AnyVan vs Shiply vs Bark vs URemovals: Which Fits Your Move?

An auction wins on price if you have days to spare. A managed marketplace gives you a number in seconds but takes the driver choice away. Compare and choose sits between: a price in about a minute, and you still pick the person.

We read the Trustpilot figures from each company's UK profile on 7 November 2026. Scores move, so check before you decide. Our 4.4 sits on a much smaller base than AnyVan's. "Not published" means the company does not say whether it checks or shows that, not that it fails to.

Who picks your driver

AnyVan says you tell it what you are moving, it gives you a price, and it matches you to a local team. The matching is the product: AnyVan chooses the team, not you.

On URemovals you choose. Each quote shows the price, insurance tier, completed jobs and customer reviews, and you pick. Someone is coming into your home and handling everything you own. That choice should be yours.

Price

AnyVan prices by algorithm from distance, load and driver availability, VAT included. On a single item travelling a long way, loaded alongside other items going the same direction, they are hard to beat. That shared load turns a driver's empty return leg into your delivery.

Book a van and driver for your move alone and it changes. Several of our providers quote on the same job, each setting their own rate, and they add no VAT. The median move on our platform costs £180, and half of all moves land between £120 and £245, from 2,077 completed bookings in our price index.

What goes wrong

We read all 184 one and two star AnyVan reviews that customers posted on Trustpilot between 17 October and 6 November 2026. Customer service and refunds came up in 48% of them, and paying more on the day in 37%, mostly for items the crew said were not on the list. The full breakdown sits in our AnyVan alternatives guide.

Reviews

AnyVan shows 4.6 from 209,424 on Trustpilot. We show 4.4 from 73. On our own site, where only customers who completed a booking can review, we are at 4.8 from 367 verified reviews. Read all of those with the volume in mind.

More on this in a better way to move than AnyVan and our AnyVan alternatives guide.

Shiply started in Manchester in March 2008, after founder Robert Matthams had a pool table delivered and the driver complained about the empty run back to London. The business is still that: fill empty vans, sell the spare capacity cheap.

How the auction works

You list the job with a maximum you will pay. Providers bid against each other. On a busy route with drivers already heading that way, the winning bid beats anything a quote engine produces.

What it costs you

Time. Bids arrive over hours or days, so you get no instant price and no guaranteed slot. Shiply also charges a tiered transaction fee, in the UK between 3.9% and 9.9% with a £6 minimum, which you pay on top of the bid. Read the total, not the bid.

Check the insurance hardest

Cover varies from bidder to bidder. Some carry full goods in transit, some carry the legal minimum. We verify every provider before listing them and print the tier on the quote. Bronze covers licence, hire and reward motor insurance and right to work. Silver adds goods in transit. Gold adds public liability. Hire and reward is what a driver legally needs to carry goods for payment, and ordinary van insurance does not cover it.

You describe the job, Bark sells your contact details to several professionals, and they all ring you. Instead of comparing prices on a screen you field calls and negotiate. Nobody has priced a calculated distance, so the numbers are guesses until someone asks the right questions. Each professional paid for the introduction, so the pressure to close you sits on their side of the call. Bark shows 3.8 from 112,447 on Trustpilot, and much of the criticism across their categories is about the volume of contact.

Moving a four bedroom house with antiques, a piano and nothing packed? Do not use a comparison site. Use a removal firm that surveys the property, quotes for the whole job including packing, runs employed crews and holds British Association of Removers membership, which brings annual audits and a Trading Standards approved code.

Traditional firms cost more because they include more. Platforms cost less because you are buying a van, a driver, some hours and optional help, and you are doing the packing. We do not offer surveys, packing or boxes. Better to say that here than take a booking that falls apart on the day. See man and van vs removal company if you are still deciding.

AnyVan

Managed marketplace, founded 2009, the largest UK moving platform by review volume. You get an instant algorithmic price and AnyVan matches you to a local team. You pay AnyVan, not the driver. Quotes include VAT. No published rate card.

Shiply

Reverse auction, founded March 2008 in Manchester, now running in the US, Canada, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. You list the job, providers bid, and competition pushes the price down. In the UK Shiply charges you a tiered fee of 3.9% to 9.9% with a £6 minimum.

URemovals

URemovals Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 14366711. Built from 2020, launched September 2022 by Robert and Sandor Bundsag, who ran their own man and van service in Southampton and used comparison sites to find work. They built this out of what annoyed them about that.

You enter the move, we work out the distance, find providers whose coverage includes both addresses, and show their prices side by side with insurance tier, completed jobs and reviews. You pick one. A Stripe deposit holds the slot, and the balance goes to your driver on the day. Their name and number are in your confirmation email, and you can watch the van approach on the tracking map. Coverage runs to more than 100 UK cities and towns. How it works.

Pricing: from £20 an hour for a small van, £40 for a medium or large, £45 for a Luton, helpers on top. No VAT added. Median booked move £180.

URemovals won Best Removals Comparison Platform at the SME UK Transport Awards 2026, after wins at the same awards in 2024 and the SME Southern Enterprise Awards 2023. The Sun featured us in its Sun Savers guide to moving house, and White & Company, one of the UK's largest removal firms, lists us as a trusted comparison platform in its guide to cutting moving costs.

From 2,077 completed bookings on uremovals.com with move dates between January 2025 and October 2026, across 48 UK cities. We update it every quarter and publish it under CC BY 4.0, so anyone can use it, including our competitors.

Source: UK Man and Van Price Index 2026, updated October 2026.

The national median is £180 and a typical move books 2.9 hours. Manchester is cheapest at £120 and Bristol dearest at £360. London coming in under Leeds surprises people. It is volume: more providers competing, shorter journeys. Rural and coastal areas cost more because drivers travel further and there are fewer of them.

