Best Order Management Software

Rather than ranking software simply by the number of features it offers, we looked at what each platform is designed to do particularly well.

We considered:

• Order management capabilities
• Inventory and stock visibility
• Multichannel selling
• Warehouse and fulfilment functionality
• Integrations
• Automation
• Scalability
• Pricing transparency
• Suitability for different types of businesses
• Customer feedback and support

We also looked at a more important question: What problem does each platform solve particularly well?

Answering this is important because an OMS can be excellent in one environment and unnecessarily complicated in another.

Unleashed is particularly well suited to product businesses where order management can’t be separated from inventory.

That includes manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and businesses managing physical stock across multiple locations.

Unleashed's UK pricing currently starts at £269 per month for Core, with Pro priced at £499 per month. Both plans include inventory and sales order functionality, while higher plans provide additional capacity and functionality. A 14-day free trial is also available.

Why it’s best for wholesale and manufacturing businesses

The biggest advantage is that sales orders sit alongside the inventory information you need to fulfil them.

Let’s say a furniture wholesaler receives an order for 20 dining tables, 40 chairs, and 15 bar stools.

The problem isn't simply keeping records on the order. This particular business would also need to know:

• What’s currently available?
• Which warehouse holds the stock?
• Has stock already been allocated?
• What’s currently on purchase order?
• Which items can be supplied immediately?
• Which items need to be backordered?

Unleashed combines sales order management with inventory, purchasing, and warehouse functionality. Its sales order functionality includes backorders, shipments, allocations, pick lists, and partial refunds. Inventory features include multi-warehouse management, stock transfers, stock counts, and batch or serial tracking.

Pros

• Provides a well-balanced combination of inventory and order management
• Is well suited to wholesalers, manufacturers, and distributors
• Comes with multi-warehouse functionality
• Allows for purchasing and sales orders to work together
• Makes demand forecasting and business intelligence available on higher paid plans
• Provides dedicated onboarding support

Cons

• Can be more expensive than lightweight ecommerce tools
• May have more functionality than a very small online retailer needs
• Its pricing increases as order volumes, users, and integrations also grow

Shopify is better known as an ecommerce platform than a traditional OMS, but for a small business selling primarily through its own online shop, it can provide a surprisingly effective starting point.

UK pricing currently starts at £19 per month ($40 AUD) when billed annually for Basic. Grow starts at £49 ($93 AUD), Advanced at £259 ($490 AUD) and Plus from £1,800 ($3,405 AUD) per month.

Why it’s best for small ecommerce businesses

Consider a small skincare brand with 30 products and one warehouse.

It sells through its website, accepts card payments, and ships orders directly to customers. In this case, the business probably doesn't need a sophisticated standalone OMS.

Shopify handles much of the classic “product catalogue → customer order → payment → stock → fulfilment → shipping” workflow inside its platform.

Pros

• Is easy to get started with
• Provides a strong ecommerce ecosystem
• Supports multiple sales channels
• Gives access to a large app/integrations ecosystem
• Is suitable for small businesses

Cons

• In essence, it’s an ecommerce platform rather than an inventory-first OMS
• Advanced operational requirements may require additional apps
• Costs can increase as the business adds apps and functionality

Mintsoft is particularly useful when order management is closely connected to fulfilment and warehouse operations.

That makes it a strong option for ecommerce brands, warehouses, and third-party logistics providers.

Mintsoft's current brand plans start at £159 per month for up to 500 orders, rising to £325 for up to 5,000 orders and £629 for up to 15,000 orders. 3PL plans start at £375 per month and include functionality such as client portals and client billing.

Why it’s best for ecommerce and 3PLs

Consider a fulfilment company handling orders for 50 ecommerce brands.

An order management system should record orders and answer questions like:

• Which customer does this order belong to
• Where is the stock
• Which warehouse should fulfil it
• Which courier should be used 
• What should the customer be charged

Mintsoft’s core software includes order management, inventory management, warehouse management, shipping management, reporting and analytics, plus more than 130 standard integrations.

Pros

• Has strong ecommerce fulfilment functionalities
• Was designed for warehouses and 3PLs
• Places order, inventory, and shipping management in one system
• Comes with a large integration library
• Provides client portal and billing features for 3PLs
  Its pricing is published by order volume

Cons

• Is more operationally focused than a simple ecommerce platform
• Its cost rises with order volume
• The additional modules can increase the final cost

Veeqo is another interesting option for businesses that want to centralise basic order and shipping operations without immediately paying for an OMS subscription.

Veeqo Shipping is currently free, while paid plans provide access to additional inventory, listing, and enterprise functionality. Its current plan documentation states that all plans include unlimited users, products and SKUs, warehouses and locations, and shipments.

