Inventory planning alternatives

Honest, opinionated breakdowns of the planning tools scaling brands shortlist most often. Picks ranked by fit, trade-offs spelled out, and a clear answer to which one is right for your shape of business.

NetStock

ERP-led, built for distributors

NetStock is genuinely strong for £100M+ distributors and manufacturers running NetSuite, SAP Business One, or Acumatica. For scaling consumer brands selling on Shopify, Amazon, and retail, it's the wrong shape — long implementations, ERP dependency, distribution-style assumptions.

See NetStock alternatives

Inventory Planner (by Sage)

Established and feature-rich, but rigid

Inventory Planner has been around since 2012 and the forecasting engine works — but the UX is dated, the workflows are rigid, and post-Sage acquisition the independent roadmap has visibly slowed. You adapt to it, not the other way round.

See Inventory Planner alternatives

Prediko

Modern, AI-first — but Shopify-centric and simplistic

Prediko is the right starting point for a Shopify-only DTC brand under £5M. It's modern, AI-first, easy to start with — but it stops at forecasting and PO suggestions. Once operations get complex (multi-channel, multi-warehouse, supplier ops), too much ends up back in spreadsheets.

See Prediko alternatives

Cin7

IMS-first, planning-second

Cin7 (Core and Omni) is genuinely capable at multi-channel inventory record-keeping, but forecasting and replenishment are basic — most brands end up running planning in spreadsheets or bolting a planning tool on top. If you need planning more than a new IMS, the cost and 1–3 month implementation is the wrong shape.

See Cin7 alternatives

Cogsy

Shopify-friendly starter — fast to outgrow

Cogsy is approachable and Shopify-native, ideal for founder-led ops teams under £5M. The ceiling shows up fast: forecasting depth, multi-channel (Amazon, retail, B2B), and supplier-payment visibility all run thin as brands scale past £10M. Most teams switch off Cogsy because they've outgrown its shape, not because it's broken.

See Cogsy alternatives

Not finding the tool you're evaluating?

We're building out comparison pages for the most-shortlisted tools in our customer interviews — Brightpearl, Unleashed, and a few others are next. If you're weighing a tool we haven't covered yet, book a call and we'll walk you through how Lumina would compare against it on your real data.

See all Lumina vs comparisons