Cin7 vs inFlow Inventory

Cin7 is a cloud inventory and order management platform for product businesses that sell across several channels. The company started in New Zealand and in 2021 acquired DEAR Systems, whose product became Cin7 Core; the original platform continues as Cin7 Omni for larger, more complex operations. Both keep stock, orders, purchasing and fulfilment in sync across webshops, marketplaces, wholesale buyers and physical stores.

Core covers multi-warehouse stock, purchasing and supplier management, light manufacturing with bills of materials and assembly, a B2B wholesale portal, point of sale and integrations with Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce and accounting tools such as Xero and QuickBooks. Omni adds deeper EDI, 3PL and retail features for higher volume and more custom processes. Pricing is subscription based with tiers that scale by users, sales channels and order volume, and implementation and onboarding services are often recommended.

Cin7 fits growing brands that have outgrown spreadsheets or the inventory features of a single store platform, especially those mixing B2C and B2B. It is expensive for small single-channel shops, needs real setup effort and has a dense interface. Katana is stronger for manufacturing-centric businesses, Linnworks for marketplace-heavy sellers, Zoho Inventory and inFlow are cheaper for smaller catalogues, and NetSuite suits companies that want a full ERP.

inFlow Inventory is inventory management software made by Archon Systems, a company based in Toronto, Canada. It started as Windows desktop software and is now a cloud product with web, Windows and mobile apps, aimed at small and mid-size wholesalers, distributors, retailers and light manufacturers that have outgrown spreadsheets.

Core features cover stock across multiple locations, purchase orders, sales orders and invoices, barcode generation and scanning with the mobile app, serial and lot tracking, bills of materials for assembling products, and a B2B Showroom portal where wholesale customers browse a catalog and place orders. Reports cover inventory value, sales and reorder points. It integrates with accounting and commerce tools such as QuickBooks, Xero, Shopify, WooCommerce and Amazon. Plans are priced per month and differ mainly by included team members and locations, with unlimited orders and integrations on every plan; there is no free plan, but a free trial is available.

inFlow fits businesses that want straightforward inventory control with good barcoding and a simple wholesale ordering portal. It is less suited to complex manufacturing with routing and capacity planning, and costs rise with additional users. Cin7 and Zoho Inventory are common alternatives, Sortly is simpler for small stock and asset tracking, and Katana is stronger for manufacturers.