Sortly and OfficeStoreApp both show up in searches for office supply management software — but they're built for fundamentally different things. Sortly is a visual inventory catalog. OfficeStoreApp is a supply management system with built-in workflows. Depending on what your team actually needs, the right choice is obvious. This comparison lays out the real differences.
We'll cover who each tool was built for, how they compare feature-by-feature, pricing, and which scenarios clearly favor one over the other. If you want to see how both compare against the broader market, see our full software comparison →
Who Is Each Tool Built For?
Sortly
Sortly was built as a visual item catalog — a way for individuals, small businesses, and creative professionals to organize and track their physical belongings. Its core use case is photographing items, adding them to folders, and knowing what you have.
Best suited for:
- Solo operators or 1–2 person teams
- Simple item cataloging (photos, notes, locations)
- Personal or home inventory management
- Retail or e-commerce stock for small sellers
- Creative studios tracking equipment and props
OfficeStoreApp
OfficeStoreApp was built specifically for office and workplace supply management — tracking consumable supplies, handling employee requests, routing approvals, and managing inventory across multiple office locations.
Best suited for:
- Office managers and facilities teams
- Teams of 10–500+ people in 1 or more locations
- Organisations needing request and approval workflows
- Multi-site companies needing consolidated visibility
- Procurement teams managing recurring office supply orders
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | Sortly | OfficeStoreApp |
|---|---|---|
| Office supply catalog | ||
| Photo/visual item tracking | Basic | |
| Request workflow (staff submits request) | ||
| Approval workflow (manager approves) | ||
| Fulfilment tracking | ||
| Multi-site / multi-location support | Limited | |
| Area-level tracking (floor, kitchen, dept) | ||
| Low-stock alerts | ||
| Role-based access (staff / approver / admin) | ||
| Audit trail / activity history | Basic | |
| Barcode / QR scanning | Roadmap | |
| Pantry / kitchen supply management | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Typical setup time | 15–30 min | 30–60 min |
| Starting paid price | ~$29/month | Transparent pricing |
Pricing Comparison
Sortly Pricing
- Free: Up to 100 items, 1 user. Good for personal use only.
- Advanced (~$29/month): Up to 2,000 items, limited users, basic low-stock alerts.
- Ultra (~$59/month): Unlimited items, up to 3 users, more reporting.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for larger teams. Per-user pricing applies.
OfficeStoreApp Pricing
- Free tier: Core inventory and request features for small teams — no credit card needed.
- Paid plans: Transparent pricing visible on the website — no custom quote games.
- No per-user pricing: The platform doesn't penalize you for having more staff use the request workflow.
Which Tool Should You Choose?
The choice between Sortly and OfficeStoreApp usually comes down to one question: do you need workflows, or just a catalog?
Choose Sortly if…
- You're a solo operator or team of 1–2 people managing a small stock
- You want a visual, photo-first catalog of physical items
- Barcode and QR code scanning is a primary requirement
- You're managing personal belongings, art/prop inventory, or a small retail stock
- You have no need for request/approval workflows or role-based access
Choose OfficeStoreApp if…
- You're managing office supplies for a team of 10 or more people
- Staff need to request supplies and managers need to approve them
- You operate across multiple offices, floors, or areas
- You need an audit trail of who requested and approved what
- You're managing pantry and kitchen supplies alongside office stock
- Different people need different access levels (staff can request, not modify stock)
Pros and Cons: Honest Assessment
Sortly
Pros
- + Very quick and easy to start using
- + Excellent mobile app with photo capture
- + Barcode and QR code scanning built in
- + Free plan for up to 100 items
- + Clean, visually intuitive interface
- + Good for cataloging any type of physical item
Cons
- - No request or approval workflow
- - No role-based permissions for teams
- - Multi-site support is limited and fragile
- - Per-user pricing gets expensive for larger teams
- - Not built for the office supply use case specifically
- - No pantry or kitchen supply management
- - No built-in procurement or fulfilment tracking
OfficeStoreApp
Pros
- + Purpose-built for office supply management
- + Full request → approve → fulfill workflow
- + Multi-site and multi-area tracking
- + Role-based access for all team members
- + Pantry and kitchen supply management included
- + Real-time low-stock alerts
- + Complete audit trail of all transactions
- + Free tier available, no credit card required
Cons
- - Barcode scanning is on the roadmap, not yet live
- - Setup takes slightly longer than Sortly (30–60 min)
- - More feature-rich than needed for solo operators
A Real-World Scenario: Same Problem, Different Tools
Consider an office manager at a 50-person company with two office locations. Their challenges are:
- Staff send ad-hoc emails and Slack messages to request supplies
- No visibility into what's in stock at each location
- Supplies sometimes ordered twice because no one checked stock first
- No way to track who requested what or how quickly it was fulfilled
Using Sortly for this scenario
Sortly can catalog all the supplies across both locations. But when staff need to request something, they still have to email or message — Sortly has no request feature. The office manager still needs to manually update quantities after every order. There's no role system, so anyone with access could edit stock by accident. The fundamental workflow problem remains unsolved.
Using OfficeStoreApp for this scenario
Staff submit requests through the app. The office manager gets notified, approves or declines, and the request moves to a fulfilment queue. Stock levels update when items are received and distributed. Both office locations are visible in one dashboard. The audit trail shows every request, approval, and fulfilment — no email archaeology needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sortly good for office supplies?
Sortly can catalog office supplies effectively — you can add items, photos, quantities, and locations. But it lacks the features that make office supply management work in practice: request and approval workflows, role-based access for teams, multi-site tracking at the area level, and procurement fulfilment. For a solo office manager tracking a simple stock list, Sortly is fine. For any team where employees need to request supplies and managers need to approve them, Sortly leaves too many gaps.
What is the main difference between Sortly and OfficeStoreApp?
The core difference is scope and intent. Sortly is a visual inventory catalog — it helps you know what you have and where it is. OfficeStoreApp is a supply management system — it helps your team request supplies, get them approved, track fulfilment, manage stock across locations, and maintain a complete audit trail. Sortly is for cataloging; OfficeStoreApp is for operating a supply system within a team.
Does Sortly have request approval workflows?
No. Sortly does not have request or approval workflows. If a staff member needs to request an item, that request has to happen outside Sortly — via email, Slack, or verbal communication. The office manager then updates Sortly manually after the fact. OfficeStoreApp includes a built-in request → approve → fulfill workflow, which is the core feature most office environments actually need.
Can I switch from Sortly to OfficeStoreApp?
Yes, and it's straightforward. Your Sortly catalog can be used as a reference to build out your OfficeStoreApp catalog — add your items, set quantities, assign them to sites and areas, and invite your team. Most teams complete this in under 2 hours. The gain is that your team can then start using the request workflow immediately, which is what most Sortly users are missing.
Is OfficeStoreApp more expensive than Sortly?
Both tools offer free tiers. On paid plans, the pricing is comparable for small teams. The key difference is that Sortly uses per-user pricing on its higher tiers, which can make it more expensive as your team grows. OfficeStoreApp's pricing model doesn't penalize you for having more people submit supply requests.
The Verdict
Sortly is a well-designed tool for what it's designed to do: visual item cataloging. If you're managing a small, static inventory and one person handles everything, Sortly works well.
But if you're managing office supplies for a team — especially one with multiple people needing to request supplies, managers who need to approve them, and locations that need to be tracked separately — OfficeStoreApp is built for exactly that workflow, and Sortly is not.
Also worth seeing: our detailed Sortly comparison page →
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