11 Best Inventory Management Software for Small Businesses in 2023

光速Retail is a popularretail point-of-sale (POS) systemknown for its inventory management features. Not only can you conduct sales both online and in-store with Lightspeed, but the platform tracks all your inventory levels in real time across multiple locations and channels, allows you to run advanced reports, and integrates seamlessly with ecommerce stores. It doesn’t manage perishable goods like Zoho, although if you run a restaurant, you’ll find that feature in Lightspeed Restaurant. (MarketMan is still a better pick for restaurant inventory.)

Its newest feature, “Awaiting Payment,” lets you mark inventory as reserved until payment is complete. This is a great tool to prevent you from running out of stock before you fill orders. It works for on-premise or ecommerce sales.

Lightspeed scored 4.51 out of 5, with the highest score for inventory features and ease of use. It lost points in pricing, as other software is cheaper and some let you choose your own payment processor if needed. For a cheaper POS + inventory system, check Square. It has low-stock alerts but does not use Economic Order Quantity or forecasting for this.

Zoho’s products for small businesses often make our best-of lists because they provide great value for the price. Here, Zoho Inventory makes the list for its overall excellence, free plan (though limited), and its ability to set and track expiration dates for perishable products. (MarketMan is better for restaurants, however, and Odoo for a stronger free program.)

It can handle multiple warehouses, ecommerce, and purchase orders all from one inventory management platform. Additionally, it is customizable for different use cases and has an intuitive interface. Its features for managing perishable items include expiration monitoring and alerts and advanced inventory aging reports, making it good for small grocery stores.

This software earned a 4.49 out of 5 in our evaluation, earning the top score for pricing after Square. While it scored well for its features, you may find more industry-specific tools in EZRentOut or Lightspeed, which are more targeted for rental operations and retailers, respectively. That, along with limited customer support hours and a lack of native POS integrations, prevented Zoho from getting a perfect score.

EZRentOut offers terrific inventory features designed for the specific needs of rental companies, whether equipment rental for construction or sports, audio equipment, or furniture for homes or events. It lets you note damage by renters, track depreciation, and (like Oderry) track services and repairs. Plus, its GPS tracking tools make it easy to see where your equipment is at any time.

It earned 4.28 out of 5 on our rubric—an excellent score given its specificity. It took hits for limited integrations, which, like Orderry, are primarily through Zapier—although EZRentOut offers an ecommerce store for online renting and sales. Like Agiliron, it also has B2B customer management tools. It lacks a free plan and payment gateway, hurting its pricing score. However, it got high marks for inventory tools and ease of use.

View your day at a glance and utilize quick actions on the EZRentOut home screen dashboard. (Source: EZRentOut)

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Add both inventory items and assets to your items list, perfect for rental services. (Source: EZRentOut)

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View tons of different reports for anything from your customers to taxes to orders. (Source: EZRentOut)

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Employees can request new stock or replacement stock with new stock requests. (Source: EZRentOut)

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Square is second to Odoo on our list ofbest free inventory management software。Here, we chose it for its affordability. Even the paid plans are among the cheapest on our list, and the free plan is excellent if you have a small inventory or very basic needs. You get live inventory tracking not only of on-premise but also online sales, and with Square Restaurant, you can get menu and ingredient-level tracking and online delivery management.

Like Lightspeed, Square is a POS system first, with inventory second. Its tools are not as strong as Lightspeed’s, but they are good enough for most small businesses and work in a variety of situations. Its free plan, while not as good as Odoo for pure inventory, is nonetheless very strong. Likewise, the restaurant tracking is good—though MarketMan is better.

Square earned a strong 4.24 out of 5 on our list. A perfect score for pricing, thanks to the free plan, aided this. Its features are overall not as strong as others on our list; for example, stock forecasting requires an integration. It also took a big hit for its customer support hours.

Katana stands out from the others on our list because it’s specifically designed for manufacturers. In addition to the bundling and kitting tools nearly all the others have, it can track products and supplies at all levels of the manufacturing process. Plus, it has automatic workflows, so you can concentrate on making the best products quickly.

One exciting new feature for manufacturers is the ability to send partial manufacturing orders. If you produce in large quantities, this allows you to send part of an order ahead as it is finished, instead of having it take up space in your warehouse awaiting the entire order.

It earned an overall score of 4.2 out of 5, taking hits on pricing for not having a free plan and only allowing one user per plan (unless you pay extra). Katana also lacks a mobile app, like Orderry and Ordoro, and has limited integration capabilities. However, it is great for features and is one of the few on the list that can track supplies, even by volume and expiration date. It even has adjustments so that you can sell products that don’t move.

