Small business owners have a lot on their plate. Not only do they have to worry about the day-to-day operations of their business, but they also have to keep track of inventory and make sure that they are making a profit. Those tasks can be quite a challenge, especially if you don’t have the right tools.
Luckily, inventory management apps take a huge responsibility from your plate. Imagine for a minute… you’re a company doing business, and inventory is automatically managed. You don’t have to physically track it. That’s great, right? However, which one should you get is the big question.
What is an Inventory Management App?
An inventory management app holds information about inventory, including accurate counts of many items. Having an up-to-date accurate number is a huge advantage to maintaining quality control and customer service with your business. Owners and customers both benefit.
Most inventory management apps handle anything from a small stockroom with one location and 10 items to massive enterprises. They achieve these feats through standard and additional capabilities and integration.
These can include built-in tools such as an inventory tracker app, low stock alerts, sales tracking, and point of sale (POS) integration. Also, inventory management applications can help you with item tracking, supply chain management, warehouse management, inventory data management, item kitting, expense management and more. The key is finding a simple inventory system for small business you can easily deploy and use.
Finding the Best Inventory Management Apps for Your Business
Rest assured, there’s an inventory management app that’s perfect for your business. There are factors for you to consider as you review the information. Factors include the number of users, inventory volume, equipment, app integration, app cost and type of inventory items to track. Also, consider the system where you want to use the app—whether it be on your smartphone or the web.
20 Best Inventory Management Apps
Your company needed an inventory tracking system yesterday. So you don’t have to wade through the massive list of inventory management apps, we’ve done the hard work for you and compiled a list of 20 of the best ones.
Now you can check out all the apps in one place and decide which is the best fit for your company. These apps will help you keep track of your inventory, make better decisions about what to sell, and ultimately help your business grow!
1. Sortly App
The Sortly app is one of the best inventory management apps out there, and it allows you to keep track of your stock in multiple positions. It’s flexible, affordable and you can have it working in no time flat. Any changes or updates to your system can be made through the mobile app, allowing you to manage your stock anywhere.
Available on: iOS, Android and desktop
Key features:
- API and third-party integrations
- Low stock notifications
- Multi-warehouse management
- Historial and product trend reporting
- QR code support
- Audit alerts
- In-app inventory scanner
Pricing: They have a free plan that includes 100 transaction entries/month. Their standard plans run from $49/month (includes 2,000 transaction entries/month) to $119/mo (unlimited limited transaction entries).
2. Zoho Inventory App
Zoho Inventory is an addition to the company’s CRM apps suite that allows you to manage your stock and warehouses. Zoho’s dashboard lets you get a bird’s eye view of purchases, total sales, low stock and items packed. A lot of its power comes from its ability to integrate with around 2,000 apps that are supported by Zapier. Besides being a strong inventory tracker, the app integrates with eCommerce platforms like eBay, Etsy, Amazon and Shopify.
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Web
Key features:
- Multi-location support
- Reporting and Analytics; Inventory forecasting
- PO management
- Smartphone camera captures barcode information
- Serial and batch tracking to monitor stock movements
- Item list for adding SKUs, grouping items and item kitting
- CRM, eCommerce and accounting integration
Pricing: Zoho has a free basic version with limited access to premium features and 4 different subscription rates ranging in cost from $25up to $239. These plans also have add ons you can purchase separately like additional users, orders and warehouses.
3. SAP Inventory Manager App
The SAP company has been around since the 70s, so it’s no wonder they have a pretty comprehensive mobile app to manage stock and optimize warehouse and stockroom operations. The SAP Inventory Manager is an extremely customizable app and it’s designed for businesses of all sizes and offers tools to manage inventory levels like barcode scanning, order tracking and management, supplier management and more.
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Key features:
- Accept and distribute received goods by PO
- Pre-pick products by work orders
- Stock tracking by bin, stock location or work order
- Digitally issue, transfer or return material
- View reporting tools through the dashboard
- Stock takes for conducting cycle counts and inventory counts
Pricing: Free but must have SAP Enterprise.
