Inventory Planner vs Stockful: Which Shopify Inventory App Is Right for You?

If you are looking for a Shopify inventory app, you have probably come across both Inventory Planner by Sage and Stockful. They are both popular choices, but they solve different problems. Picking the right one depends on what you actually need.

Here is an honest comparison of both tools, including where each one is stronger and where the other is a better fit.

What each tool does

Inventory Planner by Sage is a demand forecasting and purchase order management tool. Its core job is to predict what you will sell in the future and help you create purchase orders to restock accordingly. It focuses on the planning and buying side of inventory management.

Stockful is an inventory analytics and reporting tool. Its core job is to give you visibility into how your inventory is performing right now and how it has performed over time. It focuses on the monitoring and analysis side of inventory management.

These are complementary functions, not competing ones. Some merchants use both. But if you are choosing one to start with, understanding the difference matters.

Demand forecasting and purchase orders

This is Inventory Planner's core strength. It uses historical sales data to forecast future demand, calculates how much you need to order, and lets you create and send purchase orders directly from the app. If your primary pain point is knowing what to buy and when to buy it, Inventory Planner is built for that.

Stockful takes a different approach. It provides reorder recommendations based on sales velocity and current stock levels, and flags products that need to be restocked. But it does not generate purchase orders or send them to suppliers. It tells you what needs attention; the actual PO creation happens in Shopify's native purchase order system or your existing workflow.

If purchase order automation is your top priority, Inventory Planner has the edge here.

Inventory analytics and reporting

This is Stockful's core strength. It captures daily inventory snapshots across every Shopify location and provides 12 built-in reports: inventory summaries, low stock, out of stock, overstock, dead stock, ABC analysis, inventory valuation, reorder recommendations, location comparisons, transfer suggestions, sell-through rates, and profit and COGS breakdowns.

Reports can be scheduled for automatic delivery via email or Slack on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. You can also view any report live in the app and export on demand.

Inventory Planner includes reporting as well, with over 200 metrics and detailed SKU-level profitability analysis. Its reports lean more toward purchasing intelligence (what should I buy?) rather than inventory health monitoring (how is my stock performing?).

If your primary need is understanding what is happening with your inventory, spotting dead stock, tracking sell-through rates by location, and getting scheduled reports delivered to your team, Stockful is purpose-built for this.

Data capture and integration

Stockful is read-only. It connects to your Shopify data via webhooks, captures daily snapshots, and analyses what is happening. It never modifies your stock levels, products, or orders. This makes it safe to install alongside any other tools without worrying about conflicts.

Inventory Planner is more deeply integrated into your purchasing workflow. It syncs with Shopify and other platforms (Amazon, BigCommerce, QuickBooks), pulls in data from multiple sources, and can push purchase orders back into your system. This deeper integration is powerful but means there is more setup and more potential for sync issues if something goes wrong.

Multi-location support

Both tools support multiple Shopify locations.

Stockful tracks inventory at each location independently, provides side-by-side location comparisons, calculates per-location health scores, and generates transfer suggestions to balance stock across locations.

Inventory Planner supports multi-location stock planning and can factor location-level data into its forecasting and replenishment recommendations.

Historical data

Stockful captures daily inventory snapshots and retains up to one year of historical data. This is particularly valuable because Shopify's native adjustment history only goes back 180 days. Having 12 months of daily data enables year-over-year comparison, seasonal trend analysis, and more accurate forecasting baselines.

Inventory Planner stores and analyses past sales data to feed its forecasting models. It can pull historical data from Shopify and factor in seasonality.

Pricing

Stockful offers a free plan that includes core features with no time limit, making it accessible for merchants who want to start with inventory analytics without a financial commitment. Paid plans scale based on the number of tracked SKUs.

Inventory Planner does not publish fixed pricing on its app store listing. Pricing is quote-based and adapts to business size. Based on reviews, annual costs can run into the thousands, and the tool is primarily positioned for merchants doing $1M+ in revenue. Some smaller merchants have reported being told their business was too small for the service.

Which one should you choose?

Choose Inventory Planner if: Your primary problem is knowing what to order and when. You want automated demand forecasting and purchase order creation within the same tool. You are a larger operation (typically $1M+ revenue) with complex purchasing needs and supplier relationships.

Choose Stockful if: Your primary problem is lack of visibility into how your inventory is performing. You need reports that Shopify does not provide natively (dead stock, ABC analysis, sell-through rates, inventory trends). You want scheduled, automated reporting via email or Slack. You want to start free and upgrade as your needs grow.

Choose both if: You want end-to-end coverage. Use Stockful for monitoring, reporting, and alerting. Use Inventory Planner for forecasting and purchasing. The analytics from Stockful can inform the purchasing decisions you execute in Inventory Planner.

The bottom line

Inventory Planner and Stockful are not direct competitors. They focus on different stages of the inventory management lifecycle. Inventory Planner is about planning what to buy. Stockful is about understanding what you have and how it is performing.

The right choice depends on your biggest pain point today. If you are stocking out because you do not know what to order, start with forecasting. If you are flying blind because you do not have visibility into your inventory health, start with analytics.

Want to see what Stockful can do for your store? Get started free at [stockful.app](https://stockful.app), with no time limit on the free plan.