Floot vs Sortly: ready-made inventory app or one you build yourself? (2026)
Sortly is a ready-made inventory app priced by items and users; Floot is an AI app builder for making your own. What each does, a head-to-head table, a year of costs worked out, and when each is the better choice.
Key Takeaways
- Sortly is ready on day one. It documents in-app barcode and QR scanning, offline mobile access, low-stock alerts, stock counts and item photos. If those cover your needs, you are tracking stock within an hour.
- Floot builds the app you describe. Your own database, staff logins with roles, screens and rules, built from plain English. You can ask for exactly your workflow; you also test and maintain it.
- Pricing scales differently. Sortly charges by plan, with limits on unique items and user licences. Floot charges for building and metered hosting, with no per-user charge for the staff who use your app.
- Scanning is the clearest difference. Sortly documents scanning and offline use. In Floot, scanning is something you ask the AI to build and must test on real phones; offline use isn’t offered.
- Pick by how standard your process is. Standard item tracking points to Sortly. Kits, consignment, materials becoming products, or rules no tool represents point to building your own.
Quick-Start Prioritization Framework
| If you… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Need phone scanning and offline access this week | Sortly | Both are documented, ready-made features |
| Track under 100 items alone | Sortly Free | Free plan covers 100 unique items and 1 user |
| Track tools and equipment checked out to staff | Sortly | Check-in/check-out is a documented feature |
| Have a workflow no tool fits (kits, consignment, production) | Floot | You describe the rules and the app follows them |
| Have many staff who need logins | Floot, or compare carefully | No per-user charge for your app’s users vs Sortly’s licence counts |
| Don’t want to test or maintain anything | Sortly | The vendor maintains the product |
Sortly and Floot both end with your stock tracked on a screen, but they get there in opposite ways. Sortly is a finished inventory product: you sign up, add items and start scanning. Floot is an AI app builder: you describe your shop and it builds an inventory app shaped around your process, which you then own and change. Floot publishes this site, so we have tried to be especially fair to Sortly here, and there are plenty of shops for which it is the better answer. Every Sortly detail below comes from Sortly’s own pricing page as of 11 November 2026.
What Sortly is
Sortly is a ready-made inventory app for tracking items, supplies, tools and equipment, available on phones and the web. Its own pages describe use cases from inventory management and supplies tracking to asset tracking, with industry pages for construction, medical, warehouse, electrical, interior design and property management.
Documented features
Sortly’s pricing page lists in-app barcode and QR code scanning, third-party scanner support, QR and barcode label creation, item photos, custom fields, folders and tags, low-stock and date-based alerts, offline mobile access with automatic sync, stock counts, pick lists, purchase orders, item check-in and check-out, activity history and a range of reports, plus integrations including QuickBooks Online, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Amazon Business US, webhooks and an API on higher plans.
How it is priced
Plans are limited by unique items, user licences and active jobs. Free: 100 items, 1 user. Advanced: $49 a month billed monthly, 500 items, 2 users. Ultra: $149 a month, 2,000 items, 5 users, with purchase orders and unlimited barcode labels. Premium: $299 a month, 5,000 items, 8 users, with custom role permissions and QuickBooks Online. Enterprise: quote. When we checked, yearly plans were 50% off for new customers’ first year, then 20% off yearly after that.
What Floot is
Floot is an AI app builder. You describe the app you want in plain English, in Floot’s own editor or from ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor through Floot’s MCP server, and Floot builds a full-stack web app: a React frontend, serverless endpoints and its own Postgres database.
What an inventory app built on Floot can include
Staff sign-up and login (email, Google or Microsoft) with roles, file storage for item photos, sending and receiving email, web and phone push notifications, scheduled jobs such as a daily low-stock email, and realtime updates. You can upload a CSV of your current stock and ask the AI to import it. Floot can also build native iOS and Android apps and submit them to the stores.
How it is priced
Free to start: 100 building actions a day and a one-time $3 hosting allowance. Pro: $25 a month, 1,000 actions a day, $10 of hosting a month, 5,000 AI credits and custom domains with one free domain. Power: $100 a month. Publishing is free on every plan; hosting is metered by usage. There is no per-user charge for your app’s own users. You can download your database on any plan, and your code on paid plans.
Head to head
Facts from each company’s own pricing and product pages.
| Sortly | Floot | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Ready-made inventory app | AI app builder; you build your own inventory app |
| Time to first use | Minutes | An afternoon for a first version, then testing |
| Free plan | 100 unique items, 1 user | Free to start: 100 building actions/day, one-time $3 hosting |
| First paid plan | Advanced, $49/mo monthly (500 items, 2 users) | Pro, $25/mo ($10 hosting included) |
| Limits on staff | User licences per plan (1 to 8, 12+ on Enterprise) | No per-user charge for your app’s users |
| Barcode/QR scanning | Documented, in-app on phones | Not built in; ask the AI to build it and test on real phones |
| Offline mobile access | Documented | Not offered |
| Low-stock alerts | Documented (in-app and email) | Build as a scheduled email or push |
| Custom workflow rules | Within Sortly’s model (custom fields, folders, tags, roles on Premium) | Whatever you describe |
| QuickBooks Online | Premium and above | No built-in accounting integration |
| Who maintains it | Sortly | You, by asking the AI for changes |
| Getting your data out | Reports and export features per plan | Database download on every plan; code on paid plans |
The core difference: product vs ownership
With Sortly you adapt your process to a well-designed product. With Floot you describe your process and get software that follows it. Neither is better in general; they suit different shops.
