Looking at Backbar? What the free plan actually covers, what $99 adds, and the UK alternatives from £0 to £129

Backbar is the only serious name in bar inventory with a properly free plan. Not a trial with a clock on it, free. That deserves credit and it gets it below. It's also an American product priced in dollars, its till links are Toast, Square and SkyTab, and it counts an open bottle by you dragging a slider until the picture matches the bottle. Here's what the free plan actually covers, what $99 a month adds, and where that leaves a UK pub.

Usual disclosure first. I'm a licensee in Washington, Tyne and Wear, StockTap is my product, and this page compares mine with theirs. So I'll stick to what Backbar publishes, credit what's good, and be plain about the cases where I'd point you at them rather than me. Same as with WISK and Growyze, nobody in the trade has written a Backbar alternatives page for UK operators, just software directories rehashing each other, so here's one from someone who counts stock for a living.

What Backbar actually is

Going off getbackbar.com as of 7 September 2026: a bar and restaurant inventory platform out of the US, three tiers, priced per location. Basic is $0 a month and it's a real plan, not a teaser. Web and mobile counting, multiple storage areas, a till integration, colour-coded stock levels. The limits are one location, a ten-recipe cap, six months of transaction history, cut-down drink costing and email-only support.

Essential is $99 a month, or $79 a month if you pay the year upfront. That unlocks unlimited recipes and history, suggested par levels, one-click purchasing, invoice uploads, order reminders and the proper reporting, usage, comparisons, trends. Professional is $149 a month, $129 annually, and adds automatic invoice entry, cost variance alerts, excess stock reports and user permissions. Either paid plan comes with a one-month free trial, which is fair, and longer than my own 14 days.

Till integrations are Toast, Square and SkyTab. Square is common enough behind British bars. Toast and SkyTab are American systems you'll rarely see here, and there's nothing on Backbar's pages about ICRTouch, Epos Now or the other tills this trade actually runs. If a live till link is the reason you're shopping, check yours is on the list before you build a product library.

Credit where it's due

Free that stays free is rare in this market, and Backbar's is real. BevSpot's trial runs out by usage. Growyze and Jelly bill from month one, trials aside. WISK doesn't do trials at all. Backbar hands you a working inventory app, with a till link, for nothing. If you're counting on a clipboard today and want to feel what software does to a stocktake before paying anyone a penny, me included, that's the cheapest education in the category. I went through what free actually gets you across the market, and Backbar Basic is the strongest option in it that stays free.

The pricing page is honest too. Every figure printed, both billing cycles shown, the free tier's limits in plain sight. After wading through quote-only vendors for the cost guide, I notice when a company just tells you the price.

How it counts, and why that's the question

Here's the part the free plan can't get around. Backbar counts open bottles visually. You look at the bottle, you drag a slider on a picture until it matches, the app records it. That's the clipboard tenths method with better graphics. Quick, and for sealed stock completely fine, a full bottle is a full bottle however you record it.

Open stock is where variance arguments live. The gap between calling a 70cl bottle four tenths and six tenths is 140ml, five and a half 25ml serves, sixteen quid or so of spirit at the till, on one bottle. If the person counting this month squints differently to the person who counted last month, your variance moves with no drink poured. There's nothing on Backbar's published pages about weighing an open bottle. I built StockTap the other way round, bottle on any kitchen scale you own and the maths does the rest, because a fair chunk of what looks like stock loss is really measuring error. WISK, credit to them, weighs too, at ten times the price. Eyeball counting isn't a scandal. It's a ceiling on how far your variance number can be trusted, and you want to know the ceiling is there before you build a routine on it.

The dollars, and the UK fit

Backbar bills in US dollars. $99 lands somewhere around £75 as I write, but the point is that your subscription now moves with the exchange rate, and your card provider takes a conversion fee on every payment. Same problem I covered with WISK, at friendlier numbers. Beyond the billing, there's no mention of cask anywhere on their pages, no firkins, no dipsticks, and the product library and integrations lean American. None of that stops the app working in a UK pub. It does mean the edges you'll hit are the edges nobody at Backbar is working on.

