Stocky alternatives for a small Shopify store
Updated 15 August 2026
Shopify is retiring Stocky on August 31, 2026. It was removed from the App Store in February 2026, so no new store can install it, and existing stores lose it on the sunset date.
The advice you will find elsewhere mostly points at inventory platforms built for brands doing millions in revenue. If you run one shop with a back room, this page is the shorter answer: here is exactly what you lose, what Shopify gives you back for free, and what you still need to replace.
What Shopify admin covers now
Shopify has moved several Stocky jobs into the admin itself. According to Shopify’s own transition guidance, the admin now handles inventory transfers between locations, purchase order tracking and receiving, inventory quantity adjustments, and historical change reporting.
For a store with a simple supplier relationship and no price labels to print, that may genuinely be enough. Try it before you pay anyone, including us.
What it does not cover
“Other apps offer more functionality than is needed for small businesses and add significant costs. We just want to have an application to run product counts against current inventory and make automated adjustments, is that too much to ask?”
- Carrying the SKU and unit cost onto a purchase order line automatically — merchants report having to retype what Shopify already stores.
- Recalculating your weighted average cost when a delivery arrives at a different price.
- Printing price labels for exactly the units you just received, without re-keying SKUs into a second app.
- Barcode stock counts with a variance report before you commit the adjustment.
- A bill-to address different from the ship-to address.
The realistic options
| Option | Best for | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify admin alone | Simple ordering, no labels, no counts | No cost/SKU carry-over, no label printing |
| A full inventory platform | Multi-channel brands, forecasting, planning | Priced for scale; one merchant reported being told their company was too small |
| An ERP | Manufacturing, complex landed cost | A merchant on the forum put the realistic floor at $350–1,000+/month |
| RestockDesk | One shop, a back room, a label printer | Does four jobs only — no forecasting, no multi-channel |
Before you migrate anywhere: get your data out
Shopify states that your Stocky history will not move into Shopify automatically, and that historical purchase orders cannot be imported back in. There is read-only access for a period after August 31, 2026, but the safe move is to export now.
Our free browser tool turns those exports into a clean archive and rebuilds your supplier list — which Shopify says cannot be exported from Stocky at all.
Questions
- When exactly does Stocky stop working?
- Shopify has stated Stocky is unavailable after August 31, 2026. It was already removed from the App Store in February 2026, so new installs are not possible.
- Will my purchase order history move into Shopify?
- No. Shopify states historical data such as old purchase orders and stocktakes will not automatically move into Shopify, and historical purchase orders cannot be imported.
- Can another app read my Shopify purchase orders?
- Not today. Shopify does not expose purchase orders through its API, so every replacement app keeps its own purchase order records. Shopify has said purchase order APIs are under consideration.
- Do I need to pay for an inventory platform?
- Only if you need forecasting, multi-channel sync or planning. If you need purchase orders, receiving, labels and counts, that is a much smaller job and should cost much less.
Stocky and Shopify are trademarks of Shopify Inc. RestockDesk is an independent app and is not affiliated with Shopify. Statements about Shopify behaviour come from Shopify’s published transition guidance and from dated posts on the official Shopify Community forum, linked where quoted.