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A Sortly alternative for when the inventory is not yours

Sortly is a good way to track your own stuff. The moment the stuff belongs to clients who need to see it, request it, and pay for it, you need a client, a portal, and an invoice. Stowley has all three built in, and it reads your Sortly export directly.

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Why operators look

Why 3PLs and storage operators outgrow Sortly

Sortly is a general-purpose inventory app, and a well-liked one: folders, photos, QR and barcode labels, low-stock alerts, offline mobile access, and a free plan to start. Plenty of storage and logistics operators start there because it is quick and cheap.

The limit shows up when the inventory belongs to someone else. Sortly has no concept of a client who owns an item. There is no client portal, no invoicing, no recurring storage billing, and no payment collection. So the operator ends up with Sortly for the shelf, a spreadsheet for who owns what, an accounting tool for invoices, and email for the question every client asks: where is my thing and when can I have it?

Stowley collapses those into one record. Every item belongs to a client. The client logs in to a portal that shows only their items, submits pull, delivery, and inbound requests, and pays invoices. Storage fees bill on a schedule and auto-charge via Stripe. Condition reports and proof of delivery live on the item. The shelf is still tracked with QR labels and a phone camera; it just stops being the only thing that is.

Fit

An honest fit check

Stay with Sortly if

You are tracking your own supplies, tools, parts, or assets, not inventory held for clients.
You need offline mobile access or UPC barcode scanning of retail products.
A free plan or a sub-$50 plan is the budget.
You already invoice elsewhere and nobody outside your team needs to see the inventory.

Pick Stowley if

Each item belongs to a client who needs to see it, request it, or be billed for it.
You charge for storage, handling, pulls, or deliveries and want invoices generated from the inventory.
You receive, pull, ship, and deliver on request and need the request trail attached to the item.
You need condition reports, damage maps, and proof of delivery.
You run one warehouse or several and want clients, locations, and billing in one place.

Side by side

Sortly vs Stowley

Capability	Sortly	Stowley
Built for	One organization tracking its own inventory	Operators holding and moving inventory for many clients
Client ownership of items	Not listed; folders and tags only	Every item belongs to a client; portals are strictly scoped
Client portal	Not listed	Yes; view-only on Basic, self-service on Advanced, white-label on Premium and up
Invoicing and recurring billing	Not listed	Manual invoicing on every plan; recurring storage billing and Stripe auto-pay on Premium and up
Service requests	Pick lists and check-in/check-out	Inbound, pull, shipping, delivery, and on-site jobs, assigned to crews with signatures and photos
Condition reports	Photos and notes on items	Condition reports with damage maps and history (Advanced and up)
Shipping labels	Not listed	ShipStation rate shopping, labels, and tracking (Advanced and up)
Labels and scanning	QR and barcode label generation and scanning	QR labels on standard stock, scanned with any phone camera; no UPC lookup
Offline mobile access	Yes	No
Mobile apps	iOS and Android apps	Mobile web app for intake, scanning, and field work; nothing to install
Item limits	100 free; 500, 2,000, 5,000 by plan; 10,000+ on Enterprise	1,000, 5,000, 15,000 by plan; unlimited on Enterprise
Users	1 free; 2, 5, 8 by plan; 12+ on Enterprise	2, 5, 10 by plan; unlimited on Enterprise
Custom fields	1, 5, 10, 20 by plan; unlimited on Premium and Enterprise	Yes on every plan
Low-stock alerts	Yes	Yes, per SKU with configurable thresholds
Accounting	QuickBooks Online integration on Premium	QuickBooks and Xero invoice files plus accountant email (Premium and up)
Audit trail	Activity history on paid plans	Every plan; 30 days on Basic, unlimited on Advanced and up
API	API and webhooks on Enterprise	Outgoing webhooks and per-client data feeds on Enterprise
Pricing	Free; $49, $149, $299 per month; Enterprise custom	$69, $199, $399 per month; Enterprise custom; annual from $49

Details about other products come from their public pricing and feature pages and were last checked in October 2026. "Not listed" means we could not find the capability on the vendor's site, not that it does not exist. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.

Pricing

What each one costs

Sortly is cheaper to start. Stowley includes the client, the portal, and the invoice.

Sortly

Free to $299/mo

Free (100 items, 1 user), Advanced $49, Ultra $149, Premium $299, Enterprise custom. First-year annual discounts advertised.

Advanced: 500 items, 2 users
Ultra: 2,000 items, 5 users
Premium: 5,000 items, 8 users, QuickBooks Online

Stowley

$69 to $399/mo

Basic $69, Advanced $199, Premium $399, Enterprise custom. Annual from $49, $149, $349. No setup fees.

Basic: 1,000 items, 2 seats, view-only portal, manual invoicing
Advanced: 5,000 items, 5 seats, self-service portal, requests, condition reports, texts, ShipStation
Premium: 15,000 items, 10 seats, Stripe recurring billing, white-label, reports, accounting files

Switching

Moving from Sortly

Export from Sortly to CSV. The Stowley importer recognizes the export outright: folders become locations or categories, custom fields stay custom fields, and photos come across when the export carries image URLs.

If your items belong to different customers, import clients first, then inventory; the importer links each item to its client by name and previews every row before anything is written. Open balances load as starting-balance invoices so your first billing day is right.

See the Sortly import path Have us load it

FAQ

Frequently asked

Is Stowley more expensive than Sortly?

At the entry level, yes. Sortly has a free plan and its Advanced plan is $49 a month for 500 items and 2 users; Stowley Basic is $69 a month ($49 on annual) for 1,000 items and 2 seats. The comparison changes as you grow: Sortly Premium is $299 a month for 5,000 items and 8 users with no portal or invoicing, while Stowley Advanced is $199 for 5,000 items and 5 seats with a self-service client portal, service requests, condition reports, and text notifications. Stripe recurring billing starts on Stowley Premium at $399.

Can I import my Sortly data?

Yes. Export from Sortly to CSV and the Stowley importer recognizes the export outright. Folders can become locations or categories, custom fields come across as custom fields, and photos import when the export carries image URLs. Import clients first if your items belong to different customers, then inventory, and the importer links each item to its client by name.

Does Stowley scan barcodes like Sortly?

Stowley prints QR labels on standard label stock and scans them through any phone camera, with no scanner hardware. It does not look up retail UPC barcodes. If you need to scan manufacturer barcodes on retail products, Sortly's barcode support is a genuine advantage.

Does Stowley work offline?

No. Sortly advertises offline mobile access and Stowley does not have it; the mobile app needs a connection. Crews working in basements or rural areas with no signal should weigh that.

Can my clients log in and see their own items?

Yes, and this is the main reason operators move. Each client gets a portal scoped to their own items with photos, where they can request pulls, deliveries, and inbound drops, message your team, review documents, and pay invoices. Sortly is built for a single organization's inventory and has no client-facing portal.

Does Stowley have a free plan?

No. Every plan starts with a free trial, and demo sandboxes pre-loaded with sample data are open to anyone with an email address, but there is no permanent free tier.

Keep comparing

Live demo

See what Sortly leaves out, with your own eyes

Open a ready-made demo with sample clients and their items. Log in to a client's portal, submit a pull request, and watch the invoice draft itself. Then decide whether the shelf is enough.

Request a Tour

Quick email check-in for a demo. No strings attached.