Software Shortlist
Here’s the list of the best free warehouse management software that I’ll cover in this article.
If you have physical products, you need a warehouse. Warehouses management comes with problems like inventory location, reliance on thirdiparty pickers, and constant need for stock adjustments. An efficient warehouse means timely delivery of products, happy customers, and more sales opportunities.
If you are still relying on manual warehouse management, it’s time to get warehouse management software to better navigate stock, shipping, and returns. This article will tell you about the best free warehouse management software and how you can use them to grow your business.
What is Warehouse Management Software?
Warehouse management software (WMS) is a type of software designed to help businesses manage their warehouse operations more efficiently and effectively. It typically includes features such as inventory tracking, order processing, and shipping and receiving management. Warehouse management software can help businesses improve accuracy, reduce labor costs, and increase efficiency by automating many manual processes. It can also provide real-time visibility into inventory levels, order status, and shipping information, allowing businesses to make better-informed decisions and respond quickly to changes in demand or supply.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Free Warehouse Management Software Solutions
Here’s a brief description of each free warehouse management system to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
Square
Best for beginners
Square Inventory is inventory management software for managing your warehouse using any computer, anywhere. It has a daily stock alert email feature so you know which items are running low. It has a reporting feature for creating downloadable and printable reports for studying your inventory on the go.
Square Inventory is the best free warehouse management software if you need a detailed inventory of stocks. You can customize inventory details like names, quantities, descriptions, and prices through your Square Inventory dashboard or directly in your POS machine.
Square Inventory lets you add unique identifiers or modifiers to items, so they’re easier to identify and describe to customers. Modifiers help customers better understand what they are ordering and help reduce item returns or exchanges.
Square Inventory is a free warehouse and inventory management system.
However, selling directly through the platform will cost you 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.
Zoho Inventory
Best for non-technical users
Zoho Inventory is software for tracking your stock and fulfilling orders to help you increase revenue. It has an order management system for creating purchase orders, backorders, and drop shipments within a single platform. This inventory management system lets you use serial numbers to track every item in your inventory to monitor movement and keep track of item expirations.
Zoho Inventory is the best free warehouse management system if you want to move stock from one warehouse to another. Create and track transfer orders with Zoho Inventory, so you’re always aware of the status of a transfer.
You can use Zoho Inventory to track your sales and identify areas where a product is in-demand so you can transfer the bulk of your stock to a warehouse nearby. Having in-demand products near customers who need them can help save time and increase customer satisfaction.
Zoho Inventory integrates with other ecommerce and shipping tools like Shopify, Etsy, and Aftership.
Zoho Inventory free to use for 50 orders/month, 1 warehouse, and 2 users.
Sortly
Best user experience
Sortly is warehouse management software that can help a small business manage its inventory and assets. You can set up the software to send alerts for a particular stock level or the expiration date of specific items.
Sortly has a mobile app version to manage your inventory away from your workstation. This inventory management software keeps track of user activities so you know what changed in your inventory, when, and the employee responsible.
Sortly is the best inventory management software if you want to manage your inventory through barcodes and QR codes easily. It has an in-app scanner to make checking in and out of items easier.
Sortly is also compatible with third-party or handheld scanners to work with your current scanning equipment. You can use Sortly to create and print custom QR labels and barcodes that match your filing system.
Sortly has a free version for 100 entries, 1 user, and 1 custom field.
Odoo Inventory
Best for a range of features
Odoo is a collection of open-source apps including CRM, accounting, project management, and POS for managing your business. It has a planning feature for anticipating needs and making sure that you have enough resources during peak seasons.
You can use this warehouse management tool to display worksheets and alerts to employees to improve collaboration and make sure that everybody is on the same page.
Odoo is the best free warehouse management software if you want one with supply chain management features. You can use this software to ensure a smooth flow of products to all your warehouses. This supply chain management software lets you create procurement rules for the automatic replenishment of low stocks.
Odoo also allows you to create custom routes, so warehouses that need immediate resupplying get priority.
Odoo costs from $31/user/month to access all their apps. Or, you can access one app only for free, or take advantage of their 15-day free trial.
ABC Inventory
Best for ease of use
ABC Inventory is free inventory software with an inventory control feature for creating a master list of items in your warehouse to know which items are in your warehouse. It has multiple picking and packing list formats to customize the lists for each warehouse. ABC Inventory has a barcode scanning feature to speed up the receiving and updating process whenever new stocks arrive.
ABC Inventory is the best free warehouse management software for purchasing items because it allows you to create purchase orders for suppliers. You can also automate the creation of purchase orders depending on the historical data of an item.
This inventory software lets you create a supplier database with warning flags for suppliers involved in questionable transactions.
ABC Inventory is completely free to use.
Salebinder
Best reporting & analytics suite
Salesbinder is a cloud-based inventory management software for monitoring inventory and stock levels in your facilities. This inventory management software allows you to organize your inventory using custom attributes like color, size, weight, and location so you can organize your stock using your unique system.