4. Delvrd
Delivrd is a cloud-based inventory collaboration platform. Its inventory management software is robust enough to handle and track stock item movements and order fulfillment for anyone from small eBay sellers to large eCommerce retailers. The app has a wide array of tools, and it integrates with a large number of global carriers and shipping providers to make order fulfillment accurate and easy.
Available on: Web
Key features:
- Barcode printing and scanning
- Third-party integrations.
- Profit and loss reporting.
- Alerts, notifications
- Reporting and analytics
- Count, receive, issue and transfer stock
- Purchase order management
- API
Price: Delivrd offers a basic free inventory software plan a paid plan and a custom plan—their free plan is very limited, though, and only allows 10 products, 1 user and a few other basic tools. If you want to upgrade to a paid plan, their most popular one is priced at $49.99/month/user.
5. Inventory Now App
Perfect for retailers who need to see a snapshot of their stock or a certain number of items in a particular segment is Inventory Now. What this means is that you can monitor and track stock items as they make their way through their end-to-end lifecycle where they bought, received, stored, sold, shipped and delivered—all in real-time.
Available on: iOS and desktop
Key Features:
- Barcode scanner support (data can be imported into iOS devices, such as an iPhone)
- Order Tracking of individual sales or purchase orders.
- Check out and collect payments with Paypal Here or Square Point of Sale
- Reconciliation exported to Dropbox
- Create/view/export invoices and receipts
- Sales and profit activity tracking
Price: You can try the Inventory Now app for free and that option allows you to manage up to 20 items without an account. Paid plans range from $7/month to $99/month. You get discounts with an annual plan.
6. SOS Inventory App
SOS Inventory has an intuitive interface and its software program integrates with QuickBooks Online, giving you much better management of inventory, orders and manufacturing than with QuickBooks by itself. The mobile app also integrates with several shipping vendors and major e-commerce shopping carts. .
Available on: iOS and desktop
Key features:
- Advanced stock management
- Purchase Orders
- Management of stock in multiple locations
- Item kitting
- Bin and backorder tracking
- Dropshipping
Pricing: SOS Inventory offers a 14-day trial and 3 paid plans that range from $49.95 to $149.95
7. Jumpstock App
Jumpstock manages your stock and avoids stockouts by letting you easily record, move and track your material. The platform is best for health systems and hospitals with 200 beds or more and supply chain leaders. The app also assists in the enforcement of pre-negotiated purchasing contracts to ensure optimal pricing from vendors.
Available on: iOS, desktop and Android
Key Features
- Alerts/Notifications
- Inventory Optimization
- Item kitting
- Product Identification
- Reorder Management
- Reporting/Analytics
- Supplier Management
Pricing: Requires a JumpStock license that is available from Jump Technologies. Pricing is specific to the features you need to use.
8. On Shelf App
Bars, lounges and small retailers with fast and furiously moving products like to use the On Shelf app because it allows them to quickly see what items are in stock and which ones need to be ordered. Besides that, you can use the app to easily see what items are flying off the shelf and ones that have been sitting there for a while collecting dust. You can also use On Shelf for creating, customizing and managing invoices and POs.
Available on: iOS
Key features:
- Items and product categories displayed with a barcode reader
- Customer-specific tracking, including buying history
- Analysis and sales reports
- Log a sale function updates inventory
- Sync your data between multiple users and devices
- Send and print reports
Pricing: In-app purchases start at $4.99/user or you can pay $49.99 to add multiple users.
9. Stock Control 2 App
Warehouse managers will like Stock Control 2, which allows them to stay on top of inventory items across multiple locations and multiple groups. This aspect of this inventory management system comes in handy when you’re managing stock for a couple of different businesses or if you keep track of personal inventory but want it separated from your business. Other inventory management tools allow the generation of item list catalogs that you can print or send by e-mail.
