Straptory vs item-priced stock apps: an honest comparison
Item-priced stock apps are a genuinely good way to start tracking inventory. This page is for the moment they stop fitting: when your item count grows, a second or third person starts editing, and you need real purchasing.
The short version
| Item-priced stock apps | Straptory | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing axis | By item count - your catalogue growth is what raises the bill | By active user - unlimited SKUs on every plan |
| Purchase orders | Often basic or missing - many teams keep a second spreadsheet for ordering | Create → send → receive against the PO, partial deliveries handled |
| Growing your catalogue | More items pushes you toward the next tier | Adding 5,000 items doesn't change your bill |
| Read-only teammates | Usually paid seats | Free viewers (up to 3× your active users) |
| Reporting | Varies; stock valuation often thin | Value, ageing, replenishment, movement, ABC |
| Where item-priced apps win | Simplest possible start, photo-first folder UIs, mature mobile apps. If you track a few hundred items solo and never raise POs, one of them is honestly fine. | |
The pricing problem, concretely
When a stock app prices by item count, a growing wholesaler doesn't hit the cap once; every catalogue expansion pushes toward the next tier. Teams end up deleting SKUs to stay on plan - managing the software's pricing model instead of the stock.
Straptory inverts the axis: pay per active user; never per SKU, per order, per warehouse, or by revenue. A 2-person team with 10,000 SKUs pays for 2 seats. People who only need to look stock up - sales reps, the accountant, the boss on holiday - are free read-only viewers.
The purchasing gap
The most common story we hear from teams leaving item-priced apps: inventory lives in the app, but ordering lives in a spreadsheet - reorder points eyeballed, POs typed in Excel, deliveries booked in by memory. That second spreadsheet is where stock drifts from reality. Straptory closes the loop in one tool: low-stock status → raise a PO → receive against it (including partial deliveries) → stock updates itself, with a full audit trail.
Switching to Straptory
Export your items from your current app as CSV and import them into Straptory - the import maps names, SKUs, quantities, and custom fields. Most catalogues are live in an afternoon. During the private beta you get founder-level help with the migration, free.
Straptory is in an invite-only UK private beta - free while the beta runs, with a lifetime price lock for early partners. Request early access →