Wedge reportFrom what you knowquick2026-10-17

Tools for Shopify merchants, from a small Shopify merchant

Expertise run for a home-goods Shopify store owner: 17 apps across 9 categories scouted from 1- to 3-star App Store reviews, then a deep dive on post-Stocky inventory purchasing.

01

Verdict

PIVOT

The pain is real: small POS retailers lost Stocky on Aug 31, 2026, and they say Shopify's native POs take triple the time. But don't build another Stocky replacement app. A free, 4.9-rated one (Stockroom) and more than ten cheap apps already cover it, and these shops resist new monthly fees. The pivot is to change the channel and price: sell a one-time $199 setup service on top of the free tools, and run the 7-day test before building anything. Read-only Stocky access ends Nov 29, so test now.

57 / 100

budget
under $2k
skills
simple web apps with AI help; runs a ~$8k/mo home-goods Shopify store
hours
10/week
risk
side income
channel
online
02

Opportunities, ranked

Scored with the reasoning shown. Higher is better on every axis.

#OpportunityScorepainwillingness to paycompetition gapfounder fitreachabilitybuild cost
1Stocky replacement app for small POS retailers
POs, receiving, labels and stock counts for brick-and-mortar Shopify shops after Stocky's shutdown.
57 8 5 2 7 7 5
2Wholesale ordering for small makers
Reliable wholesale pricing and net terms for small brands selling to boutiques.
51 6 6 3 6 5 4
3Subscriptions for small merchants
Subscribe-and-save without percentage fees for brands with a few hundred subscribers.
50 7 6 3 4 5 3

Stocky replacement app for small POS retailers

Strongest pain in the scout: Stocky is rated 3.0 with 28% one-star reviews and was shut down, merchants call native POs brutally inadequate, and some are leaving Shopify POS. But Stockroom is free and unlimited, rated 4.9, and more than ten other apps pitch in the same threads at $0 to $20. Shops cap spend at $100/mo and resent paying for what was free.

  • “Stocky has the potential to be a fantastic app, but it’s been completely abandoned.”
    shopify-app-store · 2025-10-30 verified
  • “Shopify has confirmed that Stocky will no longer be available after August 31, 2026 , and that it was delisted from the Shopify App Store on February 2, 2026”
    shopify-community · 2026-02-20 verified

Wholesale ordering for small makers

Merchants lose wholesale orders when pricing isn't applied or net terms fail, and they pay $35 to $149/mo for apps. But Shopify B2B now runs on Basic and up, and pricing logic touches checkout and themes. Not deep-dived; needs its own run.

  • “Leaving groups of my customer base unable to order due to special pricing not being applied.”
    shopify-app-store · 2026-06-01 verified
  • “We have lost so, so much on using this app - both on the app cost itself but also lost orders for customers being annoyed of the constant problems.”
    shopify-app-store · 2024-10-30 verified

Subscriptions for small merchants

Recharge users complain about no small tier, fees above 10% of recurring revenue, and lock-in. But Seal is free up to 50 subscriptions with 0% fees, Shopify Subscriptions is free, and recurring billing is high-stakes for a 10-hour-a-week builder.

03

The gap

The opening competitors leave, backed by what their customers say.

Small brick-and-mortar Shopify shops forced off Stocky can't get purchasing, receiving and labels running again without days of re-entering vendor and supplier data, because every replacement is self-serve software and Shopify's tools can't carry suppliers across.

3 sources
04

What customers complain about

Heat map counts complaints per competitor. Each theme needs two verified sources.

StockyShopify native POs (forum posts)Inventory PlannerPredikoForum posts
Shopify took away the tool we run the shop on11
The native PO tool takes triple the time306
Re-entering years of vendor data4
Won't pay $100+/mo for what used to be free111216
Nobody can help me set it up14132
Labels and stock counts don't work132
The numbers are wrong4121

Shopify took away the tool we run the shop on

high4 sources

Stocky was neglected, stripped of features, then shut down; some shops are leaving Shopify POS.