Available on: iOS & Mac
Key features
- User-friendly search tools
- Shortage alerts; low stock notification of items
- Import or export data to a .csv file
- Manage inventory for multiple businesses
- Location sorting; item listing
- Statistics and reports
- Manage quantities in various storage locations
Pricing: There is a free version, but it limits you to 15 items; it’s $26.99 for the full version.
10. Veeqo App
Veeqo is a cloud-based platform that has built-in shipping that works with shipping platforms like FedEx, UPS and USPS to manage and ship your orders. The platform also has Amazon-like fulfillment capabilities to speed up dispatch operations. Veeqo also allows total real-time sales transparency across all of your sales channels in one location.
Key features:
- 21+ direct integrations to sales channels and popular marketplaces
- Multi-channel order management
- Analytics, forecasting tools
- Barcode labels, scanner, digital picking
- Imports and manages bulk shipping orders
- Parcel and inventory tracking, delivery confirmation
Available on: iOS, Android, desktop site
Pricing: $160-$260
11. inFlow Inventory App
Product-based businesses will like how the inFlow Inventory app helps you manage inventory tracking, orders and shipping all in one place. For example, you can use your smartphone or the inFlow Smart Scanner to transfer, pick, receive and adjust your inventory. You can also use the app’s accounting integration to push all your financials directly to QuickBooks Online.
Key Features:
- Barcoding/RFID
- 3PL Management
- Backorder management
- Product management and optimization
- Alerts/Notifications
- Backorder Management
- Cost Tracking
- Cataloging/Categorization
Available on: iOS, Android, desktop (Windows & Linux)
Pricing: They have a free 14-day trial version. They have 3 paid plans, and all of them include inventory, purchasing, and sales. Prices range from $89.00/month (2 users) to $499/month (10 users, unlimited inventory locations).
12. Cin7 Inventory and POS App
The Cin-7 Inventory and POS app connects all your accounting, order, and shipping workflows, making your business easier to run. The app also integrates with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento and WooCommerce. Detailed reporting on stock levels and sales allows you to easily keep track of items and update your online marketplace so that you never stock out or oversell.
Available on: iOS, Android
Key features:
- Advanced multi-channels
- Integrates with Quickbooks
- Order management
- B2B eCommerce
- Built-in EDI
- Reports and forecasting
Pricing: They have 3 flexible paid plans and a custom paid plan. Their small business plan for merchants selling products to consumers online is $299/month. The next level up is their business plan for $539/month and is for product sellers who are focused on wholesale sales or B2B.
13. Inventory Control with Barcode Scanner App
Good for startups and small businesses is the simple to use and highly customizable Inventory Control with Scanner by Starkode Limited. The app comes with barcode scanner tools that help you maintain a robust inventory management system. Inventory tracker apps let you can scan items for quick and accurate tracking to keep your stock organized and readily available.
Available on: iOS
Key features:
- Supports multiple languages and currencies.
- EAN and UPC barcode support
- Price list and invoice reports
- iCloud Support lets you sync data between other apps and devices
- Organize important data through sort and group list feature
- Customizes your item, merchant and storage categories
Pricing: Starkode offers a free trial and 2 paid plans: professional (Single User, $14.99/month) and Enterprise (3 users, $29.97/month). You save 10% with an annual plan.
14. Ordoro App
The Ordoro app lets you operate and optimize your inventory operations and fulfillment workflows like a large-scale enterprise at a fraction of the cost you’d pay with many other platforms. With it, you get multiple dropshipping methods, a multi-channel approach to sales and inventory management, bulk shipping label-making, product photos and more.
Available on: iOS, Android, desktop
Key features:
- Barcode system for item-to-order verification
- Alert for a low inventory item
- Discounted shipping with USPS (up to 67%)
- Shipping software includes barcode scanning
- Sync with sales orders, product quantities; adjusts stock
- Constructs kits using multiple bundles
Pricing: Ordoro has flex pricing where you get charged with the actual use of the platform vs a flat fee. Their Express plan starts at around $60, but you’ll want the Pro Plan that starts at $499/month if you want all the product management tools and other whistles and bells you need for serious eCommerce shipping.
