Is ShelfCount cheaper than Parly?

Yes. ShelfCount is $50 a month. Parly is $79 a month for Pro and $149 for Business, or $59 and $119 a month if you pay for a year up front. We don't sell an annual plan, so the monthly price is the only price.

Does Parly work with Toast or Clover?

Not when we checked on 2026-10-12. Parly's homepage says it reads Square only, and that Clover and Toast aren't supported. ShelfCount reads Square and Clover today, and Toast is built and waiting on partner approval.

Does Parly send purchase orders to vendors?

No. Parly suggests what to order. You place the order with the supplier yourself, then log it in Parly. ShelfCount drafts the purchase order from your count and emails it to the vendor when you send it, for vendors set up for email; otherwise it's a PDF you send yourself.

Does Parly scan invoices or connect to QuickBooks?

Neither, as of 2026-10-12. ShelfCount reads invoices and receipts, and a person approves every line before a cost changes. Approved receipts can be pushed to QuickBooks Online as bills. There is no Xero connection on our side.

Which is better for one cafe on Square?

It depends on what you'd use. If you want tasks, supplier cutoff reminders and labor numbers from your timecards, Parly. If you want purchase orders, invoice checking, usage variance and the lower price, ShelfCount. Our demo opens without a signup, so you can look before you decide.

ShelfCount vs Parly: price, POS, and the paperwork

Parly is a well-made inventory app built at one cafe in New York, for cafes on Square. I own a coffee shop in Los Angeles and built ShelfCount there. If you're on Square, Parly is worth a look, and this page says where it's ahead of us. The differences come down to three questions: which POS you're on, whether you want purchase orders and invoices in the same place as your counts, and what you want to pay. ShelfCount is $50 a month, flat.

The price, side by side

Published pricing for one location
	ShelfCount	Parly
Monthly price	$50 a month, flat	Pro $79. Business $149
Billed yearly	No annual plan	Pro $59 a month ($708 a year). Business $119 a month ($1,428 a year)
Locations	Unlimited storage locations. One cafe per account; a second cafe is a second account, with no combined report across cafes yet	1 on both plans. Multi-location is on a waitlist
Team members	Unlimited	Up to 10 on Pro. Unlimited on Business
Free trial	14 days. Card at signup, nothing charged until it ends	14 days, no card
After the trial	The app locks until you subscribe. Your data stays	Drops to a free plan. Its limits aren't published

Parly figures from getparly.com, checked 2026-10-12. Prices change, so check both before you sign anything.

For one cafe paying monthly, Parly Pro costs $29 a month more than we do, which is $348 a year. Paid a year up front, Parly Pro is $59 a month, still $9 more. Parly's trial doesn't ask for a card and ours does. That's a real difference if you're only looking. Our demo needs no signup at all, if that helps.

What each one does

Feature by feature, checked 2026-10-12
	ShelfCount	Parly
POS	Square and Clover. Toast is built and waiting on partner approval	Square only. Their homepage says Clover and Toast aren't supported
Purchase orders sent to the vendor	Yes. Drafted from your count; emailed when you send it, for vendors set up for email	No. It suggests an order, you place it with the supplier yourself, then log it
Invoice scanning	Yes, review-first. Photograph it or forward the email, and nothing changes a cost until you approve the line	No
Accounting sync	QuickBooks Online: journal entry CSV, and bills pushed from approved receipts. No Xero	None
Reports	COGS, usage variance, menu profitability, purchase history, below par and inventory value, with CSV export	Seven report tabs, with PDF and CSV export
Tasks and checklists	None in ShelfCount. Timed food-safety and closing checks live in Shiftpad, our companion scheduling app	Yes: tasks, order tasks and checklists
Supplier cutoffs and delivery days	Lead time per vendor only, so far	Yes
Staffing numbers	None in ShelfCount	Yes, from Square timecards
Ask-a-question assistant	No	Yes, Ask Parly
On the phone	Runs in the browser and installs to your home screen. No app store	Laid out like a phone app, installs the same way

Parly cells come only from their public pages, checked 2026-10-12.

Where Parly is ahead

Parly does several things we don’t, and if they matter to you they should decide it.

Tasks come first. Parly has tasks, order tasks and checklists. We have nothing like that inside ShelfCount. Timed food-safety and closing checks live in Shiftpad, our companion scheduling app, which is a separate app.

Its supplier model is better too. You give each supplier a cutoff time and delivery days. Ours stores a lead time per vendor and stops there.

