The 7 Best Bar Inventory Apps of 2026

Shopping for a bar inventory app in 2026 means choosing between free starter tools, mid-tier SaaS, concierge services with hardware, and enterprise platforms that cost more per month than some bars pay in rent. The right answer depends on how your bar operates, how many SKUs you carry, and how much you want to spend.

This roundup covers the seven bar inventory apps worth evaluating this year, ranked by value for the typical single-unit bar operator. We built PourIQ, so you should know that up front. We also use the same sourcing standard on every product listed here: public pricing pages, Capterra, G2, and vendor documentation verified as of April 2026.

Summary table

Rank	App	Starting Price	Hardware	Best Fit
1	PourIQ	$75/mo flat	No	Single-unit bars, small groups
2	Backbar	Free, then $79/mo	No	Simple programs, free starter
3	MarketMan	$199/mo	No	Multi-unit restaurant groups
4	Bar-i	$100/mo + hardware	Scale + scanner	High-volume precision
5	Partender	$165 to $399/mo	No	Beer-heavy tenthing
6	Craftable (Bevager)	~$99/user/mo (negotiated)	No	Enterprise groups
7	WISK	$189 to $499/mo	Optional scale	Food + bev multi-location

Pricing verified as of April 2026 from each vendor’s public pricing page, Capterra, and vendor listings. Negotiated enterprise deals may differ.

1. PourIQ

PourIQ is a flat-rate bar inventory app built by a team of bar operators in Virginia Beach. The feature set covers real-time inventory, visual tenthing, by-the-glass tracking, recipe costing, menu engineering, variance reports, keg tracking, POS integration with Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, and Aloha, and offline mode. Phone-first with no hardware required.

Pricing (from the PourIQ pricing page): $75 per month per location flat. Every feature included, including the full AI suite. Unlimited staff logins. No setup fee, no contract, month to month.

Why it ranks first: PourIQ delivers the full feature set on day one at the lowest published price on this list. No tier gates. No hardware cost. No per-user fees that scale with headcount. A single bar with five staff logins pays $900 per year. The same bar on most competitors pays $1,200 to $6,000+. Bar-specific features like tenthing, BTG tracking, and by-bartender variance reporting are native rather than bolted on. Self-serve onboarding is typically live within a day.

Weaknesses: Newer product with a smaller third-party review footprint than Backbar, MarketMan, or Bar-i. Does not include food inventory, supplier EDI, or three-way invoice matching. Precision runs at approximately 5 percent per bottle rather than tenth-of-an-ounce scale accuracy.

Best fit: Single-unit bars, neighborhood bars, cocktail bars, and small multi-unit groups that want bar-specific depth without enterprise pricing. Full feature list.

2. Backbar

Backbar is one of the most recognized names in bar inventory software, in market since 2017 out of Boston. The product is built around a clean interface that new staff can learn on day one. It covers counts, purchasing, and recipe costing on paid tiers.

Pricing (from the Backbar pricing page): Three tiers. Basic is free with limited recipes, six months of history, and no POS integration. Essential is $79 per month billed annually or $99 monthly, adding drink costing and POS integration with a 10-recipe cap. Professional is $129 per month billed annually or $149 monthly, with unlimited recipes, full POS-tied reports, invoice entry, and purchasing tools.

Strengths: Genuine free tier with no trial clock, polished interface, strong support reputation, and 4.7 stars on G2. Full comparison: PourIQ vs Backbar.

Weaknesses: The 10-recipe ceiling applies to both Basic and Essential, which is tight for any cocktail program. Full POS-tied reports and unlimited recipes are gated behind Professional at $129 to $149 per month. By-the-glass tracking and tenthing are not documented as native features.

Best fit: A pub or neighborhood bar with a simple program that wants to start free.

3. MarketMan

MarketMan is a cloud-based restaurant inventory platform founded in 2013. It leans enterprise and was built food-first. The strongest feature set is procurement: supplier EDI, PO approval workflows, and invoice OCR. MarketMan integrates with QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage Intacct.

Pricing (from the MarketMan pricing page): Starter at $199 per month per location. Growth at $249 per month per location. Enterprise is custom. As of April 2026, MarketMan is running a $0 setup promotion.

Strengths: Deep procurement and supplier automation, mature multi-unit reporting, years of case studies and reviews on G2 and Capterra. Strong food-side coverage. Full comparison: PourIQ vs MarketMan.

Weaknesses: Setup is frequently described by reviewers as lengthy for large operations. Pricing is high for a single bar.

Best fit: Multi-unit restaurant groups, especially food-forward operations with back-office capacity to absorb a longer setup.

4. Bar-i

Bar-i is a Denver-based company that has been in bar inventory since 2010. The platform is built around Bluetooth scale weighing: each open bottle goes on a scale that streams weight data to the app, giving tenth-of-an-ounce precision. Bar-i advertises 500 items per hour count speed.

Pricing (from bar-i.com/pricing): Three tiers. SpeedCount at $100 per month. Pro Lite at $250 per four-week period. SpeedCount Pro at $250 per four-week period plus a per-count service fee starting at $100. No long-term contract required. Hardware (Bluetooth scale and barcode scanner) is not included and typically runs $500 to $1,000 or more.

