Inventory software for a small business is usually a monthly subscription, and what you pay depends less on the headline price than on how it's charged: per plan, per user, per location, per order or per item, plus add-ons for the features a maker needs, setup fees and hardware. So compare the first-year total, not the monthly number on the pricing page. For a food or craft maker, that total should include lots and expiry, recipes and batches, a second site if you have one, and your store connection. TaroStack, for example, is $49, $99 or $199 a month, with two months free if you pay yearly and no limit on items. Below are the pricing models, the hidden costs, and a first year worked through.
The short version
- Compare first-year totals, not monthly prices.
- Know what you're charged for: plan, users, locations, orders, items, or a mix.
- Check which tier has lots, expiry, recipes and batches. They're often not in the cheapest one.
- Ask about setup fees, paid onboarding, integration add-ons and overages.
- Hardware is optional if the software works with a phone's camera.
- Count your own setup hours, and what staying on a spreadsheet costs.
- TaroStack has three plain plans, a 30-day free trial and no item limit. More below.
How inventory software is priced
| Model | You pay for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Flat plan | A tier with set features and limits | Which features sit in which tier |
| Per user | Each person who logs in | The price climbing as staff are added |
| Per location | Each warehouse, kitchen or shop | A market stall counting as a location |
| Per order or transaction | Volume | A good month costing more than a quiet one |
| Per item or SKU | How many things you stock | Ingredients and packaging count as items too |
| Add-ons | Manufacturing, lots, integrations, extra reports | The "real" price is the plan plus three add-ons |
Most products mix two or three of these. The one that catches makers is the per-item limit: a bakery with 30 products stocks flour, butter, sugar, eggs, fillings, boxes, bags and labels, and every one of those is an item.
The costs that aren't on the pricing page
| Cost | Ask |
|---|---|
| Setup or onboarding fee | Is there one, and is it optional? |
| Integration add-ons | Is my Shopify or POS connection in the plan or extra? |
| The tier with my features | Which plan has lots, expiry dates, recipes and batches? |
| More people or places | What does a second user or a second site cost? |
| Overages | What happens in my busiest month? |
| Hardware | Do I need a scanner or a label printer, or does a phone work? |
| Contract | Monthly, or a year up front? What happens to my data if I leave? |
| Promotional price | What's the price after the first months? |
None of these are unreasonable on their own. They're only a problem when you find out about them after you've moved your data in.
A first year, worked through
Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, has a kitchen, a shop counter and a market stall (three sites), four people, recipes, lots with best-by dates, and a Shopify store. Here's its first year on TaroStack:
| Cost | Year one |
|---|---|
| Standard plan, paid yearly (3 sites, 10 people, recipes, batches, planning) | $990 |
| Setup fee | $0 |
| Shopify connection | Included |
| Scanners | $0, phone cameras |
| Setup time: importing items and recipes, 6 hours at $20 | $120 |
| First-year total | $1,110 |
Against that, put what the current way costs. In free inventory apps for small business a small kitchen's month of "free" came to about $307 in hours, expired stock and rush orders, about $3,700 a year. Your numbers will differ; do the sum with yours. Whether it's time to leave a spreadsheet at all is in inventory software vs a spreadsheet.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What will I pay in month 13, with my people, sites and store connected?
- Which plan has lots, expiry dates, recipes and batches?
- Can I try the whole product, with my own data, before paying?
- Is there a limit on items, orders or storage, and what happens past it?
- Can I export everything, any time, in a format I can open?
- Who helps me set up, and does it cost extra?
The jobs to test during a trial, so you know it's worth the price, are in easy-to-use inventory software.
Where this stops working
Comparing on price alone breaks down the moment a cheaper tool can't do the job. A plan that's a little cheaper each month but has no lots means a recall answered from paper. One without recipes means every batch subtracted by hand, which is the spreadsheet you were trying to leave. And a per-user price that looked small with two people looks different when the weekend staff need to count. The cheapest software is the one that does your jobs at a price that stays put as you grow.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack's price is three plans, printed in full on the pricing page.
| Plan | A month | Paid yearly | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $49 | $490 | 1 site, up to 3 people; stock, counts, receiving, lots, expiry and recalls, offline counting; Shopify or Square |
| Standard | $99 | $990 | Up to 3 sites, 10 people; adds recipes, batches, true cost and planning; Shopify and Square |
| Pro | $199 | $1,990 | Up to 7 sites, 25 people; adds API keys and your own assistant (MCP), priority help |
Pay yearly and two months are free. Past Pro, Enterprise pricing is custom: contact support.
No item limits, on any plan. A corner store with 3,000 items fits on Starter, and so does a bakery's flour, butter, boxes and labels. You're never paying more because you stock more things.
Everything in the trial, nothing to buy to start. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card, and everything is included during the trial, so you test recipes, lots and planning before you choose a plan. The phone's camera scans barcodes, and any USB or Bluetooth scanner works if you want one later, so there's no hardware to buy. Items, recipes, suppliers and opening stock import from your spreadsheet, or from a photo of a price list or count sheet.
And what you get for the price is the whole job. Lots with the oldest date picked first, recipes and batches that take ingredients off stock by lot, costs from what you paid with freight spread across the delivery, a reorder list in days of cover, an expiry forecast with its cost, a recall report, and counting that works with no signal. Every list exports to CSV, so your data is always yours.
If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.