Fishbowl vs. Ply: Best Inventory Software for Contractors

You wouldn’t use a wrench to hammer a nail. Every professional in the trades knows that having the right tool for the job is the difference between efficiency and frustration. The same principle applies to the software that runs your business.

When you’re looking for an inventory management system, you’ll find powerful, generalist tools designed for a wide range of industries, and you’ll find specialized solutions built for your specific workflow. This guide will help you decide which tool is the right one for your business.

Key Takeaways

• Match the Tool to the Trade: Fishbowl is a powerful generalist system designed for manufacturing and distribution. Ply is built specifically for contractors, solving unique challenges like truck stock management and field purchasing without the clutter of irrelevant features.
• Demand Seamless System Integration: A disconnected tech stack costs you time and money. Ply’s deep integrations with field service platforms like ServiceTitan and Jobber create a single, efficient workflow, while a general tool like Fishbowl may require expensive custom solutions to connect to the software you use daily.
• Understand the True Cost of Ownership: Fishbowl’s perpetual license model requires a large upfront payment plus ongoing fees for support and updates. Ply’s all-inclusive subscription provides a predictable, manageable expense that includes everything, making it easier to budget and see a clear return on your investment.

What is Fishbowl? And What is Ply?

Understanding the fundamental difference between a generalist tool and a specialist one is the first step to making the right choice for your business. Let’s break down what Fishbowl and Ply bring to the table.

A Look at Fishbowl

Fishbowl is a well-known inventory management and manufacturing software. Think of it as a comprehensive toolkit for businesses that create or distribute physical goods. It offers a very wide range of features, covering everything from detailed barcoding and managing bills of materials (BOM) to complex order fulfillment.

For years, it has been a go-to solution for manufacturers and distributors who need a powerful system to track every component and finished product. While it’s a robust platform, its primary focus is on the production line and the warehouse floor, offering a depth of features that cater to those specific, complex environments.

A Look at Ply

Ply, on the other hand, was built from the ground up with a clear focus on trade contractors. It’s not trying to be everything to everyone; it’s designed to solve the specific material management challenges that businesses such as plumbing, HVAC, and electrical face daily.

The entire system is centered on simplifying how you buy and manage your materials, from creating a purchase order on the fly to tracking parts across multiple service trucks. Instead of complex manufacturing workflows, Ply gives you the exact tools you need to reduce material waste, prevent unnecessary trips to the supply house, and ensure your techs always have the right parts to finish the job.

Comparing Core Features

When you’re looking at inventory software, the feature list is where the rubber meets the road. Both Fishbowl and Ply offer robust tools, but they’re designed with different users in mind.

Inventory Management

Fishbowl is well-regarded for its advanced inventory management, especially for businesses that use QuickBooks. It’s designed to handle the needs of small to medium-sized manufacturers and distributors, tracking raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods. If your business involves assembling products, this level of detail can be essential.

For contractors, however, inventory is about having the right part on the right truck for the right job. Ply’s inventory management is tailored for this reality. It gives you a clear view of what’s in the warehouse and on every service vehicle, in real time. This helps you reduce unnecessary trips to the supply house and ensures your technicians arrive prepared, leading to more completed jobs per day.

Order Processing

When it comes to processing orders, Fishbowl manages the full spectrum of sales documents, including quotes, sales orders, and purchase orders. It acts as a central hub for tracking the entire sales and procurement cycle, which is ideal for businesses selling physical products to customers.

Ply streamlines this process for the trades by focusing on the purchasing workflow. It simplifies how technicians in the field request parts and how the office approves and places those orders with suppliers. The system connects purchase orders directly to jobs, making it easy to track costs and ensure materials are billed correctly. This direct line from field request to final reconciliation closes a common communication gap that costs contractors time and money.

Warehouse Management

Fishbowl’s warehouse management features include real-time inventory tracking and advanced production scheduling, reflecting its manufacturing roots. It’s built to optimize the flow of goods through a traditional production or distribution facility.

Ply’s approach to warehouse management is designed for the dynamic environment of a contracting business. It’s not just about tracking what’s on the shelves; it’s about organizing your warehouse to efficiently restock service trucks and stage materials for upcoming projects. Ply helps create a system that supports field operations, ensuring technicians can quickly grab what they need and get back on the road. The goal is to make your warehouse a strategic asset that directly supports field efficiency.

