Brightpearl vs. Ecomdash

Looking for inventory management software? Here's how Brightpearl and Ecomdash stack up.

Mark Hammersley

Mark Hammersley

Last updated 11o July 2020


Brightpearl

4.2  Stackupp rating


Pricing from

Price on application

Free Plan?

No


Best for

medium-sized and large multichannel retailers with annual turnover in excess of one million dollars.

Ecomdash

3.9  Stackupp rating


Pricing from

$ 60.00 / month

Free Plan?

Trial


Best for

small and medium-sized retailers that sell on multiple channels.

Brightpearl or Ecomdash: Which is best?

Can't decide between Brightpearl and Ecomdash?

Find the best platform for you with our side by side comparison of Brightpearl and Ecomdash. 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 Brightpearl right for you?

Brightpearl is an inventory management app aimed at medium and large retailers. It’s a great option for companies that require an enterprise solution to oversee listings across multiple marketplaces, in addition to their own store.

It’s a competitor to other multichannel apps like Skubana and offers an extensive array of features, including inventory, supply chain, and order fulfillment tools, a reasonably large integrations library, automation options, and a robust analytics interface.

It’s aimed squarely at retailers, both B2C and B2B. If you’re looking for a solution with manufacturing functionality, then you’ll need an alternative app. The price of the service also makes it unsuitable for smaller online sellers. As a rough guide, if you’re dealing with upwards of one millions dollars worth of orders per month, then it’s well worth considering.

Advantages

  • Powerful enterprise feature-set.
  • Large integrations library.
  • High-quality support with fast response time.

Drawbacks

  • Expensive price-tag with yearly contracts.
  • The analytics options are a little convoluted.
  • Configuring settings can be challenging.

you’re looking for an enterprise-level solution that will enable you to manage inventory across multiple channels and third-party marketplaces.

Is Ecomdash right for you?

Ecomdash is an inventory management solution aimed at small and medium-sized retailers that need to manage listings across multiple channels. It is an alternative to Skubana for sellers that don’t deal with high volumes, i.e. below 10,000 sales per month.

Overall, we were very impressed with Ecomdash. Despite a somewhat clunky interface and slight issues with certain integrations, we thought the feature-set was excellent. Users have everything they need to run multiple stores, including inventory and shipping management tools, automation bots, analytics, and a large library of integrations.

We particularly liked the order-based pricing structure, which makes the app suitable for smaller companies and individuals. The customer support is also very good.

Advantages

  • Well-thought-out pricing structure.
  • Excellent integrations for multichannel sellers.
  • Good customer support.

Drawbacks

  • Clunky, difficult-to-use interface.
  • Technical issues have been reported with some integrations.
  • Lack of advanced reporting features.

you’re a small or individual retailer and require software to handle numerous listings across third-party marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon, eBay, and so on. Ecomdash is also a cost-effective solution for running multiple self-hosted storefronts.

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 Brightpearl and Ecomdash platforms are to run.

How easy is Brightpearl to use?

Rated 3.5/5 for Ease of Use

Brightpearl is something of a mixed bag when it comes to ease of use. While the interface itself is relatively straightforward, and much more intuitive than some competitors we’ve tried, configuring settings can be cumbersome.

Tasks like creating listings, batching products, and setting up integrations, for example, require numerous manual steps.

There is a little bit of a learning curve for new users. That said, Brightpearl offers high-quality support and extensive documentation, along with the option of dedicated training.

What Brightpearl customers are saying...

"While Bright Pearl is easy to use, sometimes the amount of manual steps you have to take with some of the processes are tedious."
"Sometimes you have to do things by the book and can't cut corners in processes."
"Really easy to learn and manage."

How easy is Ecomdash to use?

Rated 3/5 for Ease of Use

Ease-of-use is the one area where Ecomdash doesn’t perform well. The interface is outdated and the features aren’t particularly well-organized. While the dashboard follows a typical layout, with a sidebar with links to dedicated areas for managing orders, shipping, analytics and so on, the workflows and organization of input fields do take a little getting used to.

The one upside, however, is that Ecomdash offers extensive support and training materials. So while there is a slight learning curve, users are supported throughout the process.

What Ecomdash customers are saying...

