Inventory Planner Pricing: Real Vendor Pricing Compared (2026)
Real 2026 Inventory Planner pricing vs Cin7, NetSuite and Blue Yonder — what each actually costs, and where flat-rate forecasting wins for Shopify merchants.
Hylke Reitsma is co-founder of Forthsuite and a supply chain specialist with 8+ years of hands-on experience at Shell, Verisure, and Stryker. He holds an MSc in Supply Chain Management from the University of Groningen and writes practical guides to help e-commerce teams run leaner, faster supply chains. Selected by Replit as 1 of 20 founders for the inaugural Race to Revenue Cohort #1 (2026) and certified as a Replit Platform Builder.
Quick answer: Inventory planner pricing in 2026 ranges from $50/month for basic tools to $2,000+ for enterprise platforms, with most Shopify merchants landing in the low-to-mid hundreds per month once revenue- or volume-based tiers kick in. The best value comes from flat-rate pricing (no SKU or revenue caps) that includes AI demand forecasting, automated reorder points, and purchase order generation—features that can help reduce stockouts and free up inventory capital.
TL;DR: The best inventory planning software in 2026 depends on your business size and complexity, with tools ranging from $50/month for startups to $500+ for enterprise operations. Forthcast helps Shopify operators cut through pricing complexity by providing accurate demand forecasts and automated inventory replenishment recommendations tailored to their specific sales volume and growth stage.
Disclosure: Forthcast publishes this comparison and is one of the products compared.
Last updated: July 2026
If you're comparing inventory planner pricing, you've probably noticed that most vendors hide their actual costs behind "contact us" forms. That changes today. We've compiled real pricing data from the major inventory planning platforms serving Shopify merchants, including monthly costs, transaction fees, and the hidden charges that show up after you've already committed. Whether you're spending $5,000 monthly on inventory or $500,000, understanding these pricing structures will save you thousands over the next twelve months. For merchants looking for transparent, AI-powered forecasting without enterprise bloat, Forthcast offers a straightforward flat-rate alternative at $19.99/month with no transaction fees or SKU limits.
Migrating from Stocky? Stocky shuts down Aug 31, 2026 — see our Stocky alternative & migration pillar for the full picture.
What Is Inventory Planner Pricing and What's Actually Included
Inventory planner pricing refers to the subscription cost and fee structure for software that helps you forecast demand, set reorder points, and manage purchase orders. The pricing models vary significantly across vendors, but they generally fall into four categories:
“For larger stores to reorder they use Logility which is like a larger program almost like an ERP. for smaller stores he does it mostly manually”
- Flat monthly subscription: Fixed price regardless of sales volume or SKU count (typical range: $99-$999/month for small to mid-market)
- Revenue-based pricing: Percentage of your monthly revenue, usually 0.3% to 1.5% (can reach $3,000+ monthly for stores doing $500K+)
- Tiered by SKU count: Price increases as your catalog grows (common jumps at 500, 1,000, 5,000 SKUs)
- Transaction or order-based: Charges per order processed through the system ($0.10-$0.50 per order)
What vendors include at each price point matters more than the headline number. Most inventory planners cover demand forecasting and reorder alerts in base plans. Advanced features like supplier management, production planning, assembly/bundle handling, or multi-location allocation often sit behind higher tiers or add-on fees. Payment terms vary too. Annual commitments typically offer 15-20% discounts but lock you in. Monthly plans provide flexibility but cost more over time.
Setup fees appear less commonly in 2026 than they did two years ago, but enterprise plans ($1,000+ monthly) sometimes include $500-$2,000 onboarding charges for data migration and initial configuration. Read the contract carefully for SKU limits because exceeding them can trigger automatic tier upgrades mid-contract.
Shopify merchants using AI-powered inventory forecasting can reduce their stockout incidents while simultaneously decreasing excess inventory holding costs.
Why the Pricing Structure Matters More Than the Monthly Fee
A $199/month tool can end up costing more than a $499/month competitor once you factor in how pricing scales with your business growth. This matters because inventory planning software should grow with you, not penalize growth with exponential fee increases.
“at the end the planner is the decision maker and needs data sources to do that. For platforms like Logility this is pretty trustworthy but for smaller stores that is a bit more difficult”
Consider a Shopify store with 800 SKUs doing $200,000 in monthly revenue. Under a SKU-tiered model charging $299/month for up to 1,000 SKUs, you're safe now. Add 300 products next quarter and you jump to the $599/month tier. That's a 100% price increase for a 37% catalog expansion. Revenue-based pricing creates different problems. At 0.5% of revenue, you pay $1,000 monthly when you hit $200K in sales. Double your sales to $400K and your software bill doubles to $2,000, even though your forecasting needs haven't fundamentally changed.
