Skubana vs. Dear Inventory

Looking for inventory management software? Here's how Skubana and Dear Inventory stack up.

Mark Hammersley

Mark Hammersley

Last updated 11o July 2020


Skubana

3.7  Stackupp rating


Pricing from

$ 999.00 / month

Free Plan?

No


Best for

high-volume retailers, especially those that sell on marketplaces like Amazon.

Dear Inventory

3.8  Stackupp rating


Pricing from

$ 199.00 / month

Free Plan?

Yes


Best for

medium-sized retailers with upwards of five employees. If you’re looking for inventory management software that’s more powerful than a small-business app but not as complex as a fully-fledged enterprise platform, then Dear Inventory could be ideal for you.

Skubana or Dear Inventory: Which is best?

Can't decide between Skubana and Dear Inventory?

Find the best platform for you with our side by side comparison of Skubana and Dear Inventory. See how each platform stacks up across ease of use, features, integrations, support and value for money.

Let the comparison begin. Don't worry, we'll guide you.

Is Skubana right for you?

Skubana is an inventory management app aimed at medium-sized and enterprise retailers that process a high number of orders. It has a robust set of features and offers everything you would expect from an app of its type, including order, reorder, and delivery tracking, analytics, automation options, barcode scanning, and an extensive library of integrations.

For multi-channel sellers, Skubana is one of the best (if not the best) solutions that we’ve reviewed. It integrates with a wide array of ecommerce platforms and marketplaces, and everything from the orders dashboard to the reporting tools is designed to deal with information from multiple inputs.

Advantages

  • Designed to deal with a large number of monthly orders.
  • Lots of third-party marketplace integrations.
  • Customizable with the REST API.

Drawbacks

  • Relies quite heavily on integrations for certain functionality.
  • Expensive compared to some other solutions.
  • The interface is a little cluttered.

you’re looking for a robust enterprise solution that won’t break the bank. If you’re a high-volume multi-channel seller, especially on Amazon, you’ll find a lot to like.

Is Dear Inventory right for you?

Dear Inventory - which brands itself as an ERP or “enterprise resource planning” solution - is a popular inventory management app that caters largely to a client base of medium-sized companies. As far as enterprise solutions go, we found Dear Inventory to be one of the more competitively-priced options on the market.

Retailers have access to everything they’d expect, including inventory, reorder, and delivery tools, third-party integrations, analytics, automations (such as reorder alerts), and syncing across multiple sales channels like eBay and Etsy.

Because Dear Inventory is a solution for stores moving relatively large amounts of stock, it includes a comprehensive package of features for managing manufacturing tasks and multiple warehouses.

Dear Inventory also includes a dedicated POS, payment processor, and API.

Advantages

  • Competitively priced.
  • Excellent and comprehensive set of features.
  • 24/7 customer support.

Drawbacks

  • The dashboard can be overwhelming for inexperienced users.
  • Reporting tools are a little clunky.
  • Help documentation could be better organized.

you’re a medium-sized retailer, wholesaler, or manufacturer that needs an advanced solution that doesn’t come with the hassle and complexities of an enterprise app.

Ease of Use

Our first comparison criteria, ease of use. Why? Because it’s the most important.

Think about it. You don’t want to invest a lot of your precious time setting up an online store and tweaking the design only to find out that it’s a pain in the butt to manage day to day.

We take a look at how simple the Skubana and Dear Inventory platforms are to run.

How easy is Skubana to use?

Rated 4/5 for Ease of Use

Skubana is a browser app with a fairly typical user interface design. A central login page links to management dashboards for orders, shipments, inventory, analytics, and so on.

We thought that Skubana’s interface was reasonably intuitive and easy-to-use. It’s not the most straightforward on the market, and there is a slight learning curve, especially when it comes to the analytics dashboard. That said, it’s by no means the worst.

What Skubana customers are saying...

"It's a fantastic platform that has helped us leverage multiple additional technologies."
"It takes a little bit of time to fully learn everything about Skubana, I'm sure we still have a lot to learn."
"It takes a little bit of time to fully learn everything about Skubana, I'm sure we still have a lot to learn."

How easy is Dear Inventory to use?

Rated 4/5 for Ease of Use

While Dear Inventory is generally very easy to use, it does take some getting used to. It’s not so much the interface that’s the issue as the range of options and features. Stock orders, for example, can be set for multiple warehouses and tied to a range of inventory accounts.

With a little familiarization however, you and your team should be up and running smoothly.

What Dear Inventory customers are saying...

