Multichannel inventory management software: what it does and which one fits
Nine tools that keep one stock count across Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, TikTok Shop and a till, compared on the four things that decide the bill and the oversell: how stock moves, what meters the price, which channels connect, and what the tool can’t do.
Prices checked 21 August 2026 · sources in every table
One count, written everywhere
The software sits between the places you sell and holds one quantity per SKU. When a channel sells a unit, the tool subtracts it and writes the new count to every other channel. Everything else is a feature on top of that.
Stock
The core job. You had 42, now you have 41. That is the number every other shop will be corrected to, and the whole question is how many seconds, or minutes, that takes.
Listings and orders
Most tools also create listings on a second channel from the first, and pull orders into one list. Some route the order to the shop that should fill it; on marketplaces that is a one-way street, because nobody can create an order on Amazon for you.
What it is not
Not a listing optimiser, not a label printer, not your accounts. Sellbrite and LitCommerce lean toward listing; Linnworks and Cin7 toward warehouse; QuickSync toward the count itself. Buy for the job you have.
| By hand, across three shops | With a sync tool |
|---|---|
| A sale on Etsy at 2 a.m. is a row nobody has typed yet | The tool is told, or checks within 2 minutes, and corrects the other shops |
| A recount overwrites a number and nobody can say what changed | Every change has a source channel and a time |
| Three listings for one item means three prices to edit | One price, one rule per channel, written out |
| The last unit sells twice and the buyer finds out before you do | The last unit sells once |
Three signs the spreadsheet is done
Most sellers arrive here after one of these, and the 80/20 rule says which SKUs it hits first: the fifth of your catalogue that makes four-fifths of the sales.
The same SKU in two places
One shop never oversells. The second place you list it is the first time two counts can disagree, and they diverge by exactly the sales you have not copied across yet.
A cancellation you had to write
The oversell email costs more than the order. Marketplaces count it too: eBay and Etsy both track cancellations against the seller, and Amazon’s late-shipment and cancellation rates gate the account.
Someone else edits the sheet
A second pair of hands on one spreadsheet is where the audit trail goes. The free templates log movements instead of overwriting counts, and that buys time, not a fix.
Pushed or polled
Two different things get called real time. Sending a new count to a channel is fast everywhere. Finding out that a channel changed something itself is either pushed to the tool or checked on a timer, and the timer is where oversells live.
Pushed
The channel calls the tool the moment something happens. Shopify, WooCommerce, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, TikTok Shop and Amazon all do this for QuickSync; the correction lands in under a second.
Polled
The tool asks on a schedule. Etsy has no way to push at all, so any tool reads it on a timer: QuickSync every 2 minutes for stock and 5 for orders. eBay and Squarespace stock, every 2 minutes. Sellbrite and LitCommerce poll everything every 15 minutes on paid plans.
What to ask a vendor
Not “is it real time” but “which channels push, and how often do you check the rest?” A vendor that answers with a list per channel has measured it. The table at the end is QuickSync’s answer.
Three pricing models, one seller
Take a shop with 1,440 variations on Shopify, Etsy, eBay and Amazon doing 3,000 orders a month. The same seller is billed three different ways.
Per order
Sellbrite, Trunk, Zoho, Veeqo and Linnworks meter orders. At 3,000 a month that is Sellbrite Pro 2K at $179 billed annually, Trunk Essential at $179, and Zoho Professional at $79 billed annually. A good month raises the bill.
Per channel and listing
LitCommerce prices the channels connected times the listings: four channels and 2,000 listings sit above the $29 entry band, and every marketplace you add moves it again.
Per catalogue
QuickSync prices the variation count and the shop count: 1,440 items is Pro at $29, and four shops makes it $87 a month. Three thousand orders or thirty, the figure is the same. Nembol does a version of this on product count.
