Software, agencies, or a managed layer.
Six kinds of company get hired to stop stockouts, and they answer different questions. This page maps who does what, where each one stops, and where the weekly decision actually lives. Names link to the companies themselves.
Every shelf answers a different question.
The confusion in this market is that six kinds of product get sold under one label. Match the question you are actually asking to the shelf that answers it, and most of the shortlist builds itself.
The last row is the gap the rest of the map leaves open. A recommendation is not a decision, and a dashboard does not chase a supplier.
What each one is, in its own words.
Every description below is drawn from the company’s own site, checked August 2026. No prices, because vendors change them and a stale number helps nobody.
Planning software
SoStocked is Amazon-native inventory management software built around forecasting and purchase order workflows. Inventory Planner sells forecasting and replenishment, strongest in the Shopify world. RestockPro covers FBA restocking, kitting and labels. All three produce recommendations per SKU. What stays open: somebody still reviews the inputs, questions the supplier, and turns the recommendation into an order with a date on it. The SoStocked page →
Management systems and ERP
Cin7 describes itself as inventory management software and small business ERP. Brightpearl calls itself a retail operating system. Both answer where stock sits and what moved. Neither is built to answer what to order next and when, which is a different job. The full distinction →
Seller suites
Helium 10 sells seller tools across Amazon, Walmart and TikTok Shop. Jungle Scout positions around Amazon data for brands and retailers. Both are strongest on research and market visibility. Inventory modules exist inside them, but planning is a side room, not the house.
Profit analytics
sellerboard calls itself the accurate profit analytics tool for Amazon sellers, and that is the job it does: landed costs, fees, margin. Knowing what a SKU earns is an input to planning, not a substitute for it. Managed planning works beside it, not against it.
Full-service agencies
Ads, listings, creative, account management. Most agencies deliberately stay off the supply side, and the good ones say so. That is not a weakness, it is a lane, and it is why our scope promise exists: we never touch theirs. Why the ad account takes the blame anyway →
The decision layer is bought differently.
The In-Stock Engine is one system build, then a weekly planning rhythm: suggested POs, transfer recommendations, risk flags, run by a senior lead with specialists keeping the numbers current. The shelf above is optional. The last row is the product.
Keep your tool
Our weekly cadence has run beside client-owned planning software in live accounts. What changes is not the software, it is that the order-by dates get owned, every week, by name.
Or run without one
The build works from your platform exports and your supplier terms. A tool subscription is never a prerequisite, and we will not sell you one.
Or neither, yet
Under 50 SKUs, no real supplier lead times, or under $1,250 a month of planning budget: a service layer is the wrong purchase. The free map and the health score will do more for you than a retainer would.
Every figure this site uses as proof traces to a documented engagement. The vendor descriptions above come from the vendors themselves. When either changes, this page changes.
The comparison pages.
SoStocked alternative
Two different problems send people to that search. Only one of them is software.
Inventory Planner alternative
Multichannel forecasts are only as good as the stock numbers underneath them.
Flieber alternative
Flieber’s own homepage now sells an AI operations platform. If you came for the planning job, start here.
Software vs managed planning
What the tools genuinely do well, the three places the job breaks anyway, and what a managed layer changes.
Management vs planning
Two words sold interchangeably. Different questions, different purchases.
Stockout cost calculator
Your inputs, your arithmetic: what the last dark stretch cost, and when the preventing decision was due.
SoStocked is a Carbon6 product. Inventory Planner is a Sage product. Helium 10, Jungle Scout, Cin7, Brightpearl, sellerboard, RestockPro, Flieber, Netstock and Lokad belong to their respective owners. They appear here for factual comparison. No affiliation or endorsement is implied, in either direction.
Choose the question before the vendor.
Six shelves get sold under one label. If you are still deciding which one you are on, the health score narrows it in three minutes.