StockRoom vs Sortly
Sortly is a good, well-made product with a strong mobile app. Here is where we differ, and where it is the better choice.
StockRoom is free for up to 50 products and A$9 a month for up to 400; prices change, so check their own site for today's; where this site quotes another app's price it gives the day it was read.
What Sortly is
A visual, photo-led inventory app. Strong on phone use, folders and QR labels, popular with people tracking equipment and assets rather than stock they resell.
Prices change. Where this site quotes another app's price it says the day it was read (the six-way comparison on the stock control software page gives the page and the day for each), so check their own site for what it costs today.
Where we differ
| Sortly | StockRoom | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs you and what you sell it for | Reviewers repeatedly ask for a separate purchase price and sale price. Worth checking whether this has changed. | Two separate fields from the first version, so margin is a number you can see rather than work out. |
| Counting stock | Counting is supported. | A dedicated count mode: expected against counted, variance shown, and every difference recorded as an audited adjustment with a reason. It never silently overwrites your figures. |
| When a count comes up short | Shows you the difference. | Checks your other locations first and tells you what is there, because stock in the wrong place is the single most common cause of a short count. |
| Photos and visual organisation | A real strength. Photo-led folders, and good for assets and equipment. | Text and barcodes. No photo library. |
| What it is usually tracking | Tools, AV kit, site equipment - things checked out and back in rather than sold. | Stock you buy in and sell on, where cost, margin and reorder level are the numbers that matter. |
| Buying and reordering | Reviewers note this is thinner than the tracking side of the product. | A dedicated screen showing what is running low and how many to order, worked out from actual sales. |
| Adding your team | Each plan has a user cap: 1, 2, 5 or 8 users, as their pricing page listed them in September 2026. Worth checking whether this has changed. | Your whole team on every plan, Free included, at no charge per person. An owner invites staff with a one-time link. |
| If you ever stop paying | Check their current terms. | Everything you put in stays readable and exportable in full, and nothing is deleted. Changing it stops; getting it out never does. |
When Sortly is the better choice
Genuinely - if any of these describe you, they will serve you better than we will:
- You are tracking equipment or assets rather than stock you buy and sell - tools, AV kit, site inventory.
- Photos matter to you. Sortly's visual approach is genuinely better for things you recognise by sight.
- You want a mature product with a large support organisation behind it.
A day in each system
Reading a list of features is not the same as using the thing. Three ordinary moments, side by side, say more.
A box comes in and you need to know if it is one you already have or something new. In Sortly, a photo often does the recognising - useful for a tool or a piece of equipment that does not have a consistent barcode. In StockRoom, Scan reads the barcode itself: point the camera and land on the exact product, or start a new one with the code already filled in.
Someone asks what something sold for against what it cost. Sortly's folders are built around finding and identifying items, and pricing is a field you add rather than the centre of the screen. StockRoom keeps cost and selling price on every product from the first version, so Overview shows real margin, not a number reconstructed afterwards.
A shelf needs counting. Sortly supports counting as part of general item management. StockRoom's Count hides the expected figure while you count and records every difference as an audited adjustment with a reason - built specifically around reconciling a number, not just confirming an item is present.
When we are
You buy stock to sell it, you care about margin per item, and you want the counting and reconciliation to be rigorous.
And the thing that matters once stock is real money: every change is recorded with who made it, when and why, nothing is ever silently overwritten, and any mistake can be undone without losing the history of it.
The clearest signal is what you photograph a thing for. If the photo is there so a technician can recognise which cable rig they checked out last week, Sortly's folders and QR labels are built for exactly that. If the photo would just be a nicer version of a product name you already typed, and what actually matters is the number next to it - how many, worth how much, when to buy more - that is a StockRoom job.
What changes if you move from Sortly
Sortly's strength is visual organisation: folders, photos and QR codes for things that are recognised by sight. Moving to StockRoom trades that for two fields Sortly leaves looser - cost and selling price - and a count mode built around reconciling a number rather than confirming an item is present.
Nothing about a photo library survives an export to a spreadsheet, so a mostly photo-organised Sortly account is the case where staying put is the right call, not a missing feature to work around here.
Try it without deciding anything
Start free with no card, or run the free stock count first with no account at all.
Start StockRoom free Free stock countStockRoom is free up to 50 products, then A$9 a month. You can subscribe from inside the app, and cancel whenever you like from your billing page.
Questions
How long does it take to get started with each?
Adding a product to StockRoom takes one field: its name. Everything else, including cost and selling price, can wait until you have it. Sortly's photo-first setup means the first useful step for many people is photographing what they have, which is quick for a handful of items and a real task for a full catalogue.
Which one is cheaper for a very small business?
We publish our price on this page: free to 50 products, A$9 a month after that. Prices change, so any price of theirs we quote on this site carries the day it was read; check their site for what it costs today.
Is this comparison fair?
We have tried hard to make it so. Where we quote their prices we give the day they were read, we say where they are better, and we describe their product as they describe it. If you think anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it - an unfair comparison page costs more than it earns.
Can I move my data between them?
From us, yes: one click, complete, and re-importable - including after you cancel. Moving in from Sortly means exporting from them and importing a spreadsheet.
Will I lose the photos if I move from Sortly?
Yes - StockRoom has no photo library, so a Sortly account organised mainly by picture does not translate. What moves cleanly is the underlying list: product names, quantities and locations import from a spreadsheet, the same as any other move. If the photos are doing real work for you, that is the strongest reason on this page to stay with Sortly.
Does StockRoom do asset tracking, like checking equipment out and back in?
No. StockRoom records stock you buy and sell - it goes down when it is sold and up when more arrives, and it is not designed to track one specific item being checked out to a person and returned later. That is Sortly's actual strength, not an oversight on either side.
StockRoom plans at a glance
StockRoom is free for up to 50 products, then A$9 a month for 400, A$44 for 2,000 and A$89 for unlimited, from the plan list in the app, checked 8 October 2026.
| Plan | Products | Locations | Price a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Up to 50 | 1 | A$0 |
| Basic | Up to 400 | 1 | A$9 |
| Solo | Up to 2,000 | 5 | A$44 |
| Pro | Unlimited | Unlimited | A$89 |
Your whole team is included on every plan. Prices in Australian dollars. Source: the plan list in the StockRoom app, checked on .