Agiliron是一个多通道管理系统ecommerce, social commerce, retail, and wholesale functions. This software excels in providing easy access to information from anywhere in the program. It offers comprehensive inventory features for creating custom orders, kitting features, assemblies, matrixed products, and product substitutions to set this system apart. With competitive pricing to Lightspeed and its own POS, we chose it for its excellent B2B tools.

We also believe it is the best for Amazon marketing, whether you use Amazon Marketplace and your own fulfillment or work with Fulfillment by Amazon. Agiliron offers excellent integrations with manual and automatic information exchange, autosyncing of inventory, and multichannel fulfillment through FBA.

It earned an overall score of 4.17 out of 5. Agiliron had the highest score for inventory functions. Its score for pricing would have been higher if it had a free plan. You also need higher plans for multiple warehouses. For a less expensive—though simpler—software, Zoho Inventory is your best bet. Users love Agiliron’s functionality but say it takes time to learn it.

Odoo is open-source software that users say takes some time to learn but is overall easy to use. If you need a straight inventory system, then Odoo is an excellent choice, with granular inventory management, automated purchase ordering at given stock levels, inventory forecasting, and even warranty tracking. Add to that, it’s completely free!

If you need more features, however, like sales and CRM, then Odoo has an entire set of integratable apps that you can get for one low monthly price. Many businesses have used Odoo for all their business tools, from sales to payroll. In this way, it’s like Square, but cheaper.

Odoo made a strong standing with 4.09 out of 5. Obviously, the free plan gave it the second-highest pricing score. This and its great user reviews led to a strong expert score as well. It lost points because many purchasing and sales tools rely on integrations or additional apps and because it lacks live customer support.

We found Cin7 Orderhive the best solution for managing inventory for pure ecommerce and dropshipping. Powering over 5,500 ecommerce businesses, it not only handles inventory but also automates ecommerce tasks, works with 200+ shipping carriers, and has manufacturing management tools. You can automate purchase orders based on stock thresholds and manage inventory across multiple stores and warehouses. Plus, it has batch, serial number coordination, stock transfers, kitting, and more.

Cin7 Orderhive cloud inventory earned a 4.06 on our rubric. It earned good scores for inventory features, ease of use, and our expert score but got docked heavily in the pricing section for its pricing and lack of a free plan—if this is a consideration for you, try Zoho. It integrates with POS systems, but if you have in-store sales, we suggest Lightspeed, Square, or Agiliron.

MarketMan is a cloud-based inventory and vendor management app designed specifically for restaurants, with supply tracking based on expiration dates and recipes when desired. One unique function is that it will process invoices for you. It integrates with many popular POS systems and has robust invoicing and scanning functions. MarketMan says its customers save 2% to 5% in overall food costs, 4 to 8 hours in accounting data entry, and 50% time in placing orders.

It scored 3.91 out of 5 in our evaluation. MarketMan is the second-most expensive product on our list and does not offer a free plan or trial. There is no CRM suite like there is with Lightspeed and Cin7 Orderhive, and it has limited multichannel management. Otherwise, it has excellent inventory tools. It costs $500 to set up the software, but it can tie ingredients and quantities to recipes. Each plan also comes with a set number of invoices. Tell them what you need, and they will process your purchase orders for you.

While Ordoro is primarily identified as a shipping platform, it provides advanced inventory management and automated purchasing features that intuitively integrate with its shipping system. Because of this, Ordoro makes supply chain management easy and efficient—an ideal solution for dropshippers and volume sellers. It is, however, the most expensive system on our list; if you want something equally feature-rich but cheaper, Agiliron is our suggestion, followed by Cin7 Orderhive for ecommerce companies, especially.

Ordoro earned a 3.89 out of 5. Its integrations (plus available shipping discounts) and advanced inventory management solutions (such as kitting and bundling) contributed to its high score. Ordoro had the second-lowest pricing score after Cin7 Orderhive. If you need to minimize your inventory holding costs and save on volume shipping because of online orders, Ordoro is for you, but if you run a brick-and-mortar retail store, consider Zoho, Square, or Lightspeed.

We selected Orderry for its strong tools for repair shops of any size and kind—from a one-man auto parts business to a computer repairs enterprise. Orderry’s management system can track tools, supplies, and even the items your customer leaves in your care, something not seen in the other software on this list. In addition, it has work order management that takes you from leads to repeat sales and includes a scheduler and more. Further, it’s the cheapest small business inventory software on our list.

Orderry earned 3.83 out of 5 on our rubric. Its offerings are not as diverse as those of Zoho or Agiliron, and it does not have ecommerce tools like Cin7 Orderhive. However, it has repair-specific features like automatic write-off of products in work orders, bin control, and consumables tracking.