“The software can be used "out-of-the-box" after a minimal amount of setup, and can also be used in more complex installations where bespoke software development might be needed.”
“Dear lets us manage the extraordinary combination of materials, compounds and product that we manufacture on a daily basis in a straightforward manner.”
“Our overall experience is positive. It was a little bit of a learning curve, but now that we have it down, I couldn't imagine going back.”
It's a draw!

Skubana Features

Rated 3.5/5 for Features

On the surface, Skubana’s feature-kit appears less comprehensive than many of its competitors. There’s no mobile app, native barcode scanning, POS, or accounting integrations.

But it’s important to remember that the platform has been designed with multichannel retailers in mind. For this specific group, few other platforms come close to providing the same level of functionality.

Among the most notable features are the individual channel reporting tools, the API for building custom integrations, automation bots which can be used to manage inventory on third-party marketplaces, and advanced options for organizing parent-child and bundled products.

Skubana also excels on the training front. Users have access to onboarding consultants (full onboarding takes between four and six weeks), long-term client success managers, and a complete and highly-praised support package.

The analytics tools also rank among the best in the industry. Retailers can access a myriad of metrics, including turnover for specific channels, fulfillment rates, carrying costs, inventory age, and more. There are dedicated features for calculating customer value, keeping on top of accounting tasks, and maintaining a big-picture view across multiple stores.

Finally, all Skubana servers are run using AWS (Amazon Web Servers) and are fully secure. Reviews indicate that software is well-maintained from a technical standpoint and suitable for scaling companies.

Dear Inventory Features

Rated 4/5 for Features

Dear Inventory is an entirely cloud-based app, so you won’t have to worry about any technical or maintenance tasks. The platform is fully compliant with GDPR and uses secure servers. Unfortunately, a mobile app isn’t available (either on iPhone or Android), so you can only access the interface via a desktop computer.

In terms of training, Dear Inventory provides extensive documentation and 24/7 customer service. No direct setup support is offered, unlike some other platforms that include a dedicated onboarding manager on higher-tier plans. Still, the solution is relatively easy to use out of the box, so this shouldn’t present a problem in the majority of cases.

The analytics and reporting dashboard is fairly comprehensive. Users have access to a range of reports, covering purchases, sales, inventory, finances, auditing and more. Third-party integrations can be used to extend analytics functionality, which is good for retailers that want to leverage demand forecasting, smart data insights, and other similar data processes.

Dear Inventory automation features are also worth noting. Users have access to a package of time-saving tools to streamline workflows. These include scheduled reports, if-then task automation, notifications and alerts (for both staff and customers), and a dedicated workflow dashboard.

Dear Inventory is our winner for features

Skubana Integrations

Rated 3.5/5 for Integrations

Skubana relies quite heavily on third-party integrations to supplement its core feature-set. Barcode scanning and POS, for example, are only available through connectors. The downside to this approach is that it incurs extra costs because users have to pay for separate services.

While the Skubana integrations library is fairly solid, it’s not the best we’ve seen. Accounting apps for Xero and Quickbooks were notably absent, although Zapier makes up for this to an extent.

Where Skubana really shines, on the other hand, is in relation to omnichannel selling. A variety of EDI tools (SPS, eZCom, B2BGateway, etc.) enable retailers to sync up with practically any third-party marketplace, and native integrations are offered for Amazon, eBay, Groupon, Houzz, Jet, Newegg, Sears, Target, and Walmart. On the shopping cart front, 3dcart, BigCommerce, Magento, Shopify, and Shopify Plus are supported.

Skubana also offers an excellent array of its own integrations with shipping providers, including DHL, Endicia, FedEx, and UPS.

On the whole, while the integrations library might not be the most comprehensive we’ve reviewed, we were left with the impression that it’s been uniquely designed for multichannel retailers. If you sell on various marketplaces, you simply won’t find a more extensive set of connectors.

Dear Inventory Integrations

Rated 3/5 for Integrations

Our opinion of Dear Inventory’s library of integrations is a little mixed. While it’s good overall, it didn’t blow us away.

First, let’s take a look at the good points. The connectors for Xero, third-party marketplaces, and order fulfillment services have received particularly high praise from users. An integration for Zapier is also available, allowing retailers to sync up with hundreds of apps.

Notably, Dear Inventory has its own in-house POS (point of sale), B2B portal for corporate customers, API, and payments processor. All of these are big pluses for users that don’t want the hassle of managing multiple apps.

In terms of accounting, both Quickbooks and Xero are supported. Shipping connectors include ShipStation, Shippit, and Starshipit. Crossfire EDI provides electronic data exchange functionality.

But while Dear Inventory’s library of integrations is certainly satisfactory, it’s not as extensive as other solutions we’ve reviewed. In particular, the support for ecommerce platforms is lacking. Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce are all supported, but there’s no compatibility with platforms like BigCommerce, PrestaShop, Ecwid, or 3dcart (among others).

