The Best Stocky Alternative for Shopify Merchants in 2026

Stocky Is Shutting Down. Now What?

If you have been using Stocky to manage your Shopify inventory, you already know the bad news: Stocky is officially being discontinued and will shut down completely on August 31, 2026. The app was delisted from the Shopify App Store on February 2, 2026, and key features like inventory transfers and min/max forecasting were already stripped out back in July 2025.

For thousands of Shopify merchants, this is not a minor inconvenience. Stocky was the go-to tool for purchase orders, receiving inventory, vendor management, and basic demand forecasting. And the best part? It was free, bundled right into Shopify. When the shutdown was announced, merchants understandably panicked. The Shopify Community forums lit up overnight with store owners scrambling for a Stocky alternative that would not blow up their operating costs.

Here is the uncomfortable reality: most of the alternatives on the market cost $300 to $3,500 per month. That is a brutal jump from free, especially for small and mid-size Shopify stores that were using Stocky for exactly the right reasons. It was simple, it was integrated, and it got the job done.

But there is good news. Monocle was built specifically for Shopify merchants who need more than what Stocky offered: ML-powered demand forecasting, a proper purchase order system, supplier hierarchy management, and product association insights, all without the enterprise price tag. This article will walk you through exactly why Monocle is the best Stocky replacement available, how it compares to the competition, and how to migrate seamlessly.

Why Merchants Loved Stocky (And Why It Was Not Enough)

Before we talk replacements, it is important to acknowledge what made Stocky valuable. Stocky earned its place in merchant workflows because it offered a surprisingly capable set of tools at no extra cost. Creating purchase orders, receiving inventory directly into Shopify, managing vendors, and getting basic demand suggestions, all without leaving the Shopify ecosystem. For many store owners, Stocky was good enough, and good enough for free is a powerful combination.

But Stocky had real limitations that merchants tolerated precisely because they were not paying for it.

Forecasting That Did Not Understand Seasons

Stocky used basic statistical formulas to suggest reorder quantities. It could not account for seasonality, holiday spikes, or promotional effects. After a Black Friday surge, Stocky would tell you to keep ordering at peak volume, even though your actual demand was dropping back to normal. Before your busy season, it would suggest ordering at your off-season rate. This caused chronic over-ordering in slow periods and stock-outs when it mattered most.

No Supplier vs. Vendor Hierarchy

Many Shopify merchants work with suppliers who distribute multiple brands. A single supplier might carry five or ten different vendor lines. Stocky did not support this supplier-to-vendor hierarchy well, which meant creating POs was more manual and error-prone than it needed to be.

A UI That Had Not Been Updated in Years

Shopify acquired Stocky years ago but never meaningfully invested in modernizing it. The interface was bloated and outdated, and the user experience reflected a product that was being maintained, not developed.

No Bulk PO Export

As Stocky shuts down, merchants need to export their historical purchase order data. But Stocky bulk export functionality does not work reliably. One merchant with over 4,000 POs was told they would have to export them individually. That is not a migration path. It is a nightmare.

Limited Case Pack and MOQ Support

Real wholesale ordering requires case pack quantities and minimum order quantities. Stocky handling of these was limited at best, forcing merchants into manual workarounds for something that should be automated.

No Machine Learning

Stocky forecasting was purely formulaic. It could not learn from patterns, adapt to changing market conditions, or improve over time. It was a static tool in a dynamic market.

What to Look for in a Stocky Replacement

When evaluating a Stocky app alternative, the criteria should reflect what merchants actually need, not what sounds impressive on a features page. Here is what matters:

Purchase order management: The ability to create, send to suppliers, receive, and track POs through their full lifecycle. This is non-negotiable.

Accurate demand forecasting: Ideally powered by machine learning, not just trend lines. Your forecasting tool should understand seasonality, detect stock-out periods, and improve its predictions over time.

Supplier and vendor management: With proper hierarchy support so that a single supplier can map to multiple brands and vendors.

Case pack and MOQ handling: Automatic adjustment of reorder quantities to case pack sizes, with clear visibility into how that adjustment affects your inventory coverage.

Shopify-native sync: Receiving should sync directly into your Shopify inventory with no manual reconciliation.

Reasonable pricing: If you were paying $0 for Stocky, jumping to $1,000+ per month for similar functionality is not reasonable. You should pay more for genuinely better tools, but the price should match the value.

CSV import and export: For migration from Stocky and ongoing bulk operations.

Bulk operations: Bulk PO creation, bulk reorder suggestions, and bulk supplier mapping should all be available.

Product insights: Understanding which products sell together, when demand shifts, and why. This turns inventory management from a cost center into a strategic advantage.

The Competitive Landscape: What Else Is Out There

The market for Shopify inventory management apps has gotten crowded since the Stocky shutdown was announced. Here is a fair assessment of the major alternatives.

