Shopping online can be a great experience, especially because it helps you avoid making numerous trips to the store. However, if you frequently buy online, keeping track of all your shipments can be a major headache.
To help ease the burden, you can keep all their orders organized and track each shipment individually, or you can go with the better option of using one of the two best package tracking apps available on iOS. But the question is, which is the better app? Find out after the jump.
Entering a Shipment
Once you’ve ordered an item online, your first step in tracking a package typically is entering the tracking number into your prospective app. Or maybe not.
Slice
Slice is a package tracking app that proclaims you do not have to enter a tracking number to track a package. Slice works by finding receipts within your emails and entering the tracking information automatically, and from experience I can say that this feature works flawlessly.
You can use Slice's website to track packages and find more detailed information.
The major drawback with Slice is that it only works if you use a Gmail or Yahoo! email address, so if you use a company email or another service (e.g. Hotmail) you’re out of luck. Another annoyance with Slice is that it also tracks purchases you’ve made for online content, such as an app on the App Store or a movie on Amazon Prime. This information may be useful to some, but for those that don’t want it you can turn off these options on the Settings page.
Delivery Status touch
Delivery Status touch requires you to enter your tracking information manually. When adding a new delivery, you’re asked for the item name (optional), order number, the seller/deliverer (e.g. Amazon, UPS), and your email and password associated with the seller/deliverer (this only applies to merchandisers like Amazon or Apple).
Delivery Status touch requires you to enter your tracking information manually.
To reduce the amount of typing you have to do when entering all this information, Delivery Status touch provides the option of scanning a bar code for your order number (if provided in your conformation email or receipt). If you’re not a fan of typing all this information on your iPhone, you can do it on the companion site instead.
It's much easier to enter your tracking information on the companion website.
Winner: Slice
The fact that Slice requires a Gmail or Yahoo! email address may be an instant write off to some of you, but Slice’s ability to automatically enter all your package tracking information is, and I can’t stress this enough, extremely convenient. It’s great that Delivery Status touch provides a website to help you enter your tracking information more easily, but it simply can’t compete with opening up an app and seeing a shipment already added to your queue.
Tracking Your Package
A minor annoyance with buying items online is that it may take a day or two before an order is shipped, and if you’re familiar with tracking packages, you know that shipments typically make multiple stops before finally landing on your doorstep. Most sites do a good job of informing you when a product has shipped, but after that you’re on your own. That’s when these two apps are supposed step up and let you know exactly what’s happening with your shipment.
Slice
The home page on Slice displays three different categories — open orders, orders that are on their way and orders that have been delivered today (as a bonus you can see the total packages you’ve purchased and the amount you’ve spent). Whenever the status of a package changes, Slice does a great job of notifying you when these changes happen.
Slice makes is easy to see the status of your shipments.
If you tap on an order, you’re provided with all the information you could want about a shipment, including the order date, order number, shipping cost and shipping status (i.e. ordered, shipped, delivered). Tapping the status bar will pull up a map that shows the packages current location and lists out all your packages activity.
Slice provides a lot of information about your order.
If you ordered multiple items at once, you can view the status of each item individually. Additionally, you can view your order receipt, shipping receipt and the return policy of the merchandiser from which your purchased your goods.
If you need to see your original receipt or view a merchandiser's return policy, Slice has you covered.
Delivery Status touch
Delivery Status touch takes a much or simplified approach in tracking packages. Specifically, the app has only a single page that displays each shipment in its own block. One nice touch is that each block is color coded by the merchandiser/deliverer. For example, shipments from FedEx will be displayed on a purple block with white text, while UPS shipments will be displayed on a brown block with yellow text, both matching the company’s color schemes.
A check mark indicates that a package has been delivered.
Tapping on an individually order will transition the app into a secondary page that displays a small amount of information about the package, including the tracking number and status. A navigation menu at the bottom of the page allows you to view the detail of your order online, view a map that shows the current location of your package, and the option to share a delivery via email.
Delivery Status touch provides minimal information.
Winner: Slice
If I’m tracking a shipment I want as much information as possible and Slice simply delivers (see what I did there?), whereas Delivery Status touch way falls short. The fact that Delivery Status touch doesn’t provide a breakdown of a packages activity kind of defeats the purpose of using a tracking app. As I mentioned earlier, most sellers will inform you when your package has been shipped, so I don’t need an app to do that legwork.
The real benefit of using this app is being notified when a package has been delivered. I can attest that neither of these apps do a great job of notifying you on the exact moment a package has been delivered, but Slice usually notifies you on the same day. However, Delivery Status touch kept showing me that package was still waiting to be delivered after a few days of already receiving the package. Not very useful, I’m afraid.
And the Winner Is…
Slice takes home the victory quite comfortably in this match-up of two popular package tracking apps. While it may be automatically disqualified by some because of the restriction of only being able to use Gmail or Yahoo! accounts, Slice makes a point of stating this app is not for you right now. So, keep a look out for updates that allow you to use Slice on more email services.
It’s definitely worth noting that Delivery Status touch comes with a hefty price tag or $4.99, while Slice is yours to download for the amazing price of nothing. Add up the lack of features and high price sported by Delivery Status touch and this competition is a bit of a cake walk for Slice.
What Are Your Thoughts?
If you’ve used either or both apps, we’d love to hear what you have to say on the matter. Perhaps I’m way off base about Delivery Status touch. If so, let me know why it bests Slice in a one-on-one comparison.