15. myStock Inventory Manager App
myStock is full-blown inventory management software that is targeted at small to medium businesses as well as individual organizations. With it, you can manage stock transactions and do costing easily without a huge investment. The application allows a user to keep detailed records of stock on their mobile device as well as update stock movements of multiple inventory centers and locations in real-time.
Available on: iOS, Android, desktop site
Key features:
- Built-in barcode reader
- User-definable product categories
- Analytics and reporting
- Data import from .csv file for products
- View product list sorted by code, name or category.
- Backup and restore to Dropbox
Pricing: Plans start at $4.99 on Amazon and Slideme widgets.
16. Asset and Inventory Tracker App
The Asset and Inventory Tracker App is an excellent solution for business owners who need to keep track of their assets and stock items at multiple locations. Designed to be used with Ventpix Asset Software, the app also allows you to quickly create a database of items, manage and track your stock levels, add photos of your items, and assign quantities. Smartphone apps allow you to use your iPhone or Android to tap NFC tags or as barcode scanners.
Available on: iOS, Android, desktop computer
Key features:
- Check-in and out assets or import assets and stock in a custom format
- Generate and print barcodes in several formats including Codabar and Datamatrix
- Supports 1-D and 2-D barcode formats, including QR codes.
- Manage stock, including transfers, stock retakes and reduction
- Manage deliveries and goods received or dispatched
Pricing: One-time charge of $299 for the server version and $199 for the Windows OS version.
17. Cashier Live App
Cashier Live App was designed with business retail owners or those operating independent pharmacies in mind. The app’s inventory management and smart point-of-sale features help you keep track of your stock levels, sales data and reports. Its expanded options with Cashier Live services include extensive reporting options; customer tracking.
Available on: iOS or desktop site
Key features:
- Barcode ticket scanning and label management
- Integrates with hardware devices like barcode scanners, receipt printers, cash drawers and more.
- CRM
- eCommerce and inventory management
- Email marketing; loyalty program
- Built-in credit card reader for processing payments.
- Multi-location; multi-store
Pricing: Free 14-day trial version and paid plans start out at $75/month per store.
18. Partender: Bar Inventory Software App
Partender is an inventory management program for bar and restaurant owners. The app helps keep track of liquor, wine and beer stock levels, allowing you to ditch your clipboard system for a rapid inventory counting system. Counting and setup are made faster because employees can use Android and iPhone devices simultaneously to split up the work.
Available on: iOS, Android
Key features:
- Generate a PO that’s sorted by distributor in Excel
- Add a full bottle or counts stock items by sequences of smartphone taps
- Stock item tracker can gauge use and analyze cost and profit
- Consumption analytics gives you essential inventory information; identifies fast movers and slow-moving stock,
- Reconcile with your Point-of-Sale (POS)
Pricing: $249 monthly but as low as $165 monthly with an annual subscription.
19. Odoo App
Odoo is an inventory management app that is part of a larger software system in the Odoo family. Its comprehensive set of unique double-entry features includes stock level tracking, barcode scanning, product and customer data, sales reports and analysis, as well as accounting and warehouse management. Deliver to customers in one step (delivery order) or several steps: picking, packing, shipping.
Available on: iOS, Android
Key features:
- Barcode scanners, serial number tracking
- Double Entry Inventory tracking system
- Dropshipping and cross-docking
- Point of sale stock item adjustments
- Stock transfers
- Multi-warehousing
- Invoicing
Pricing: You can choose users at $24/month or pick the individual features you want from an app list for prices that range from $12-$72/month. For instance, you can get Point of Sale for $24/month and CRM for $24/month. Extra integrations work similarly.
Nice screenshot for the unique app choices here.
20. Quickbooks E-Commerce App
QuickBooks is accounting software that offers an inventory management app as part of its QuickBooks Commerce solution. The eCommerce app is designed for small businesses and eCommerce retailers to help manage stock levels, product data, sales orders, invoicing, accounting and shipping from one centralized multi-channel platform.