Mobile Access

Both platforms offer mobile capabilities, but their focus differs. Fishbowl Advanced Mobile is designed to perform complex inventory functions on the go, allowing warehouse staff to manage receiving, picking, and packing from a handheld device.

Ply’s mobile app is built for the technician. It’s simple, intuitive, and focused on the tasks they perform every day. From their phone, a tech can see their truck’s inventory, request a part from the office, or transfer stock to another technician. This ease of use is critical for adoption in the field.

Reporting and Analytics

Fishbowl provides detailed financial reports, allowing you to compare inventory asset value between its system and your accounting software. This is crucial for businesses that need to track the value of goods for accounting and compliance purposes.

Ply’s reporting zeroes in on the metrics that matter most to a contractor’s profitability. You can easily see how much you’re spending on materials per job, track inventory usage, and identify slow-moving parts that are tying up cash. These insights help make smarter purchasing decisions and dial in job costing for better margins. You can even use Ply’s ROI calculator to see how these improvements translate to your bottom line.

Which is Easier to Use?

When you’re running a contracting business, the last thing you have time for is wrestling with complicated software. The best tool is the one your team will actually use, day in and day out. The choice between Fishbowl and Ply often comes down to a simple question: do you need a system that can do everything, or a system that does exactly what you need, effortlessly?

Navigation and Day-to-Day Use

Your team needs to be able to find what they need without a treasure map. For day-to-day tasks, many users report that Fishbowl is relatively easy to use once you get the hang of it. Its interface is structured to handle a variety of inventory functions, from tracking raw materials to finished goods.

However, Ply’s navigation is specifically designed for the workflows of an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business. When your tech needs to see what’s on their truck or your purchasing manager needs to create a PO, the path is direct and obvious. We’ve stripped away the manufacturing-centric jargon and complex menus to give you a clean, straightforward experience. The entire buying and management process is streamlined, so your team can spend less time clicking and more time working.

The Learning Curve

Getting your team up to speed on new software can be a major hurdle. Fishbowl is a robust system, and with that comes a steeper learning curve. Because it’s so comprehensive, many businesses find they need dedicated training sessions to get fully comfortable with its features. While Fishbowl offers these resources, this implementation support often comes at an additional cost and requires a significant time investment from your team.

We believe getting started with your inventory software should be simple. Ply is designed to be intuitive from day one. Since the platform mirrors the real-world processes you already use, most teams can get up and running with minimal training. We focus on a guided and efficient warehouse implementation to ensure your team feels confident right away, without the lengthy downtime or hidden training fees that can come with more complex systems.

Customization Options

Every business has its unique quirks, and your software should be able to adapt. Fishbowl offers deep customization options, which is a major advantage for manufacturers with highly specific processes. You can create custom fields, build complex reports, and tailor workflows to your exact needs. The trade-off is that this level of flexibility can be overwhelming and may require technical expertise to set up correctly.

Ply takes a different approach. We offer practical, straightforward customization that’s focused on what contractors actually need. You can easily add custom fields to parts, organize inventory by warehouse and truck, and set up multi-level purchasing approvals without needing a manual. Our goal is to provide the flexibility you need to run your business your way, without adding unnecessary complexity that slows you down.

The Mobile Experience

Your technicians are your eyes and ears in the field, and their mobile tool needs to be fast and reliable. Fishbowl offers a mobile app designed to perform core inventory functions from a handheld device, allowing for tasks like cycle counting and order picking on the go.

Since contractors live on their phones, Ply was built with a mobile-first philosophy. Our app isn’t just a scaled-down version of the desktop software; it’s a powerful tool designed for the field. Techs can instantly see their truck stock, request parts from a job site, and even take photos of what they need. This seamless connection between the field and the office is critical for efficiency and accuracy, especially when you integrate with field service platforms like ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro.

How Well Do They Integrate?

Your software should work together, plain and simple. When your inventory platform can’t talk to your job management or accounting software, it creates friction that slows your entire operation down. The goal is a seamless flow of information from the initial quote to the final invoice, and the right integrations are what make that happen.

Let’s break down what that looks like in practice.

Field Service Platforms

For contractors, the field service management (FSM) platform is the heartbeat of the business, where jobs are scheduled, techs dispatched, and customer info managed. Your inventory system needs to plug in seamlessly. This is Ply’s sweet spot. It integrates deeply with leading FSMs like ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, and Jobber, so parts and materials flow directly into work orders, POs tie back to specific jobs, and techs can check real-time truck stock without leaving their app.

