Fishbowl Inventoryvs
Cin7
Cin7: Cloud-native with stronger e-commerce and channel management
Fishbowl Inventory
Manufacturing and warehouse inventory built around QuickBooks
As of 30 August 2026, Fishbowl Inventory's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. The inventory layer QuickBooks never had, aimed at small manufacturers who outgrew spreadsheets but cannot justify an ERP. Softwr lists it under Inventory. Fishbowl Inventory is made by Fishbowl, available on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
Overview
What Fishbowl Inventory does
Fishbowl is inventory management for small and mid-sized manufacturers and wholesalers, best known for being the product companies buy when QuickBooks can no longer track their stock. It handles multi-location inventory, work orders, bills of material, barcode scanning, purchasing and order fulfilment, and writes the financial consequences back into QuickBooks or Xero. That integration is the entire proposition. A growing manufacturer typically has accounting that works and inventory that does not, and the choice is between replacing everything with an ERP or adding an inventory system that respects the accounting already in place. Fishbowl is the second option, and it has held that position for two decades because the alternative is disproportionately expensive. It is sold both as on-premise software and as a hosted product. The on-premise history shows: this is a more traditional application than the cloud-native inventory tools, with a Windows client heritage and a perpetual licence option that still appeals to companies who dislike subscriptions.
What people use it for
- Small manufacturers who have outgrown QuickBooks inventory but not the accounting
- Wholesalers needing barcode-driven warehouse operations
- Companies wanting inventory control without replacing their finance system
- Businesses preferring a perpetual licence to a per-seat subscription
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Fishbowl Inventory.
- Pricing is not published and has historically involved a substantial upfront figure, which surprises buyers expecting SaaS monthly pricing
- The interface reflects its on-premise origins and looks dated beside cloud-native inventory tools
- Implementation and data migration are heavier than the marketing implies, and undersized projects are the usual source of complaints
- The QuickBooks dependency that makes it attractive also caps it: businesses that eventually need real ERP will migrate away
- Reporting is functional but teams frequently export to a spreadsheet for anything analytical
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Fishbowl Inventory
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Fishbowl InventoryvsZoho Inventory
Zoho Inventory: Far cheaper and simpler, without the manufacturing depth
- Fishbowl InventoryvsOdoo
Odoo: Full open-source ERP if replacing accounting is acceptable
Pricing
What Fishbowl Inventory costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Fishbowl Drive
On request
- Cloud-based
- Inventory tracking
- Order management
- QuickBooks Online integration
Fishbowl Advanced
On request
- Manufacturing
- Multi-location
- Advanced reporting
- On-premise or hosted
Capabilities
Features
QuickBooks and Xero integration
Inventory and manufacturing transactions posted back into existing accounting
Manufacturing orders
Bills of material, work orders and multi-level assemblies
Multi-location inventory
Stock across warehouses, bins and trucks with transfers
Barcode scanning
Receiving, picking and cycle counts from handheld scanners
Purchasing and reorder
Automatic reorder points, vendor management and purchase orders
Order fulfilment
Sales orders, picking, packing and shipping integration
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
What does Fishbowl cost?
Not published. It has historically been sold with a significant upfront component rather than a low monthly fee, so budget for a quote well above typical SaaS inventory pricing.
Do I still need QuickBooks?
Usually yes. Fishbowl handles inventory and manufacturing and posts the financial results into QuickBooks or Xero. It is not an accounting replacement.
Is it cloud or on-premise?
Both. Fishbowl Drive is the cloud product; Fishbowl Advanced can be hosted or run on your own server, which is why it still appeals to companies avoiding subscriptions.
Who is it wrong for?
Businesses that need genuine ERP, and businesses small enough that a cloud inventory app at a low monthly cost would do. It sits deliberately between those.
How hard is implementation?
Harder than a signup. Bills of material and historical stock data need preparation, and companies that treat it as a weekend job are the ones who describe it as difficult afterwards.
Keep looking
Where to go from Fishbowl Inventory
- Fishbowl Inventory alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Fishbowl Inventory pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Fishbowl Inventory badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Inventory softwareThe full category
- Best Inventory softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Inventory software for
Compare Fishbowl Inventory with
- Zoho Inventory
- SOS Inventory
- Katana
- Megaventory
- DEAR Inventory
- Brightpearl
- Acumatica
- inFlow
- QuickBooks Enterprise
- SkuVault
- Unleashed
- Wasp Barcode
- Spocket
- Extensiv
- Lightspeed Retail
- Oberlo
- Megaventory
- inFlow
Other Inventory software
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Fishbowl Inventory, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Fishbowl Inventory
Fishbowl Inventory alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Fishbowl Inventory pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Fishbowl Inventory
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Fishbowl Inventory badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Inventory software alternatives
Lab inventory and ordering software funded by the supply marketplace attached to it
Per month by user tier
Restaurant procurement and ordering platform