"The software is so capable that it also has a huge learning curve (we’ve been at it several years and still learn new things), and the interface isn’t very modern, nor is it mobile-friendly."
"Wonderful experience. Would never switch."
"The software takes time to learn and understand. The best part is the support you get from the support team."
Brightpearl is our winner for ease of use

Brightpearl Features

Rated 4.5/5 for Features

As a cloud-based solution geared towards larger companies, Brightpearl has an extensive array of features along with high-level reporting and inventory management tools. We couldn’t find anything major that was missing.

Brightpearl operates according to a “modular” pricing structure, so users can choose which kinds of functionality they want to pay for. In the longer-term, this may prove more cost-effective than opting for a one-size-fits-all plan.

Unusually for an inventory management app, Brightpearl also has CRM capabilities, making it possible to store and manage client details and send out notifications.

The only downsides were the lack of a mobile app and a somewhat limited selection of marketplace integrations (although this is offset somewhat by intermediary connectors like SPS Commerce). We also felt that some essential features, like POS, were omitted from the plan for smaller retailers.

In terms of order, inventory, and shipping management, Brightpearl includes multiple tools for dealing with high sales volume, including automated fulfilment rules. Users can also take advantage of multi-location and multi-currency inventory control, and warehouse features like barcode scanning.

The analytics centre allows for the creation of a variety of advanced reports covering channel-specific performance, demand forecasting, customer analysis, and more.

Finally, Brightpearl has a range of offerings for companies experiencing fast growth, including the option to move over to dedicated secure servers.

Ecomdash Features

Rated 3.5/5 for Features

Ecomdash has a broad set of features, with more or less everything you would expect from an inventory management app. Functionality includes SKU mapping, custom order alerts, extensive multichannel tracking, bundled product options, fulfillment tools, and more. Ecomdash also offers a mobile app on Android and Apple, but its functionality is limited to barcode scanning.

New users can take advantage of a myriad of training tools, including a resources library, webinars, and regular demos. Ecomdash also offers a variety of well-priced training packages, covering onboarding support, dropshipping guidance, and dedicated coaches. Support is completely free and the team can be reached via phone, email, and live chat.

So what about analytics? The reporting options are fairly comprehensive. They’re not quite as advanced as what you might find in an enterprise app, but they’re perfectly adequate for small and medium retailers. Along with basic sales and inventory reports, users can also access data about taxes, trends, and the performance of individual listings. Apps are available in the integrations library to supplement the core analytics.

Overall, we were very impressed with the features, level of support, and reporting tools. Ecomdash lacks a little bit of the nuance of enterprise-focused solutions like Skubana, but it’s not far-off. Store-owners and managers will be hard-pressed to find a similar package of features at the price point on offer.

Brightpearl is our winner for features

Brightpearl Integrations

Rated 4.5/5 for Integrations

While the Brightpearl integrations library is good, we weren’t absolutely blown away by it. For an enterprise platform of this sort, we expected to see more native marketplace integrations and support for a wider selection of ecommerce platforms.

As a retailer, you will likely find everything that you need. And even when in-house integrations aren’t offered, third-party connectors make up for the gaps in functionality. Just make sure you check out what’s on offer before you purchase. Large companies will be pleased to hear that Quickbooks, Xero, and Avalara are all supported on the accounting front. Brightpearl also integrates with the desktop version of Quickbooks.

In terms of ecommerce platforms, Shopify, Shopify Plus, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and NuORDER are all covered.

Native integrations with third-party marketplaces Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Jet, and Newegg are provided. On the surface, this looks somewhat paltry for a dedicated omnichannel solution. And while this is true to an extent, SPS Commerce and CommerceHub significantly extend marketplace functionality. Brightpearl is built to work well with both of these integrations.

Finally, a wide range of shipping connectors is provided, including ShipStation, Hermes, DHL, Royal Mail, FedEx, UPS, Parcel Force, and others. Unlike many competitors, the selection of shipping integrations caters to UK as well as US retailers.

Ecomdash Integrations

Rated 4/5 for Integrations

Ecomdash offers an extensive integrations library, with connectors for accounting apps, fulfillment services, shopping carts, and, of course, a variety of third-party marketplaces.

On the accounting front, both Quickbooks and Xero are supported with in-house integrations. Retailers torn between Skubana and Ecomdash should remember that Skubana doesn’t offer in-house accounting connectors.

As many would expect, Ecomdash excels when it comes to support for third-party marketplaces. A huge number of integrations are provided, including for Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Etsy, Google Shopping, Jet, Rakuten, Sears, and others. The integration with SPS Commerce also provides further EDI functionality.

