Both are lockable steel boxes that keep your kit dry and secure. One is a purpose-built site store with a choice of colours; the other is an ISO freight container that gives you the most secure space per pound you can buy. We sell both, so here is the honest comparison.
| Storage container | Shipping container | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Secure storage on site | Sea freight (ISO, CSC plated), sold for storage |
| Steel | Galvanised steel panels | Corten (weathering) steel |
| Sizes | 5ft, 6ft, 8ft, 10ft, 20ft | 8ft, 10ft, 20ft, 40ft, 40ft high cube |
| Height | Lower profile, easier to tuck away | 2.59m external (2.90m high cube) |
| Doors | Full-width double doors | Cargo doors at one end |
| Colours | Choice of RAL finishes | Subject to stock, confirmed at order |
| Handling | Fork pockets on most sizes | Crane or container handler |
| Delivery | Flatbed, quoted by postcode | HIAB crane lorry, quoted by postcode |
| Condition | Brand new | Brand new (one-trip) |
| Price | £1,850 to £4,200 plus delivery | £1,995 to £3,495 plus delivery |
A shipping container is built to the ISO freight standard: heavy corten steel, CSC plated for sea transport, 8ft wide, 8ft 6in tall (9ft 6in for a high cube), with cargo doors at one end. Ours are brand new one-trip units that have made a single cargo journey from the factory, so they arrive in as-new condition with a 12-month watertight warranty.
A storage container is a lighter steel box designed purely for secure storage on the ground. It gives up the freight certification and the heavyweight build, and in exchange you get things a freight box cannot offer: sizes from 5ft and 6ft upwards, a choice of RAL colours, fork pockets on most sizes so you can reposition it with a telehandler, and a lower weight that makes handling far easier. Our smallest weighs 436kg; a 20ft shipping container weighs about 2.2 tonnes empty. Browse the storage container range.
Neither is "better". They solve the same problem at different points on the size, handling and budget scale.
This is where the shipping container earns its keep. A new one-trip 20ft shipping container is £1,995 ex VAT for 14.8 m². A 20ft storage container is £4,200 ex VAT plus delivery for the same footprint. Even after you add HIAB delivery to the shipping container, it comes out around half the price per square metre, and the 40ft stretches that advantage further: nothing beats it on raw secure space per pound.
The picture flips at the small end. There is no such thing as a cheap small shipping container: an 8ft or 10ft has to be cut down from a larger box or built new, which is why it costs as much as, or more than, a 20ft. If you need a compact store for a yard corner or a tight site, the 5ft and 6ft storage boxes occupy ground a freight container never could, at prices and footprints a freight container cannot match.
There is a third option worth knowing about. A flat pack container is a galvanised steel store that arrives in panels on a pallet and bolts together on site in a couple of hours with two people, no crane, no HIAB, no telehandler. The panels fit through a standard gate or doorway, which makes it the only container you can put in a courtyard, behind a building or on an upper level.
Sizes run from 2m up to 6m. The two most popular are the 5m flat pack container at £2,250 ex VAT and the 6m flat pack container at £2,500 ex VAT, both delivered by pallet freight, which is far cheaper than a HIAB lorry. Choose flat pack when access is tight, when there is no offload kit on site, or when the container may need to move buildings later: it unbolts and packs flat again.
Tell us what you are storing, where it is going and your postcode, and we will recommend the right box and give you the full delivered price for both options.