Arka Inventory vs Sortly: When to Move

Two signals tell you your stock records need to do more than they do now: the second-year invoice, and a spreadsheet creeping back in beside the app. Both are reasons to compare Sortly alternatives against the work your stock records must drive: purchasing, warehouse movement and production.

Sortly is mobile inventory tracking software with purchase orders from its Ultra plan. A business that buys from suppliers, moves stock between warehouses, assembles products or tracks batches needs its records to drive that work. We built Arka Inventory for that job, natively on Salesforce, the customer relationship management (CRM) software used to manage customer records.

The gap shows at the first plan boundary. Sortly's purchase orders start on its Ultra plan. Arka Inventory includes purchase orders, multiple warehouses and transfers from Basic, our first plan, so a business that buys and moves stock does not need to move up a tier to do either.

• Arka Inventory is the Sortly alternative for businesses that buy from suppliers, hold stock in several warehouses, make or kit products, or track lots and serial numbers.
• Sortly's first-year yearly price is a promotional rate. Year two costs about 61% more on Ultra and Premium and about 63% more on Advanced (our calculation from Sortly's published prices). Budget for the year-two price, not the first-year price.
• Our published plans are defined by features and user licences.
• One or more "yes" answers in the five-question test below justify running our 15-day free trial.

We recommend Arka Inventory for Indian businesses that buy, store, move or assemble physical stock and want that work in one system. That covers manufacturers, wholesale distributors and anyone dealing in physical goods.

The comparison on this page uses each company's own published pricing, as of 31 October 2026. Prices are in US dollars, as both vendors list them.

If you are tracking home contents or personal belongings, you want a different kind of tool. This page is for businesses with stock to buy, store and ship.

Choose Arka Inventory when your stock records have to drive buying, warehouse movement and production, not just record what is on the shelf. Five facts support that.

1. Purchasing and transfers start on our first plan. Basic ($199 a month, paid yearly, as of 31 October 2026) includes multiple warehouses, purchase orders and transfers, barcoding, and inventory alerts. A purchase order (PO) is the document you send a supplier to order stock.
2. Our plans are defined by features and user licences. Sortly's tiers step up at 100, 500, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000+ unique items. Our published plans are Basic, Advance and Enterprise.
3. Production is built in. Advance ($499 a month, paid yearly) adds bills of materials, production and kitting (bundling parts into one sellable kit). A bill of materials (BOM) lists the parts and quantities needed to make one finished product. See our guide to bill of materials software for what to look for.
4. Traceability and cost depth sit on Enterprise. Enterprise (priced on request) adds lot and serial tracking, landed cost and bin tracking, plus sales orders and dedicated onboarding. A lot is a group of units made or received together, and landed cost is the purchase price plus freight, duty and other charges to bring goods to your door.
5. We connect to the systems Indian businesses already use. We are built natively on Salesforce and integrate with QuickBooks Online and Tally. For Salesforce teams, see Salesforce inventory management: four routes and their costs. For Tally users, start with the Tally stock health check.

More than 30 paying business-to-business customers use Arka Inventory, including HCPL Hexmoto, a manufacturer.

Extra users are $42 a month on Basic and $52 a month on Advance, with the first user licence (Basic) or first two (Advance) included. Our warehouse management feature covers barcode receiving, pallet labels, bin putaway and pick tickets that prioritise expiring lots or first in, first out (FIFO) order.

Sortly's yearly plans cost $288 (Advanced), $888 (Ultra) and $1,788 (Premium) in year one, and $470.40, $1,430.40 and $2,870.40 in year two, as of 31 October 2026. The year-one price includes a promotional 50% discount that Sortly's pricing page offers on the first year of new yearly subscriptions; year two carries a 20% discount on the list price. All figures are in US dollars, as Sortly lists them.

How we worked it out (our calculation): year one is the discounted monthly price ($24, $74, $149) times 12. Year two is the list monthly price ($49, $149, $299) times 12, less 20%. We assume a full 12 months at the plan's published price. Formula check: ($1,430.40 − $888) ÷ $888 = 61% on Ultra; $182.40 ÷ $288 = 63% on Advanced; $1,082.40 ÷ $1,788 = 61% on Premium. The prices and discounts come from Sortly's pricing page.

For comparison, our yearly figures are Basic $199 × 12 = $2,388 and Advance $499 × 12 = $5,988, for the included users (1 on Basic, 2 on Advance), with extra users at $42 and $52 a month. Purchase orders start on Sortly's Ultra plan, so Ultra is the Sortly plan that matches the purchasing feature of our Basic plan: $1,430.40 in year two for 5 users, against $2,388 for 1 user.

Our recommendation: use the year-two figure as your budget line and compare it with a plan that covers the work you actually do. Count your unique items today and compare them with your plan's limit in the table before you renew.

Move when any of these applies: you hold stock in more than one warehouse, raise purchase orders weekly, assemble or kit products, trace by lot or serial number, or re-key stock into Tally. Run each test below.

1. Locations. Do you hold stock in more than one warehouse and move it between them? Yes = move.
2. Purchasing. Do you raise purchase orders to suppliers every week, in a spreadsheet, email or accounting software? Yes = move.
3. Making or kitting. Do you assemble products from parts, or sell kits? Yes = move.
4. Traceability. Must you trace any product by lot, expiry date or serial number? Yes = move.
5. Accounting. Do you keep books in Tally, the accounting software, and re-key stock numbers by hand? Yes = move.

Our recommendation: one or more "yes" answers justify running the 15-day free trial with full access and no credit card.

Switching starts with a 15-day free trial with full access to all features and no credit card. Your access ends automatically when the trial period ends.

Arka Inventory is cloud software built natively on Salesforce, so it runs inside Salesforce.

For setup, you provide the inventory, product, warehouse and operational data needed for configuration. Typical onboarding takes a minimum of two weeks, depending on data readiness, integrations and the complexity of your business rules. Standard setup guidance, configuration assistance and onboarding support are included.

Our support team answers by email, live chat and phone, Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 6 PM Indian Standard Time (IST), at support@arkainventory.com and +91 93902 73833, and targets a response within 24 hours.