Cin7 vs Unleashed vs custom inventory software: which should you choose?

Cin7, Unleashed or custom: who does each suit?

Cin7 Core suits product businesses selling across many channels that want integrations, a B2B portal and warehouse tools in one package. Unleashed suits wholesalers and light manufacturers that want accurate costing and assemblies and prefer to buy modules as needed. Custom suits businesses whose stock follows rules neither platform can model. This page is about choosing a platform. If your problem is overselling across Shopify, marketplaces and wholesale, read our guide on syncing inventory across sales channels first.

Figures below are from each vendor’s pricing page and developer documentation at the time of writing (8 November 2026). Cin7 prices in US dollars ex taxes for new customers; Unleashed prices in Australian dollars ex taxes.

	Cin7 Core	Cin7 Omni	Unleashed	Custom
Positioning	Out of the box inventory, manufacturing and order management	More customisable, for niche use cases	Inventory, purchasing, sales orders and production, built from modules	Whatever your process needs
Pricing	From US$349 a month	Quoted	From $449 AUD a month before promotions	Build cost plus running cost
Users included	5, 10 or 15 by plan	Quoted	3 (Core) or 5 (Pro), more available	Unlimited
Accounting integrations listed	Xero, QuickBooks Online	Not compared here	Xero, QuickBooks Online	Any with an API
Best for	Multichannel retail and wholesale	Larger operations with unusual needs	Wholesale and light manufacturing	Unusual production, compliance or pricing

How do they compare for manufacturing?

Both handle assemblies and bills of materials; Cin7 Core goes further into planning on its higher plans, while Unleashed sells production as a module. Cin7’s standard assembly manufacturing includes assembly and disassembly, bills of materials, additional units of measure, batch and serial tracking, auto assembly kitting and assembly reporting. Material requirements planning appears from the Pro plan, and advanced production is an add on.

Unleashed lists a production module (assemblies, bills of materials, assembly and disassembly, and kanban production planning) as a $69 a month add on for Core. Pro includes more. Its Advanced Inventory Manager and Warehouse Management modules are further add ons.

In practice, the difference shows up in how costs flow. Ask each vendor to show a finished product made from components bought at different prices, then a stock take adjustment, then a sale, and check the cost of goods sold that reaches your ledger. Small costing errors repeated across thousands of orders distort margins for months before anyone notices.

Neither is a full manufacturing ERP. If you schedule machines, track labour by operation or manage complex routings, test those scenarios carefully, or look at a manufacturing focused system.

Which is better for batch, serial and expiry tracking?

Both list batch and serial tracking; the test is how fast you can trace a batch in a recall. Cin7 Core lists batch and expiration tracking with its standard manufacturing features. Unleashed lists batch and serial tracking in its core inventory functions.

For food, supplements and health products, run this test in each trial:

1. Receive two batches of the same ingredient from different suppliers.
2. Use both in an assembly, then sell the finished goods to several customers.
3. Ask the system to list every customer who received product containing batch one, and every finished batch that used it.
4. Time how long it takes and whether a staff member could do it under pressure.

If the answer needs an export and a spreadsheet, factor that in. Our food manufacturing software page covers the wider recall and labelling requirements.

What about B2B portals and retailer EDI?

Cin7 Core offers a B2B portal and EDI connections as add ons; Unleashed offers a B2B ecommerce store module. Cin7 describes its B2B portal as a customisable portal for customers and sales reps to search products, compare prices and order online, and lists EDI and 3PL connections via its API and partner solutions. Unleashed lists a B2B eCommerce Store from $119 a month.

If you supply major retailers, ask who provides the EDI connection, how purchase orders, advance shipping notices and invoices flow, and what happens when a retailer changes its specification. EDI is often the part that needs a specialist partner or a custom integration. Our wholesale and distribution software page covers the distributor side.

How do Xero and MYOB sync compare?

Both list Xero and QuickBooks Online; neither pricing page lists MYOB at the time of writing. Cin7 says its accounting integration works with new and existing Xero or QuickBooks Online files.

The questions that matter are the same for both:

• Does each invoice post individually, or as a summary?
• How is cost of goods sold posted, and when?
• Do landed costs and stock adjustments reach the ledger correctly?
• How are payments matched back to orders?

If you run MYOB, check each vendor’s marketplace for a current connector, or plan a custom one; see Xero and MYOB integration.

What are the API limits and integration options?

Cin7 Core limits calls per minute; Unleashed limits calls per month and requires full record updates. These limits shape every custom integration you build.

	Cin7 Core	Unleashed
Limit	HTTP 429 above 60 calls a minute	250,000 (Core) or 500,000 (Pro) calls a month included; more available
Applied to	Each API application on the account	The account plan
Formats	JSON over REST	JSON or XML
Gotcha	Paginate (default 100 records) and spread syncs across several applications carefully	No partial updates: send every field or existing values are overwritten with blanks

Cin7’s documentation notes you can create several API applications on one account, with limits applied to each. Unleashed’s documentation also warns never to assume the API is online and to queue requests, which is good practice for any integration.

When is custom inventory software worth it?

Custom is worth it when stock is bound up with a process that gives you an edge and neither platform can represent it. Examples:

• Recipe based production with yields, waste and by products that must cost accurately.
• Regulated traceability or quality records that auditors inspect.
• Rental, consignment or serialised assets that move between customers.
• Contract pricing, rebates and allocations across thousands of customers.

Even then, the usual answer is a custom module beside Cin7 or Unleashed: the platform keeps stock and accounting, and your module handles the special process through the API. A full replacement means you own every inventory feature forever. Our custom software cost guide explains how build costs are estimated.

How does pricing compare in AUD?

At comparable scale the two land closer than their headline prices suggest, because Unleashed adds order volume, users and modules separately. A hypothetical business with 8 users and about 1,000 sales orders a month, list prices at the time of writing:

Option	Monthly arithmetic	Approx. monthly cost
Cin7 Core Pro (10 users, 24,000 orders a year)	US$599 ÷ 0.69	About $868 AUD
Unleashed Core + 5 users + 1,500 order tier + production	$449 + 5 × $69 + $200 + $69	$1,063 AUD
Unleashed Pro + 3 users + 1,500 order tier	$819 + 3 × $79 + $200	$1,256 AUD

The Cin7 conversion uses the Reserve Bank’s rate of US$0.69 to the Australian dollar on 6 November 2026. Add GST, extra integrations ($29 a month each on Unleashed), and any add ons such as a B2B portal or warehouse devices. Cin7 states its prices are for new customers, and Unleashed was running a first three months promotion at the time of writing, so check the price at renewal.

How should you run the trial?

Run both trials in parallel with the same data, for the same two weeks, and score them on your own scenarios. Vendor demos show the happy path; a trial shows the friction.

Load a real slice of your catalogue, including variants, bundles and units of measure. Connect a copy of your accounting file, not the live one. Put through a typical week: purchase orders and receipts, a stock transfer, an assembly, sales from each channel, a return and a credit note. Then ask the people who will use it every day, not just the owner, which system made that week easier.

How AWLabs approaches inventory platforms

We are not a Cin7 or Unleashed partner. We usually recommend choosing one of them and building around it only where you must. It starts with a 15 minute Development Consult, then a paid Discovery Audit that tests your hardest stock scenarios against the platforms, and a fixed price Schedule of Work with three options: The Minimum, The Recommended and The Complete. Senior engineers lead every build. See API development and our retail and ecommerce and manufacturing pages.