  • “Stocky has the potential to be a fantastic app, but it’s been completely abandoned.”
    shopify-app-store · 2025-10-30 verified
  • “Just another Shopify example of spending time to teach staff how to use, and running your operations on, only for them to deprecate features you rely on.”
    shopify-app-store · 2025-07-24 verified
  • “Shopify has confirmed that Stocky will no longer be available after August 31, 2026 , and that it was delisted from the Shopify App Store on February 2, 2026”
    shopify-community · 2026-02-20 verified

The native PO tool takes triple the time

high5 sources

Native POs are slow for many-SKU orders and have no fill-shelves reordering.

Re-entering years of vendor data

high2 sources

Suppliers can't be exported from Stocky, and native POs force vendors to be re-created as suppliers.

  • “being asked to manually recreate data that already exists in a Shopify-owned app, with no migration tooling provided is not only a significant operational burden, but also incredibly frustrating.”
    shopify-community · 2026-05-06 verified
  • “If they don’t figure out how to offer us efficient ordering (without having to reenter years of vendor and price data)”
    shopify-community · 2026-05-25 verified
  • “going to Shopify’s native purchase order interface also means creating supplier profiles for all the vendors even though all of my products are already associated with the correct vendors.”
    shopify-community · 2026-06-10 verified

Won't pay $100+/mo for what used to be free

high6 sources

Small shops resist new fees; forecasting suites price for bigger stores and raise prices at renewal.

Nobody can help me set it up

medium4 sources

Support can't fix it, setup eats whole days, and real onboarding costs thousands.

Labels and stock counts don't work

medium3 sources

Receiving labels and barcode counts break, so shops pay for extra apps.

The numbers are wrong

medium3 sources

Sync breaks, forecasts miss seasonality, data has bugs.

05

Competitor map

Stocky (Shopify)

Included with Shopify POS Pro; shut down Aug 31, 2026

Inventory Management for Shopify POS Pro

Strong at

  • Was free with POS Pro
  • Did POs, receiving, counts and labels in one place

Weak at

  • Neglected, then removed
  • Label printing broke
  • Gated behind POS Pro

Shopify native purchase orders

Included in Shopify admin

The built-in replacement Shopify points merchants to

Strong at

  • Free and built in

Weak at

  • Slow for many-SKU orders
  • No fill-shelves reordering
  • Vendors must be re-created as suppliers

Stockroom (MyWorks)

Free, unlimited POs

Unlimited purchase orders, inventory management & manufacturing.

Strong at

  • Free
  • Stocky migration
  • Labels, counts, partial receiving
  • 4.9 rating, no low-star reviews yet

Weak at

  • Free tier is a loss leader for accounting sync (a risk to it, not an opening)

EZstock

Free (5 POs/mo); Starter $19/mo; Growth $49/mo

Leaving Stocky? Upload your export, then count stock, forecast demand and send purchase orders.

Strong at

  • Stocky import in one upload
  • Public pricing

Weak at

  • Only 1 review; unproven

Prediko

Starter $49/mo (stores up to $100k revenue) and up

AI Inventory Management & Planner.

Strong at

  • Forecasting
  • Automatic Stocky migration

Weak at

  • Data bugs reported
  • Priced for DTC brands

Inventory Planner by Sage

Not public: contact for a quote

More time, more profit, less guesswork.

Strong at

  • Deep forecasting

Weak at

  • Price hikes and contracts
  • Turns away small stores
  • Sync failures

Feature matrix

Free planPublic priceStocky importReorder suggestionsPartial receivingBarcode stocktakeLabels on receivePOs under $25/moHands-on setup
Shopify native POs✓✓✕✕?◑?✓✕
Stockroom✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓?
EZstock✓✓✓✓✓✓?◑?
Supremo✓✓?✓✓✓?✓?
Assisty◑✓✓✓?✓?✕?
Stockie✕✓?✓?✓?✕?
Prediko✕✓✓✓?✓✓✕◑
Inventory Planner✕✕?✓???✕◑
06

The case against

A separate critic pass argued against this. Here is what it found.

Risk: A free incumbent (Stockroom) and ten-plus cheap apps already own the app idea.

Answer: Unresolved.

Risk: The window is closing: Stocky's API stopped Aug 31, and read-only access ends Nov 29, 2026.

Answer: Unresolved.

