“Cheapest” depends on your size
The cheapest option for a seller doing 50 orders/month is very different from the cheapest for a seller doing 2,000. Cost per order is the honest comparison, not monthly price.
| Volume | Cheapest option | Monthly cost | Effective pence/order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 30 orders/month | Sellbrite (free tier) | £0 | £0 |
| 30-500 orders/month | Veeqo (free) if Amazon-heavy | £0 | £0 |
| 30-500 orders/month (non-Amazon) | Zoho Inventory Standard | ~£40 | 8-134p |
| 500-2,000 orders/month | MaxInvent Starter Best value UK-hosted | £99.99 launch price | 4-16p |
| 2,000-5,000 orders/month | MaxInvent Growth | £299.99 launch price | 4-10p |
| 5,000+ orders/month | MaxInvent Scale (custom) or Linnworks | From £499 launch price | 5-20p |
The free options, honestly assessed
Veeqo
Genuinely free. Owned by Amazon, so the product roadmap naturally prioritises Amazon-native flows (Amazon Buy Shipping, FBA integration). If you're 80%+ Amazon, this is the best free product in the UK market — hard to argue against.
Where it falls short: Temu, TikTok Shop, Groupon and multi-warehouse workflows receive less investment. If those are important, you'll outgrow Veeqo.
Sellbrite (free tier)
Free up to 30 orders/month, then £23+/month. The 30-order cap is generous for a hobby seller but runs out fast for a real business. Best used as a stepping stone — get familiar with multi-channel sync, then migrate when you hit the ceiling.
Zoho Inventory (free plan)
Heavily capped — essentially for testing or very small operations. The paid Standard plan at ~£40/month is where it becomes usable, and even then the courier integration is weak compared to Veeqo or MaxInvent.
When paid is actually cheaper than free
This sounds counter-intuitive but it's the most common finding in our buyer calls. A free platform that costs you 30 seconds of extra admin per order isn't free — it's costing you:
30 seconds × 1,000 orders/month × £15/hour labour = £125/month of hidden cost.
A paid platform that saves you 30 seconds per order more than pays for itself at £125/month, before you factor in the reduced cancellation risk from faster, more accurate dispatch.
This is why we recommend MaxInvent Starter at £99.99/month launch pricing over free-tier solutions once you're past ~800 orders/month: the time savings fund the difference and you stop worrying about accidentally breaking the order flow by bumping into feature limits.
How to calculate your own cheapest option
For any platform you're considering, compute:
- Monthly subscription at your projected volume tier
- Per-order overage if applicable
- Per-user fees × your team size
- Implementation and data migration cost (divided over 24 months)
- Estimated monthly staff time for platform admin (hours × £15)
Divide by monthly orders. If the result is above 30p/order at your volume, you're probably overpaying — or you have an unusual requirement driving the cost up (legitimate but worth checking).