Cheapest Moving Container Companies

The award for the lowest moving container prices goes to the U-Pack ReloCube. Its average cost of $2,610 (across move distances and home sizes) is almost $400 less than the average cost of all the companies we reviewed.

If the U-Pack ReloCube were available nationally in multiple sizes and made of sturdier materials, it would be our clear winner. But since that’s not the case, we show you how to pick the best moving container service for your situation.

U-Pack has the lowest overall prices of any company on our list. While there are some significant drawbacks (including limited availability, low-quality materials, and small containers), you can’t ignore U-Pack’s rock-bottom prices if your budget is your top priority.

The price for U-Pack ReloCubes is consistently among the lowest we’ve seen. We asked for 120 quotes to compare prices, and U-Pack was the cheapest 70% of the time.

There were only two times U-Pack wasn’t one of the two cheapest options:

1. Moves under 150 miles (U-Pack doesn’t offer local services)
2. Moves for a three-bedroom home

In every other instance, U-Pack consistently beat the competition with a cost about $140 below the average.

1-800-PACK-RAT has low prices for big moves and a whole host of discounts. So while it’s more expensive than its competitors, its prices are actually much lower than they seem at first glance.

1-800-PACK-RAT may be our most expensive overall moving container company on the surface, but when you dig a little deeper, it’s actually a good value in many situations.

Why? Two reasons:

1. 1-800-PACK-RAT recommends its largest (and most expensive) container for almost every move. This makes 1-800-PACK-RAT far more costly than other companies for small moves and inflates its average price.
2. Move.org uses pre-discount prices for comparisons. So even though the company hands out discounts and price-matching like beads at a Mardi Gras parade, those savings aren’t figured into our price comparisons.

1-800-PACK-RAT has higher-than-average prices for small homes because it almost always recommends its largest (and most expensive) container. But when you look at larger home sizes—anything above three rooms—for moves of 1,000 miles or more, 1-800-PACK-RAT beats the average by about $40.

Not bad when you consider 1-800-PACK-RAT uses premium all-steel moving containers.

No company more aggressively offered discounts during our research than 1-800-PACK-RAT. Its customer service reps cheerfully walked us through ways to save money, including move-specific discounts such as transportation savings and free container rentals.

1-800-PACK-RAT tells customers it will try to meet or beat PODS’ price—the one moving container company it considers a true competitor (they both have similar materials and national availability).

So if you don’t like your 1-800-PACK-RAT quote, ask if it will match your PODS quote. You could end up with better quality containers and a cheaper rate.

PODS has the lowest prices we can find for short-distance moves. No other company can match PODS for moves of less than 150 miles, and only U-Pack (with limited availability, smaller moving containers, and poorer quality) has a better price for moves under 500 miles. PODS is our pick for short-distance moves.

It doesn’t matter how big your home or apartment is. PODS crushes the competition for all sizes:

• Small (one-room apartments)
• Medium (two- to three-room homes)
• Large (five-room homes)

We compared PODS prices for 24 moves to its competitors on our list of the best moving container companies. PODS beats the average by more than $500!

Despite the high costs associated with its sturdier container materials, PODS is still one of your best options for moves under 500 miles. The only company with better prices is U-Pack, and it has notable drawbacks like inferior materials, only one container size, and no moves under 150 miles.

PODS’ cost per room for moves of less than 500 miles is nearly $60 cheaper than the average of all the companies we reviewed.

U-Haul’s U-Box is the second-cheapest moving container company on our list. U-Box took our top spot for long-distance moves of approximately 1,850 miles.

U-Haul is known for low moving truck rental prices, but it makes a pretty good dent in moving container rates too: U-Box has a per-room cost that’s nearly $60 lower than the average of the companies we reviewed.

The price advantage is even more noticeable if you look at only house or apartment sizes of 1–3 rooms. For a one-room apartment, you can save more than $300 by choosing U-Box.

In our research, we didn’t find a company with lower prices for moves of about 1,850 miles than U-Box.

U-Box has low rates and a painless online quote system (you never have to call the company to get your total), but the price you’ll actually pay is higher than what you see up front.

Sometimes by a lot.

The main culprit here appears to be what U-Haul calls a delivery fee—a $99 per-container cost that isn’t part of your quote. Since the U-Box is notoriously small, those costs can add up if you have a lot of stuff to pack.

If you’re moving a five-bedroom home, your final price will be about $700 more than your initial estimate.

That means if you’re using your government stimulus check to move during the COVID-19 outbreak, more than 50% will go toward fees that aren’t even part of your quote.

We included U-Box’s extra fees in our price comparisons because it’s part of total cost, but it’s important to realize the company doesn’t give you these numbers up front.

One reason U-Box has such affordable rates is that its moving containers are made out of plywood, a far cry short of companies like PODS (steel frames and wood containers) and 1-800-PACK-RAT (all-steel containers).

This limits how much weight each U-Box container can hold, meaning you often have to use more containers than you would with most other companies.

And as we’ve shown, each extra container sets you back a hundred bucks. Make sure you factor that in when doing your own price shopping.

U-Pack is our pick for the overall cheapest moving container company. While it has only one small container made of low-quality materials, its average cost is about $400 less than the industry average. U-Pack also gets some of the highest reviews in the business. In addition to low prices, customers often applaud U-Pack’s friendly customer service and on-time delivery.

Looking for low prices?

Move.org follows a five-step process to identify the nation’s best moving container companies:

1. Compare quotes. We collected over 100 quotes from seven of the nation’s largest moving container companies to identify pricing trends.
2. Mystery shopping. We do a top-to-bottom analysis of each company’s website and even call posing as customers. It helps us get a feel for what real-life customers experience.
3. Analyze reviews. We read dozens of reviews for each company to see what most impresses (and turns off) customers. We also ran the numbers for more than 7,000 total reviews to calculate an industry customer review average.
4. Site visits. We invite industry experts and company executives to visit our headquarters in Salt Lake City, UT. We grill them on everything from pricing and customer reviews to insurance coverage and the latest industry trends.
5. Annual review. Every year, we repeat the process to ensure that our list of the best moving container companies stays current. That means things like our top recommendations and industry prices may change from year to year.

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