Fishbowl, designed for warehouses and factories, doesn’t offer this level of native FSM integration. Connecting it to something like ServiceTitan often means costly custom builds that add complexity and risk.

Accounting Software

Keeping your books accurate is non-negotiable. A solid integration between your inventory and accounting software ensures that job costs, purchase orders, and invoices are all aligned, giving you a clear picture of your profitability. Fishbowl is well-known for its strong connection with QuickBooks and also integrates with Xero, which is a major plus for businesses that rely on those platforms for their accounting.

Ply also provides robust, two-way syncs with essential accounting software like QuickBooks and Sage Intacct. The key difference is that Ply’s integrations are designed to complete the workflow that starts in your FSM. The data flows from the job, through purchasing and inventory, and lands perfectly in your accounting system. This creates a single source of truth for job costing and eliminates the manual reconciliation that eats up your back-office team’s time.

eCommerce Solutions

If you sell products directly to consumers through an online store, eCommerce integrations are a must. Fishbowl shines here, connecting with popular platforms like Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce. This allows businesses to manage their inventory across multiple online sales channels, which is essential for retailers and distributors.

However, for most trade contractors, selling parts on a public-facing eCommerce site isn’t part of the business model. Your focus is on procuring materials for jobs, not running an online retail operation. This is why Ply doesn’t prioritize these types of integrations. Instead, Ply focuses on connecting you with your suppliers’ catalogs, making the purchasing process faster and more efficient for the materials you need to complete jobs.

Other Third-Party Apps

Beyond the core FSM and accounting platforms, other connections can help streamline your operations. Fishbowl’s integrations often extend to shipping carriers (like UPS and FedEx), CRM systems, and various sales and marketing tools. This broad ecosystem makes sense for a product-selling business that needs to manage the entire customer lifecycle from lead to shipment.

Ply’s ecosystem is more focused, centered entirely on the contractor’s operational needs. This includes building out connections to supplier catalogs for streamlined purchasing and ensuring that every piece of the material management puzzle fits together.

A Breakdown of Pricing and Value

Let’s talk money. When you’re investing in software for your business, the price tag is a huge factor, but it rarely tells the whole story. A lower initial cost can sometimes hide expensive add-ons, while a higher price might deliver a much better return in the long run. The goal is to find a solution that not only fits your budget today but also provides real, measurable value as your business grows.

Let’s look at how Fishbowl and Ply approach pricing, so you can make a choice that truly benefits your bottom line.

Fishbowl’s Pricing Model

Fishbowl uses a perpetual license model, which means you pay a large, one-time fee to own the software. This initial cost can start at over $4,000. While “one-time fee” sounds appealing, it’s a bit misleading. If you want access to customer support, software updates, and new features, you’ll need to pay for an annual maintenance plan. Without it, your software will become outdated. This structure requires a significant upfront investment and an ongoing budget for maintenance, which can make it a less flexible option for businesses that prefer predictable, recurring expenses.

Ply’s Subscription Model

Ply offers a straightforward subscription model designed for growing trade businesses. Instead of a hefty upfront license, you pay a flat monthly or annual fee that covers everything; software, ongoing updates, and dedicated support. There are no surprise renewal charges or extra fees for new features.

Plans are tiered (Starter, Pro, and Enterprise) so you can choose the level that fits your business today, with the flexibility to scale up as you grow. Every plan includes unlimited users, which means your entire team can get on board without added costs per seat. This transparency makes budgeting easier and ensures you know exactly what you’re paying for.

For many small and midsize businesses, Ply’s approach eliminates the heavy capital expense of a perpetual license and replaces it with a predictable operating cost. That means you can manage cash flow more effectively while investing in a tool that grows with you.

A Look at the Technical Details

When you’re choosing software, the technical details can feel a bit overwhelming. But understanding how a platform is built and how it runs is key to knowing if it will work for your business long-term. From deployment to security, here’s how Fishbowl and Ply compare.

Deployment Options

Fishbowl offers flexibility here, with both a cloud-based version and an on-premise option that you install on your own computers. The on-premise choice might appeal to businesses with dedicated IT staff and a need to keep all data housed on-site, giving them direct control over their servers and hardware.

