The cheapest app can still be expensive
Subscription price is only one cost. Re-entering data, fixing stock differences, training staff, depending on a connection and struggling to export information all consume time. A free plan is valuable when it lets you measure those costs using your own routine.
Avoid creating perfect demonstration data. Use actual product names, locations, quantities and the types of payment timing your business sees.
What to include in the pilot
Run a purchase, sale, cancellation, customer receipt, supplier payment and transfer if each applies. Scan a barcode, lose the connection temporarily, invite a limited-permission user and export a report. These actions reveal more than clicking through every screen.
Record where the process is faster and where it creates extra work. A missing requirement should not be rationalized merely because the plan is inexpensive.
Understand both kinds of capacity
An inventory plan may limit catalog size, monthly operations, team access or a combination. A business with four products and hundreds of sales has a different constraint from one with hundreds of products and a few monthly transactions.
Check current usage against the actual plan rather than relying on an old article or screenshot. Limits and packaging can change.
Read the purchase screen
Confirm billing period, currency, introductory conditions if any, renewal price, cancellation path and the account receiving access. Store billing and direct official payment methods can have different terms. The checkout shown to you is the authoritative price for that purchase.
Quotes and customer orders
Free and Plus: each quote or order counts as one monthly operation. Converting it creates a sale, counted separately.
Available in the iOS and Android apps; quote and order management is not yet available in the web app.