How we compare inventory management software
We list 9 inventory platforms sold into the UK, and a published rate card exists for 6 providers. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page. Where a vendor quotes instead, the table says so. Some vendors publish in US dollars, and those figures are converted at a stated rate, so they move with the exchange rate.
The calculator takes the number of users and the number of warehouses. Each rate card is costed at those numbers, including seat blocks and per-location charges, and the table sorts by the result. Commission does not change the order.
Multichannel selling: the inventory management software channel list
Ask a UK seller why they are shopping and the answer is rarely better stock counting. It is that the same item is listed on Amazon, on eBay and on their own store, each holds its own stock number, and at least one is wrong. Keeping one figure true across channels, and routing each order to the right location with a label and tracking pushed back, is a different job from counting.
| Provider | E-commerce integration | Accounting integration |
|---|---|---|
| Brightpearl | Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, Amazon, eBay, and more | Xero, QuickBooks, Sage |
| Cin7 Core | Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Amazon | Xero, QuickBooks |
| Cin7 Omni | Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, eBay | Xero, QuickBooks |
| Fishbowl | Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce | QuickBooks, Xero |
| inFlow Inventory | Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon (via integrations) | Xero, QuickBooks |
| Katana Cloud Inventory | Shopify, WooCommerce (core integrations) | Xero, QuickBooks |
| Linnworks | Amazon, eBay, Shopify, TikTok Shop, WooCommerce, 100+ channels | Xero, QuickBooks, Sage (all 3rd-party) |
| Unleashed | Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento | Xero, QuickBooks |
| Zoho Inventory | Shopify, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, WooCommerce | Xero, QuickBooks, Zoho Books |
Read the channel column as a shortlist filter. If eBay is a third of your turnover and it is not on the list, the rest of the comparison does not matter. The accounting column matters in the same way: a connector maintained by a third party is a dependency you own, and a native one is not.
If you sell in one place, hold stock in one place and never assemble anything, your store and your ledger are probably already doing this. The category earns its cost when channels multiply, not when SKUs do.
Seats, locations and the inventory management software price the headline hides
The entry figure is a floor. Where the real cost sits differs by vendor: some bundle seats in blocks, so a warehouse hand who only scans still consumes a seat; some charge per location, which you meet the day you take a unit at a fulfilment centre; and some quote-only rows meter on orders or revenue, which gets dearer precisely when the year goes well.
| Provider | Entry price /mo | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|
| Brightpearl | Get quote | Quote-only (bespoke, scales as % of revenue) |
| Cin7 Core | £261/mo | Per-org with user-based tiers (USD) |
| Cin7 Omni | Get quote | Quote-only (enterprise tier) |
| Fishbowl | £150/mo (Essentials, 2 users) | Per-org with user-based tiers |
| inFlow Inventory | £69/mo | Per-org plan plus per-user and per-location add-ons (GBP) |
| Katana Cloud Inventory | £223/mo | Per-org flat + usage-based add-ons (USD) |
| Linnworks | Get quote | Quote-only (order-volume tiered + paid add-ons) |
| Unleashed | £269/mo (Core, 3 users) | Per-org with user-based tiers and order-volume add-ons (GBP) |
| Zoho Inventory | Free / £25/mo | Per-org tiered by orders and users (GBP) |
| Provider | Users included | Per-warehouse fee |
|---|---|---|
| Brightpearl | Unlimited (all plans) | Included (multi-warehouse standard) |
| Cin7 Core | 5 (Standard), 10 (Pro), 15 (Advanced) | Included (unlimited locations on all plans) |
| Cin7 Omni | 8 | Included (unlimited locations) |
| Fishbowl | 2 (Essentials), 5 (Growth), 10 (Scale) | Included (multi-warehouse standard) |
| inFlow Inventory | 2 (Lite), 5 (Core), 10 (Pro), 20 (Max) | £29/mo per extra location |
| Katana Cloud Inventory | Unlimited (Core and free plan) | Extra locations billed on usage (rate quoted per account) |
| Linnworks | Quote (order-volume based) | Included in quote (multi-warehouse standard) |
| Unleashed | 3 (Core), 5 (Pro) | Included (multi-warehouse standard) |
| Zoho Inventory | 1 (Free), 2 (Standard to Premium), 7 (Enterprise) | £8/mo per location |
When you collect a quote, the number to write down is not the monthly figure. It is the axis and the next step on it: what counts as a chargeable order, what happens at the tier boundary, and what a doubled volume does to the price. Modules are the other place cost hides. Unleashed lists forecasting as Yes (add-on Core) and analytics as Yes (Access Analytics add-on Core; included Pro), so if forecasting is the reason you are shopping, its entry figure is not your price. Enter your real seat and location counts into the calculator rather than reading the entry column.