Ply, on the other hand, is built entirely in the cloud. This means you don’t need to worry about installing software, managing servers, or running manual updates. As long as you have an internet connection, you and your techs can access your inventory data from any device, anywhere. This approach is designed for the dynamic nature of the trades, ensuring everyone has the most up-to-date information.

Security Features

Fishbowl ensures secure operations by offering solid integrations with trusted accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero, keeping your financial data synced and protected. This allows you to manage inventory while leaning on the security of your existing financial systems.

Ply also prioritizes security through its modern, cloud-based architecture and its own set of deep integrations with accounting platforms. By using a cloud-native platform, you get the benefit of enterprise-grade security without having to manage it yourself. All your data is encrypted and backed up automatically, giving you peace of mind.

System Requirements

System requirements can be a hidden hurdle, especially for businesses without a dedicated IT team. For an on-premise solution like Fishbowl, you’ll need to ensure your computers and servers meet certain specifications to run the software effectively. This often involves an initial setup cost and ongoing maintenance to keep everything running smoothly, which can add to the total cost of ownership over time.

With a cloud-based tool like Ply, the system requirements are refreshingly simple: a web browser and an internet connection. This accessibility makes it incredibly easy to get your team up and running.

Performance

Fishbowl is often praised for its user-friendly interface and straightforward implementation. For many businesses, it provides a solid, dependable experience for managing complex inventory and manufacturing processes, which is a significant strength.

Ply is built specifically to streamline the fast-paced workflows of contractors. The platform is designed for real-time performance, ensuring that when a tech in the field updates their truck stock, the change is reflected instantly for the purchasing manager in the office. The goal is a smooth, intuitive experience that doesn’t slow you down.

Getting Started: Support and Setup

Adopting new software is as much about partnership as it is about technology. Implementation, training, and support can make or break your experience.

The Implementation Process

Getting your inventory system set up correctly from the start is crucial. Fishbowl offers implementation support and training resources to guide new users, but this often comes as an add-on service, which can increase the total cost of adoption.

Ply takes a more hands-on, partnership-based approach. Recognizing that every contractor’s setup is different, Ply offers onsite warehouse implementation to ensure your system is configured for your specific workflows.

Training and Resources

Any new tool comes with a learning curve. While many Fishbowl users report that the software is easy to use once they get the hang of it, the initial training can be a hurdle. The platform is feature-rich, which means teams need to invest time in learning a system that wasn’t specifically designed for their industry’s day-to-day tasks.

Ply was built from the ground up for contractors, which makes the training process much more intuitive. The language, layout, and workflows are designed to mirror the real-world jobs your team already does, from managing truck stock to creating purchase orders for a specific job. They also offer weekly online office hours with co-founder Darion Miller, where he tackles everything from user questions to future updates.

Ongoing Customer Support

When something goes wrong or you have a question, you need fast, effective help. Fishbowl provides ongoing customer support, which is essential for any business relying on its inventory system for daily operations. Their support team is equipped to handle general software inquiries and technical issues.

With Ply, you get support from a team that specializes in the trades. This industry-specific expertise means you get more relevant, practical solutions instead of generic software troubleshooting. The positive experiences shared by other contractors in their testimonials highlight just how much of a difference this human touch makes.

Maintenance Needs

Fishbowl often requires users to manage regular updates to keep the software running efficiently and securely. Depending on your setup, this can involve manual installations and potential compatibility checks with other systems, which can be a hassle for businesses without a dedicated IT department.

Ply handles all maintenance for you. Updates are rolled out automatically in the background, so you’re always on the latest version without any downtime or effort from your team. There are no servers to maintain or patches to install.

How to Make the Right Choice

The best choice for your business means finding a partner that understands your daily grind and grows with you. Instead of getting lost in endless feature comparisons, let’s walk through four key areas to help you decide which platform is the right fit for your business.

Consider Your Business Size

The needs of a two-truck plumbing business are vastly different from those of a regional HVAC company with a fleet of 50. Your company’s current size and structure play a big role in which software will serve you best. Fishbowl is often recommended for small to medium-sized businesses that need a traditional inventory system.

Ply, on the other hand, is built to support trade businesses of all sizes, from the solo owner-operator to multi-location enterprises. Its tools for managing inventory and simplifying purchasing are just as valuable for a small team as they are for a large one. Because it’s designed for the trades, it scales intuitively as you add more techs, trucks, and even warehouse locations, ensuring the system grows with your business needs.

