What is the average cost of an inventory management system?

Small Business Growth
6 min
User using an inventory management software

The average cost of an inventory management system is $150 a month. That's based on comparing 80+ brands on websites like Capterra, Software Advice, Get App, and others.

Other costs for inventory management systems might include customer support fees. This is when you pay someone to help you with the system. You might have to pay around $50 or more monthly for this service.

Another cost is the one-time setup fee. This could be from $500 or more, depending on how complicated the system you want. You might have to pay even more, up to $40,000, if you need help from someone else to get started with a new software stack.

Brahmin Solutions is a software platform people can use to help with inventory management. It is less expensive than most other platforms, with monthly user licenses priced at only USD$40 per month on its most common plan (Growth Plan). You can see all of the pricing plans for Brahmin Solutions here.

Some companies charge different prices for their inventory management systems depending on how they will be used. The company may also charge differently depending on how much inventory will be managed. Factors that can affect the price you pay include the type of business, the size of the company, and the employees.

What is inventory management software?

Inventory management software is a tool that businesses use to track their inventory. This includes everything from the point of purchase through manufacturing, warehousing, sales, and shipping.

This software makes it easier to manage products and costs. It helps business owners see how much their products cost so that they can make better decisions.

“Fundamentally, [inventory management] software should let you know at any point in time what is happening with your stock,” said Brahm Meka, founder of Brahmin Solutions, who also runs a family-owned food production facility. “This software is what we call ‘mission-critical.’ If it doesn’t work for a few hours, you're in trouble.”

Standard features of inventory management software include:

Inventory management systems versus ERP

We have not included the cost of Enterprise Resource Planning software or ERP for this cost comparison. 

The difference between an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution and inventory software is the same as between a house and a bedroom. Although the two things are certainly related in a few aspects they share, there is almost nothing to compare and contrast between them. One is a giant sledgehammer of a solution, while the other is a rock hammer designed for a small job.

The things that makeup inventory software can also be found in an ERP. That is where the comparison stops because an ERP does so much more than inventory software. It is not even worth trying to compare the two.

To show you what we mean, let’s list some of the most prominent features you will find in an ERP:

  • Accounting
  • Asset tracking
  • Inventory management
  • Business intelligence
  • Corporate performance
  • Customer relationship management
  • E-commerce
  • Human resources
  • Sales
  • Supply chain management

There are ten features. How many of them can be found in inventory software? The answer is three. Asset tracking, inventory management, and supply chain management are the only features that could go into the category of inventory software.

Average per-user licensing costs of inventory management software

Using data from popular review sites such as Capterra, Get App, and Software Advice, we crunched the licensing costs for inventory management software products to find the average.

Remember that user licenses are just the base costs. We'll look at other parts of the cost of inventory management systems later in the article.

It is important to know that Software as a Service vendors often charge different prices for user licenses. They might charge monthly or annual subscriptions or a single fee. Extra features not part of the basic design will cost extra money, so it is essential to look closely at what is included and what is not included. Finally, the additional cost for onboarding and training is not included in the user license fee.

Here are the average license fees, per user, for 80+ inventory management brands on the market:

  • Average monthly cost: $150
  • Average annual cost: $1,530

Aspects that can influence the cost of inventory management software

  1. Whether or not you need an accounting add-on
  2. Add ons
  3. The number of users you will need
  4. The currency you can pay in
  5. The average volume of inventory – some systems charge extra for higher usage or additional API calls to other systems
  6. The average number of orders received – as above
  7. Advanced reporting capabilities
  8. Third-party API or hardware integrations
  9. Level of customer support required
  10. Business readiness costs, such as:
  11. Are your internal processes optimized for the software
  • Are your internal processes optimized for the software
  • Training (existing staff comfort with SaaS products)
  • System configurations

Implementation & onboarding costs for inventory management software

According to one technology consulting service, the implementation process for inventory management software can take around 12 to 16 weeks. At Brahmin Solutions, the 2022 average go-live time for new users was 21 days – or just over 3 weeks.

At this stage in the process, there are usually fees involved. The amount of the fees depends on whether you need help from an implementation partner or if you can go live with support from the vendor.

Vendor onboarding

For many companies– especially smaller and more agile companies – onboarding with the vendor is very achievable, and doing so will keep prices down. For Example, Brahmin provides free onboarding services.

Third-party onboarding

If your company is large, you will benefit from the services of a company that specializes in helping to set up new systems. This is also a good option if you are trying to start using multiple new systems simultaneously. Implementation partners cost different amounts of money. They can cost as low as $80 per hour or more. A typical implementation business will charge between $10,000 to $40,000 for a 12-16 week rollout.

Support costs for inventory management systems

Support is only sometimes included when you buy inventory management software. You may have to pay extra for customer service, technical help, data storage, and upgrading to a new version.

It can be hard to find how much something will cost because it varies significantly between vendors. You might see that support is included in the base licensing fee, but you might want to pay more to get better help.

For context, Brahmin Solutions offers free support across all pricing plans because providing support is an essential part of the software.

Costs for additional software

There are different types of inventory management systems that can do different things. But there are some things that it cannot do.

SMEs often purchase inventory management software in addition to other software packages that help them cover most of their business requirements with a cloud-based system. When choosing your inventory management system, consider what other platforms or functions you’ll use with it – and how this affects your overall costs.

For example

  • Finance and accounting software
  • Customer relationship management (CRM)
  • eCommerce
  • HR
  • A best-of-breed software stack is a combination of multiple software products. This differs from a single-vendor solution, a much larger ERP suite.

What does your business need to get started with inventory management software?

You need to do a few things before you can start using a new inventory management system.

Here are some of the things you’ll want to consider:

  • How many users will need access to the system
  • A list of software platforms the inventory system must integrate with—for example, E-commerce platforms, accounting, shipping, CRMs, etc.
  • If you need to buy barcode scanners, they usually cost around $100 each. You might also need laptops and mobile devices.
  • You will need to decide if you have the knowledge and experience to manage the implementation process yourself or if you will need to hire someone else to help you.

You can also easily book a conversation with an Inventory expert at Brahmin Solutions, who can guide you.

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