We have not printed what AnyVan or Shiply charge for a two bed move on purpose. Neither publishes a rate card, and both generate prices per job. Making up comparison numbers would make this page look more useful and be less true. Price your job on two or three and compare what comes back. The price guide shows how a quote works.

A four bedroom house with nothing packed sits outside all three. That calls for a BAR member removal firm with a survey and a packing crew.

• Hire and reward motor insurance. Not ordinary van insurance. A driver carrying your things for money legally needs it, and plenty of cheap operators do not have it.
• The goods in transit limit, not just that cover exists. Ask for the figure and compare it with what your belongings are worth. Many policies exclude boxes you packed yourself.
• The total in writing. Including what happens if the job overruns, and at what rate.
• What triggers extra charges. Stairs, long carries, waiting time, mileage past a set distance, ferries, dismantling. This is where two similar quotes diverge.
• VAT, included or added. Two quotes are not comparable until you know.
• Who you pay and when. Paying the platform up front carries different risk to a deposit with the balance to the driver.
• Reviews on more than one site. How a company answers a bad review tells you more than the average.
• BAR membership for large moves. It means annual audits and a Trading Standards approved code.

• Move mid-week and mid-month. Month end, weekends and summer are busiest and dearest. Our best time to move tool shows demand by week from real bookings.
• Book the right van, not the biggest. Oversizing is the most common way to overpay. The van size calculator works it out from your inventory, and the van size guide explains what fits.
• Declutter before you get quotes. Price follows volume and time, not bedrooms.
• Describe the job honestly. Under-describing does not save money, it moves the argument to your doorstep and adds overrun charges.
• Sort parking at both ends. Within ten metres of the door if you can. Drivers charge long carries by the hour.
• Pack and label before the van arrives. The clock runs while the driver waits.
• Compare like with like. Helper count, van size, insurance tier and VAT, before you compare two headline prices.

London carries complications the rest of the country does not: congestion charge, ULEZ, controlled parking zones, permits, and streets a Luton cannot get down. A driver who works London daily prices that correctly. One matched in from outside does not. That is a practical reason to pick your own provider.

Coverage includes London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Glasgow, Nottingham and Plymouth, plus Newcastle, Leicester, Coventry, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Southampton, Portsmouth, Brighton, Reading, Oxford and Cambridge. Full list on areas we cover.

Which comparison site is cheapest?

It depends on the job. Shiply usually wins on flexible, unusual or long distance freight, because bidders are pricing an empty leg. AnyVan usually wins on single items travelling far on a shared load. For a van and driver on a fixed date, compare and choose platforms are normally cheaper, because several providers quote against each other and you take the lowest one you are happy with. Price the same job on two or three.

Is AnyVan cheaper than URemovals?

For a single item over a long distance, often yes. For a full booking on a set date the gap closes and frequently reverses, because several local providers quote, they add no VAT, and you can take the cheapest whose rating and insurance you accept.

What is the difference between AnyVan and Shiply?

AnyVan gives you one algorithmic price straight away and matches you to a team. Shiply lets transport firms bid on your listing over hours or days, and you pick a bid. AnyVan is faster, and Shiply can work out cheaper if your date can move.

Is Shiply safe?

Shiply has traded since 2008 and holds 4.8 from 74,202 Trustpilot reviews. The thing to check is the bidder, not the platform. Cover, goods in transit limits and experience vary a lot, so confirm both before accepting a bid.

Can I choose my own driver?

On URemovals, yes. On Shiply you choose from bids. On Bark you choose from whoever rings. On AnyVan the platform decides. This is the biggest practical difference between the models.

What insurance should a man and van have?

Hire and reward motor insurance is the legal minimum for carrying goods for payment, and it is not the same as standard van insurance. Goods in transit protects your belongings, and public liability covers damage to property. Those three map to our Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers, shown on every quote. Check the goods in transit limit covers what you are moving and confirm it with the driver before work starts.

Can I track my move?

On URemovals, yes. Once your driver starts sharing from their app, their location appears on the tracking map in your account, and it stops when they mark the job arrived. You also have their direct number. AnyVan tracks its bookings. Shiply and Bark have no tracking, so you ring the driver.

Do quotes include VAT?

Not consistently, which is why two quotes rarely compare at face value. AnyVan's include VAT. Ours add none, because providers are self-employed and build overheads into their rates. Always ask which you are looking at.

Is comparing free?

Yes, everywhere on this page. You pay when you book.

Man and van, or removal company?

A man and van is one driver, one van and optional helpers, priced by time. It suits flats, single items and collections. A removal company brings bigger vehicles, employed crews, packing, storage and a survey, and charges for it. Longer answer on man and van vs removal company.

What are the best removal companies in the UK?

Depends what you are moving. Whole house with packing and storage: BAR firms like Pickfords and Britannia. Single item going far: AnyVan. Unusual freight on flexible dates: Shiply. Flats, students and furniture where you pick your driver: a compare and choose platform. Our list is on best removal companies.

Do platforms offer packing or storage?

Rarely. We do not provide packing, boxes or storage, though we list third party storage options separately. If you want someone to handle the packing, use a traditional firm.

How far ahead should I book?

A week or two for the best choice, three to four weeks for month end, the September student peak and bank holidays. Customers book same day and next day moves with us regularly, and providers typically respond within ten minutes to two hours.

What if the driver does not turn up?

Ring the driver first, using the number in your confirmation. If they do not attend, call us on 020 8064 2103. We look for a replacement, and if we cannot find one we refund your initial payment in full.