Match Your Industry Needs

While Fishbowl is a capable system, its strengths lie in manufacturing and general distribution. It offers solid integrations with accounting software like QuickBooks, but it wasn’t designed with a service truck in mind. For contractors, your workflow is unique; you manage inventory on wheels, create purchase orders from the field, and rely on seamless communication between your office, techs, and suppliers.

This is where a specialized solution makes all the difference. Ply focuses on the exact industry challenges you face, like tracking parts from the warehouse to the job site and ensuring your techs have what they need. Its deep integrations with field service platforms like ServiceTitan and Jobber mean it fits directly into your existing workflow, rather than forcing you to work around it.

Plan for Scalability

The software you choose today should be able to support your five-year plan. As you think about growth, consider how each platform will accommodate more employees, trucks, and jobs. With traditional software like Fishbowl, scaling can sometimes mean significant new costs for implementation and user licenses. An initial setup can run into the thousands, and expanding your use of the system might require another big investment.

A modern platform like Ply is built for flexible growth. Its subscription model allows you to scale up or down as your business evolves, without the hefty upfront costs. Adding a new technician or a new warehouse location is straightforward. The goal is to find a system that provides a clear path forward, helping you understand the potential return on your investment as you expand.

Align with Your Budget

Finally, let’s talk about cost. When you evaluate software, it’s crucial to determine whether the features truly justify the expense for your specific operations. Fishbowl typically involves an upfront licensing fee plus implementation costs, which can be a significant capital expense. You need to be sure that its broad feature set is something you’ll actually use.

Ply operates on a subscription model, which makes budgeting more predictable and avoids a large initial cash outlay. This approach allows you to invest in a purpose-built tool that directly impacts your bottom line by reducing material waste, streamlining purchasing, and saving your team countless hours. The right choice is the one that delivers tangible value, turning an expense into an investment.

Frequently Asked Questions

We’re a contractor, but we have a decent-sized warehouse. Wouldn’t a robust warehouse tool like Fishbowl be a better fit? That’s a great question because it gets to the heart of what a contractor’s warehouse is for. While Fishbowl is excellent for managing a traditional distribution center, a contractor’s warehouse serves a different purpose: it supports your field operations. Ply is designed specifically for that workflow. It helps you organize your warehouse to efficiently restock service trucks and stage materials for upcoming jobs, turning your warehouse into a strategic asset that directly improves your team’s efficiency in the field.

Is Ply just a ‘lite’ version of a bigger system like Fishbowl? Not at all. Think of it as focused, not lite. Instead of offering complex manufacturing features like bills of materials that contractors don’t need, Ply provides deep, powerful tools for the work you actually do. This includes things like multi-level purchasing approvals, real-time truck stock visibility for every tech, and streamlined job costing. It’s a powerful system built with the right features to solve a contractor’s specific material management challenges.

We live in our field service software, like ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro. How does each platform connect with it? This is one of the most important differences between the two. Ply was built to integrate seamlessly with the field service platforms that run your business, including ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, and Jobber. This creates a single, connected workflow where purchase orders are linked to jobs and material costs flow automatically. Fishbowl, being designed for manufacturing, doesn’t offer these direct, out-of-the-box integrations, meaning you would likely need a costly and complicated custom solution to make it talk to your most critical software.

Fishbowl’s one-time license fee seems more affordable than a monthly subscription. Am I missing something? It’s easy to see why a one-time fee looks appealing, but it rarely tells the whole story. That initial price for Fishbowl often doesn’t include the thousands you might spend on implementation and training. More importantly, to get software updates and support, you have to pay a recurring annual maintenance fee. Ply’s subscription is straightforward and all-inclusive. Your predictable fee covers the software, ongoing support, and all future updates, so there are no surprise costs down the road.

My technicians aren’t computer experts. Which system is easier for them to use in the field? This is a critical point because a tool is only useful if your team actually uses it. Ply was designed with a mobile-first philosophy, meaning the app for your technicians is simple, intuitive, and built for their daily tasks. From their phone, they can instantly see what’s on their truck, request a part from a job site, or transfer stock to another tech. A more complex system like Fishbowl, with features designed for a warehouse manager, can be overwhelming for field staff and lead to poor adoption.