Inventory

Best Inventory Planner Alternatives for Shopify Stores (2026)

The best Inventory Planner alternatives for Shopify stores in 2026 are Prediko (AI demand planning from $49/month), Cogsy ($199/month, 12-month forecasting), Katana Cloud Inventory (manufacturing-heavy stores, from $299/month), Genie (lightweight replenishment, from $59/month), and Skymetrics (continuous stock monitoring and AI reorder alerts, from $49/month). Which one fits depends on whether you need a full planning suite or just faster warnings before you run out.

Why merchants look for an Inventory Planner alternative

Inventory Planner (built by Sage) doesn't publish self-serve pricing. Every plan requires a quote request, and according to its own pricing page, the model charges based on inventory volume rather than a flat tier.

Setup isn't instant either. The same pricing page advertises going live in about 4 weeks on average, and G2's Inventory Planner by Sage review page lists a typical implementation time of about 1 month and an average ROI realized after roughly 8 months, based on aggregated user-review data. For a small Shopify store trying to stop a bestseller from selling out next week, that's a slow runway.

A few friction points come up repeatedly in independent feedback, though they're not a scientific survey, just recurring patterns worth weighing:

  • No visible pricing, so budgeting requires a sales call before you know if the tool fits your store, per Inventory Planner's own pricing page.
  • A full planning workflow, including budgets, multi-location purchase orders, and campaign-linked buying calendars (Inventory Planner's pricing page markets this directly as "inventory-powered marketing"), that can be more than a single-location store selling a modest catalog needs.
  • Cost complaints and requests for more flexible pricing, which show up among the tagged pros and cons on G2's review page for the product.

None of this makes Inventory Planner a bad tool. It's built for multi-channel, multi-warehouse retailers who need deep planning depth, and G2 reviewers rate it 4.5 out of 5 based on 39 reviews. It just isn't the right shape for every Shopify merchant, which is why alternatives built specifically for smaller catalogs and faster setup exist.

Top Inventory Planner alternatives at a glance

  1. Prediko: AI demand and supply planning, tiered pricing by GMV, starts at $49/month.
  2. Cogsy: 12-month demand forecasting and replenishment alerts, flat $199/month.
  3. Katana Cloud Inventory: manufacturing and multi-channel order sync, free plan for 30 SKUs, Core plan from $299/month.
  4. Genie: simple dashboard and purchase order creation, from $59/month.
  5. Skymetrics: continuous stock monitoring, stockout alerts, and AI reorder forecasting, from $49/month.
  6. Stocky: Shopify's own POS-bundled tool, unavailable for ongoing use after August 31, 2026, with read-only data export access for at least 90 days after that date.

Each alternative in depth

Prediko: AI planning that scales pricing with revenue

Prediko positions itself directly against Inventory Planner. Its pricing page confirms plans start at $49/month for stores under $100K in annual revenue, with a 14-day free trial, unlimited SKUs, users, and purchase orders on every tier, and a scaling structure that moves up as GMV grows past $100K, $500K, $2M, and beyond.

Features include AI demand and supply planning, a 12-month PO calendar, purchase order management, and an inventory AI agent called Pia. Prediko fits stores that want a full replenishment workflow (not just alerts) but need transparent, self-serve pricing instead of a sales call.

Cogsy: forecasting built for DTC replenishment

Cogsy's Shopify App Store listing confirms a flat $199/month price with a 14-day free trial. Features include real-time inventory tracking, 12-month demand forecasting, replenishment alerts, and "what-if" scenario planning for testing different reorder strategies.

Cogsy suits growth-stage DTC brands that want scenario planning without negotiating a custom quote. The flat price is easier to budget than Inventory Planner's volume-based model, though it's still a bigger monthly commitment than lighter alert-based tools.

Katana Cloud Inventory: for stores that also manufacture

Katana's pricing page lists a free plan capped at 30 SKUs and a Core plan starting at $299/month with unlimited SKUs and users. It syncs orders and inventory across Shopify and other channels and adds production scheduling, which matters if you make your own products rather than just resell them.

Katana is the right fit for merchants running light manufacturing or assembly, not pure resellers. Pure retail Shopify stores will pay for manufacturing features they don't use.

