Keeplea and Sortly

Sortly is the biggest name most people meet when they search for a home inventory app, and it has earned that — over a decade of development and a serious product behind it.

It is also, quite openly, business software. The consumer app tier runs $4.99 a month to $47.99 a year, but the ladder above it goes $49, $149 and $299 a month. Those tiers exist because the real customer is a contractor tracking tools across vans, or a clinic counting supplies.

That’s not a criticism. It’s the reason to check the fit before you start building a catalogue.

Two different questions

Inventory answers “how many, and where?” You put things into folders, give them quantities, attach custom fields, print barcode labels, and check items in and out. The value is that the count stays true over time. That takes structure, and the structure is the product.

Keeplea answers “what was that one?” The paint in the hallway. The model on the boiler plate. The wine you liked. There is no count, no folder to choose, and no label to print — you photograph the thing and it reads what’s on it.

	Sortly	Keeplea
The question	How many, and where	What was that one
Getting things in	You enter them, or scan a barcode	You photograph them
Structure	Folders, quantities, custom fields	None to set up
Setup before value	Real — it’s a system you build	A single capture
Teams and permissions	Yes	No
Quantities and stock alerts	Yes	No
Getting it back	Browse the tree, or search	Ask in ordinary words
Built for	Businesses	One person’s things

If you landed on Sortly looking for a home inventory

That’s the common path, and it’s worth being honest about where it goes.

The trial works. You add a few things, and it’s clearly capable. Then you’re looking at an empty folder tree, deciding whether “Kitchen” is a location or a category, whether the boiler goes under Appliances or Utilities, and whether you’re really going to keep the quantities accurate. Most people stop there — not because the software failed, but because the work it asks for only pays off if something depends on the count. In a business, something does. In a house, usually nothing does.

If that’s where you got to, the useful question isn’t which inventory app is friendlier. It’s whether you wanted an inventory at all, or whether you just wanted to find the model number when the boiler breaks.

What Sortly is built for

Anything with a number attached. Stock levels, quantities, low-stock alerts, check-in and check-out. Keeplea has none of it and isn’t heading there.

More than one person. Teams, permissions and a shared record. Keeplea is one person’s things.

A deliberate, audited catalogue. If you have to prove what you own and where it is — for a business, an insurer, an audit — a structured system is the right tool, and Sortly is a mature one.

The overlap is narrower than it looks

Both apps end up holding things you own, which makes them look like alternatives. They’re not really. Sortly is a system you maintain; Keeplea is a reflex you don’t.

If you’ll keep a catalogue accurate, keep it — and keep it in Sortly. If you know you won’t, the honest alternative isn’t a lighter inventory app. It’s not having an inventory, and being able to find the thing anyway.

That’s the home inventory that builds itself — no folders, no counts, and nothing to maintain.