Risk: The pain is real but these shops resist paying for what used to be free.

Answer: Unresolved.

Risk: Shopify killed Stocky itself and can change native POs at any time.

Answer: Native POs are still called brutally inadequate (e7, e8), and a setup service works on whichever tool Shopify pushes.

Risk: Free migration tools and vendor walkthroughs already exist.

Answer: They move files; merchants are still asking months later how to map vendors, print labels and train staff (e15, e16, e34).

Risk: Copyable in a week by any vendor or freelancer.

Answer: True; this is a side-income service, not a moat. The edge is being a real merchant who answers in the threads.

Risk: The community threads are full of vendor pitches, so another pitch reads as spam.

Answer: Merchants there ask direct questions (e16). Answer first, disclose last.

Risk: Touching a shop's inventory data can wreck its counts.

Answer: Work from exports, test on one location, no bulk writes without sign-off.

07

How to win

Specific moves that pull customers to you instead of them.

Your back room, working again after Stocky. One flat fee, done with you in a week, by a shop owner who had to do it too.

Switching triggers

Stocky read-only access ends Nov 29, 2026

→ Post a free export checklist in the threads now; offer a 15-minute check call.

First big receiving day on native POs

→ Build the vendor-to-supplier map and reorder templates.

  • “The PO feature in shopify is brutally inadequate. Using it takes more than triple the time to place an order.”
    shopify-community · 2026-05-05 verified

Year-end stock count (Dec/Jan)

→ 'Year-end count ready' package in early December.

  • “Removing Stocky means we can’t place orders, do year end stock takes, report on our year end numbers for the government, make and report on stock adjustments, run sales reports and more.”
    shopify-community · 2026-04-30 verified

Inventory Planner renewal or price hike for small stores

→ Set them up on a free or cheap tool instead.

Offers that win switchers

Build first

  1. Vendor-to-supplier mapping sheet and CSV converter Top switching blocker (pain: re-entering vendor data).
  2. Per-tool setup checklists (Stockroom, EZstock, native POs) Setup eats whole days (pain: nobody can help me set it up).
  3. Label printer test kit Labels break (pain: labels and counts).
  4. Booking page and Stripe payment link with the price shown Shops resist hidden and monthly pricing (pain: price).

Where unhappy customers are

Trust signals to show

Do not copy

Ready-made assets

08

Pricing and cost

Pricing

$199 one-time per location (founding offer $99 for the first 3 shops)

These shops refuse new monthly bills and named a $1000/year ceiling, so a single payment well under that removes the main objection.

Competitors: Apps: free (Stockroom) to $19-$59.99/mo for PO tiers, $49+/mo forecasting suites, quote-only Inventory Planner; paid onboarding seen at $5000

Cost to run

about $1 plus payment fees (not checked live)

Cloudflare Pages or GitHub Pages hosting$0
Domain shelfsorted.comregistrar price, ~$1/mo amortized (confirm)
Cal.com or Calendly free plan$0
Stripe Payment Link$0/mo + per-transaction fee
Existing email inbox$0
09

First 10 customers

  1. Answer the 'What do you recommend?' post with a concrete small-shop setup; disclose at the end https://community.shopify.com/t/stocky-alternatives/632200

    For a shoe store ordering a few pairs per style: [3 steps]. Disclosure: I run a Shopify shop and offer one-time setup help.

  2. Reply to the data re-entry posts with the vendor-to-supplier CSV method https://community.shopify.com/t/removing-stocky-is-a-material-retail-operations-risk/589102

    Here's how to turn your product vendors into suppliers without retyping: [steps].

  3. Answer the count-and-adjust request with the cheapest working stocktake path https://community.shopify.com/t/replacement-to-stocky/587141

    Cheapest working stock count I've found after Stocky: [steps].

  4. Answer the many-SKU PO complaint with a reorder-template tip https://community.shopify.com/t/stocky-replacement/621332

    Trick that cut our PO time: [tip].

  5. Post a pure-help export checklist thread Shopify Community, Retail & Point of Sale

    Stocky read-only ends Nov 29: a 10-point export checklist from a shop owner.