Inventory Planner (Now Sage)

Inventory Planner was acquired by Sage, and pricing has increased significantly. Merchants report paying anywhere from $1,000 to $3,500 per month. One merchant shared that a $100M/year apparel company was paying $3,500 monthly for Inventory Planner, and the CEO only used it casually. For most Shopify merchants, this is enterprise-grade complexity and pricing for what should be a straightforward operational tool.

Katana

Katana is a manufacturing-focused MRP system starting at roughly $399/month. It is an excellent platform if you manufacture your own products and need raw material tracking, bill of materials, and production planning. But if you are a retail or wholesale merchant who simply needs to manage inventory and purchase orders, Katana is significant overkill and priced accordingly.

Sumtracker

Sumtracker positions itself as a multichannel inventory sync tool starting at $49/month. It is a solid option for merchants who sell across Shopify, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy and need real-time inventory synchronization. However, its forecasting capabilities are more basic, and it lacks the ML-powered demand prediction and product association insights that distinguish a true Stocky upgrade from a lateral move.

Cin7 Core

Starting at approximately $349/month, Cin7 Core is a robust operations platform that blends inventory, purchasing, and warehouse management. It is built for larger brands with complex multi-department operations. For a typical Shopify merchant who just needs what Stocky did but better, Cin7 is more system than you need.

SKULabs

SKULabs combines inventory management with warehouse operations like barcode scanning, pick-and-pack, and shipping tools. Pricing is typically quote-based. It is a strong choice if fulfillment workflow optimization is your primary need, but its forecasting capabilities are limited compared to purpose-built forecasting tools.

Why Monocle Is the Best Stocky Alternative

This is where the comparison gets concrete. Monocle does not just replace what Stocky did. It meaningfully upgrades every capability that mattered to Stocky users, and adds entirely new ones that Stocky never offered.

ML-Powered Demand Forecasting That Actually Works

Stocky used basic statistical formulas. Monocle uses sophisticated machine learning models with sub-forecasting that analyze different data signals independently: seasonality patterns, holiday effects, trend shifts, and promotional impacts.

Here is what that means in practice. After a holiday peak, Monocle knows demand will drop. Before your busy season, it knows to stock up. It does not blindly extrapolate from the last 30 days like Stocky did. Monocle predictive stock-out detection also identifies periods where you likely stocked out historically, even if you were not tracking stock-outs at the time. The system looks for patterns like consistent daily sales suddenly dropping to zero, then resuming when inventory is replenished. You can confirm or deny these detections, which improves the forecast accuracy over time.

Every forecast comes with transparent insights explaining the recommendation: average units per day, coverage period, safety stock calculations, and the reasoning behind the suggested quantity. You are not just getting a number. You are getting the logic behind it.

A Purchase Order System Built for Wholesale

Monocle handles the full PO lifecycle: create, send to suppliers, receive inventory, and sync directly to Shopify. But the details are where it shines.

Suggested reorder quantities can be generated in bulk for your entire catalog, not one SKU at a time like Stocky required. Case pack and MOQ auto-adjustment is built in. If your case pack is 3,000 units but the forecast says you need 2,000, Monocle rounds up to the case pack and tells you exactly how many extra days of inventory coverage that adds. No spreadsheet math required.

POs support customizable numbering (prefix plus sequential or generated), supplier part number mapping so you can send POs with your supplier product codes instead of your Shopify SKUs, and bulk CSV/Excel export, something Stocky could not do even as it was shutting down.

Proper Supplier vs. Vendor Hierarchy

Monocle supports the supplier-to-vendor/brand mapping that Stocky users always wanted but never got properly. A supplier like Prairie Naturals can carry multiple brands. When you create a PO for that supplier, you only see the relevant products. No scrolling through your entire catalog.

Setting this up is straightforward: use the inventory page to filter by vendor, then bulk-assign a supplier. Or send Monocle team a CSV and they will do it for you. This was one of the most requested features from merchants migrating off Stocky, and Monocle implements it the way it should have been built from the start.

AI-Powered CSV Import for Painless Migration

Monocle includes an AI engine that automatically maps your CSV columns to the correct fields, even when naming conventions do not match perfectly. This dramatically reduces setup time for merchants migrating from Stocky or any other system. If you would rather not touch a CSV at all, the Monocle team will handle the import for you during onboarding. Hands-off migration is part of the package.

Product Association Insights

This is a capability Stocky never offered and most competitors do not either. Monocle machine learning identifies which products customers frequently purchase together and quantifies the relationship with a lift metric. For example, you might discover that customers who buy French Vanilla protein powder also buy Milk Chocolate, with an 11.9% lift in purchase probability.