Strengths: Highest accuracy of the seven apps on this list. 40 plus POS integrations. Bundled training of 10 plus hours on Pro tiers. Accuracy guarantee backed by a dedicated success agent on the top tier. Full comparison: PourIQ vs Bar-i.

Weaknesses: Hardware cost on top of subscription pushes year-one spend past $2,000 even at the entry tier. Setup is measured in hours. Total cost of ownership is the highest on this list.

Best fit: High-volume cocktail programs doing $30,000 plus per week in liquor sales, where tenth-ounce accuracy earns its keep.

5. Partender

Partender is widely credited with inventing visual tenthing for bar inventory. The iOS app launched in the mid-2010s and has iterated on its core tenthing workflow for years. Partender advertises up to 99.2 percent accuracy and a 15-minute full-bar count on a typical venue. Particular strength in beer-heavy operations.

Pricing (from appdemo.partender.com/pricing.html): Pro Monthly at $399 per month regular, $249 per month promotional. Pro Annual at $299 per month regular, $165 per month promotional billed annually. 14-day free trial.

Strengths: Proven core tenthing workflow, established beer-heavy user base, mature iOS app, and keg tracking tested at scale. Full comparison: PourIQ vs Partender.

Weaknesses: Per third-party listings, Partender does not publicly document first-party POS integration, barcode scanning, or deep recipe costing. Pricing has a wide spread between promotional and regular rates. Annual commitment is required for the lowest rate.

Best fit: Beer-heavy bars with 30 plus taps where core tenthing and keg tracking are the primary job.

6. Craftable (formerly Bevager)

Bevager launched around 2015 under FNBTech, Inc. In February 2020, FNBTech consolidated Bevager with its food-focused sibling Foodager and rebranded as Craftable. The product has since moved upmarket. Named customers include Kimpton Hotels, Hakkasan Group, bartaco, and PopStroke.

Pricing: Not published on craftable.com. Approximately $99 per user per month is the commonly cited reference from the Capterra Craftable listing. Real deals are negotiated and can include per-location fees, implementation charges, and tiered modules.

Strengths: AP automation with three-way invoice matching, distributor EDI, 100 plus POS integrations including Oracle Micros, food plus beverage in one platform. 4.5 stars on Capterra across 123 reviews. Full comparison: PourIQ vs Bevager.

Weaknesses: Per-user pricing scales fast. Reviewers note that the bar side can feel less intuitive than the food side. Not built for single-unit operators.

Best fit: Mid-market restaurant groups with 10 plus locations, centralized purchasing, and a dedicated AP function.

7. WISK

WISK is a Canadian-headquartered bar and restaurant inventory platform expanding in North America. The product covers real-time inventory, recipe costing, POS integration, and variance tracking. WISK supports optional Bluetooth scale weighing as well as phone-based counting.

Pricing (from wisk.ai/pricing): Three tiers billed annually. Essentials at $189 per month per location. Professional at $249 per month per location. Premium at $499 per month per location. Quarterly billing runs 15 to 17 percent higher. A custom enterprise plan is available.

Strengths: Strong POS integration coverage, both phone and scale workflows, polished mobile interface. Decent review volume on G2 and Capterra.

Weaknesses: Pricing starts at $189 per month, which is steep for single-unit bars. The product spans food and beverage, so bar workflows compete for roadmap attention.

Best fit: Multi-location bars and restaurants that want flexibility between phone and scale counting.

How should you pick a bar inventory app?

Seven questions to answer before committing.

1. What is your weekly beverage revenue? Variance dollars scale with revenue. A 3 percent improvement on $5,000 a week is not the same as 3 percent on $50,000 a week. The software budget should match the opportunity.

2. Is the inventory mostly liquor, beer, wine, or food? Bar-focused tools win on bar-heavy programs. Food-plus-bev platforms win when food is the majority.

3. Do you need POS integration? Without it, sales-versus-usage variance reports are manual work. For automated weekly variance, POS integration is non-negotiable.

4. How much setup time do you actually have? Some tools take a day. Others take a month. Be honest before picking the more complex option.

5. Do you need multi-unit reporting? If yes, roll-ups matter. If no, pay for the simpler tool.

6. What is your contract tolerance? Month-to-month or annual? For a newer operation, flexibility usually beats a discount.

7. What do independent reviews actually say? Pull up G2 and Capterra. Read the 3-star reviews first. They tell the truth faster than the 5-star ones.

The short decision tree

If you run a cocktail program with a wine list at a single bar: PourIQ.

If you run a simple beer-forward bar: PourIQ or Backbar Essential.

If you have never used inventory software and want to start free: Backbar Basic.

If you run a high-volume cocktail program targeting sub-5 percent variance: Bar-i.

If you run a mid-market group of 3 to 5 locations: PourIQ or WISK depending on food mix.

If you run an enterprise group of 10 plus locations with centralized purchasing: PourIQ for bar-forward groups. MarketMan or Craftable for food-heavy groups.

Start here

Run your numbers through the free pour cost calculator first. Two minutes and you will know whether your variance problem is worth $75 a month to fix. If it is, book a 15-minute demo and we will show you how PourIQ handles your back bar, your recipes, and your variance report. No hardware. No contract. $75 a month flat.

For feature-level breakdowns on individual competitors, see the /compare/ section.

The PourIQ Team