What you gain with a product
Someone else has already thought about scanning, offline sync, mobile layouts, alerts and reports, and tested them across many customers. When something breaks, it’s the vendor’s job to fix it. For standard item tracking, that is hard to beat.
What you gain with your own app
Your data model can match your business. A candle maker can track wax, wicks and jars, record a production run that turns them into finished candles, and see material cost per candle. A shop holding consignment stock can track whose goods are whose and what is owed. A shop with three locations can enforce its own transfer rules. These are things you would otherwise keep in a spreadsheet next to the product.
What ownership costs you
Time and responsibility. Every change you ask for should be checked in Floot’s live preview before staff rely on it, and a feature like scanning needs real testing on the phones your staff actually carry.
A year of costs, worked out
Prices from each pricing page; your own numbers will differ with item count, staff and usage.
A shop with 400 items and 2 people
Sortly Advanced covers 500 items and 2 users: $49 × 12 = $588 a year billed monthly, or $288 for the first year on the introductory yearly price.
Floot Pro: $25 × 12 = $300 a year, including $10 of hosting each month. Usage beyond the included hosting is metered.
A workshop with 1,500 items and 5 people
Sortly Ultra covers 2,000 items and 5 users: $149 × 12 = $1,788 a year billed monthly, or $888 for the first year on the introductory yearly price.
Floot Pro is still $25 a month, because there is no per-user charge and no item cap, plus any hosting use above the included $10 a month.
What the numbers leave out
Your time. Sortly is ready when you sign up. A Floot app takes time to describe, build and test, and more time whenever you want changes. If your time is scarce and Sortly fits, the subscription is often money well spent.
When Sortly is the better choice
Choose Sortly when its model fits how you work. That covers many shops, workshops and stockrooms.
- You need barcode or QR scanning on phones now, as a documented, supported feature.
- Staff work in back rooms, vans or sites with poor signal, and you need offline mobile access.
- You track tools and equipment checked in and out to people or jobs.
- You have under 100 items and one person, so the free plan covers you.
- You need QuickBooks Online integration and are prepared for the Premium plan.
- You don’t want to own testing, changes or maintenance.
When Floot is the better choice
Choose Floot when you keep finding that off-the-shelf tools can’t represent something important.
- Your inventory includes kits, recipes or materials that become finished products.
- You hold consignment stock or stock owned by someone else.
- You have rules no tool enforces, such as display models that never count as sellable.
- Many staff need their own login and per-user licences are adding up.
- You want your own reports, daily emails or a customer-facing page built on the same data.
- You are comfortable checking changes in a live preview before relying on them.
Common mistakes when deciding
These come up whichever way you go.
- Building your own app for a process Sortly already handles well, then spending time maintaining what you could have rented.
- Choosing Sortly and then keeping a side spreadsheet for the part it can’t represent. That spreadsheet is the signal to reconsider.
- Comparing only monthly prices without counting users, items and your own time.
- Assuming a built app will scan barcodes reliably without testing on the actual phones and labels.
- Signing up for a yearly plan before trying a week of real deliveries and counts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Floot a Sortly alternative?
In a sense. Sortly is a ready-made inventory app; Floot is an AI app builder you can use to build your own inventory app. Floot suits shops whose process doesn’t fit a standard product. If Sortly fits your process, it will be less work.
Does Sortly have barcode scanning?
Yes. Sortly’s pricing page lists in-app barcode and QR code scanning from a smartphone and third-party scanner support, with unlimited barcode label creation from the Ultra plan.
Can a Floot inventory app scan barcodes?
Scanning isn’t built in. You can ask Floot’s AI to build a camera scanning screen into your app, and you should test it on the phones your staff actually use, with your real labels, before relying on it.
How much does Sortly cost?
Free for 100 unique items and 1 user. Advanced is $49 a month billed monthly, Ultra $149 and Premium $299, with Enterprise by quote. When we checked, yearly plans were 50% off for the first year for new customers.
How much does Floot cost?
Floot is free to start. Pro is $25 a month with $10 of hosting included each month and custom domains; Power is $100 a month. Hosting is metered by usage, and there is no per-user charge for your app’s users.
How do I start building an inventory app with Floot?
Connect Floot from the Claude connector directory (claude.ai/directory/connectors/floot-mcp-updated), the ChatGPT app directory or the Cursor Marketplace (cursor.com/marketplace/floot), or use Floot’s own editor. Describe your items, locations, staff roles and alerts, upload your spreadsheet as a CSV, and test with a week of real data.
Sources
- Sortly, Pricing and plan comparison, 2026 https://www.sortly.com/pricing/
- Floot, Pricing, 2026 https://floot.com/en/pricing
- Sortly, Features, 2026 https://www.sortly.com/features/