inFlow vs Zoho Inventory vs Sortly: which inventory software fits a small business?

inFlow, Zoho Inventory and Sortly are often compared, but they solve three different problems. Sortly tells you what you have and where it is. Zoho Inventory manages online orders and stock together at a low price. inFlow runs the whole buying, stocking and selling process for a product business. Choosing well starts with knowing which of those problems is yours.

How we compared: Prices and plan limits were checked on each company’s official website on November 13, 2026, for the United States. This comparison is based on published plans and documentation, not on paid hands-on testing. Prices change often, so confirm them on the vendor’s site before you sign up.

The short answer

• Sortly if you mainly need a visual list of items, quantities and locations, on a phone, with photos. It is not built to manage sales orders.
• Zoho Inventory if you sell online, want orders and stock in one tool, and need the lowest price for that.
• inFlow Inventory if you buy from suppliers, sell to other businesses or run a real stockroom, and the software cost is small next to the cost of a mistake.

Side-by-side comparison

	Sortly	Zoho Inventory	inFlow Inventory
Free plan	Yes: 100 items, 1 user	Yes: 50 orders a month, 1 user, 1 location	No, 14-day trial
First paid plan	Advanced, $24 a month in the first year ($49 list price), billed yearly	Standard, $29 a month billed annually	Lite, $99 a month billed annually
What the first paid plan allows	500 items, 2 users	500 orders a month, 3 users, 2 locations	2 team members, 1 location, unlimited products and orders
Plans are limited by	Number of items and users	Number of orders, users and locations	Number of team members and locations
Sales orders and invoices	Not its purpose	Yes	Yes
Purchase orders	From the Ultra plan	Listed as a feature; the pricing page does not say from which plan	All plans
Barcodes	QR code labels from Advanced, barcode labels from Ultra	Barcode generation from Premium	All plans
Serial and batch tracking	Not listed	From Premium	Paid add-ons, $39 a month each on Lite and Core
Online store connections	Not its purpose	Lists Shopify, Amazon and eBay	Lists Shopify, Amazon and WooCommerce on all plans
Accounting connections	QuickBooks Online on Premium	Part of the wider Zoho family	QuickBooks Online and Xero on all plans

What you would pay each month

Software cost only, using the lowest plan whose published limits cover each situation. Annual billing, and first-year pricing for Sortly.

Situation	Sortly	Zoho Inventory	inFlow Inventory
1 person, 80 products, 40 orders a month	$0	$0	$99
3 people, 400 products, 300 orders a month	$74 (Ultra)	$29 (Standard)	$128 (Lite plus one extra team member)
5 people, 1,500 products, 2,000 orders a month, 3 locations	$74 (Ultra)	$79 (Premium)	$299 (Core), plus a $499 onboarding package

Two notes on this table. Sortly’s prices are a 50% discount that applies to the first year of a new yearly subscription; its page says a 20% discount applies to yearly plans after that. And Sortly appears cheap in the last row only because it does not process orders: you would still need another tool for that.

Sortly

Sortly is an inventory list that is pleasant to use. You create folders, add items with photos, and look things up or adjust quantities from a phone.

Plans when we checked

Plan	Price a month, first year	List price	Items	Users
Free	$0	$0	100	1
Advanced	$24	$49	500	2
Ultra	$74	$149	2,000	5
Premium	$149	$299	5,000	8

What you get

• A fast, visual way to record what you own and where it is.
• QR code labels from the Advanced plan, barcode labels and purchase orders from Ultra.
• QuickBooks Online connection on Premium.
• A 14-day free trial of paid plans. A credit card is required and the subscription starts automatically at the end of the trial unless you cancel.

Limits to know

• Plans are capped by number of unique items. A shop with many variants reaches 500 quickly.
• It does not replace an order management tool. There is no flow from online order to picking to shipping.
• The price roughly doubles after the first year.

Best for: tracking materials, equipment, supplies or a small product range, when the question is “how many do we have and where?” rather than “which orders do I ship today?”.

Zoho Inventory

Zoho Inventory is a full order and stock tool at the lowest entry price of the three, and its free plan is useful for a new seller.