On a phone, Parly’s layout is ahead of ours today. It has a bottom tab bar, and we don’t yet. Both install to your home screen from the browser, with no app store involved.

It reads your Square timecards and turns them into staffing numbers. There are no staffing numbers in ShelfCount. And it has an assistant, Ask Parly, for questions about your cafe’s numbers. We don’t have one. Its trial also starts without a card, which ours doesn't.

Where we went the other way

First, the POS. ShelfCount reads Square and Clover today, and Toast is built and waiting on partner approval. If you’re on Clover, Parly can’t read your sales, and the same goes for Toast.

Second, the paperwork. Parly’s ordering ends at a suggestion. You place the order somewhere else and come back to log it. Ours drafts the purchase order from your count and emails it to the vendor when you send it, for vendors set up for email; otherwise it’s a PDF you send yourself. When the invoice arrives, you photograph it or forward the email, check the prices line by line, and price history shows what each item has cost you over time, with alerts if you turn them on. Approved receipts can go to QuickBooks Online as bills. Parly has no invoice scanning and no accounting sync.

Third, the bill. One price covers every feature, with no cap on how many people use it. Parly Pro stops at 10 team members, and a cafe with two shifts of baristas can get there.

Last, AI. We use it to read receipts and the files you import, and a person approves what it read before anything saves. There’s no chat assistant. If you’d use one every day, count that as a point for Parly.

Who Parly is right for

One cafe on Square, with no plan to change POS
You order through supplier portals or by phone, and a reminder before the cutoff is what you need
You want tasks, checklists and labor numbers in the same app as your counts
You won’t use invoice scanning or an accounting sync
Ten people or fewer, if you’re on Pro

Who ShelfCount is right for

Clover on the counter, or Toast once Toast approves our partner application
You want purchase orders written from your count, and invoices checked against your prices
More than 10 people on the team
You want food cost you can defend line by line, with usage variance showing what went missing
You want the lower monthly price without paying for a year up front

If you’re on Square and choosing

Both read your Square sales, so the POS question drops out and two others are left.

Where do your orders go? If you order through supplier portals or by phone and want a nudge before each cutoff, Parly’s model fits. If you want the order drafted from the count, and the invoice checked against it when it arrives, that’s what we built.

How big is the team, and what’s the budget? Up to 10 people, Parly Pro is $79 a month, or $59 billed yearly. We charge the same for any team size and there’s no yearly contract.

One more thing to weigh. If you might move off Square in the next couple of years, ShelfCount comes with you to Clover today. With Parly, a POS change means changing inventory apps too.

Questions people actually ask

Is ShelfCount cheaper than Parly?: Yes. ShelfCount is $50 a month. Parly is $79 a month for Pro and $149 for Business, or $59 and $119 a month if you pay for a year up front. We don't sell an annual plan, so the monthly price is the only price.
Does Parly work with Toast or Clover?: Not when we checked on 2026-10-12. Parly's homepage says it reads Square only, and that Clover and Toast aren't supported. ShelfCount reads Square and Clover today, and Toast is built and waiting on partner approval.
Does Parly send purchase orders to vendors?: No. Parly suggests what to order. You place the order with the supplier yourself, then log it in Parly. ShelfCount drafts the purchase order from your count and emails it to the vendor when you send it, for vendors set up for email; otherwise it's a PDF you send yourself.
Does Parly scan invoices or connect to QuickBooks?: Neither, as of 2026-10-12. ShelfCount reads invoices and receipts, and a person approves every line before a cost changes. Approved receipts can be pushed to QuickBooks Online as bills. There is no Xero connection on our side.
Which is better for one cafe on Square?: It depends on what you'd use. If you want tasks, supplier cutoff reminders and labor numbers from your timecards, Parly. If you want purchase orders, invoice checking, usage variance and the lower price, ShelfCount. Our demo opens without a signup, so you can look before you decide.

Compare something else

Sources

Every figure above about another company came from its own public pages on the date listed. Prices move; if one of these is stale, email us and we’ll fix the page.

Parly homepage (hero and FAQ section) — https://getparly.com (opens in a new window) (checked 2026-10-12)
Parly pricing — https://getparly.com/#pricing (opens in a new window) (checked 2026-10-12)
Parly FAQ page — https://getparly.com/faq (opens in a new window) (checked 2026-10-12)

You don’t have to book a call to see this one. The demo is the real product with a cafe’s data already in it. Open it, poke around, close the tab.

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