Backbar against the alternatives

Published pricing, checked 7 September 2026. The wider field is in the comparison hub.

Backbar and the alternatives a UK operator actually shortlists, from each vendor's published pages. Prices change; confirm before signing.

Option	Price	Built around	Best fit
Backbar Basic	$0	Eyeball and barcode counts, till link, one location	Trying software before spending anything
Backbar Essential / Professional	$99 / $149 a month ($79 / $129 annually, USD)	Adds pars, purchasing, invoices, variance alerts	Cocktail-led bars on Square with mostly sealed stock
Growyze	£79 to £139 per venue	Barcode counts, invoice reconciliation, six till links, 30-day trial	Mixed sites wanting integrations in pounds; see the Growyze guide
Jelly	£129 per location, flat	Invoice scanning, live GP	Food-led sites with heavy invoice volume; see the Jelly guide
StockTap	£19 (Pro), £39 (Premium)	Weight-based counting on your phone and any scale you own, spot checks, CSV sales in	Wet-led UK pubs that want open stock measured, not guessed
Spreadsheet	£0	Your own discipline	Tight single sites, until part-bottles outgrow it; see when that happens

The pints arithmetic

Price every subscription in gross profit, because gross profit is what pays for it. At the Morning Advertiser's 2026 average lager price of £4.89, a pint leaves about £2.24 of GP after VAT at a 55% margin. Backbar Basic needs zero pints, which is the whole appeal, its real cost is the accuracy ceiling and your counting time. Essential at roughly £75 a month needs about 8 pints of GP a week before it has saved you anything, Professional about 11. Growyze Pro needs 8, Jelly 13, StockTap Pro 2. A system that catches losses you can't see pays those numbers back fast, the ROI guide shows the method, but know your number before you sign up, not after.

So who should actually use Backbar?

Straight answer. If your stock is mostly sealed bottles and cans, your till is Square, and you want organised counts, par levels and order lists for nothing, start on Backbar Basic today. It costs you a setup evening and gives you a working system, and no UK vendor, me included, can match a standing price of zero. It's also the cheapest possible way to learn what you actually want from paid stock software.

If you run a wet-led UK pub, draught and cask up front, variance arguments settled in part-bottles, prices and reports needed in pounds, the eyeball ceiling and the dollar billing both work against you. My suggestion costs nothing to act on: Backbar Basic is free and my 14-day trial needs no card, so count the same shelf both ways in the same week, slider against scale, and see which number you'd defend to a stocktaker. Take the buyer's checklist into whatever demos you book, and make every vendor show you an open bottle going from shelf to number.

Common questions

Is Backbar really free?

Yes. The Basic plan is $0 a month for one location with web and mobile counting, multiple storage areas, till integration and colour-coded stock levels. The limits are a ten-recipe cap, six months of transaction history, cut-down drink costing and email-only support, as of 7 September 2026. It's a standing plan, not a trial. The paid plans carry a separate one-month free trial.

What does Backbar cost after the free plan?

Essential is $99 a month, or $79 a month paid annually. Professional is $149 a month, or $129 annually. Both are priced per location in US dollars, so a UK venue pays in dollars and the pound cost moves with the exchange rate. Checked on Backbar's published pricing, 7 September 2026.

How does Backbar count stock?

Sealed stock is counted by barcode or by tapping quantities. Open bottles are counted visually: you drag a slider on a bottle image until it matches how full the bottle looks. There is nothing on Backbar's published pages about weighing open bottles, which is the more accurate method for part-used spirits and wine.

Does Backbar work for UK pubs?

The app itself runs anywhere. The catches for a UK pub are dollar billing, till integrations limited to Toast, Square and SkyTab, and no mention of cask or UK-specific stock anywhere on its pages. A bar on Square with mostly sealed bottles can use it happily. A draught and cask led pub will find gaps.

What are the best Backbar alternatives for a UK venue?

Growyze at £79 to £139 a venue with a 30-day no-card trial, Jelly at £129 a location for food-led sites, StockTap at £19 a month with weight-based counting for wet-led pubs, and a disciplined spreadsheet at £0. All priced in pounds, which Backbar is not.