  6. Message up to 10 named Stocky 1-star reviewers via their store contact pages https://apps.shopify.com/stocky/reviews?ratings%5B%5D=1

    Saw your review about labels. I run a small Shopify shop too; here's what worked: [tip]. Free checklist: [link].

  7. Offer 3 founding setups at $99 for a testimonial Landing page

    First 3 shops: $99 instead of $199, in exchange for an honest testimonial.

  8. Ask your own suppliers which stockists use Shopify POS Your vendor contacts

    Do any of your retail stockists use Shopify POS? I'm helping shops get POs working after Stocky.

10

7-day test

One experiment, one pass bar. Run it before writing code.

Post one help thread, answer 8 to 10 open questions in the Stocky threads, and message 10 named Stocky reviewers; point all of it at the landing page with a $99 founding offer.

Pass bar (7 days): 3 shops pay (or put down a $50 deposit), or 10 booked calls from different shops

  • Day 1: domain, landing page, Stripe link, booking page
  • Day 2: post the export checklist thread
  • Day 3: answer 4 open thread questions
  • Day 4: message 10 named Stocky reviewers
  • Day 5: answer 4 more threads, follow up on replies
  • Day 6: run calls and ask for the $99
  • Day 7: count payments, calls and objections; decide

Kill it if

11

Launch kit

Shelf Sorted

shelfsorted.com available

  • backroomfix.com (available)
  • shelfsetup.com (available)
  • receivewell.com (available)
  • backroomdone.com (available)

Open landing page

12

Evidence

93 of 93 quotes verified against the live source by verify.py.

