Cin7 vs Sortly

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.

Sortly is a US-based inventory management app built for small businesses that track physical stuff: tools and equipment, spare parts, retail stock, medical supplies or event gear. Instead of an ERP-style item master, it organizes inventory in visual folders with photos, so a field technician or warehouse helper can find and update items from a phone without training.

Core features include item photos, custom fields, nested folders by location or type, barcode and QR scanning from the mobile app, label creation, low-stock and date-based alerts, offline mode, activity history and PDF or CSV reports. A newer Jobs feature links items to jobs, projects and work orders so teams can see what went out, what was used and what came back. Higher plans add purchase orders, custom role permissions, a QuickBooks Online integration, and on Enterprise an API and webhooks. Plans are limited by unique items, user licenses and active jobs.

Sortly fits contractors, facilities teams, schools, clinics and small retailers that need clear counts more than accounting depth. inFlow and Cin7 are better when you need sales orders, multi-warehouse stock and ecommerce channel sync, and Katana is built for manufacturers with bills of materials. Sortly does not manage multichannel order fulfillment.

Buying tip: the 50 percent yearly discount applies only to the first year; renewals get 20 percent off, so budget for a jump in year two. The 14-day trial on paid plans requires a credit card and converts automatically unless cancelled.