Bills of materials and batch tracking in inventory management software
If a sale should consume components rather than a finished item, you need a bill of materials. Vendors blur two things here. Assembly kits a set from parts you already hold, and most rows in the Manufacturing / BOM column read yes, some only as an add-on. Production scheduling sequences work over time against capacity and materials you have not bought yet, which is a different product.
Traceability is the related row, and a food, drink, cosmetics or supplement business should read it first, because batch recall is not optional.
| Provider | Manufacturing / BOM | Batch / expiry tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Brightpearl | Yes (add-on) | Yes |
| Cin7 Core | Yes (strong) | Yes (FIFO/FEFO) |
| Cin7 Omni | Yes | Yes |
| Fishbowl | Yes (strong) | Yes (lot, serial, expiry) |
| inFlow Inventory | No (separate product) | Add-on (included on Max) |
| Katana Cloud Inventory | Yes (strong) | Yes (Traceability add-on) |
| Linnworks | Yes (limited) | Limited |
| Unleashed | Yes (add-on Core) | Yes |
| Zoho Inventory | No | Yes |
Landed cost and import VAT in UK inventory management software
What an item costs you is not what the supplier invoiced, and since the end of the transition period that gap has widened for anyone buying from the EU. Import VAT is recoverable by a VAT registered business, so it is not part of the cost of the stock. Customs duty is not recoverable, so it is, along with freight, insurance and clearance fees. Every EU consignment now needs a declaration, an EORI number, and a commodity code and origin per line.
None of that is visible in a feature grid, so treat it as a demo question. Ask the vendor to add freight and duty to a purchase order in front of you and show you where that cost appears in a margin report. "Has purchase orders" and "can apportion a freight invoice across a container" are different claims.
Closing stock value is a tax figure, not just a management one. It lands in your accounts and therefore in your Corporation Tax or Self Assessment position, and under Making Tax Digital the ledger holding it is the one filing. A dated, reconciled valuation with landed cost in it is doing tax work as well as trading work.
Handing fulfilment to a third party without losing the stock figure your inventory management software reports
A fulfilment house, a marketplace fulfilment programme or a unit you rent for peak is a location in the system whether or not you think of it that way. Once stock lives somewhere you cannot walk to, the number on the screen is the only number you have.
| Provider | Contract | Multi-warehouse |
|---|---|---|
| Brightpearl | Annual | Yes |
| Cin7 Core | No | Yes |
| Cin7 Omni | Not stated | Yes |
| Fishbowl | Annual | Yes |
| inFlow Inventory | No | Yes (add-on on Lite) |
| Katana Cloud Inventory | No | Yes (1 location included; extra tiered) |
| Linnworks | Annual | Yes |
| Unleashed | No | Yes (standard on all plans) |
| Zoho Inventory | No | Yes |
Decide before go-live which count is authoritative, how often you reconcile, and who investigates a variance. Give returns a route back to a sellable location, because a return never booked back in is the commonest source of a phantom shortage. And read the Support row for hours in your timezone, because a stocktake that will not reconcile is a today problem, not a Monday one.