Short answer
Making or assembling things: InvenTree. Stock tied to sales and accounting: ERPNext or Dolibarr. A shop with a till: Open Source POS. Electronic parts: Part-DB.
The best inventory management software for small business depends less on features and more on what you stock. A candle maker, a corner shop and an electronics repair bench all “track inventory”, but in very different ways. Start with your business shape, then compare tools.
Four business shapes, four different needs
| Business shape | What matters most | Good fit |
|---|---|---|
| Maker or light manufacturer | Parts, bills of materials, supplier orders | InvenTree, ERPNext |
| Shop with a counter | Fast sales, receipts, stock deducted per sale | Open Source POS, ERPNext POS |
| Trader or wholesaler | Purchasing, sales orders, stock levels, invoices | ERPNext, Dolibarr, Odoo Community |
| Workshop with components | Thousands of small parts, locations, datasheets | Part-DB, InvenTree |
Free inventory tools compared
Parts, stock and bills of materials
An open source inventory system with part tracking, stock locations and suppliers. A strong pick for makers, workshops and hardware businesses.
7,717 stars · MIT · repo updated Oct 2026
Stock inside a full ERP
Inventory connected to purchasing, sales and accounting. The best fit when stock levels must drive orders and financial records.
40,232 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
Simple stock for small shops
Stock management inside a modular PHP business app. Easy to host, suitable for small catalogs.
7,732 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
Inventory app in Community
Odoo Community includes an Inventory app with warehouses and stock moves, plus many connected apps. Some advanced features sit in Enterprise.
55,072 stars · LGPL-3.0 (Community edition) · repo updated Oct 2026
Newer MIT-licensed ERP with inventory
A fast-growing Laravel ERP that lists inventory among its modules. Young, so check maturity before relying on it.
12,073 stars · MIT · repo updated Oct 2026
Retail stock plus point of sale
A point of sale system with stock tracking, suited to small shops that sell at a counter.
4,443 stars · MIT · repo updated Oct 2026
Electronic components
Built to manage electronic parts and components. Ideal for electronics workshops, not for general retail.
1,801 stars · AGPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
Data verified 16 October 2026 from each project's repository and LICENSE file.
Replace the spreadsheet in four steps
A simple monthly stock-count habit
Count a different section each week and compare the result with the system. Investigate every difference above a small threshold you set. This catches theft, breakage and data entry errors early, and it is cheaper than one huge annual count.
Think about valuation
FIFO and average cost change your profit figures and tax. Agree the method with your accountant before you start.
How each option works in practice
InvenTree
Parts, stock and bills of materials. An open source inventory system with part tracking, stock locations and suppliers. A strong pick for makers, workshops and hardware businesses.
7,717 stars · MIT · repo updated Oct 2026
GitHub · Website
ERPNext
Stock inside a full ERP. Inventory connected to purchasing, sales and accounting. The best fit when stock levels must drive orders and financial records.
40,232 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
Our guide to ERPNext · GitHub · Website
Dolibarr ERP CRM
Simple stock for small shops. Stock management inside a modular PHP business app. Easy to host, suitable for small catalogs.
7,732 stars · GPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
Our guide to Dolibarr ERP CRM · GitHub · Website
Odoo Community
Inventory app in Community. Odoo Community includes an Inventory app with warehouses and stock moves, plus many connected apps. Some advanced features sit in Enterprise.
55,072 stars · LGPL-3.0 (Community edition) · repo updated Oct 2026
Our guide to Odoo Community · GitHub · Website
AureusERP
Newer MIT-licensed ERP with inventory. A fast-growing Laravel ERP that lists inventory among its modules. Young, so check maturity before relying on it.
12,073 stars · MIT · repo updated Oct 2026
GitHub · Website
Open Source POS
Retail stock plus point of sale. A point of sale system with stock tracking, suited to small shops that sell at a counter.
4,443 stars · MIT · repo updated Oct 2026
GitHub · Website
Part-DB
Electronic components. Built to manage electronic parts and components. Ideal for electronics workshops, not for general retail.
1,801 stars · AGPL-3.0 · repo updated Oct 2026
GitHub · Website
Example: a small online store with 300 products
An illustrative example, not a real company.
A store sells 300 products from a back room and ships daily. Stock lives in a spreadsheet that never quite matches the shelves, so they sometimes oversell.
They move to an ERP stock module. First they give every product a SKU and do a full count. Then they record every purchase and sale in the system and set reorder levels on the 20 fastest sellers. A weekly cycle count of one shelf section keeps the numbers honest.
Within a month the spreadsheet is retired, and the owner sees what to reorder without counting boxes.
Pitfalls to watch for
- Keeping a side spreadsheet “just in case”.
- Skipping the opening stock count.
- Not recording breakage and returns.
- Choosing a heavy ERP for a tiny catalog.
- Never setting reorder levels.
Should you pay for this instead?
Paid inventory apps often include barcode scanning apps and marketplace integrations that are hard to replicate. Self-hosted tools shine when stock must connect to your own accounting and you want no per-user cost. Match the tool to your sales channels before you decide.
Also see warehouse management and point of sale if you outgrow plain stock tracking. The tools above are self-hosted, so budget for a server: a VPS or web hosting plan from a provider such as Hostinger covers most of them.
Need a server to host it?
Self-hosting a CRM needs a server. PHP and MySQL apps can often run on ordinary web hosting, while Docker, Node, Python or Java apps usually need a VPS. Check each project's requirements first. Hostinger offers both shared web hosting and VPS plans.
Affiliate disclosure: this is an affiliate link. If you buy through it we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. CRMs are listed independently of any hosting partner. Learn more.