The 14 Best Inventory Management Software for Small Businesses of 2021

It’s hard to practice good inventory management techniques when you’re juggling multiple sales channels. Fortunately, Ordoro makes multichannel selling easier. With Ordoro, you can create master products within your inventory system, allowing you to update descriptions, images, branding, and more across all (or some of) your sales channels at your discretion.

Ordoro also offers vendor management features that make dropshipping a breeze. For instance, you can assign vendors to specific products in your catalogue. Then, anytime a customer orders those items, Ordoro can automatically send the order to the appropriate vendor, thereby cutting out the middleman (you), maximizing supply chain efficiency and ensuring your customers get their items as quickly as possible.

We also like that Ordoro makes nontraditional inventory management strategy possible. For instance, you can opt to strategically oversell your goods or limit the number of instock items visible to your customers—both of which create the illusion of scarcity and motivate your potential buyers to complete their purchase. Ultimately, this helps you turn a better profit and avoid storing expensive excess inventory.

To learn more about this ecommerce inventory management solution, check out our Ordoro review.

For businesses on a budget, inFlow Inventory is a great inventory management system. inFlow offers, in our opinion, the best free inventory management service on the market (inFlow On Premise). Or you can enjoy more features with inFlow’s paid plans—some of the cheapest available, starting at a low $71.00 per month.

Also, inFlow is remarkably easy to use, with many of its inventory tracking features automated. It’s even got a great mobile app that facilitates barcode scanning and keeps your sales agents and inventory manager on the same page for stock inventory levels.

One thing to keep in mind, though? inFlow Inventory is cheap because it’s more scaled back than other platforms on our list. While it makes managing inventory a breeze, inFlow enforces limits on the number of orders you can process. Even on the most expensive plan, you won’t be able to input more than 5,000 sales orders per month. If that’s a problem, you may want to check out another of our top budget choices, Zoho Inventory.

Be sure to read our inFlow Inventory review to get more details on the features and drawbacks of this low-cost inventory platform.

Upserve provides a dynamic inventory solution for the unique needs of restaurants. Specifically, Upserve offers a greater focus on expiration date tracking and specialty supply chain needs (like refrigerated shipping) than other inventory control software options.

What’s more, Upserve provides features just for restaurants. For instance, you can use Upserve inventory software to create recipes for the dishes you sell, customizing each recipe with the precise ingredients and amounts needed. Then, when you sell that dish, Upserve can automatically deduct those quantities from your inventory levels for the ingredients used. You can even use this feature to determine pricing for your menu items and identify food waste.

We also like that Upserve comes with a built-in point-of-sale (POS) system—though admittedly, we don’t love that you’re restricted to using (and paying for) Upserve’s unique proprietary POS hardware. Still, if you’re running a restaurant, Upserve is probably the best inventory management software you could hope for.

Most enterprise resource planning (or ERP) platforms feature modules for every aspect of your business (like accounting, point of sale, inventory, and shipping)—and they charge you for each module you add to your plan. Those costs add up, making ERP systems outlandishly expensive for all but the largest companies.

Cin7 breaks the mold by offering built-in modules that come standard with your plan. In addition to a fully integrated POS system, Cin7 comes fully loaded with B2B ecommerce features, manufacturing features, and even a payment portal. And that’s all in addition to the barcode scanning, inventory tracking, and order fulfillment features you’d expect from your inventory solution.

Cin7 also offers advanced demand forecasting and multichannel support, including cross-channel syncing every five minutes. This ensures you have a dynamic inventory system that stays up to date, helping you achieve proper inventory management with minimal effort.

The downside? While Cin7 isn’t as expensive as most ERP solutions, it is among the more expensive platforms on our list (starting at $299.00 per month). Be sure to read our full Cin7 review to see if the service is right for your business.

Zoho Inventory has a lot to offer. For starters, Zoho offers a pretty comprehensive free plan that allows customers to accept backorders on out-of-stock items, arrange dropshipping, and handle multi-currency transactions. That gives small businesses a chance to keep their inventory organized without worrying about their limited budgets.

If you opt to upgrade your plan, though, you get enhanced features. You can manage multiple warehouses, enjoy serial number tracking and batch tracking, and sync multiple Shopify stores to your account.

Ultimately, though, we think Zoho works best for small businesses only. Even on the platform’s most advanced plan, businesses are limited to a total of 30,000 online and offline orders per month. Zoho also limits your invoices, warehouses, packing slips, and shipping labels—not great considering other software (like Cin7) costs roughly the same and doesn’t impose such restrictions.

But if you’re a small business that doesn’t need to fulfill thousands of orders per month, Zoho Inventory can be a very effective and inexpensive option.

Fishbowl Manufacturing is our top choice for manufacturing businesses due to its advanced production management features.

For starters, Fishbowl Manufacturing lets you create advanced bills of material (BOMs). The platform features multi-level BOMs, allowing you to track inventory costs on an item-by-item basis for every job you complete. And because Fishbowl’s inventory software was made to integrate with QuickBooks accounting software, you can easily sync your inventory and accounting systems to keep track of these costs.

Fishbowl Manufacturing also features multi-level work orders, which allows you to group work orders across multiple production stages to create an overarching production plan. Each phase can be assigned to an individual employee and include its own instructions and build calculations. This helps you better track your manufacturing jobs and helps your clients with their supply chain management.

Keep in mind, though, that Fishbowl is a local software, so it’s only available on desktops and laptops. To get barcode scanning and other on-the-go warehouse features (like physical inventory counts), you’ll need to pay extra for the Fishbowl Go add-on. See our Fishbowl review to get more information.

In our opinion, Fishbowl Warehouse is the best inventory management software for warehouse management.

WIth Fishbowl Warehouse, you can track inventory levels for individual parts (not just complete products). This allows you to track manufacturing, storage, and labor costs for each individual part in your warehouse, which means a more detailed, in-depth cost of goods sold (COGS) calculation. You can even have help calculating your COGS since Fishbowl integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks accounting software.

Fishbowl Warehouse also includes built-in UPS shipping features, which allows you to print pick lists and shipping labels—all within your inventory system. Fishbowl also supports multiple warehouses, making it capable of handling more complex business models than many other inventory management solutions.

You can also get the Fishbowl Go add-on and get easy barcode scanning on your mobile device. And since Fishbowl is a local software, you pay one up-front fee and get lifetime access to your inventory software—no monthly fees. To find out more, read our complete Fishbowl review.