Transaction-based fees sound small until you do the math. At $0.25 per order, a store processing 2,000 monthly orders pays $500 in transaction fees alone, on top of the base subscription. Scale to 5,000 orders and you're at $1,250 monthly just in per-order charges.
The pricing structure also affects your total tech stack cost. If your inventory planner charges per integration (common for ERPs, 3PLs, or additional sales channels), connecting your warehouse management system might add $150-$300/month. Stores selling on Shopify, Amazon, and Walmart could face three separate channel fees totaling $450+ monthly beyond the base price.
Contract lock-in creates real risk when pricing structures don't align with your business model. A twelve-month contract with revenue-based pricing means you're committed even if seasonal fluctuations cause your software costs to spike 300% in Q4, then drop back down in Q1. Flat-rate pricing provides budget predictability that matters when you're forecasting your own operating expenses.
Actual Inventory Planner Pricing from Major Vendors in 2026
Here's what the major inventory planning platforms actually charge, based on current pricing pages and confirmed merchant reports:
Inventory Planner (by Sage): Publishes a single fixed tier — Essentials at $119.99/month — while Standard, Premium, and Enterprise plans are custom-quoted based on the GMV and SKU volume you manage, with unlimited users included at every tier. Third-party reports put those higher tiers at roughly $250-$300/month (Standard), $600-$900/month (Premium), and $1,200+/month (Enterprise). Includes demand forecasting, purchase order management, and supplier tracking.
Stocky (by Shopify): Being retired — Stocky was pulled from the Shopify App Store on Feb 2, 2026 and shuts down permanently on Aug 31, 2026. It was a free app bundled with Shopify POS Pro ($89/month per location), handling basic inventory management and purchase orders but lacking advanced forecasting. Because Shopify is folding inventory features into Admin/POS, merchants should plan a migration rather than adopt Stocky.
Cin7: Cin7 Core lists Standard at $349/month, Pro at $599/month, and Advanced at $999/month, with each plan bundling multiple user seats and additional users available for purchase; the multi-channel Omni product is custom-quoted. These prices cover inventory and order management, not just forecasting. Strong option if you need a full inventory management system, less cost-effective if you only want forecasting.
Katana: Offers a free plan for up to 30 SKUs (unlimited users), then a Core plan starting at $299/month for unlimited SKUs and users with one inventory location, plus usage-based fees and optional paid add-ons (and custom-priced enterprise tiers). Focused on manufacturers with raw material tracking and production planning. Capabilities like traceability and additional locations are priced as add-ons, so costs climb as your operation grows.
Netstock: Pricing is unpublished (custom quote); third-party reports put the starting point somewhere in the $400-$900/month range for small deployments. Target market skews toward established businesses with complex supply chains. Enterprise features like scenario planning and supply chain analytics justify higher costs for larger operations but represent overkill for most Shopify merchants under $5M annually.
Brightpearl: Pricing is custom-quoted (unpublished); third-party reports put the start around $1,000/month as part of their retail operations platform. Like Cin7, this bundles inventory forecasting with order management, accounting, and CRM. Makes sense for merchants needing a complete back-office system, but you're paying for capabilities beyond inventory planning. Minimum user requirements and implementation fees of roughly $5,000-$25,000 can push total first-year investment well above $15,000.
Forecasting spreadsheets: Technically free if you build your own in Google Sheets or Excel, but the hidden cost is time. Expect to invest 10-20 hours monthly maintaining formulas, updating data exports, and troubleshooting broken links. This represents $500-$2,000 in opportunity cost monthly at typical merchant time valuations. Spreadsheets also lack automated alerts, real-time syncing, and error-checking that prevent stockouts.
| Vendor | Published price | Higher tiers | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory Planner (by Sage) | Essentials at $119.99/month | Custom-quoted; third-party reports put them at roughly $250-$300/month (Standard), $600-$900/month (Premium), $1,200+/month (Enterprise) | Includes demand forecasting, purchase order management and supplier tracking; unlimited users at every tier |
| Stocky (by Shopify) | Free app bundled with Shopify POS Pro ($89/month per location) | — | Pulled from the Shopify App Store on Feb 2, 2026 and shuts down permanently on Aug 31, 2026 |
| Cin7 | Cin7 Core Standard $349/month, Pro $599/month, Advanced $999/month | Multi-channel Omni product is custom-quoted | Covers inventory and order management, not just forecasting |
| Katana | Free plan for up to 30 SKUs; Core from $299/month | Usage-based fees, optional paid add-ons and custom-priced enterprise tiers | Focused on manufacturers with raw material tracking and production planning |
| Netstock | Unpublished (custom quote) | Third-party reports put the starting point in the $400-$900/month range for small deployments | Target market skews toward established businesses with complex supply chains |
| Brightpearl | Custom-quoted (unpublished) | Third-party reports put the start around $1,000/month | Implementation fees of roughly $5,000-$25,000 can push first-year investment above $15,000 |
| Forecasting spreadsheets | Free to build yourself | — | 10-20 hours monthly to maintain, about $500-$2,000 in opportunity cost |
| Forthcast | $19.99/month flat-rate | No SKU limits, order volume caps or revenue-based fees | A store with 500 SKUs pays the same as one with 5,000 SKUs |
How to Evaluate the Options Against Your Actual Needs
Start by calculating your inventory planning problem's actual size. Count your active SKUs (products you've sold at least once in 90 days), monthly order volume, number of suppliers, and sales channels. A store with 300 SKUs, 800 monthly orders, 12 suppliers, and two channels (Shopify and Amazon) has fundamentally different needs than one with 3,000 SKUs, 6,000 orders, 80 suppliers, and six channels.
