Is there a genuinely free inventory app for resellers?

Yes. FlipperHelper is free to download with no item caps, no ads, and no subscription. Most 'free' inventory apps in app stores either cap free use at 50–100 items, push paid tiers after a trial, or are general-purpose business tools (Sortly, inFlow) that aren't built for resellers. For market and charity shop flippers who need photo capture, multi-platform tracking, and real profit calculation, a reseller-specific free app is the closest fit.

What should a free inventory app include for reselling?

At minimum: photo capture in seconds, purchase price logging, multi-platform listing tracking, sale recording with platform and date, expense tracking (entry fees, transport, packaging), and offline support. Without expense tracking, the 'profit' number is meaningless. Without offline support, the app is useless at most car boot sales and rural markets.

Can I use a general inventory app like Sortly or Stock Controller for reselling?

You can, but they don't fit the workflow. General inventory apps track 'what you own', not 'what you bought to resell at profit'. They lack platform tracking (eBay/Vinted/Depop), don't calculate margin after fees, and have no concept of sourcing trips or market expenses. Resellers usually find they outgrow general inventory apps within a month.

How do free inventory apps make money?

Three common models: item cap (free up to 50–100 items, then paid), feature lock (basic free, profit reports/cloud sync paid), or ads (often misclassified as 'free'). FlipperHelper uses none of these — it's funded as a side project by the developer and stays free with no item cap, no ads, and no feature lock. The roadmap includes optional paid features for advanced platform integrations (e.g. eBay API), but the core tracker remains free.

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Last updated: 2 May 2026

Free Inventory App for Resellers: What Actually Works in 2026

2 May 2026 Comparison 7 min read

Most "free" inventory apps either cap you at 50–100 items, lock the useful features behind a subscription, or aren't built for reselling at all. If you flip from car boot sales, charity shops, or estate sales, a generic inventory app misses everything that matters: per-item profit after fees, platform tracking across eBay and Vinted, and expense logging for entry fees and transport.

Here's an honest look at what "free" actually means in this space, and what to look for if you want to track inventory without paying a subscription.

"There's no point tracking inventory if you don't also track expenses. A 'free' inventory app that ignores entry fees, transport, and platform fees will tell you you're profitable when you're losing money." — Oleksandr Prudnikov, FlipperHelper developer

What does "free" actually mean for inventory apps?

Most inventory apps in the App Store and Google Play use one of four pricing tricks. Knowing which is which saves time.

1. Item-cap free tier

Free up to a set number of items, then a monthly fee. Sortly caps at 100 items. inFlow caps its free version at 100 products. For active resellers buying 30–100 items per month at car boots, you hit the cap in 2–3 months and either pay or stop tracking.

2. Feature-locked free tier

Basic listing free, but the actually useful parts — profit reports, multi-platform tracking, photo backups, exports — sit behind a paid tier. Common on apps marketed as "free for resellers" that turn out to need £8–£20/month for the features that matter.

3. Ad-supported "free"

No upfront cost, but ads inside the app. If your "free" inventory app is showing you ads at a market while you're trying to log items, the cost is your time and patience.

4. Genuinely free

No item cap, no feature lock, no ads. Funded as a side project, by the developer's other income, or by clearly labelled optional add-ons. Rare. FlipperHelper falls in this category — free with no cap, no ads, no subscription.

What features does a free reseller inventory app actually need?

An inventory app for reselling is different from one for personal cataloguing or business stock control. Here's the minimum set that makes a difference at the market.

Fast photo capture

You need to snap and log an item in under 10 seconds while standing at a stall. Anything slower and you'll stop using it. Apps that require multi-screen forms or category selection before saving fail this test.

Purchase price + market + seller

Without recording what you paid, every other number the app shows is fiction. Without market and seller fields, you can't tell which sources actually produce profit over time.

Multi-platform listing tracking

Most UK resellers list on at least 2 platforms (eBay + Vinted is the most common combination). A free app that only tracks one platform forces you back to spreadsheets within weeks. Look for at least: eBay, Vinted, Facebook Marketplace, Depop, and Gumtree.

Expense tracking

Entry fees, transport, packaging, postage. Without these, your "profit" is just the gap between buy price and sell price — not real money in your pocket. Real profit tracking requires expenses.

Offline mode

Most car boot sales have no signal. If the app can't log items offline and sync later, it's useless at the moment you need it most.

Backup and export

Your data should survive an app uninstall, a phone change, or the app developer disappearing. Look for either iCloud backup, Google Drive sync, or ZIP export — ideally all three.

Why most free inventory apps fail for resellers

The free inventory apps that show up first in app store search are built for warehouses, hobbyists, or general business owners — not for resellers. Three common mismatches:

They track "stock", not "items you bought to flip"

Sortly, Stock Controller, and similar tools assume you have a known SKU and quantity. Reselling is the opposite — every item is unique, has a one-off purchase price, gets listed somewhere specific, and either sells for a profit or doesn't. The data model is wrong.