Salesbinder lets you issue customer user permissions to limit employees’ access to areas within the scope of their responsibilities.
Salesbinder is the best free warehouse management software for generating detailed reports of finances. You can use Salesbinder to generate detailed reports of your revenues, cost of new purchases, inventory valuation, and others.
Salesbinder lets you monitor your outstanding invoices and due dates so you can plan your budget.
Salesbinder also lets you generate detailed customer billing statements for collection purposes.
Salesbinder has a forever-free version for up to 100 records and 1 user
Openboxes
Best for larger companies
Openboxes is a warehouse and inventory management software for managing multiple warehouse or storage facilities in different locations. You can use Openboxes to create workflows to manage stock movement from one warehouse to another.
Openboxes has a comprehensive dashboard for monitoring the inventories on all your facilities to get an idea of how many items you have and if you need to restock specific products to avoid business disruption.
Openboxes is the best warehouse management software if you store sensitive products like food, chemicals, and medicines that require special handling. You can use this warehouse management system to classify hazardous materials so that employees follow proper storing and handling protocols.
Openbox allows you to note temperature requirements for cold chain handling to prevent the spoilage of sensitive products. This inventory management software also allows you to create import or export license requirements for controlled products to prevent delays in deliveries.
Openboxes is free to use for unlimited locations and items, so long as you don’t mind self-hosting (with any provider).
RightControl
Best for small business
RightControl is inventory management software ideal for the warehousing needs of small and medium businesses. You can use RightControl to view all available stock levels with low stock items highlighted so you can order new stocks. The inventory management software is synced to your POS to update your warehouse inventory each time your sales team completes a sale.
RightControl is free warehouse management software with a label designer to help you organize your warehouse. This inventory management software’s label designer allows you to customize your labels with any information. You can also customize your label’s font size, width, and height to make item details easier to read.
RightControl also includes instructions in your label if an item requires special handling.
RightControl is completely free software. However, it is no longer being regularly updated.
Boxstorm
Best for growing teams
Boxstorm is free inventory management software for monitoring inventory in multiple locations. It has an inventory management app version that works on iOS and Android mobile devices. You can use this inventory management app to include up to five pictures per item in your files so employees know what each item looks like. It has a custom tracking feature to locate items using lot numbers, serial numbers, expiration dates, or other pieces of identifiers.
Boxstorm is free inventory management software with a customer management feature to help you manage your relationship with customers. This free inventory software can create customer profiles with critical information like shipping address, contact information, and billing information. This free inventory software lets you create company profiles and group customers from the same company for better organization.
Boxstorm integrates with other shipping and supply chain management tools like Shopify, Stripe, Shippo, and Quickbooks Online.
Boxstorm is free inventory management software for 1 user, 25 items, 1 location, and 100 transactions.
myWMS
Best open-source warehouse management software
myWMS is free open-source warehouse management software that you can customize to suit the unique requirements of your warehouse management team. It has a barcode and RFID identification system to scan items and inventory tracking easily. myWMS uses digital records to help you run a paperless operation to save money. Digital records also mean that updates on one terminal reflect on the entire system, so everybody looks at real-time records.
myWMS is free warehouse management software ideal for receiving deliveries because it has a feature that allows you to input all delivery data and automatically update your inventory. This inventory management system lets you capture critical data like the total amount of items received, the name of the delivery person, and the delivery date.
You can also use it to print labels to properly identify items and for easier storage and retrieval.
myWMS is free and open-source warehouse management software.
The 10 Best Free Warehouse Management Software Solutions Summary
| Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Square Best for beginners | Free plan available | From $36/month plus 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction | Visit Website |
| 2 | Zoho Inventory Best for non-technical users | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $79/month. | Visit Website |
| 3 |  Sortly Best user experience | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $49/month | Visit Website |
| 4 |  Odoo Inventory Best for a range of features | 15-day free trial | From $31/user/month | Visit Website |
| 5 |  ABC Inventory Best for ease of use | Not available | Free to use | Visit Website |
| 6 |  Salebinder Best reporting & analytics suite | Not available | Visit Website | |
| 7 |  Openboxes Best for larger companies | Not available | Visit Website | |
| 8 |  RightControl Best for small business | Not available | Free to use | Visit Website |
| 9 |  Boxstorm Best for growing teams | Not available | Visit Website | |
| 10 |  myWMS Best open-source warehouse management software | Not available | Visit Website |
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Other Warehouse Management Software Reviews
Here are some more software reviews that might be of interest to you if you're looking for warehouse management software.