This data is directly actionable for product bundling strategies, cross-sell widgets on your store, recommended product bars, and even product photography planning. It turns your inventory management tool into a revenue optimization tool.

Pricing That Respects Your Margins

Monocle starts at $47/month with a free 14-day trial. Compare that to Inventory Planner at $1,000 to $3,500/month, Katana at $399/month, or Cin7 at $349/month. Monocle delivers more than Stocky did (ML forecasting, product insights, better PO management, supplier hierarchy) at a price point that makes sense for the merchants who actually need these tools.

One merchant told us they tested four or five alternatives after learning about the Stocky shutdown. After seeing the pricing from one premium competitor, they immediately cancelled their next meeting. That same merchant described Monocle as by far the best alternative they had seen and the leader in the Stocky replacement space.

Built by Merchants, for Merchants

Monocle is built from the ground up based on direct merchant feedback. Every feature, from case pack handling to supplier hierarchy to stock-out detection, came from real conversations with real store owners about what they actually need. The team is small, dedicated, and fast-moving. They are not a giant corporation that will acquire a product and let it decay, which is exactly what happened to Stocky.

Monocle vs. Stocky vs. Competitors: Feature Comparison

How to Migrate from Stocky to Monocle

The migration from Stocky to Monocle is straightforward and low-risk. Here is the proven approach that merchants are already using successfully.

Step 1: Export your open POs from Stocky. Close out any completed purchase orders first. Note that suppliers cannot be exported from Stocky, so you will need to recreate these in Monocle (the bulk mapping tools and AI import make this fast).

Step 2: Install Monocle from the Shopify App Store and start your free trial. Monocle syncs with your Shopify store automatically and begins analyzing your order history immediately.

Step 3: Set up your suppliers and map them to your vendors/brands. Use the bulk assignment tools on the inventory page, or send a CSV to the Monocle team and they will handle it for you.

Step 4: Start creating new POs in Monocle immediately. Run both systems in parallel during the transition. There is no reason to go cold turkey.

Step 5: Receive remaining Stocky orders as they come in. Just do not create new POs in Stocky. All new purchasing activity happens in Monocle.

Step 6: Once all Stocky POs are received and closed, you are fully migrated. Most merchants complete this process in two to four weeks, depending on their open PO volume.

One important note: Monocle ML forecasting improves over time as it ingests more of your sales history. The sooner you start, the better your forecasts get. Do not wait until Stocky final shutdown date. By then you will have missed months of forecast improvement.

Stop Settling for Less Than What Your Store Needs

Losing Stocky is frustrating, but it is also an opportunity to upgrade to a tool that solves the problems Stocky never could. Seasonal forecasting that actually works. Purchase orders that handle wholesale complexity. Supplier management that matches how your business actually operates. Product insights that drive revenue, not just track cost.

Monocle is not just a Stocky replacement. It is a meaningful upgrade at a price that makes sense for Shopify merchants.

Start your free 14-day trial today and see why merchants switching from Stocky are calling Monocle the clear leader in the space. Every new user gets a complimentary onboarding call with the founder to make sure you are set up for success from day one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Stocky really shutting down?

Yes. Shopify has confirmed that Stocky will shut down completely on August 31, 2026. The app was delisted from the Shopify App Store on February 2, 2026, meaning no new installs are possible. Key features like inventory transfers and min/max forecasting were already removed on July 7, 2025.

What is the best free Stocky alternative?

There is no free tool that replicates what Stocky offered. Shopify built-in inventory management covers basic tracking, purchase orders, and transfers, but lacks forecasting, supplier hierarchy, and case pack support. Monocle offers a free 14-day trial and starts at $47/month, a fraction of what premium competitors charge for similar or lesser functionality.

How do I migrate from Stocky to Monocle?

Install Monocle from the Shopify App Store, export your open POs from Stocky, set up your suppliers in Monocle using bulk tools or assisted onboarding, and run both systems in parallel during transition. Most merchants complete the migration in two to four weeks.

What happens to my Stocky data after it shuts down?

After August 31, 2026, you will have read-only access to Stocky for a limited period. Historical data like purchase orders and stocktakes will not automatically move to Shopify. You must manually export any records you want to keep. Importantly, suppliers cannot be exported from Stocky at all.

How does Monocle forecasting compare to Stocky?

Stocky used basic statistical formulas that could not account for seasonality, holidays, or promotional effects. Monocle uses machine learning models with sub-forecasting for different data signals, predictive stock-out detection, and transparent forecast insights. It learns and improves over time, something Stocky was never designed to do.

Is Monocle only for large Shopify stores?

No. Monocle is designed for Shopify merchants managing 20 or more SKUs with at least 12 months of order history. It serves stores of all sizes, from growing brands to established operations, and its pricing reflects that accessibility.