Equally, we would have preferred to see more native support for marketing tools like MailChimp and Salesforce, though the Zapier connector does go some way in making up for their absence.

If you’re thinking about opting for Dear Inventory, just make sure that you check the integration library first to make sure it includes what you need.

Skubana is our winner for integrations

How much do they cost?

Everyone’s favourite topic - pricing. Let's dive in to see if Skubana or Dear Inventory offers better value for money.

How much does Skubana cost?

Rated 3.5/5 for Pricing

Skubana is aimed at medium and large sellers dealing with high volumes. Pricing begins at $999/month. At this price-point, we feel that it isn’t suitable for smaller retailers unless they require an inventory management solution designed to sync with multiple marketplaces. For these independent retailers, a number of cheaper options are available.

It’s important to keep in mind that Skubana is the best multichannel platform on the market. The custom pricing model is also very competitive when compared to other providers, and there are no long-term contracts. If you’re considering opting for Skubana, get in touch for a free demo before making a decision.

How much does Dear Inventory cost?

Rated 4.5/5 for Pricing

Dear Inventory has a straightforward and competitive custom pricing model. It’s one of the cheaper enterprise-level solutions that we’ve reviewed.

Because it’s aimed squarely at medium-sized retailers, Dear Inventory is a great choice for companies that require advanced functionality without the price-tag of a broad enterprise platform.

Pricing starts at $199/month for five users and a maximum of 100,000 SKUs (product listings). Users can also opt to pay $2189 for a discounted annual subscription. Every additional user costs an extra $50/month.

A free 14-day trial is available on all plans. If you opt for the annual subscription, you’ll get a month for free.

Dear Inventory is our winner for cost

Help and Support

If things go wrong (and they often do) you need to know someone’s there to help get you back on track. So, how does Skubana's and Dear Inventory's support measure up?

How good is Skubana support?

Rated 4/5 for Help and Support

Customer support, which is via email (with a turnaround time of twenty-four hours), is generally very good. Users praise both the high level of technical assistance and the responsiveness of the customer service team when alerted to bugs and other backend issues. The FAQs and support documentation is also very extensive.

Skubana provides new users with a dedicated onboarding manager to help them get up and running as quickly as possible. In addition to this, retailers can access a “client success” representative who will help them to take full advantage of the platform.

The one downside is that Skubana doesn’t offer live chat or phone support, which could come in useful when time-sensitive problems arise.

How good is Dear Inventory support?

Rated 3.5/5 for Help and Support

Generally speaking, support from Dear Inventory is very good. The majority of users speak highly of the level of customer service, citing friendly staff and quick response times.

Dear Inventory also provides extensive documentation covering all of its features, although we felt it could be slightly better organized.

Despite the quality and 24/7 availability, however, there are a few negatives. Support is only available via support tickets, even on the most expensive plans. Users that prefer to communicate via phone or live-chat might be left feeling frustrated. Finally, Dear Inventory doesn’t offer a dedicated setup manager, which may lengthen the onboarding and implementation period for some retailers.

Skubana is our winner for support

The Bottom Line

The final say. Let's wrap up our thoughts on each platform.

Skubana: Our Verdict

Skubana isn’t for everybody. If you’re a small online retailer, or if you only sell through one store, then there are other options available with more functionality and better pricing. Skubana also relies quite heavily on integrations.

If, on the other hand, you’re a reasonably high-volume multichannel seller, then Skubana is easily the best solution on the market, and it’s the small details that make the difference. Along with obvious tools like marketplace integrations and multichannel analytics, Skubana also provides less obvious features. These include bundled product options, management of different SKUs for identical products (which can be an issue when using marketplaces), and automation bots for streamlining workflows.

Customer support is excellent, so if you’re thinking about purchasing a subscription, get in touch with the company and ask for a free demo.

Dear Inventory: Our Verdict

Medium-sized retailers of five employees and up should definitely consider Dear Inventory. It’s an intuitive, powerful solution that provides an array of tools to streamline everything from sales fulfillment to reordering. The feature-set is extensive and includes a POS system, barcode scanning, integrations with third-party tools, analytics, and more.

Wholesalers and manufacturers should also try out Dear Inventory. Trade sellers have access to a dedicated B2B portal for their customers, along with tools for tracking components, assigning materials, and managing multiple warehouses.

Small and independent retailers will likely benefit from a more compact solution, while enterprises may find it too limited. All other companies, however, should definitely take advantage of the free 14-day trial.

Overall, we found Dear Inventory to be the better inventory management platform.

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