Available on: Desktop, cloud-based
Key Features:
- Track and fulfill orders for your sales channels
- List your product details to multiple channels simultaneously
- Manage inventory with multiple users across warehouse locations
- Create a custom online B2B store for wholesale transactions
- Track income and expenses and maximize tax deductions
- Automatically calculate sales tax on your invoices
Pricing: QuickBooks Commerce $50/month and QuickBooks Online Essentials $50/month. Users must pair the app with a Quick Books online subscription.
Inventory Management App Free Versions
Most inventory tracker apps, including some of the ones on this list, have a free version. However, the tools you get with the free version are limited, and they are going to vary by company. If you have 1-3 users that will be doing light warehouse activities, most free versions will work for your company. One plus is if you want to upgrade, you can stay with operating systems that you’ve already learned.
What is the best free inventory app?
It’s hard to beat the free plans that Sortly and the Zoho Inventory App offer. Sortly has a plan that is forever free for a single user, and it includes 100 transactions a month. Zoho’s free plan is similar but you get 2 users, composite items and Shopify integration. These free plans are best for small businesses that do basic warehousing and fulfillment services.
What is the best inventory management app for Android?
Which app is best for your operation depends on which facet of tracking your goods is most important to your company. For example, if you want to integrate with eCommerce sites, look to Zoho, Cin7 Inventory and POS and Veeqo for your inventory management system. Each can handle barcode scanners.
If you do the bulk of your shipping with USPS, Ordoro makes sense with its discounted USPS shipping. Jumpstock, with its inventory management module, is a favorite with newbies. If an item doesn’t have a barcode, it can be entered by item number. As a software solution, users report it is easy to learn. You can include product information too.
What is the best inventory management app?
If it’s important for you to be able to integrate your inventory management software with eCommerce sites, you have a number of choices: Zoho, Veeqo, and Cin7 Inventory and POS all have that capability.
If you need to manage product categories and amounts as items are shipped, you need a specific type of inventory control app. SAP Inventory Manager, Inventory Now, On Shelf, InFlow, and Odoo are reliable picks for this requirement.
If you’re selling direct to a customer, using a Point of Sale system, Cashier Live is a top pick. You can use iOS or the web. You can enter your items in a variety of ways. If you don’t have barcodes on your products, you can invent a unique code for each product, and enter that; then the item is removed from inventory when sold.
Cashier Live also has a customer tracking feature. The customer tracking feature allows you to store a customer’s purchase history. You can use that data to suggest other possible interests or purchases.
Syncing stock levels with sales can be an important feature for a business. No sales rep who has just landed a big order wants to find out that the item or items are no longer in stock. That’s a sure way to lose customers.
A firm with multiple sales reps will find stock tracker apps that immediately subtract stock in response to sales orders invaluable. Apps that sync sales orders with stock include Zoho, InFlow Inventory, Ordoro and others. Each sales rep enters orders on iOS or Android devices, using a mobile app.
What’s the best overall, though? Our choices for the best overall inventory management apps are Zoho and Sortly. They both feature full-featured inventory control systems that are fully scalable at rock-bottom prices.
For instance, Zoho is good for small businesses, but if growth takes off, you can integrate it with the Zoho ERP system and other Zoho apps to allow the system to handle large-scale inventory management, accounting and sales. On the other hand, with all the tools you get for around $120 per month for Sortly, it’s a pretty great deal, as well.
If you need full-scale supply chain management to go with your products and asset managment, SAP Inventory Manager App with SAP Enterprise will be powerful enough to do the job.
What is the easiest way to track inventory?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way to track your goods and assets will vary from B2B. However, some tips on how to best track inventory include using a barcode scanner with an inventory to quickly and easily input stock levels, or utilizing an app that syncs with sales orders in order to keep track of inventory levels in real-time.
Whichever method you choose, be sure to test it out and ensure that it is the best fit for your business before fully implementing it. How do you get started? Make a list of the tools you need, and choose the best mobile app for your specific business needs.
Image: Depositphotos
This article, “20 Inventory Management Apps” was first published on Small Business Trends