Built by a restaurant owner, not a software company
Restaurant inventory without the enterprise price tag
Counts, recipe costing, purchase orders, invoice scanning, and a straight answer on food cost. The big platforms charge $249 a month and up for this job. ShelfCount is $50, flat.
14-day free trial · No charge until it ends · Cancel in one click
Why ShelfCount exists
I got tired of paying enterprise prices to count my own inventory
I run a coffee shop in Los Angeles. For years we paid MarketMan to manage our inventory, and we used maybe a third of it. Counts, recipes, purchase orders, food cost. That’s the whole job.
The price went up at every renewal, and nobody could tell me what the extra money bought. Counting milk shouldn’t cost three grand a year. So I built the tool I wanted to buy.
ShelfCount runs my shop today. Baristas count on their phones. Invoices get scanned at the register. Square sales come in on their own, and I can see my actual food cost without touching a spreadsheet. (We run on Square ourselves, but Clover works too if that’s your system. Toast is in final certification.) If it works for you too, it’s $50 a month, which is about what I think this software should cost.
ShelfCount vs. the big platforms
Same features, very different bill
We skip the enterprise modules most independents never open. That’s where the price difference comes from.
| What you get | ShelfCount | MarketMan | MarginEdge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory counts from any phone | |||
| Recipe & prep-recipe costing | |||
| Par levels & one-click purchase orders | |||
| Invoice & receipt scanning | |||
| POS sales sync & theoretical vs. actual COGS | Square & Clover now, Toast in certification | ||
| Unlimited team members included | Plan-dependent | Plan-dependent | |
| Month-to-month, cancel anytime | Billed annually | ||
| Multi-unit enterprise reporting | Not yet. Built for independents | ||
| Price per month | $50 flat | from $249 | from $350 |
Same job, about $2,400 a year back in your pocket.
Already on MarketMan? Export your inventory list and upload it — we read that export directly, so you start with your items, not a blank screen.
And those are the two competitors honest enough to publish a price. Most of this market says “custom quote” and puts you on a sales call before you see a number. Ours is $50, and you just saw it. Same with the demo: theirs is a scheduled call with a sales rep. Ours is the real product, open to you right now, no email required.
MarketMan and MarginEdge starting prices per location as of mid-2026; plans change, so check their sites. Feature availability comes from each platform’s public materials. We’re biased, but we’ve tried to be fair.
What you get
Everything you need to run inventory
One plan, every feature. No add-ons, no per-seat pricing.
Unlimited team & locations
One flat price. Bring your whole team and map every shelf, walk-in, and back room. Nothing is metered.
Count on any phone
Staff open a link on their own phone and start counting. No app to install, no logins to babysit.
Recipe costing
Build recipes and prep recipes once; every ingredient price change flows through to your plate costs automatically.
Pars & purchase orders
Set par levels per vendor and turn a finished count into a purchase order in one click, already emailed.
Receipt scanning
Snap a photo of an invoice and we read it. You approve every price change before it touches your numbers.
POS sync & COGS
Sales sync straight from Square or Clover, so you can compare what you should have used against what actually left the shelf. Toast is in final certification.
Up and running in an afternoon
How it works
Add your items & locations
Import your inventory list, set units and pack sizes, and lay out your storage areas the way you actually walk them.
Count on any phone
Anyone on the team counts from their phone — no app to install. Counts save as they go, so nothing gets lost.
See your true food cost
Recipes, receipts, and sales come together into theoretical vs. actual COGS — so you know where margin is leaking.
Simple pricing
$50/month
Everything on this page, no per-seat pricing. Free for 14 days — no charge until the trial ends.
Start your free trialHave existing data to bring over? Import it yourself for free, or let us do it — Done-for-you migration is $299 one-time.