Map which features you'll use in the first 90 days. Most merchants need demand forecasting, reorder point calculations, and purchase order generation immediately. Supplier performance tracking, assembly/bundle management, and multi-warehouse allocation matter for some businesses but not all. Paying for unused features is waste. If you don't manufacture products or assemble kits, production planning features add no value.
Project your pricing 12 months forward under different growth scenarios. If you're at 600 SKUs today, model what happens at 800, 1,200, and 2,000 SKUs. Run the same exercise for revenue if considering revenue-based pricing. A tool that costs $299 today but jumps to $899 at realistic growth levels might be more expensive than one with flat $599 pricing.
Calculate the breakeven point against your current process. If you spend 15 hours monthly managing inventory in spreadsheets, and your time is worth $50/hour, that's $750 monthly in opportunity cost. A $399/month tool that cuts this to 3 hours saves you 12 hours ($600 value), creating a net cost of $399 - $600 = negative $201. You're actually $201 better off monthly. Factor in stockout prevention too. If better forecasting prevents one $3,000 stockout annually, that's $250/month in avoided loss.
Test during peak season if possible. Many vendors offer 14-30 day trials. Starting a trial in July when you do $100K monthly won't reveal how the system performs in November when you do $400K. If you can't trial during peak, ask vendors for references from merchants with seasonal patterns similar to yours.
Read the contract for price increase clauses. Some vendors reserve the right to raise prices on annual renewals, others lock rates for multi-year terms. Understand whether your monthly price is guaranteed or subject to change with 30-60 days notice.
Why Forthcast Costs Less for Shopify Merchants
Forthcast approaches pricing differently than legacy inventory management platforms because it's built specifically for Shopify merchants, not retrofitted from enterprise systems designed for retailers with physical locations and complex ERP requirements.
The pricing is flat-rate at $19.99/month with no SKU limits, no order volume caps, and no revenue-based fees. A store with 500 SKUs pays the same as one with 5,000 SKUs. A merchant doing $100K monthly pays the same as one doing $1M monthly. This structure means your software costs stay predictable as you grow, and you're never penalized for success.
There are no per-transaction fees, no per-channel fees, and no additional charges for connecting multiple Shopify stores. The AI forecasting engine that powers Forthcast analyzes your historical sales data, identifies patterns, and generates reorder recommendations without requiring you to configure complex algorithms or hire a data analyst. The system handles seasonality, trend detection, and promotional impact automatically.
Because Forthcast integrates natively with Shopify, setup takes minutes rather than weeks. There's no $2,000 implementation fee, no required onboarding calls, and no minimum contract term. The 14-day free trial gives you full access to all features, not a neutered demo version. You can evaluate real forecasts against your actual inventory data before committing.
The interface is designed for merchants who need answers quickly, not inventory managers with supply chain degrees. You see which products to reorder, how many units to buy, and when to place orders. The system explains its recommendations in plain language rather than statistical jargon. Purchase order generation happens in three clicks.
For merchants currently using spreadsheets, Forthcast eliminates the 10-20 hours monthly you spend updating formulas and export files. For those paying $600-$1,200 monthly for enterprise platforms with features they don't use, Forthcast cuts costs while maintaining the forecasting accuracy that actually matters. The AI models improve over time as they learn your specific sales patterns, meaning forecast accuracy increases the longer you use the system.
Customer support is included at all pricing tiers without per-incident fees or premium support add-ons. You get help when you need it, not a chatbot that redirects you to help docs.
What You Should Actually Pay for Inventory Planning Software
A reasonable inventory planner pricing benchmark for Shopify merchants is 0.5-1.5% of your cost of goods sold monthly, with the percentage decreasing as volume increases. For a store with $100K in monthly inventory purchases, that's $500-$1,500 monthly. A store with $20K in monthly inventory should expect to pay $100-$300.