IDClaimQuoteSourceStatus
e1pain-abandoned“Stocky has the potential to be a fantastic app, but it’s been completely abandoned.”shopify-app-storeverified
e2pain-abandoned“Just another Shopify example of spending time to teach staff how to use, and running your operations on, only for them to deprecate features you rely on.”shopify-app-storeverified
e3pain-abandoned“Shopify has confirmed that Stocky will no longer be available after August 31, 2026 , and that it was delisted from the Shopify App Store on February 2, 2026”shopify-communityverified
e4pain-abandoned“it is SO frustrating how there is no support or development on this app.”shopify-app-storeverified
e5pain-abandoned“Removing Stocky means we can’t place orders, do year end stock takes, report on our year end numbers for the government, make and report on stock adjustments, run sales reports and more.”shopify-communityverified
e6pain-abandoned“We are trialing Lightspeed. I can’t stand how hard Shopify makes everything.”shopify-communityverified
e7pain-native-po-slow“The PO feature in shopify is brutally inadequate. Using it takes more than triple the time to place an order.”shopify-communityverified
e8pain-native-po-slow“The native Shopify PO workflow feels much more manual, especially when you are ordering multiple SKU’s.”shopify-communityverified
e9pain-native-po-slow“who on earth can manually type hundred order lines without mistakes plus the time it takes..”shopify-app-storeverified
e10pain-native-po-slow“I briefly looked at shopify’s and it doesn’t look great”shopify-communityverified
e11pain-native-po-slow“The recent update makes it so much more cumbersome to add products to inventory and it wasn't even that great to begin with.”shopify-app-storeverified
e12pain-native-po-slow“if you only receive some items on a PO, Stocky keeps the PO total the same as if you received them all.”shopify-app-storeverified
e13pain-data-reentry“being asked to manually recreate data that already exists in a Shopify-owned app, with no migration tooling provided is not only a significant operational burden, but also incredibly frustrating.”shopify-communityverified
e14pain-data-reentry“If they don’t figure out how to offer us efficient ordering (without having to reenter years of vendor and price data)”shopify-communityverified
e15pain-data-reentry“going to Shopify’s native purchase order interface also means creating supplier profiles for all the vendors even though all of my products are already associated with the correct vendors.”shopify-communityverified
e16pain-data-reentry“But I transitioned to Shopify 3 years ago and I can’t really start over. What do you recommend?”shopify-communityverified
e17pain-data-reentry“Suppliers cannot be exported from Stocky.”shopify-communityverified
e19pain-price“I was advised to contact them again once I reach more than 1 million dollars in annual revenue”shopify-app-storeverified
e20pain-price“was paying about $300/month and they jacked it up over $600/month and required us to sign a 12 month contract.”shopify-app-storeverified
e21pain-price“since purchasing IP, Sage have increased the annual/semi annual fees dramatically with no signs of stopping.”shopify-app-storeverified
e22pain-price“Yeah, I’m not even gonna remotely consider a solution that costs more than $100 per month.”shopify-communityverified
e23pain-price“Other apps offer more functionality than is needed for small businesses and add significant costs.”shopify-communityverified
e24pain-price“Shelling out another $350-1k+/mo minimum depending on catalog size.”shopify-communityverified
e25pain-price“Also sad that now we will have to pay for a funstion that really should just be included in any POS software at this point.”shopify-communityverified
e26pain-price“its pushing you to upgrade to Shopify POS Pro at $89 per month.”shopify-app-storeverified
e27pain-price“all solution i see was way to expensive”shopify-communityverified
e28pain-labels-counts“I was genuinely hoping for a way to simply scan all my product for my yearly inventory”shopify-app-storeverified
e29pain-labels-counts“So we have to pay $35/month for an additional app to do this for our tiny business.”shopify-app-storeverified
e30pain-labels-counts“I've had to switch to a paid app for my labels, which works great, but I'm really unhappy about having to pay for what should be a pretty basic POS feature.”shopify-app-storeverified
e31pain-labels-counts“The logistics of performing basic stock takes is suddenly way more manual and complicated without Stocky.”shopify-communityverified
e32pain-labels-counts“We also print our price labels from Stocky directly from the PO which is so much easier than going through Shopify to print.”shopify-communityverified
e33pain-setup-support“Trying to get support from shopify is also extremely difficult as most of their support staff isn't familiar with the app”shopify-app-storeverified
e34pain-setup-support“I spent literally 8 hours on this today and got nowhere.”shopify-app-storeverified
e35pain-setup-support“Can someone help me set up Stocky. It should be easier than this.”shopify-app-storeverified
e36pain-setup-support“Training costs $5000, where basic things are explained, but for the most part, I have had to dig out the answers myself.”shopify-app-storeverified
e37pain-setup-support“Spent an hour with customer support, they couldn't fix it.”shopify-app-storeverified
e38pain-setup-support“Customer service is slow to respond and we're now demanding a full refund after 21+ days”shopify-app-storeverified
e39pain-sync-forecast“Something broke with the connection at the end of September 2025 and it has basically rendered IP useless to us.”shopify-app-storeverified
e40pain-sync-forecast“We couldn't generate accurate forecasts that take into account the seasonality of our product.”shopify-app-storeverified