Numerous shipping and fulfillment integrations are also available, with DHL, UPS, and FedEx all covered (among others).

Interestingly, Ecomdash has also built connectors for several drop-shipping providers (such as Hicks and The Wholesale House). These will be useful to retailers that want to offer additional products to their customers.

Finally, a large number of shopping carts are supported, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento. We were pleased to see connectors for some smaller ecommerce platforms and site builders like Sitey and SiteBuilder.com.

All in all, we were very impressed with the integrations library. Small and independent retailers that don’t have much development expertise will find the process of connecting to different marketplaces trouble-free.

Brightpearl is our winner for integrations

How much do they cost?

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

How much does Brightpearl cost?

Rated 3.5/5 for Pricing

Brightpearl operates a custom pricing model and doesn’t publish exact figures on its site. You’ll need to get in touch directly for a quote.

Broadly speaking, there are two plans available, although various levels of customization are available. The first plan is for retailers processing under 1500 orders per month; the second is for retailers with orders in excess of 1500 per month.

The first plan allows for five channels and five users, while the second allows for an unlimited number of both users and channels. Warehouse management and POS is only available on the higher-priced plan. No free trial is explicitly offered but it may be possible to organize one.

How much does Ecomdash cost?

Rated 4.5/5 for Pricing

We liked Ecomdash’s pricing structure and thought that smaller retailers in particular would find it appealing.

Ecomdash uses a custom pricing model that’s based on a store’s volume of sales rather than the number of users or tiered access to different features. Over time, this can result in significant savings. An unlimited number of employees can use the software.

Plans start at $60/month for fewer than one hundred sales. The highest-level plan for stores with between 6,000 and 10,000 sales costs $350/month. Above this amount, users will need a custom plan.

A free trial and annual discounts are available. Onboarding assistance costs $99.

Fewer than 100 orders per month: $60/month. 101 to 500 orders: $90/month. 501 to 1000 orders: $135/month. 1001 to 3000 orders: $190/month. 3001 to 600 orders: $250/month. 6001 - 10,000 orders: $350/month.

Ecomdash 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 Brightpearl's and Ecomdash's support measure up?

How good is Brightpearl support?

Rated 5/5 for Help and Support

Brightpearl has an excellent support package. Companies in the UK and US will benefit from dedicated customer service teams in their own countries. There’s no limit to the number of technical requests that users can make.

Phone support is available sixteen hours a day. During the remaining eight hours, users can take advantage of 24/7 email support, with an average 26 minute response time.

Brightpearl also offers extensive documentation and training videos, along with access to a community of users. Companies that need extra training, whether in relation to sales order management, accounting, or the use of integrations, can purchase additional support packages.

How good is Ecomdash support?

Rated 4.5/5 for Help and Support

The customer service package offered by Ecomdash is one of the best we’ve come across. Support is via phone, live chat, and email, with availability from 8 AM to 7:30 PM EST.

On top of this, Ecomdash also offers several additional paid services to users. These include onboarding support, assistance with setting up dropshipping on your store, and direct one-to-one training.

User reviews of customer support are very positive on the whole. It would have been nice to see 24/7 availability, and the additional cost of an onboarding manager isn’t fantastic, but you would be hard-pressed to find a better package at this price-point - it even beats some enterprise support offerings.

Brightpearl is our winner for support

The Bottom Line

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

Brightpearl: Our Verdict

We were very impressed with Brightpearl. While we have a few minor quibbles - mainly due to the small number of native marketplace integrations, tedious configuration settings, and a lack of features on the lower-priced plan - overall we liked what we saw. Enterprise ecommerce companies will find everything they need with this inventory management solution.

It’s definitely geared towards larger retailers (with a minimum of one million dollars in yearly sales) and the cost of the software will be untenable for most smaller businesses. For larger online sellers, however, the modular pricing structure may prove more cost-effective than alternatives.

If you think it might be suitable for you, our advice is to get in touch and ask for a demo.

Ecomdash: Our Verdict

Ecomdash occupies a very clear position in the market. It’s a multichannel solution aimed at small and medium businesses.

While there are better options for companies with a single store, and although enterprise multichannel sellers will likely benefit from a more advanced app like Skubana, smaller retailers will struggle to find a better solution, either in terms of functionality or cost.

Standout features include the extensive integrations library, access to multiple support channels, and a custom pricing structure that allows for unlimited users. If you’re thinking about opting for Ecomdash, don’t forget to take advantage of the free trial and video product demos.

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

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