Why it’s best for businesses on a tight budget

Imagine a small marketplace seller operating across Amazon, eBay, and Shopify.

The problem might be as simple as not wanting to log into three different systems to process today's orders. In this case, a free or low-cost system can make sense at this stage.

A business might consider Veeqo to bring orders and shipping activity into a single workflow. This is considerably better than wasting time building a more expensive technology stack at the start.

Pros

• Has a free shipping and order management option
• Supports multiple users, warehouses, and channels for expanding businesses
• Is useful for marketplace-heavy businesses

Cons

• Its customer feedback is mixed
• The more advanced features require paid plans
• Wasn’t designed as a complete manufacturing or ERP system

NetSuite is the heavyweight option in this comparison.

Rather than treating order management as a standalone problem, NetSuite approaches it as part of a broader enterprise resource planning environment.

Why it's best for ERP-led businesses

A growing distributor business operating across several countries could have:

• Multiple legal entities
• Several warehouses
• Wholesale customers
• Ecommerce sales
• Purchasing teams
• Finance teams
• Complex pricing
• International tax requirements
• Thousands of SKUs

Yet another standalone application won’t suffice. In this case, the business will need orders to flow directly into purchasing, inventory, fulfilment, invoicing, and financial reporting.

That's where an ERP becomes more attractive.

NetSuite supports estimates, sales orders, purchasing, and multiple pricing structures, among many other business processes.

Oracle's broader order management technology also illustrates the type of functionality expected from enterprise systems, including order capture, pricing, promising, configuration, fulfillment orchestration, and exception management.

Pros

• Has a broad ERP functionality
• Is a strong fit for complex organisations
• Connects order management with finance and operations
• Is suitable for complex pricing and business structures
  Is highly configurable

Cons

• Can be expensive compared with lightweight OMS platforms
• Comes with more complex implementation needs
• Requires more planning and configuration
• Can be a bit too complex for smaller businesses

An essential prerequisite is to start with the actual points, like, “Where are our orders going wrong today?”

Perhaps customers are ordering products that aren't actually available.

Perhaps your warehouse receives orders through email and someone has to enter them manually.

Perhaps your sales team can’t see whether an order has shipped.

Perhaps stock figures differ between Shopify, your spreadsheet and your accounting system.

The answer should determine what you buy. That’s when you need to consider the following points.

1. Look beyond order entry

Good order management is not simply recording an order.

Look at the entire process from the order moment to stock allocation, picking, packing, all the way to the potential of handling a return.

For example, a wholesaler might need automated backorders.

A manufacturer might need batch tracking.

A 3PL might need client billing.

An ecommerce brand might need marketplace synchronisation.

Those are very different requirements.

2. Check integrations before signing anything

Your OMS will probably need to communicate with several other systems.

Potential integrations include:

• Ecommerce platforms
• Accounting software
• ERP systems
• Shipping carriers
• Marketplaces
• Warehouse systems
• CRM software
• EDI platforms

An impressive feature list is irrelevant if your OMS can’t exchange accurate data with the systems you already depend on.

Ask vendors to demonstrate your actual workflow, not a generic product tour.

If you sell through Shopify and Amazon, ask them to demonstrate an order coming through both channels.

If you're a manufacturer, ask them to demonstrate a sales order consuming available stock while a purchase order is still in transit.

That says much more than if you were to watch someone click through a polished dashboard.

3. Think about scalability differently

Scalability can mean more warehouses, sales channels, SKUs, customers, countries, users, automation, etc.

A system that works beautifully for 500 orders a month might become painful when the business reaches 5,000.

Before choosing software, imagine what your operation will look like in three years.

4. Calculate the real cost

Costs include data migration, training, additional users, additional orders, integrations, premium modules, even custom development and support.

For example, a £100 monthly system that requires someone to spend 20 hours a month reconciling data isn't necessarily cheaper than a £400 system that automates the process.

So what you should be asking here is what this software will cost compared with the operational problem it solves.

5. Test exception handling

This is one of the most overlooked parts of choosing an OMS.

Most software looks good when everything goes according to plan.

Real businesses are full of exceptions. For instance, you’ll have to consider what happens when a customer changes their address, an item in an order is out of stock, or a customer wants a partial shipment.

Ultimately, the best OMS is the one that gives your team fewer manual handovers, better stock visibility and fewer opportunities for an order to go wrong.

If your business is reaching the point where spreadsheets, disconnected ecommerce platforms, and manual order entry are becoming difficult to manage, it may be time to look at a system built around the way your operation actually works.

Want to see how Unleashed handles inventory and order management? Watch an Unleashed demo or explore the Unleashed ROI calculator to estimate the potential return for your business.