The long version, with the break-even points: pricing models compared → · price your own catalogue →
The comparison
Sorted by who each tool is for rather than by a score. Every price is a public list price and every sync claim is the vendor’s own.
| Tool | From | What sets the bill | POS | How stock moves | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuickSync | $19/mo, two shops | Catalogue size × connected shops. Orders never meter it | Square, Clover, Lightspeed | Writes in under a second; 8 of 11 channels push changes to it, eBay, Etsy and Squarespace stock checked every 2 min | 14 days, no card |
| Sellbrite | $29/mo billed annually (Pro 100); $19 for the Shopify edition | Marketplace orders per month: 100, 500, 2,000, with a move up mid-cycle | None | Every 15 minutes on paid plans; every 2 hours on Forever Free | Free to 30 orders/mo; 14 days |
| LitCommerce | $29/mo | Channels connected × listings: 3 channels and 1,000 listings at the entry price | None (Square listed as a channel) | Every 15 minutes for stock, price and orders | 7 days |
| Trunk | $35/mo (Essential, to 100 orders) | Orders per month in eight bands, to $279 at 10,000; Pro adds bundles from $39 | Square | Real-time on order events, a few seconds for manual adjustments | 14 days, no card |
| SKU IQ | $19/mo (quantity sync only) | Feature tier: attributes, images and priority sync are the $49 and $99 plans or $15 add-ons | Square, Clover, Lightspeed | Real-time, claimed; no interval published | 14 days |
| Thrive by Shopventory | $59/mo ($55 annual) | Transactions, locations and users: 1,500 transactions, one integration and one user at the entry tier | Square, Clover, Shopify POS | Real-time, claimed; no interval published | 14 days |
| Nembol | $39/mo (500 products) | Product count and seats: 500, 2,000, 5,000, 15,000 products | Square | Stock pushed in a split second to a minute per its help centre; orders pulled within minutes | 14 days, no card |
| Zoho Inventory | $29/mo billed annually (500 orders) | Orders per month, users and locations; add-ons for each | None | Interval-based; no frequency published | Free to 50 orders/mo; 14 days |
| Linnworks | Not published; quote only | Monthly order volume with overages, plus paid modules and an onboarding fee | None native | Real-time, claimed; no interval published | Demo only |
QuickSync
Fits: Two to eight shops, any mix of marketplace, cart and till, where the bill should ignore a busy month. Lacks: No listing templates, no shipping labels, and a hard cap of eight connected shops. Source: quicksync.pro/pricing. More →
Sellbrite
Fits: Marketplace-first sellers who want listing templates and label printing in the same tool and keep under a few hundred orders a month. Lacks: No Square, Clover, TikTok Shop or QuickBooks; 3.9 stars on 110 Shopify reviews, mostly about setup and support. Source: sellbrite.com/pricing-pro. More →
LitCommerce
Fits: Listing-first sellers pushing one catalogue onto many marketplaces, with bulk templates and AI listing tools. Lacks: No till support and no QuickBooks; the price climbs with every channel and listing band. Source: litcommerce.com/pricing. More →
Trunk
Fits: Makers on Shopify and Etsy who need bundles and kits and sit under a few hundred orders a month. Lacks: No listing creation, no order routing, no Clover; the bill steps up with every order band. Source: help.trunkinventory.com pricing article. More →
SKU IQ
Fits: A single till and a single web store that need to agree, and nothing else. Lacks: No Amazon, eBay, Etsy or QuickBooks; reviews recur on disconnects and quantity mismatches (4.1 stars, 120 reviews). Source: skuiq.com/pricing. More →
Thrive by Shopventory
Fits: Multi-location retailers who want purchase orders, transfers, vendor management and forecasting alongside the sync. Lacks: No Amazon, eBay, Etsy or TikTok Shop; tier jumps are large ($59 to $129 to $279). Source: thrivemetrics.com/pricing. More →
Nembol
Fits: European sellers listing across marketplaces and social channels with a mid-sized catalogue. Lacks: No Clover, BigCommerce, QuickBooks or Walmart; support hours outside Europe are a recurring complaint. Source: nembol.com/pricing.
Zoho Inventory
Fits: Businesses already on Zoho Books or CRM that want inventory, purchase orders and serial tracking in the same suite. Lacks: No Square, Clover, TikTok Shop or Squarespace; marketplace support varies by region edition. USD prices confirmed through third-party listings, as the official page is region-locked. Source: zoho.com/inventory/pricing, capterra.com.
Linnworks
Fits: Warehouses shipping thousands of orders a day through many carriers, with staff to run an order-management system. Lacks: No published price, no self-serve trial, no Square or Clover; reviews cite a steep learning curve and add-on costs. Source: linnworks.com/pricing. More →
Three sellers, three answers
The channel mix decides more than the feature list does.
