The 12 best shipping & maritime websites in 2026. What a mid-size carrier or forwarder can copy.

Shipping is one of the most globally distributed industries on earth and one of the most poorly served by its websites. Customers in twenty markets, regulatory frameworks across every jurisdiction, certifications that decide qualification. We break down 12 firms doing it right.

Shipping moves about 12.7 billion tons of goods a year, UNCTAD's figure for 2024. The buyer might be in Singapore, Hamburg, Houston or Buenos Aires, the carrier in Copenhagen or Geneva and the regulator in London or Brussels. The website has to make sense to every one of them, at any hour and in their language.

Most maritime websites can't. Stock photography of container ships. Service descriptions written by marketing departments who've never read a shipping line schedule. Certifications and licenses invisible. Inquiry forms that dump everyone into a generic sales inbox regardless of cargo type, value or jurisdiction.

A small group of firms have built sites that actually serve global cargo customers. Trade-lane specificity. Regulatory clarity. Certifications surfaced where procurement officers can find them. Multi-language credibility at scale. Inquiry routing built in.

The firms below span global shipping lines, freight forwarders and port-services operators. Here are twelve worth studying.

What we were looking for.

Fast pages everywhere. Quick to load in every major port city, including the ones far from head office. Trade-lane specificity. Singapore-Rotterdam, Houston-Bremerhaven, intra-Asia. Multi-language credibility. Enough languages to match where the cargo actually books, which for some carriers is two done properly and for others is a dozen. Certifications and licenses. IMO, ISO 28000, AEO, C-TPAT, FIATA. Inquiry routing. Cargo type, lane, shipment size. Decarbonization reporting. ESG-mandated cargo customers need it.

The 12 sites.

01. Maerskmaersk.com

Maersk runs one of the strongest carrier websites anywhere. The integrated logistics platform pitch is delivered structurally through the site, with ocean, air, intermodal, contract logistics and customs all presented as one offering. Customer portal access is one click from the homepage. Decarbonization reporting is mature, with per-route emissions data for ESG-mandated cargo customers.

What mid-market firms can copy. If you've evolved from one mode into multi-mode, restructure the site to deliver the new positioning.

02. CMA CGMcma-cgm.com

French container shipping major running a site that stays deliberately tight on languages, English and French, and puts the effort into a dense network of local office and agency pages instead. Service-by-trade-lane pages are credible. Inland and intermodal services get their own surfaces. The site reads as a serious integrated operator.

What mid-market firms can copy. If you operate globally, treat each language version as a first-class build.

03. MSCmsc.com

Largest container shipping line by capacity. Site is unusually low-key for a firm of its scale, which works for MSC's brand (privately held, family-owned, operationally focused). Customer portal entry is prominent. Trade-lane and service-by-region pages are well-organized.

What mid-market firms can copy. Brand restraint can be a competitive advantage. Not every firm needs to look maximalist.

04. Hapag-Lloydhapag-lloyd.com

German container shipping line whose site handles operational and customer information separately and cleanly. The "Track and trace" function is prominent. Schedules are searchable. Customer portal is integrated. The site is doing real operational work, not just marketing.

What mid-market firms can copy. A shipping or logistics site that doesn't help customers DO things is a brochure. The site should be a tool.

05. ONE (Ocean Network Express)one-line.com

Singapore-headquartered joint venture of the Japanese lines NYK, MOL and K Line, running a site that handles a complicated multi-parent brand history cleanly. The magenta brand is bold and consistent. Service-by-trade-lane is well-organized. Worth studying for any post-merger or joint-venture entity.

What mid-market firms can copy. Joint ventures and post-merger entities should commit to a single brand confidently. Half-measures confuse customers.

06. DSVdsv.com

Danish freight forwarder and logistics major running a site that handles a complex acquisition history (DSV + Panalpina + Schenker) cleanly. Service segments are clear. Multi-country reach is well-organized. Case studies sit one click from the main menu.

What mid-market firms can copy. Post-acquisition site work is one of the cheapest ways to make a roll-up feel coherent.

07. Kuehne + Nagelkuehne-nagel.com

Swiss-headquartered global forwarder whose site emphasizes industry verticals (pharma, perishables, aerospace, automotive) over service modes. Buyers who think by industry first find them quickly. Each vertical has named experts and case studies.

