Inventory Planner alternatives in 2026
Inventory Planner was the best Shopify forecasting tool for a long time. Then Sage acquired it in 2021. Reviews since then are a consistent story: prices up 2–3×, support slower, roadmap quiet. This post covers what to use instead — honestly, including cases where Inventory Planner is still the right call.
What happened after the Sage acquisition
Inventory Planner was founded in 2012, grew to thousands of Shopify and multi-channel merchants, and was acquired by Sage Group in 2021. Sage is a large UK accounting software company; Inventory Planner was their move into supply chain planning. Post-acquisition behavior followed a pattern common in B2B SaaS roll-ups: annual price increases, support routed through a larger org, and a roadmap that slowed as engineers were absorbed into Sage's wider engineering priorities.
The tool itself — the forecasting math, the replenishment logic — didn't get worse. The reviews that turned negative are mostly about pricing and support, not accuracy. That distinction matters when picking an alternative.
What Inventory Planner still does well
Before the alternatives: if you have a large, established account with custom forecasting rules baked in and a dedicated CSM, switching costs are real. The tool's demand sensing, seasonal decomposition, and multi-location handling are genuinely good. The case for staying is strong if your account pricing hasn't jumped and you have a relationship with a support contact who knows your setup.
The case for leaving is pricing you didn't agree to, a support queue instead of a person, and a roadmap that doesn't match what you actually need.
The alternatives
skubase — built for the gap Inventory Planner left
skubase ships the same forecasting math (Holt double-exponential smoothing with weekly seasonality) plus three things Inventory Planner never got to: supplier scorecards, dead-stock action plans, and a ranked daily action queue. Pricing is published — $49, $149, $349/mo — with a written commitment that your plan price doesn't increase at renewal. No POS Pro requirement, no minimum contract.
The migration path from Inventory Planner is a CSV export of your product catalog plus your vendor list. Our importer maps both in one step.
Prediko
Prediko is a Shopify-first AI forecasting tool, started in 2021. The forecasting UI is good — clean, visual, fast. Pricing is $119–$599/mo. It's Shopify-only (no Amazon, Walmart native writes), which is fine if that's your channel mix. Multi-location support was added in 2024. Supplier management is basic — contacts and lead times, not scorecards. Good tool if Shopify-only and you want visual-first.
Linnworks
Linnworks is an operations platform — channel sync, order routing, inventory. Its forecasting module exists but is not the primary product. The right pick if you sell on 4+ channels and need a single operations hub; probably over-engineered if you need forecasting for a Shopify-primary business.
Brightpearl (Sage)
Brightpearl is also now Sage-owned. If pricing and acquisition trajectory are the reason you're leaving Inventory Planner, evaluating another Sage product has the same risk profile.
Spreadsheets
Honest inclusion: a well-built Google Sheet with a six-month trailing average and a safety-stock buffer column beats most tools for merchants with under 100 SKUs and predictable demand. It fails at scale (slow, error-prone), misses seasonality, and doesn't score suppliers — but it's free and you control it. We wrote about where it breaks.
How to decide
Three questions determine the right fit:
- How many channels? Shopify-only → skubase or Prediko. Multi-channel with order routing → Linnworks or a channel-sync tool plus a forecasting layer.
- What's the pain? Forecasting accuracy → skubase or Prediko. Pricing opacity → skubase (price-locked published tiers). Support degradation → any founder-led independent.
- How many SKUs? Under 500 SKUs and simple demand → spreadsheet or Sumtracker. 500–10,000 SKUs with seasonal variation → skubase or Prediko. Over 10,000 with complex multi-location → Inventory Planner or Cin7 may still be right despite the cost.
Migration checklist
- Export your product catalog, vendors, and lead times from Inventory Planner before canceling.
- Document your current reorder rules — service levels, buffer days, supplier minimums.
- Run your new tool in parallel for 4–6 weeks before cutting over. Compare recommended quantities on a sample of fast movers.
- Validate that seasonal SKUs are getting the right uplift before your first peak season in the new tool.
If you want to try skubase
We're in early access. The demo is live and needs no account — see your data in under ten minutes with a ShipStation export or Shopify connection.