A maker on Shopify and Etsy
Etsy can’t push changes to anyone, so every tool checks it on a timer; the question is how short. QuickSync reads Etsy stock every 2 minutes and orders every 5. Trunk fits if you sell bundles. Shopify + Etsy →
A shop with a till going online
Square or Clover on the counter, Shopify or WooCommerce on the web. SKU IQ does one till to one store; Thrive adds purchase orders and locations at $59; QuickSync connects the till to up to seven more shops from $19. POS inventory →
Amazon, eBay and TikTok Shop
If the job is listing one catalogue onto many marketplaces, LitCommerce and Sellbrite are built for that and accept a 15-minute sync. If the job is the count, QuickSync pushes to TikTok Shop and Amazon and checks eBay every 2 minutes. TikTok Shop + Shopify →
What QuickSync does on each of its eleven
Read from the integration source, not a brochure. Ten of the eleven are places a customer can buy; QuickBooks is your books, not a storefront, so there is nothing to list.
| Channel | Stock | How we learn of its changes | Can fill an order | Tracking back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Shopify | Both ways | The moment it happens | Yes | Sent to the order |
 WooCommerce | Both ways | The moment it happens | Yes | Sent to the order |
 Square | Both ways | The moment it happens | Yes | Square does not accept one |
 Clover | Both ways | The moment it happens | Yes | Clover does not accept one |
 Lightspeed | Both ways | The moment it happens | Yes | Marked shipped, no tracking number |
 QuickBooks | Both ways, as a book figure | Not applicable: QuickBooks is your books, not a shop | Yes | Not applicable |
 Amazon | We always send, and hear back for items you ship | The moment it happens | Marketplace: orders come out, not in | Amazon does not accept one from us |
 TikTok Shop | Both ways | The moment it happens | Marketplace: orders come out, not in | Sent to the order |
 Etsy | Both ways | Stock every two minutes, orders every five | Marketplace: orders come out, not in | Sent to the order |
 eBay | Both ways | We check every two minutes | Marketplace: orders come out, not in | Sent to the order |
 Squarespace | Both ways | Orders instantly, stock every two minutes | Marketplace: orders come out, not in | Sent to the order |
Questions buyers ask
What are the top 5 inventory management software tools for multichannel sellers?
It depends on what you sell through. For two to eight shops across marketplaces and a till: QuickSync. Marketplace listing at volume: LitCommerce or Sellbrite. A single till and a web store: SKU IQ. Multi-location retail with purchase orders: Thrive. Warehouse-scale order management: Linnworks or Cin7. The table above gives the price and the sync behaviour for each.
What is the 80/20 rule in inventory?
Roughly 20% of your SKUs produce 80% of your sales, so those are the ones to protect from overselling first. In a spreadsheet that means counting them more often; with sync software it means connecting the channels those SKUs sell on before anything else.
What is the difference between real-time sync and scheduled sync?
Real-time means the tool is told the moment a channel changes something and writes the new count straight away. Scheduled means it checks on a timer: every 15 minutes for Sellbrite and LitCommerce on paid plans, every 2 hours on Sellbrite’s free plan. In the gap, the unit you just sold is still for sale everywhere else. Even tools that push still check some channels: QuickSync reads eBay, Etsy and Squarespace stock every 2 minutes because those platforms don’t send stock changes.
Is there free multichannel inventory software?
Sellbrite’s Forever Free covers 30 orders a month with a 2-hour sync, Zoho Inventory’s free plan covers 50 orders, and Veeqo’s shipping plan is free but charges for inventory sync. Every other tool here is a paid plan after a trial. A free spreadsheet template works until the same item sells in two places.
Is Zoho Inventory really free?
There is a free plan: 50 orders a month, one user, two locations. Past that it is $29 a month billed annually for 500 orders, then $79, $129 and $249, with add-ons for extra users, orders and locations. The official pricing page shows local currency by region, so US figures here come from third-party listings.
How much should multichannel inventory software cost?
For a two-shop seller with a few thousand orders a month: $19 to $99 on catalogue-priced tools, $79 to $279 on order-metered ones, and a quote on order-management platforms. The pricing models section above shows the same seller priced three ways.
Connect two shops and watch the count
The trial counts your variations, connects two channels and shows you every correction as it happens. If it’s not the right tool, nothing in your shops has changed.
No credit card required