OpenBoxes

Overview

OpenBoxes is open-source supply-chain software for tracking supplies and medications across healthcare facilities and relief operations. It suits organizations that need detailed stock control and can support a self-managed deployment or pay for managed hosting. Its strongest case is inventory work across locations; the main trade-off is taking on infrastructure costs or accepting the user, storage and service limits of hosted plans.

Key features

OpenBoxes tracks inventory across facilities, bins, lots or serial numbers, and expiration dates, with an audit history of stock movements. That depth is useful when teams need to know not only how much stock they hold, but where it is and how it moved. Purchase orders, supplier and invoice management, requisitions, receiving and shipment workflows connect replenishment with warehouse operations.

Expiry alerts and first-expiry-first-out picking help teams prioritize stock that may otherwise go to waste. Reports cover consumption, stockouts, expirations, transactions, stock analytics and quantities on hand, giving supply teams several views of inventory activity. The mobile-optimized interface supports barcode scanning, lookups, picking, putaway, receiving and shipping, so warehouse tasks can be handled from mobile devices.

Integrations include a REST API, webhooks, n8n, OpenFn, Boomi, Crowdin and DHIS2. Deployment deserves equal consideration: cloud use requires consistent internet connectivity, while on-premise use requires suitable hardware and people to maintain it. The mobile apps and API broaden access, but neither removes those infrastructure demands.

Pricing

Community Edition is free, billed Free Forever, with unlimited users and community support. It can be self-hosted on-premise or in the cloud. This is the best fit for organizations able to provide hosting and ongoing operations; the license is free, but the infrastructure is not.

Self-Hosted starts at $24 a month, paid to DigitalOcean, with actual cost depending on droplet options. It adds dedicated support while leaving deployment self-managed, making it a step up for teams that want a hosted server but can handle its operation.

OpenBoxes Lift Shared starts at $75 a month, with a founding-member price for a limited time. It includes up to 10 users, 10 GB storage, 1,000 API calls per hour, a 99.0% uptime SLA and 30-day backup retention. A current monthly option shows $150 reduced to $75 per month and a 30-day free trial. It suits smaller teams seeking managed hosting, but its user and API ceilings may constrain growth.

OpenBoxes Lift Dedicated has a current monthly option shown at $600 reduced to $300 per month, with a 30-day free trial. It allows up to 50 users, 100 GB storage and 25,000 API calls per hour, with a 99.5% uptime SLA and 30-day backup retention. A separate offer starts at $899 per month and carries a 12-month minimum term. This tier is for larger operations needing more capacity; buyers should distinguish the monthly option from the offer with a minimum commitment.

OpenBoxes Lift Enterprise has a current price of $1,800 per month for 100 users, 250 GB storage, 50,000 API calls per hour and a 99.9% availability target. Another Enterprise offer uses custom pricing for custom user and storage limits, with a 99.9% uptime SLA and 24/7 support including holidays. The managed service also lists MFA, role-based access control, TLS 1.2+ in transit, AES-256 encryption at rest, tenant isolation and security patches for managed Kubernetes. Production data is hosted on Google Cloud Platform in the us-east1 region in the United States.

Platforms

OpenBoxes supports Android, iOS, Linux, web, API access and self-hosted deployment. Managed Lift plans reduce the burden of operating infrastructure, while Community Edition and Self-Hosted require teams to account for deployment and connectivity needs.

Who it's for

OpenBoxes is particularly suited to healthcare and disaster-relief supply chains, where supplies and medications must be tracked across facilities and expiry dates matter. The maker also describes its use in warehouse management, distribution and other supply-chain settings. Community support may suit organizations with technical capacity; Lift is a better fit when managed hosting and tier-dependent support matter more than retaining full operational responsibility.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Multi-facility, bin, lot and serial tracking with movement history gives supply teams detailed stock control.
• Pros: Expiry alerts, FEFO picking, barcode scanning and receiving workflows address practical warehouse and medication-handling tasks.
• Pros: Unlimited Community Edition users avoid seat caps for self-hosting organizations.
• Cons: Free use still leaves hosting and operating costs with the organization, and on-premise deployment requires hardware and staff.
• Cons: Lift Shared caps the service at 10 users and 10 GB, while higher tiers cost more or may require a minimum term.
• Cons: Cloud deployment depends on consistent internet connectivity, a material constraint for some resource-scarce settings.

Alternatives

Zoho Inventory is a better fit for a small operation that can work within its free tier of 50 orders per month, one user and one location; OpenBoxes is more aligned with multi-facility tracking.

Katana offers a permanent free tier with 30 SKUs, unlimited users, integrations and inventory locations, making it worth considering when those caps fit the operation.

InvenTree is another free, self-hosted open-source option, but it comes without included support or maintenance obligations.

StockFlow offers a free Starter tier for small inventories, with 25 items, two users and one warehouse.

Axacute provides a free tier for two users covering basic inventory and production operations.

Stockroom has a free tier limited to one location, one user and 50 active SKUs, which may suit a single-location operation.

Blue Link ERP is an alternative with hosted ERP subscriptions whose pricing varies by users, functionality, implementation services and deployment model.

StockZip offers a free tier for 10 items and one user, a narrower starting point for very small inventories.

Browse the broader Inventory Management Software category to compare more options.

Verdict

Choose OpenBoxes when detailed, multi-facility inventory control, expiry handling and purchasing workflows matter, especially in healthcare or relief supply chains. The open-source edition keeps user counts unrestricted, and Lift offers a managed path for teams that do not want to run the service themselves. Look elsewhere if your team cannot support self-hosting and needs hosted capacity or pricing that better fits its size and budget.