This range accounts for the value the software provides through stockout prevention, overstock reduction, and time savings. If your current stockouts cost you $2,000 monthly in lost sales and your overstock ties up $10,000 in capital earning zero return, even a $500/month tool that cuts these problems in half delivers $6,000 in monthly value.
Merchants spending less than $50,000 annually on inventory can often manage with basic Shopify inventory features plus spreadsheets, accepting manual work as the tradeoff for zero software cost. Between $50K-$250K annual inventory spend, dedicated forecasting tools become cost-effective. Above $250K, the risk of mistakes justifies investing in quality software.
Don't pay for capabilities you won't use within six months. Production planning, lot tracking, and barcode scanning add costs without value if you're a straightforward reseller buying finished goods. Conversely, if you're a manufacturer, these features are worth premium pricing.
Be suspicious of very cheap options under $99/month unless they're legitimate starter plans with clear upgrade paths. These often lack the forecasting sophistication to handle real demand variability, or they're entry-level pricing designed to upsell you quickly to $
For a side-by-side breakdown, see our Forthcast vs Inventory Planner comparison.
Forecast demand and avoid stockouts — Forthcast for Shopify.
Where the Flat-Rate Option Stops Making Sense
Transparent pricing is only worth something if the tool behind it covers your workflow, so it is worth naming what Forthcast's $19.99 flat fee does not include.
Forthcast is Shopify-only. It does not net inventory across warehouses or channels, does not do per-lot landed-cost accounting, and does not optimise purchase orders around minimum order quantities or freight class - it drafts the PO at the reorder point and leaves the decision with you.
That is a large part of why the number is small. If your requirements sit above that line, the higher-priced tiers in this guide are pricing scope you would actually use.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does inventory planner pricing typically cost for Shopify stores?
Inventory planner pricing for Shopify stores varies by features and order volume. Entry-level plans cover basic forecasting, while enterprise solutions cost considerably more and are often custom-quoted. AI-powered tools like Forthcast offer competitive pricing starting at lower tiers, making advanced inventory forecasting accessible to growing businesses without enterprise budgets.
What's included in most inventory planner pricing plans?
Most inventory planner pricing plans include demand forecasting, purchase order management, stock level alerts, and sales analytics. Premium tiers add AI-powered predictions, multi-location support, supplier management, and advanced reporting. Forthcast includes AI forecasting, automated reorder recommendations, and Shopify integration in all plans. Higher-priced vendors often charge extra for features like multi-channel support or custom integrations that others include as standard.
Is there a free inventory planner for Shopify or do I have to pay?
Most robust inventory planners require paid subscriptions, though many offer free trials ranging from 7 to 30 days. Basic Shopify inventory tracking is free, but lacks forecasting capabilities. Free alternatives provide limited functionality suitable only for very small stores. Forthcast and similar AI-powered tools typically start with trial periods, allowing you to test demand forecasting features before committing to monthly pricing that varies by plan for small to mid-sized stores.
Why is inventory planner pricing so different between vendors?
Inventory planner pricing varies significantly based on technology used, feature depth, and target market. Legacy systems charge premium prices for outdated interfaces, while AI-powered solutions like Forthcast offer advanced forecasting at competitive rates. Pricing differences also reflect order volume limits, number of SKUs supported, integration capabilities, and customer support levels. Enterprise-focused vendors charge more for account management and customization, while Shopify-native apps optimize for self-service efficiency and affordability.
What should I look for when comparing inventory planner pricing in 2026?
When comparing inventory planner pricing, evaluate cost per feature rather than headline price alone. Prioritize AI-powered forecasting accuracy, Shopify integration quality, scalability as you grow, and transparent pricing without hidden fees. Check if plans include multi-location support, automated purchase orders, and supplier management. Consider total cost of ownership including setup, training, and ongoing support. Tools like Forthcast offer comprehensive features at mid-tier pricing, delivering better value than fragmented or overpriced alternatives.
How much does Inventory Planner cost in 2026?
The best inventory planning software in 2026 depends on your business size and complexity, with tools ranging from affordable startup options to higher-cost enterprise operations. Forthcast helps Shopify operators cut through pricing complexity by providing accurate demand forecasts and automated inventory replenishment recommendations tailored to their specific sales volume and growth stage.
About the Author
Hylke Reitsma is co-founder of Forthsuite and a supply chain specialist with 8+ years of hands-on experience at Shell, Verisure, and Stryker. He holds an MSc in Supply Chain Management from the University of Groningen and writes practical guides to help e-commerce teams run leaner, faster supply chains. Selected by Replit as 1 of 20 founders for the inaugural Race to Revenue Cohort #1 (2026) and certified as a Replit Platform Builder.
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