Pub stocktaking software compared: 2026 prices for nine tools, checked at source, and what a single pub actually needs

For a single UK pub, stocktaking software costs from £0 to about £139 a month on the published price lists, and most of the well-known tools are built and priced for restaurant groups. StockTap is £19 a month. Backbar has a free plan. Growyze starts at £79 a month per venue and Jelly at £129. The US tools price in dollars, from Bar Patrol at $49 a month up to $249 a month for the entry plans at WISK and MarketMan. Every price below was checked on the provider's own website on 26 October 2026.

First, cards on the table. I built StockTap, so I'm not neutral, and you should read everything here with that in mind. What I can promise is that the prices are the ones each company publishes, checked on the same day, and where a tool is better for you than mine I'll say so. I've used two of these to run stock in my own pub (a live BevSpot trial and a BarBrain account I didn't renew) and looked hard at the public pricing and product pages of the rest.

New to this? Start with my plain guide to pub stocktaking software: what it does, what it costs and how to pick one.

The prices side by side

Pub and bar stocktaking software, prices as published on each provider's site, checked 26 October 2026

Tool	Built for	Published price	Free trial
StockTap	A single UK pub, run by the licensee	£19 a month (Pro), £39 a month (Premium)	14 days, no card
Backbar	US bars, single and multi-site	Basic $0. Essential $79 a month billed yearly, $99 monthly. Professional $129 yearly, $149 monthly. Per location	Free plan
Bar Patrol	US bars, counts in ounces	$49 a month billed yearly, $69 monthly	None listed
BarBrain	European hospitality, product-count tiers	From 52 EUR (90 products, 1 user), 76 EUR (200 products, 5 users), 99 EUR (unlimited). Billing period not stated on the page	30 days
Growyze	UK hospitality groups	Pro £79 a month, Premium £139 a month per site	30 days, no card
Jelly	UK food-led venues, invoice scanning	£129 per location a month, plus a one-off setup fee and a POS pass-on charge from £15 a month	Ask them
BevSpot	US multi-venue bars and restaurants	Starter $948 a year, Standard $1,428 a year, Pro shown as $249 a year (see below)	Yes
WISK	US bars, hotels and groups	Single venue, beverage: $249 a month. Multi-outlet from $499	Demo-led
MarketMan	US restaurant groups	Starter $249, Growth $299, Enterprise from $449 a month	Demo-led

Dollar and euro prices also carry a currency conversion every month, and none of the US tools has anything on the UK-specific jobs: a tied pub's stocktake, a pubco audit, 88-pint kegs in imperial pints. That's not a criticism of how they're built, it's who they're built for.

One tool has gone from this page since I first wrote it. StockLens AI used to be here with £79 to £499 a month plans. When I went to re-check it I couldn't find a live product page, so it's off the list until I can.

What the price gets a single pub

StockTap

Built for: one UK pub, counted by the people who work in it. Price: £19 a month, or £39 for Premium, with a 14-day trial and no card. It's not a multi-site tool. If you run several venues, look at Growyze. I built it because I was already doing the job on paper and in spreadsheets, splitting draught from packaged from spirits, reading the variance by direction over several periods instead of panicking at one bad report, and it took too long. It won't fight a chargeback for you. It will give you the category-level numbers to fight one with.

Backbar

The only one here with a free plan, and if your budget is zero it's worth a look. Prices are in dollars and per location, and the paid tiers add costing and invoice tools. Full write-up in my Backbar guide.

Bar Patrol

Cheap and simple, $49 a month on the yearly plan, but it counts in ounces and lists no free trial, which matters if you want to try it on a real stocktake first. More in the Bar Patrol guide.

BarBrain

A capable European tool, priced by how many products and users you need, from 52 EUR. We ran a BarBrain account before I built StockTap and didn't renew it. That's not a knock on the product. A single tied pub just doesn't need most of what the multi-user tiers solve, and paying in euros for something with no UK tied-tenant angle added friction. BarBrain alternative for a UK pub has the detail.

Growyze

The strongest UK option for groups. £79 a month per venue on Pro, £139 on Premium, and 30 days free without a card. Their own published content is some of the best UK stock-management writing about. For one pub you'd be paying for multi-site headroom you aren't using. See the Growyze guide.

Jelly

£129 a location, flat, built around scanning supplier invoices and watching food costs. Read the pricing page to the bottom: there's a one-off setup fee per site, and a POS integration pass-on charge from £15 a month depending on your till. For a food-led site drowning in invoices it's a fair offer. For a wet-led pub with one cellar it's over £1,500 a year wrapped around a count you still have to do. I went through it in the Jelly guide.

BevSpot

US-first, multi-venue. The pricing page lists Starter at $948 a year and Standard at $1,428 a year, then marks Pro as "most popular" at $249 a year, which can't be right for the top tier. It's still showing that way today, so confirm directly if you're pricing it seriously. My live trial was usage-capped rather than time-capped, counting down inventories, orders and recipes left instead of days. The counting itself is storage area by storage area from a desktop-style screen, built to be thorough across a big catalogue, not quick on a phone behind a bar. More in the BevSpot guide.

WISK and MarketMan

Both price their entry plans at $249 a month, both are demo-led, and both are built for operations with a lot more going on than a pub cellar. WISK now prices a single venue's beverage inventory at $249 a month with multi-outlet bands above it. MarketMan's Starter is aimed at independent restaurants. See the WISK guide and the MarketMan guide.

What a single pub actually needs

Strip away the feature grids and a single pub needs four things from stocktaking software: a fast count on a phone, prices that work in UK measures, a variance you can read by category, and a history you can show a pubco or an auditor. Invoice AI, recipe costing, multi-site transfers and accounting integrations are lovely if you've got a head office. If it's you, a cellar and a stocktaker once a month, you're paying for someone else's problems. My buyer's checklist goes through what to test in a trial, and what stocktaking software costs sets the price against a stocktaker's bill.

One idea worth trying

Whichever tool you trial, do your real stocktake on it, not a demo count of ten bottles. Same day as your stocktaker if you have one. Then compare the two reports line by line. You'll learn more about the software in that one afternoon than in any sales call, and you'll find out whether your own counting matches a professional's, which is worth knowing whatever you buy. If doing the stocktake yourself is new to you, start there.

Common questions

How much does pub stocktaking software cost in the UK?

On published price lists checked in October 2026, from £0 (Backbar's Basic plan) to about £139 a month per site (Growyze Premium). StockTap is £19 a month, Growyze Pro £79 and Jelly £129 per location. US tools price in dollars, from $49 to $249 a month for entry plans.

What is the best stocktaking software for a single pub?

For one UK pub, look for a fast phone count, UK measures, variance by category and a history you can show a pubco or auditor. Most well-known tools are priced for multi-site groups, so a single pub often pays for features it won't use.

Is there free stocktaking software for pubs?

Backbar has a free Basic plan priced in dollars. Most others offer a free trial instead: StockTap 14 days with no card, Growyze and BarBrain 30 days.

Which stocktaking software is built for UK pubs?

StockTap is built for a single UK pub. Growyze and Jelly are UK companies aimed at hospitality groups and food-led venues. BevSpot, Backbar, Bar Patrol, WISK and MarketMan are US-built and price in dollars.

Why is BevSpot Pro cheaper than Standard on its pricing page?

On 26 October 2026 BevSpot's page listed Starter at $948 a year, Standard at $1,428 a year and Pro at $249 a year, which looks like an error on their page. Confirm the price with BevSpot directly.