They don't understand platforms

A reseller item exists on multiple platforms simultaneously. A general inventory app can't represent "this one item is listed on eBay and Vinted, sold on Vinted on the 14th". Without that, you're back to spreadsheets to track listings.

They don't track expenses

£5 entry fees, £8 petrol, £2.50 postage — these are the difference between profit and loss. General inventory apps treat expenses as accounting concerns and don't link them to the items they relate to. Even a basic spreadsheet handles this better.

FlipperHelper as a free inventory app for resellers

FlipperHelper is free to download with no item cap, no ads, and no subscription. It's built specifically for the reseller workflow — from picking up an item at a car boot to recording the sale weeks later.

What's free

Unlimited items — no 100-item cap or paywall
16 listing platforms — eBay, Vinted, Facebook, Depop, Poshmark, Mercari, OfferUp, Etsy, Gumtree, Shpock, Preloved, Nextdoor, Grailed, ShopThing, ThredUp, Craigslist, plus Private Sale
18 sold platforms — all listing platforms plus Car Boot and Sold Offline
Full expense tracking — entry fees with smart suggestions, 6 transport types, packaging, custom expenses
Automatic profit calculation — per item and across the business, after all expenses
Hauls (sourcing trip tracking) — group items and expenses by trip, see per-trip profitability
Money Flow dashboard — revenue, costs, profit, stock investment by week, month, or custom date
Multi-currency — USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD with daily exchange rates
Offline-first — everything works without signal
Triple backup — iCloud automatic, Google Drive photo + CSV sync, ZIP export

Honest limitations

iOS only — no Android version yet
No automated cross-listing — you list manually on each platform, then mark it in the app. This is a deliberate scope choice; cross-listers like Vendoo are a different category of tool
No direct eBay/Vinted API integration yet — a paid optional add-on for this is on the roadmap, but the core tracker stays free

Comparison: free inventory app options for resellers

Quick reference for the most common options resellers ask about. Pricing and limits change — check each tool's pricing page before committing.

Tool	Free tier limit	Best for	Main weakness
Google Sheets / Excel	Unlimited (free Google account)	Under 20 items/month, casual tracking	Painful on mobile at markets, no photo workflow, breaks past 200+ items
Sortly	~100 items, then paid	General personal/business inventory	No multi-platform listing, no expense tracking, not built for reselling
inFlow Inventory	~100 products, then paid (~$89/mo)	Warehouses, B2B wholesale stock	Overkill, expensive, missing reseller-specific features
Stock Controller / My Inventory	Free tier varies	Cataloguing what you own	No profit tracking, no expense tracking, no platform support
FlipperHelper	Unlimited items, no ads, no subscription	Market-sourcing resellers across multiple platforms	iOS only, no automated cross-listing, smaller community

For a deeper comparison including paid tools, see Best Apps for Resellers in 2026. If you'd rather start with a sheet, the reselling spreadsheet template is a solid first step.

Frequently asked questions

Is FlipperHelper actually free or is there a paid tier?

It's free with no item cap, no ads, and no subscription. The roadmap includes optional paid add-ons for things like direct eBay API integration, but the core inventory and profit tracker remains free.

What's the best free inventory app for an iPhone?

For reselling specifically, FlipperHelper. For general-purpose cataloguing (counting what you own), Sortly's free tier. The two solve different problems — reselling needs platform tracking, expense logging, and profit calculation that general inventory apps don't have.

Can I track inventory and sales in the same free app?

Yes — that's the point of a reseller app. Each item has a status (New, Listed, Sold) and the same record carries from purchase through listing to sale, with profit calculated automatically. See App to Track Inventory and Sales for the full workflow.

How many items can I track in FlipperHelper?

Unlimited. There's no item cap, no soft limit, and no paywall after a certain number of items. Active resellers using the app track thousands of items over time.

Does it work without internet?

Yes. FlipperHelper is offline-first — all data is stored locally on your device. Optional Google Drive sync uploads photos and CSV exports when you're online. iCloud backup happens automatically.

Try FlipperHelper free

Free iOS app for resellers. Track unlimited items, manage listings across 16 platforms, log every expense, and see your real profit. No item cap, no ads, no subscription. Works offline.

Not right for you if: you're on Android, you only sell on one platform and want automated cross-listing, or you're tracking a warehouse-scale operation with hundreds of identical SKUs — in those cases the tools listed above will fit better.

Download Free on the App Store

About the author

Written by Oleksandr Prudnikov — developer of FlipperHelper. The app started as a tracking tool for his wife's reselling at UK car boot sales, charity shops, and antiques fairs. The patterns and trade-offs in these guides come from real use rather than generic SEO research, which is why posts here name the actual failure modes (item caps, double entry, missing expense tracking) instead of repeating marketing copy.