What mid-market firms can copy. If your customers think industry-first, structure the site industry-first.

08. Wallenius Wilhelmsenwalleniuswilhelmsen.com

Norwegian-Swedish RoRo specialist running a site that does specialization well. The site doesn't try to compete with container majors. Vehicle logistics, terminals and equipment are presented as one integrated offering. The narrowness of focus is the differentiation.

What mid-market firms can copy. Don't pretend to be the generalist. Lean into specialization.

09. ZIMzim.com

Israeli container shipping line whose site has unusually strong digital-platform integration. The "myZIM" portal entry is treated as a first-class destination. Booking, documentation and tracking are tied together. Worth studying for any carrier or forwarder treating digital tools as a competitive offering.

What mid-market firms can copy. Customer portals are competitive assets. Surface them.

10. Stena Linestenaline.com

Ferry operator whose site does B2C and B2B together cleanly. Passengers and freight customers each have their own front door. The freight business runs on its own domain at stenalinefreight.com, with service-by-route information, equipment information and rate inquiry forms. Demonstrates how to serve very different audiences without fragmenting the brand.

What mid-market firms can copy. B2B and B2C can coexist on one site if you give each its own surface.

11. DP Worlddpworld.com

Dubai-headquartered port operator and logistics integrator running a site that handles a global multi-asset portfolio cleanly. Port-by-port detail. Service-by-vertical. Decarbonization strategy. Worth studying for any operator with assets across many jurisdictions.

What mid-market firms can copy. Multi-asset operators should publish asset-by-asset detail. Generic statements about "global reach" don't help anyone.

12. Wilhelmsenwilhelmsen.com

Norwegian maritime services group whose site handles a diversified maritime services portfolio (ship agency, ship management, marine products) credibly. Each business unit has its own credible surface. The corporate-parent narrative remains coherent across them.

What mid-market firms can copy. Diversified groups need group-level clarity AND business-unit clarity. Both are required.

The five things they have in common.

01. Language handled deliberately. Maersk runs twelve languages and Kuehne+Nagel dozens of locale variants, while CMA CGM and ONE stay on two and put the effort into local office pages instead. Either is defensible. Translation-widget multilingualism is not.

02. Customer portals surfaced prominently. Tools customers use daily. Booking, tracking, documentation, schedule search. Hidden portals waste capability.

03. Service-by-trade-lane structure. Buyers think by trade lane. Generic service descriptions miss them. Specific lane content reads as expertise.

04. Certifications and licenses findable. Procurement officers pre-qualify by certification. The site should make this trivial.

05. Decarbonization data published. Per-route emissions, fleet performance, biofuel availability. Increasingly required by ESG-mandated cargo customers.

What's mostly absent.

Pricing transparency (almost universally absent and probably appropriate). Real employee voice. Detailed financial information beyond IR materials. Most maritime firms play it conservative. The firms breaking that pattern stand out.

What mid-market firms can take from this.

A mid-size forwarder or carrier doesn't need ONE's or DSV's budget to copy what works. The big wins are trade-lane pages, languages that match where your cargo books, a clear way into the customer portal and published emissions data. On our published prices most sites like that fit our Growth Platform, from $19,500 in three to four weeks. One that connects to a booking or tracking system is an Authority System build, from $30,000 (see pricing).

If your firm is thinking about a redesign.

Three questions to test. Can a cargo customer in Singapore find your relevant service in one click in their preferred language? Can a procurement officer pre-qualify you on certifications in 30 seconds? Can an ESG-mandated shipper find your per-route emissions data? If any answer is no, the site is costing the firm cargo.

If your site isn't there yet, there are two ways forward. If it's slow, hard to update or running on old plugins, our website rebuilds move it to a fast modern setup and keep the pages that already bring in work. If the site is sound but cargo customers don't find you, our SEO Growth Program adds lane, service and port pages every month. Our free Website Health Check is coming soon and will show which you need, or you can book a call.

More on how we approach the category: Shipping & maritime website design. Two adjacent briefs worth a read: Transport & logistics website design and Crane & heavy-lift website design.

What does a website like this cost?

The sites above were built to win work, and their budgets reflect that. What a company website costs in 2026 breaks down design, build, copy and ongoing care, with our own published prices.