Trunk stops you overselling.It can't tell you what you're selling costs.
Trunk does one job and does it very well: keeping stock levels in step across every channel you sell on, in real time. If overselling is your problem, it's a strong answer. If your problem is that you don't know your cost per unit or how many more you can make, that's a different tool — and it's worth knowing which one you're actually shopping for.
Heads up: We make Stocksmith, so we're obviously biased. This is one comparison where the answer is often “keep Trunk” or “run both” rather than “switch”, and we've said that plainly below rather than pretending it's a straight contest.
These aren't really competitors
They sit at different layers, and plenty of businesses run both.
Trunk is a sync layer
It watches your listings across Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Faire, Square, Wix, WooCommerce and the rest, and when a unit sells anywhere it decrements everywhere within seconds. It also handles bundles and kits, so selling a three-pack takes three units off the component.
Its job ends at “the numbers agree everywhere”.
Stocksmith is a system of record
It holds the layer beneath the listings: the raw materials, the recipes that turn them into products, the production batches, and the cost that accumulates through all of it. Orders come in from your channels and reduce finished stock; making a batch reduces materials and increases finished stock.
Its job is “what do I have, what did it cost, what can I still make”.
Where that leaves you: if you buy finished goods and list them in several places, Trunk alone is probably right and adding us would be over-buying. If you manufacture, you need the layer underneath regardless — and then the question is whether our sync frequency is fast enough for your volume, which is answered honestly below.
The one where Trunk genuinely wins
Sync speed. We'd rather put this near the top than bury it.
Trunk syncs in real time. A sale on Etsy adjusts your Shopify listing within seconds. That's the product's core promise and it delivers on it.
Stocksmith imports on a schedule. Orders come in daily on the Indie plan and hourly on Business and Growth. Pushing stock levels back out is manual on Indie and automatic on Business and above.
For most small-batch manufacturers that's fine — if you hold 40 units of something and sell six a day, an hourly window doesn't cause an oversell. If you sell fast-moving, low-stock items across several channels, it will, and in that situation Trunk is solving a problem we don't solve as tightly. Some businesses run Trunk for the listing sync and Stocksmith for the manufacturing and costing underneath.
Trunk vs Stocksmith
What each layer covers.
Trunk
Stocksmith
Monthly price
From about $35/mo, tiered by order volume
From $20/mo billed annually
Multi-channel stock sync
✓ Real time — core strength
✓ Daily on Indie, hourly on Business+
Oversell prevention
✓ The whole point of the product
✓ Within the sync window
Bundles / kits
✓
✓ As multi-level BOMs
Raw materials as stock
—
✓ Core feature
Production / batch records
—
✓
Cost per unit & COGS
—
✓ Weighted average
Purchase orders
—
✓
Batch & lot traceability
—
✓ Indie and above
Inventory valuation reports
—
✓
Best suited to
Sellers listing the same stock in many places
Businesses that manufacture what they sell
Trunk pricing reflects publicly listed figures as of August 2026 and is banded by monthly order volume — check Trunk's own pricing page for current bands. Stocksmith figures are billed annually.
Trunk knows you have 40 candles. Stocksmith knows you have 40 candles and enough wax for 260 more, that the jars run out first at 90, and that your last supplier invoice moved the cost of each one by 40 cents.
That's the question that decides what you make next week, and it can't be answered from finished-goods counts alone.
Reorder pointsWatching
Material
On hand
Reorder at
L-ascorbic acid
0.4 kg
1.0 kg
Dropper bottle, 30ml
90
250
Shea butter, refined
6.2 kg
4.0 kg
Amber glass jar, 200ml
1,240
400
2 materials below reorder point — restock before you run out
Margins per channel, not just stock per channel
Once the system knows what a unit cost to make, it can tell you what you actually earned on it after each channel's fees. That's usually where a multi-channel seller finds the surprise: the channel with the most orders isn't the one making the money.
Material price up? Your margin recalculates instantly
When you should stay on Trunk
Genuinely — these are common and we'd rather you didn't churn.
You resell rather than manufacture
No materials, no recipes, nothing to cost. Trunk covers the actual problem and does it for less than we would.
Seconds matter for your stock levels
Low stock on fast-moving lines across several channels is exactly the case real-time sync exists for. Our hourly window would cost you oversells.
Your costing is already handled
If your accountant or another system already gives you reliable COGS, the main reason to move disappears. Adding us would duplicate work.
You want the narrow tool
Trunk is deliberately small and quick to set up. A full inventory system is more to learn, and if you don't need it, that's a real cost rather than a bonus.
Weighing other options? The comparison hub covers the tools small manufacturers most often line up.
Stocksmith connects everywhere you sell
Import orders automatically and sync stock levels across all your channels — so you never oversell or run out of stock.
No. Trunk works with the products you list for sale and keeps their quantities in step across channels. Its bundle feature handles a listing made up of other listings — a three-pack drawing down single units — but there's no concept of a raw material you buy, never sell, and consume in fractional amounts when you manufacture.
Is Stocksmith's sync as fast as Trunk's?
No, and it's worth being straight about that. Trunk syncs in real time. Stocksmith imports orders daily on the Indie plan and hourly on Business and Growth, with stock sync back out to channels manual on Indie and automatic from Business up. For most small-batch manufacturers holding reasonable stock depth that's sufficient. For fast-moving low-stock lines across multiple channels, it isn't, and Trunk is the better tool for that specific job.
Can I use Trunk and Stocksmith together?
Some businesses do, with Trunk handling listing-level sync and Stocksmith handling materials, production and costing. There's no direct integration between the two, so you'd want one of them to be the authority on finished-goods numbers rather than both writing to the same channels. It's worth a conversation with our support team before setting it up — getting the direction of truth wrong is the way this arrangement goes bad.
How does pricing compare?
Trunk's published pricing starts around $35/month and steps up with monthly order volume. Stocksmith starts at $20/mo billed annually on Pro (one sales channel), $41/mo on Studio for unlimited channels, and $83/mo on Indie which adds batch and lot tracking plus unlimited users. Comparing them on price alone is misleading, though — you're buying different capabilities.
Which channels does Stocksmith connect to?
Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, WooCommerce, Square and others — see the full integrations list. Worth knowing before you compare plans: the Pro plan connects one sales channel, and unlimited channels start at Studio. Amazon requires the Business plan.
Add the layer underneath your listings
14 days free, no credit card. Build one recipe and see how many units your current materials actually support — the number most multi-channel sellers are guessing at.
