The Stocky Shutdown: What Shopify Merchants Need to Know

Shopify's free inventory app Stocky is shutting down permanently on August 31, 2026. The app was delisted from the Shopify App Store on February 2, 2026, meaning no new installs are possible. If you're currently relying on Stocky for purchase orders, demand forecasting, or reorder suggestions, you have until the end of August to migrate — after which the app and all its APIs stop working entirely.

Here's everything you need to know to make a clean switch.

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The Full Stocky Shutdown Timeline

The shutdown didn't happen overnight. Shopify has been winding Stocky down in stages, and understanding the timeline helps you gauge how urgent your migration really is:

• July 7, 2025: Inventory transfers and min/max replenishment limits were removed from Stocky. If you were using these features, they've already been gone for months.
• February 2, 2026: Stocky was delisted from the Shopify App Store. No new merchants can install it.
• August 31, 2026: Complete shutdown. Stocky stops functioning entirely. All Stocky APIs go dark, which also affects any third-party tools that were piggybacking on Stocky's data.

If you're still on Stocky today, you're in a grace period — but it's shorter than it looks. Migrating inventory tools isn't something you want to rush. You need time to export your historical data, set up reorder points in a new system, and validate that alerts are firing correctly before you cut over completely.

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What Stocky Actually Did (And Why It's Hard to Replace for Free)

Stocky was genuinely useful for a specific type of Shopify merchant: DTC brands with moderate SKU counts that needed basic demand forecasting, purchase order creation, and reorder suggestions — all without paying for a third-party app.

Key things Stocky handled:

• Purchase order creation directly from Shopify, synced to inventory
• Demand forecasting based on sales velocity
• Low stock suggestions with recommended reorder quantities
• Supplier management for tracking lead times
• Inventory transfers between locations (until July 2025)

The "free" factor was the main draw. Most comparable apps cost $30–$100+/month. For bootstrapped brands, Stocky was good enough to avoid that spend. That calculus now changes.

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What Shopify's Built-In Tools Can (and Can't) Replace

Shopify's official guidance is to use its native inventory management features going forward. In fairness, Shopify has improved its built-in tools considerably — but there are real gaps.

What Shopify Admin does reasonably well now:

• Inventory tracking across locations
• Purchase order creation (in Shopify since late 2023)
• Basic low stock reporting
• ABC inventory analysis

Where Shopify Admin falls short:

• No automated low stock alerts — you have to manually check the inventory page or run reports
• No demand forecasting based on sell rate
• No configurable reorder point thresholds per SKU
• No Slack notifications or email alerts when stock drops below a threshold
• No "days of stock remaining" estimates

For a merchant running 50–200 SKUs, manually auditing inventory in Shopify Admin every few days is a workflow, not a system. You will miss stockouts. It's not a question of if, it's when.

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Your Migration Options: A Practical Breakdown

There's no single right answer here — the best replacement depends on your SKU count, budget, and how sophisticated your inventory operations are. Here's an honest look at the realistic options:

Stay Within Shopify's Native Tools (Free)

Best for: Merchants with under 30 SKUs who check their store daily and have very simple reorder workflows.

The upside is zero cost. The downside is zero automation. You'll need to build manual routines to compensate for what Stocky did automatically.

Lightweight Alert-Focused Apps ($3–$30/mo)

If what you primarily used Stocky for was knowing when to reorder — not complex purchase order management — a dedicated low stock alert app covers most of your needs at a fraction of the cost of enterprise tools.

Alertr fits squarely here. It's built for DTC brands with 100–2,000 SKUs and focuses on exactly what Stocky's alert and forecasting features did: low stock alerts via email and Slack, configurable thresholds per SKU, sell rate tracking, days-of-stock estimates, and reorder suggestions. The free tier covers 50 SKUs. Pro is $29/month (currently $19/month locked forever in beta). If you were relying on Stocky mostly for "tell me when to reorder," Alertr is a direct replacement without the complexity overhead.

iAlert ($2.99/mo) is worth a look for very simple setups — it handles location-based threshold rules and variant-level alerts. Feedback on customer support responsiveness is mixed, which matters when something breaks at 11pm before a big campaign.

Bee Low Stock Alert & Forecast ($5.99/mo) combines low stock notifications with auto-calculated reorder quantities based on sales velocity. Solid for the price. One limitation to know: data export between stores isn't supported, so if you run multiple Shopify stores, that's a friction point.

Mid-Tier Inventory Planning Apps ($49–$79/mo)

If you were using Stocky heavily for purchase orders and supplier management, you need something with more structure.

Prediko (from $49/mo) offers AI-powered forecasting, purchase order management, and multi-location support with strong reviews (4.9★, 190 reviews). It's genuinely capable software — expect a learning curve. Multiple reviewers note it takes time to get comfortable with the interface.

Stockie Inventory Management ($4.99/mo) punches above its price point with smart forecasting using real sales history, automated reorder calculations, and multi-location tracking. At 5★ with 71 reviews, it's one of the better-value options if you need more than alerts but aren't ready for enterprise pricing.

Fabrikatör (from $79/mo) is built for operators who want to streamline purchase orders with real-time inventory data. The automation is strong. The price is steep for smaller merchants, but if you're doing $1M+ in revenue and stockouts are costing you real money, the ROI math works out.

Enterprise / Full ERP ($299+/mo)

Katana ($299/mo) and Inventory Planner by Sage (pricing varies, reported around $4k/year) are in a different category. These make sense if you're also managing manufacturing, multi-channel selling, or complex warehouse operations. For a straightforward DTC Shopify store doing under $3M in revenue, the overhead usually isn't worth it.

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How to Migrate From Stocky Without Losing Your Data

Before August 31, take these steps:

1. Export everything from Stocky now. Export your purchase order history, supplier list, and any custom notes. Once the app shuts down, this data is gone. Don't assume you'll get to it later.

2. Document your current reorder points. For each SKU, note your current reorder threshold and preferred order quantity. You'll need to re-enter these in whatever tool you move to. A simple spreadsheet works fine.

3. Calculate your baseline sell rates. Most replacement apps will import sell rate data from Shopify's order history, but it's worth having your own record. For each SKU, look at units sold in the last 30, 60, and 90 days. The formula is simple: Average Daily Sell Rate = Units Sold ÷ Number of Days. If you sell 300 units of a product over 90 days, your sell rate is 3.3 units/day.

4. Set up your new tool in parallel for 2–4 weeks before cutting over. Run Stocky and your new app side-by-side temporarily. This lets you catch discrepancies in stock levels, validate that alerts are firing on the right thresholds, and build confidence before you're fully dependent on the new system.

5. Update any third-party integrations. If anything in your stack connects to Stocky via API — fulfillment tools, accounting software, reporting dashboards — those connections die on August 31 too. Audit your integrations now.

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The Bottom Line

The Stocky shutdown is inconvenient, but it's also an opportunity to upgrade to something that actually fits your current business. Most Stocky users were making do with a tool that had real limitations — no email alerts, no Slack notifications, no configurable per-SKU thresholds. The replacement landscape is genuinely better.

For most DTC Shopify brands under 2,000 SKUs, the sweet spot is a lightweight forecasting and alert app in the $5–$30/month range. You get automated alerts, sell rate tracking, and reorder suggestions without paying for features you'll never use.

If you're ready to stop manually checking inventory levels and start getting alerts before stockouts happen, Alertr is free to try for up to 50 SKUs — no credit card required. The Pro plan is $19/month locked in during beta. It's a straightforward migration from Stocky and takes about 15 minutes to get your first alert configured.

Don't wait until July to start evaluating. August will arrive faster than you expect.

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