Colissimo vs Mondial Relay in France: 2026 prices

French shoppers expect to choose a point relais at checkout, and the two names they know best are Colissimo, La Poste’s parcel brand, and Mondial Relay. One is the post office’s network with its speed and reach; the other is the low-cost network of Points Relais in local shops and a fast-growing set of lockers. Most shops end up offering both. The question is which one is the default and which one the customer pays extra for.

This comparison uses our own measured rates for the same parcel in France, adds Chronopost, Colis Privé and UPS where they change the answer, and ends with a default you can set.

Is Colissimo or Mondial Relay cheaper in 2026? #

These are domestic French prices from our own shipping options for France, measured on 29 September 2026. They include our flat platform fee, which is the same for every carrier, so every difference in the table is the carrier’s.

Head to head, Mondial Relay was €4.12 cheaper than Colissimo to a point and €6.88 cheaper to the door for a small parcel. On a medium parcel the gap widens to €8.43 to a point and €10.37 to the door.

One oddity worth knowing: Mondial Relay is the only carrier on our French rate card where the door was not more expensive than the point — €9.35 against €10.26 for a small parcel, €11.10 against €11.18 for a medium one. Every other carrier charged more for home delivery, from €1.80 extra (UPS, medium) to €6.24 extra (Colis Privé, medium).

For context: without our fee, the cheapest domestic 2 kg carrier rate in France in our European shipping rates index is €4.55, while the same box from the Netherlands costs €12.15 and from Germany €9.25. Shipping from inside France is cheaper than any of the cross-border options, whichever French carrier you pick.

Which is faster, Colissimo or Mondial Relay? #

Colissimo. Our rate card shows 2 working days for Colissimo, to a point and to the door, and 4 working days for Mondial Relay. That is the trade: you pay roughly €4 more per small parcel for two days less waiting.

If speed matters and price matters too, the two are not your only options. UPS delivered to an Access Point in 2 working days for €7.84 — the speed of Colissimo at less than Mondial Relay’s point price. And for next-day delivery to the door, UPS Standard cost €10.94 and Chronopost’s Chrono 18 €13.38 for a small parcel.

Where can the customer collect the parcel? #

The network is the part of the choice your customer actually sees. A point that is on their way home turns a cheaper rate into a better experience; a point across town turns it into a complaint.

Two practical consequences. A Colissimo parcel in a Pickup locker is only held for 5 working days, against 14 at a shop or post office, and a Mondial Relay parcel for 5 calendar days — a customer on holiday for a week may miss either. And Mondial Relay has been moving from shops to lockers: its parent company reported that the number of lockers in France grew by more than 1,000 in 2025 to above 10,000. Lockers have no opening hours but do have compartment sizes, so large boxes end up at a staffed point.

What about heavy parcels? #

For a large parcel (60 × 50 × 40 cm, 10–30 kg) the order of the carriers changes completely.

Mondial Relay is the only carrier on our French rate card with a point service for heavy parcels, and it cost €21.02 less than Colissimo. If the customer can carry it, that is the obvious default. If they cannot, Chronopost to the door is cheaper than Colissimo and a day faster.

Which should be your default in France? #

• ✓Low-value, small parcels: a point service as default. Colis Privé or UPS Access Point for the lowest price, Mondial Relay if your customers ask for it by name.
• ✓Colissimo as the paid, faster option at checkout — or UPS Access Point, which matched its 2 working days for about half the price.
• ✓Heavy parcels: Mondial Relay to a Point Relais, or Chronopost to the door when the customer cannot carry it.
• ✓Next-day home delivery: UPS Standard or Chrono 18, both cheaper than Colissimo Home and a day faster.
• ✕Colissimo as the default for everything. Colissimo Home was the most expensive service in every size we measured.
• ✕Home delivery as the default in France. Customers expect to choose a point, and most carriers charge extra for the door.

The same logic — the point is the habit, so the point is the default — runs through our comparison of pickup point vs home delivery in Europe. For everything else about the French market, see ship to France without a French warehouse, and for what happens when a point parcel is never collected, returns without a warehouse.

How this works with AirPost #

With local fulfilment through AirPost, a verified person in France holds a batch of your stock and ships each order as a domestic French parcel with the carrier you choose — Mondial Relay, Colissimo, Colis Privé, Chronopost, UPS or FedEx. You pay the label, the fee you agree with your sender, and our €0.85 platform fee per parcel. No subscription, no storage costs.

1. 1

   Find a sender in France

   On /en/senders. Every sender’s identity and payout account are checked before they get stock or orders.

2. 2

   Set a default per product

   Pick a default shipping method per product and country, for example a point service for small items and Chronopost to the door for heavy ones. We look for the cheapest rate within the service level you choose.

3. 3

   Choose the point with the order

   For a point service you pick the relay or locker near the delivery address when you create the order. If a Shopify customer chose a pickup point at checkout, AirPost does not pass that on yet: create that order manually with the same point.

4. 4

   Returns stay in France

   A parcel that is not collected usually goes back to your sender, not across a border. For customer returns, the sender reports the parcel with five photos and you decide what happens to it.