Genie: the lightest replacement for spreadsheets

Genie's pricing page lists three tiers: Pro at $59/month (up to 1,500 variants), Growth at $99/month (up to 5,000 variants), and Scale at $159/month (more than 5,000 variants and unlimited suppliers). Genie's own feature list highlights a dashboard, stock reports, an inventory table, purchase order creation, and supplier management, rather than the AI demand-forecasting engine Prediko or Cogsy lead with.

Genie fits merchants who mainly want to stop tracking reorder points in a spreadsheet and don't need AI-driven demand modeling yet.

Stocky: a shrinking option, not a growing one

Stocky came free with Shopify POS Pro and handled forecasting, purchase orders, and stocktakes. Shopify's own migration documentation confirms Stocky won't be available after August 31, 2026, and that you'll need to manage inventory in the Shopify admin or Shopify POS from that date on. After the cutoff, Shopify grants read-only access to export your Stocky data for at least 90 days, it does not disappear immediately, but the app stops functioning for day-to-day inventory management.

If you're currently on Stocky, this isn't optional research anymore. Export your data during that read-only window and pick a successor before the shutdown date, not after.

Skymetrics vs Inventory Planner: alerts and forecasts vs full planning suites

Inventory Planner and Prediko are built as planning suites: budgets, multi-location allocation, and (per Inventory Planner's own pricing page) campaign-linked buying calendars. That depth is valuable if you already run a merchandising team. Skymetrics is built for a narrower, faster job: watch every SKU continuously and flag the ones about to become a problem before they do.

Skymetrics connects to a Shopify store in about 3 minutes with a one-click install, no spreadsheet exports or manual data mapping. It runs AI agents that continuously scan stock levels, sales velocity, and traffic-to-conversion data, then rank what to reorder, promote, or fix by estimated revenue impact rather than surfacing a wall of undifferentiated charts.

The Stock Intelligence module specifically targets the restocking problem: it forecasts when a bestseller is likely to run out and alerts you days ahead, instead of after the product page already shows "sold out." That's a narrower job than Inventory Planner's full purchasing and budget suite, and it's intentional. Merchants who don't need multi-warehouse budget planning get a faster answer to one question: what am I about to run out of?

A bestseller running low costs revenue the moment it sells out, not when the report shows it later. Catching that early is worth more than a perfect purchasing budget you build once a quarter.

For a deeper look at how automated thresholds should be set, see how to configure Shopify inventory alerts and the underlying reorder point formula that most forecasting tools, Skymetrics included, build on.

Pricing comparison

  • Inventory Planner: quote-based, no published starting price, per the vendor's own pricing page.
  • Prediko: from $49/month (under $100K GMV), 14-day free trial, unlimited SKUs and users, per Prediko's pricing page.
  • Cogsy: flat $199/month, 14-day free trial, per Cogsy's Shopify App Store listing.
  • Katana: free up to 30 SKUs, Core plan from $299/month, per Katana's pricing page.
  • Genie: from $59/month up to $159/month depending on variant and supplier limits, per Genie's pricing page.
  • Skymetrics: $49 to $249/month depending on store size, 14-day free trial, one-click setup, per the Skymetrics pricing page.

See the full breakdown of what's included at each tier on the Skymetrics pricing page.

How to choose a replenishment tool for your store size

Match the tool to what's actually slowing you down, not to the longest feature list. The store-size guidance below is editorial judgment based on the vendor plan structures above, not a published industry threshold.

  1. If you run a single-warehouse Shopify store with a lean catalog and just need to stop stocking out, a lightweight alert-and-forecast tool like Skymetrics or Genie is usually enough before you need a full planning suite. There's no universal SKU cutoff; the fewer SKUs and locations you manage, the less you'll get from paying for budgeting features you won't use.
  2. If you manufacture or assemble products before selling them, Katana's production scheduling justifies its higher price floor.
  3. If you run multi-channel, multi-warehouse operations with a dedicated merchandising or planning role, Inventory Planner's or Prediko's full budgeting workflow earns its cost.
  4. If you're currently on Stocky, treat the August 31, 2026 shutdown as a hard deadline and migrate before then, using the 90-day read-only window only as a data-export safety net, not as extra runway to decide.

Most of these tools offer a 14-day free trial (check each vendor's current pricing page, since Genie's trial length differs). Whichever you pick, measure one thing during the trial: how many days of warning you get before your next stockout. That number matters more than any feature checklist.