Plans when we checked

Plan	Price a month, billed annually	Orders a month	Users	Locations
Free	$0	50	1	1
Standard	$29	500	3	2
Premium	$79	3,000	5	4
Plus	$129	7,500	10	6
Enterprise	$249	15,000	10	10

What you get

• Sales orders, stock levels, bundles (composite items), dropshipping and backorders, even on the free plan.
• Connections listed with Shopify, Amazon and eBay. The pricing page does not say which plans include each one, so check before you rely on it.
• Barcode generation and serial or batch tracking from the Premium plan.
• A 14-day trial of paid plans.

Limits to know

• Plans are capped by orders per month. A busy season can push you to the next plan.
• Barcodes are not included until the $79 plan.
• It works best with the rest of Zoho’s products. If your accounting is elsewhere, check the connection first.

Best for: online sellers who want one affordable tool for orders and stock, and who do not need barcodes on day one.

inFlow Inventory

inFlow is the most complete of the three and the most expensive. It has no free plan. Every plan includes unlimited products, sales orders and purchase orders, plus barcodes and integrations. What changes between plans is the size of the team and the number of locations.

Plans when we checked

Plan	Price a month, billed annually	Team members	Locations
Lite	$99	2	1
Core	$299	5	5
Pro	$499	10	Unlimited
Max	$699	20	Unlimited

What you get

• Purchasing, stock and sales in one place, with reorder points and barcode scanning on every plan.
• Connections listed with Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, QuickBooks Online, Xero and ShipStation.
• No limit on products or orders, so a good month does not change your bill.
• A 14-day free trial.

Limits to know

• The jump from Lite to Core is large: $99 to $299 a month.
• A $499 onboarding package is shown as required on the Core plan and optional on Lite.
• On Lite and Core, extras are paid: $29 a month for each extra team member, $39 for each extra location, and $39 each for lot numbers and serial numbers.
• Only annual prices were shown on the pricing page. Ask about monthly billing if you do not want to commit for a year.

Best for: product businesses that order from suppliers, sell wholesale as well as online, or have a stockroom where scanning saves real time.

How to choose in three questions

1. Do you need to manage orders, or only know what you have? Only what you have: Sortly. Orders too: Zoho Inventory or inFlow.
2. What grows faster, your orders or your team? Zoho charges by order volume, inFlow by team size and locations. A shop with many small orders and two people is often cheaper on inFlow Lite than it looks. A shop with few orders and five people is cheaper on Zoho.
3. Do you need barcodes now? If yes, compare Zoho Premium at $79 with inFlow Lite at $99, not the cheapest plans.

Before paying for any of them, make sure you are past the stage where a well-built spreadsheet does the job. Our guide on spreadsheet or software lists the warning signs. If you want to stay at zero cost, see the best free inventory software.

Before you switch

Whatever you choose, the move goes better with clean data:

• Give every product a clear code. See how to create SKU numbers.
• Do a full stock count just before you import, so the opening quantities are true.
• Write down your reorder points so you can enter them on day one.
• Use the free plan or the trial with twenty real products before you import everything.

Common questions

Is Sortly or Zoho Inventory better for a small online store?

Zoho Inventory, in most cases. It handles sales orders and connects to store platforms, which Sortly is not designed to do. Sortly is better for tracking items that are not sold through online orders.

Is inFlow worth the price?

It can be when stock mistakes are expensive: overselling, late supplier orders or hours lost looking for items. Below a few hundred orders a month with one person in charge of stock, a cheaper tool or a spreadsheet is usually enough.

Does Zoho Inventory have a free plan?

Yes, when we checked: 50 orders a month, one user and one location, with no time limit.

Can I move from one to another later?

Yes. All three let you import products from a spreadsheet file. Keep a regular export of your products and stock levels so you are never locked in.

Key takeaways

• Sortly tracks items, Zoho Inventory manages online orders and stock, inFlow runs purchasing, stock and sales together.
• Sortly and Zoho Inventory have free plans. inFlow starts at $99 a month billed annually.
• Sortly charges by items, Zoho by orders, inFlow by team members and locations.
• Barcodes are on every inFlow plan, from Premium on Zoho Inventory, and from Ultra on Sortly.
• Prices above were checked on November 13, 2026. Confirm them before you buy.