- Warehouse Management Software
- Cloud-Based Warehouse Management Systems
- Open Source Warehouse Management Systems
- Order Fulfillment Software
How I Selected the Best Warehouse Management Software
This list features the top free warehouse management software available on the market today. Curious how I picked these gems from the rest of the pack? To build this list, I compared a wide range of popular free warehouse management software with positive user ratings. After I gathered my long list of top choices, I used the criteria below to evaluate how they each free warehouse management software stacked up against the others.
Comparison Criteria
What do I look for when I select the best free WMS? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
Core Functionality:
Each software will have slightly different offerings but they must cover the following functionality to be included on this list.
- Inventory tracking, including stock numbers and location within the warehouse
- Facilitate the movement of stock from the warehouse to the customer
Key Features:
These are the key features I looked for when picking a free warehouse management solution.
- Inventory checking: The ability to monitor the number of items in a warehouse
- Label scanning: Scanning barcodes and QR labels using an app or a handheld scanner for shipping management
- Purchase orders: Warehouses need to restock, and warehouse management software should be able to create purchase orders for suppliers
- Reporting: Generating reports to assess the stock levels and productivity, plus stock forecasting
- Financial capabilities: Enables you to create invoices and billing statements for suppliers and customers
- Alerts: Sends alerts when stocks reach a specific level so you can reorder
- Create shipping labels: To get inventory to customers from within warehouses, you need a way to create shipping labels
- Multichannel: Ability to pull from a single warehouse to make sales across a variety of channels, like your own website, social media, and third-party sellers like Amazon or eBay
- Sales orders: Generated documents that detail the products or services that a customer has agreed to purchase from a business.
Usability:
A lot of times free software doesn't come with dedicated customer support services. Instead, you're left with self-led tutorials and community forums. That's why I looked for free warehouse management software that was easier to learn and master.
Software Integrations:
Software integrations (native, third-party, or via API) will connect your warehouse management software to other tools you use, like an ERP, CRM, accounting software, point-of-sale, ecommerce website, or order tracking software. Free warehouse management software may not offer integrations but any that do deserve a special mention.
Free Plan Value:
I looked for free warehouse management modules that have free plans that aren't too restrictive. I still want my choices to be useful to the end user. I still expect free warehouse management software to handle the basics—and handle them well.
People Also Ask
Here are a few questions I wanted to cover before I sign off.
What are the benefits of warehouse management software?
Warehouse management software offers several benefits to businesses, including:
- Improved Inventory Control: Warehouse management software provides real-time visibility into inventory levels, allowing businesses to manage stock levels more effectively, reduce stockouts and overstocks, and optimize order fulfillment processes.
- Increased Efficiency: By automating many manual processes, warehouse management software can increase efficiency, reduce labor costs, and improve accuracy, ultimately resulting in faster order fulfillment times and improved customer satisfaction.
- Enhanced Data Visibility: With warehouse management software, businesses can access real-time data on inventory levels, order status, and shipping information, giving them better insight into their operations and allowing them to make more informed decisions.
- Better Customer Service: With accurate inventory tracking and fast order fulfillment times, businesses can provide better customer service, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Operations Optimization: Warehouse management software can help businesses streamline their operations by automating many manual processes and reducing the risk of errors or delays.
What free warehouse management software is easiest to learn?
There are several free warehouse management software options available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. However, in terms of ease of use, one option that stands out is ABC Inventory.
ABC Inventory is a free inventory management and warehouse management software that offers a simple and easy-to-use interface. It allows businesses to track inventory levels, manage orders, and monitor shipping and receiving, among other features. The software offers basic warehouse management features, such as bin and location management, and is easy to set up and use, even for users with limited technical expertise. It also offers customizable reports and can be integrated with other systems.
Overall, ABC Inventory is a good option for small businesses or those just starting with warehouse management software, as it offers a simple and intuitive interface, without requiring extensive training or technical expertise.
What does 3PL mean in warehouse management?
3PL stands for "Third-Party Logistics". In warehouse management, 3PL refers to the outsourcing of logistics and fulfillment services to a third-party provider. A 3PL provider is a company that offers logistics and supply chain management services to businesses that don't have the resources or expertise to manage these functions in-house.
In the context of warehouse management, 3PL providers typically offer a range of services, including inventory management, order fulfillment, packaging, and shipping. They may also provide value-added services such as kitting, assembly, and customization. 3PL providers may operate their own warehouse facilities or use a network of partner warehouses to store and manage inventory.
By outsourcing logistics and fulfillment services to a 3PL provider, businesses can benefit from economies of scale, increased efficiency, and reduced costs. They can also focus on their core business activities, while leaving the logistics and fulfillment functions to a trusted partner with expertise in these areas.
Easy Inventory Management—at No Cost
Managing a warehouse is challenging, but you can make it easier by equipping yourself with the best warehouse management software. Warehouse management software can help you keep tabs on your inventory so you always have enough stocks for your customers.
Aside from the best free warehouse management software, there are other tools you can use to run your business efficiently, and you can read about them when you subscribe to The Ecomm Manager newsletter.