper overall. Above them, franking starts to win. Plug your real numbers into our savings calculator, remembering that Click & Drop's letter prices match stamps.

Parcels vs letters

If you mainly send letters and large letters, especially 1st Class A4 documents, franking usually comes out ahead once you're past the break even volume.

If you mainly send parcels, Click & Drop is often the better fit. It's built around parcels, works with ecommerce platforms, gives you tracking options and costs nothing to run. Many online sellers use it exclusively.

If you send both, some businesses use a franking machine for letters and Click & Drop for tracked parcels. There's nothing stopping you using both.

Effort and speed

Franking is quicker for batches of letters. Pop each item on the scale and feed it through. No typing addresses into a website.

Click & Drop is quicker for orders that already exist online, because it can import addresses from your shop. For letters typed up in an office, entering each one is slower than franking.

A worked example

Picture a small firm of surveyors. Each day they send 15 reports as 1st Class large letters under 100g and 20 standard 2nd Class letters.

With Click & Drop: 15 x £3.20 + 20 x 91p = £48 + £18.20 = £66.20 a day. Over 21 working days, that's about £1,390 a month.

With franking: 15 x £2.86 + 20 x 88p = £42.90 + £17.60 = £60.50 a day, or about £1,270 a month.

That's a saving of about £120 a month on postage. Even after a lease, ink and software of, say, £30 to £50 a month, franking comes out ahead.

Now picture an online clothing shop sending 30 small parcels a day with tracking, plus a handful of letters. Its parcel prices through Click & Drop's online tariffs are competitive, the labels print straight from its shop orders, and it can book collections. For that business, a franking machine would add cost and very little benefit.

Things people forget

• Click & Drop needs a printer and labels, which have a small cost.
• Franking machines need ink, which can add a penny or more to each item.
• Collection costs 30p per item on Click & Drop, per Royal Mail's April 2026 online guide.
• Time matters. Typing addresses for office letters into a website is slow.

Verdict

• Mostly standard letters, under about 50 a day: Click & Drop or stamps.
• Lots of 1st Class large letters: franking, comfortably.
• Mostly parcels from an online shop: Click & Drop.
• A mix: consider both.

Read our guide to whether a franking machine is worth it for more on the maths, and see cheaper bulk postage for high volume options.

Can you use both?

Yes, and plenty of businesses do. Nothing stops you franking your letters and large letters in the office while buying tracked parcel postage through Click & Drop. It means two systems to manage, but if your post is genuinely split between documents and products, it can give you the best price on each. Just make sure your team knows which items go which way, so nobody franks a parcel that would have been cheaper online, or types a batch of letters into Click & Drop that would have been quicker and cheaper to frank.

FAQs

Is Click & Drop free?

Yes, the tool itself is free. You pay for postage, plus 30p per item if Royal Mail collects (April 2026 online price guide, checked October 2026).

Can I use Click & Drop for letters?

Yes, but you'll pay online prices, which match stamp prices for standard letters.

Can I frank tracked parcels?

Many machines can print Royal Mail Signed For and some tracked services. Check with your supplier.

Looking for a deal?

If franking wins for your post, compare supplier quotes. Compare franking machine prices. See also Royal Mail prices.