e41pain-sync-forecast“our data has been intermittently been syncing in Inventory Planner.”shopify-app-storeverified
e42pain-sync-forecast“errors and weirdness in the data, bugs go reported and never fixed”shopify-app-storeverified
c1comp-stockroom“Unlimited purchase orders, inventory management & manufacturing.”shopify-app-storeverified
c2comp-stockroom“Migrate from Stocky.”shopify-app-storeverified
c3comp-stockroom“we’re making it completely free for everyone!”shopify-communityverified
c4comp-supremo“Shop Free Features Up to 100 products & 2,000 variants”shopify-app-storeverified
c5comp-supremo“Shelf $19 / month”shopify-app-storeverified
c6comp-ezstock“Up to 5 purchase orders a month”shopify-app-storeverified
c7comp-ezstock“Starter $19 / month or $190/year”shopify-app-storeverified
c8comp-inventory-planner“Pricing adapts to your business needs. Contact us to get a quote.”shopify-app-storeverified
c9comp-prediko“Starter $49 / month For stores up to $100k in revenue.”shopify-app-storeverified
c10comp-assisty“Replenishment $39 / month”shopify-app-storeverified
c11comp-stockie“Pro Plus Plan $59.99 / month Features Purchase orders & supplier management”shopify-app-storeverified
c12comp-stocky“Included with Shopify POS Pro subscription”shopify-app-storeverified
c13comp-cogsy“$199 / month 14-day free trial”shopify-app-storeverified
c14comp-crowded“The Aug 31 shutdown pushed a bunch of small focused apps into this space”shopify-communityverified
c15comp-crowded“A few of the smaller post-Stocky apps sit in the $12-19 range”shopify-communityverified
c16comp-crowded“our Essential Plan starts at just $12/month”shopify-communityverified
c17comp-ezstock“Move from Stocky in one upload”shopify-app-storeverified
o1opp-subscriptions“there is no tier for small businesses”shopify-app-storeverified
o2opp-subscriptions“Their fees amount to over 10% of our recurring revenue”shopify-app-storeverified
o3opp-subscriptions“Now we are locked into them since we cannot easily move subscribers, and they have massively raised prices while doing nothing.”shopify-app-storeverified
o4opp-subscriptions“every time a customer moves house and changes their address, or updates the billing details, the subscription will break, without notifying the seller.”shopify-app-storeverified
o5comp-seal“Unlimited revenue, 50 subscriptions”shopify-app-storeverified
o6comp-recharge“Starter $99 / month 1.49% + 19¢ per transaction”shopify-app-storeverified
o7comp-shopify-subscriptions“19% of ratings are 1 stars”shopify-app-storeverified
w1opp-wholesale“Leaving groups of my customer base unable to order due to special pricing not being applied.”shopify-app-storeverified
w2opp-wholesale“We have lost so, so much on using this app - both on the app cost itself but also lost orders for customers being annoyed of the constant problems.”shopify-app-storeverified
w3opp-wholesale“if you want your customers to see the discount when they shop you have to do another upgrade.”shopify-app-storeverified
w4opp-wholesale“my wholesale customers are randomly not recognized and they are forced to pay at checkout instead of net terms.”shopify-app-storeverified
w5comp-shopify-b2b“Shopify B2B is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Shopify Plus plans.”webverified
w6comp-wholesale-gorilla“Lite $34.95 / month”shopify-app-storeverified
w7comp-sparklayer“Starter $49 / month”shopify-app-storeverified
d1scout-dropped“They advertise lots of features in the Free plan but everything I tried to set up came up with a banner”shopify-app-storeverified
d2scout-dropped“During the down time I found an app (Channelwill) for $45 a year that functions the same”shopify-app-storeverified
d3scout-dropped“just get chatgpt or Claude to custom code something it takes a few hours to replace this”shopify-app-storeverified
d4scout-dropped“Worst experience I’ve ever had with a Shopify app.”shopify-app-storeverified
g1gap“being asked to manually recreate data that already exists in a Shopify-owned app, with no migration tooling provided”shopify-communityverified
g2gap“I’m desperate for a budget option that can generate POs from specific vendors and utilize filters during generation.”shopify-communityverified
g3gap“I spent literally 8 hours on this today and got nowhere.”shopify-app-storeverified
g5gap“Training costs $5000”shopify-app-storeverified
t1trigger-1“I received a notice today that stocky is being sunset in August 2026.”shopify-communityverified
t2trigger-1“Why is there not more talk about Stocky disappearing?”shopify-communityverified
t3trigger-2“they jacked it up over $600/month”shopify-app-storeverified
t4trigger-2“Sage have increased the annual/semi annual fees dramatically”shopify-app-storeverified
g6gap“But I transitioned to Shopify 3 years ago and I can’t really start over. What do you recommend?”shopify-communityverified
k1critic-window“29 November 2026 Read-only access ends.”webverified
k2critic-window“the CSV export keeps working roughly 90 days longer”shopify-communityverified
k3critic-free-migration“I made a free browser tool that takes either the Stocky CSVs or the API JSON and converts them into an EZStock-ready file”shopify-communityverified
k4critic-free-migration“Script’s free either way.”shopify-communityverified
k5critic-free-migration“replace Stocky: suppliers and purchase orders migrate automatically”shopify-app-storeverified
k6critic-nobody-pays“I can’t justify more than $1000 to our yearly operating costs for a piece of functionality that used to be free on this POS and our previous system.”shopify-communityverified
k7critic-nobody-pays“now we will have to pay for a funstion that really should just be included in any POS software at this point”shopify-communityverified
o8comp-seal“SUPERSALE $5.95 / month”shopify-app-storeverified