Sending business mail: stamps, franking, pre-paid envelopes or online postage?

There are four main ways to send business mail with Royal Mail: stamps, franking, pre-paid envelopes, or online postage. For anything more than a handful of items, franking is the cheapest and most efficient – it prints discounted postage in-house with little effort.

Ways to send business mail

Stamps

Stamps are the traditional way to send mail – easy to buy and familiar. The drawback is cost: they are the most expensive option per item, so while fine for a business sending only a few items a year, they become costly and time-consuming at volume.

Pre-paid envelopes

Royal Mail sells pre-paid envelopes that need no stamp, which saves the time of applying stamps. However, they do not give a postage discount and offer little flexibility, so the saving over stamps is minimal.

Online postage

Online postage lets you buy and print postage from your computer, paying only when you need it. But you process every item separately, which is inefficient, and there is no discount – the prices match stamps.

Franking

Franking prints a postage impression as a stamp alternative, with the machine doing the work for you and little manual effort needed. You can top up postage at any time, frank a company logo onto your mail, and – crucially – franking is by far the cheapest of these methods thanks to Royal Mail’s franking discounts.

Franking is a highly beneficial way to send business mail. View our range of franking machines here and get a quick quote.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest way to send business mail?

Franking – Royal Mail gives franking machine users discounted rates, cheaper than stamps, pre-paid envelopes or online postage.

Do pre-paid envelopes give a postage discount?

No – they save the time of applying stamps but do not offer a postage discount.

Is online postage cheaper than stamps?

No – online postage is priced the same as stamps, and you must process each item separately.