Overview

Built at Partners In Health after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, OpenBoxes was designed to track medical supplies in resource-scarce settings. It has also been adapted for warehouse management, distribution, and other supply-chain work. That history makes its detailed stock records a natural fit for healthcare and relief operations, while multi-warehouse support gives it relevance beyond those settings.

Inventory can be tracked by facility and bin, with lot or serial numbers and expiration dates. This is more useful than a simple quantity ledger when teams need to locate stock, trace a specific batch, or monitor items with limited shelf life. The breadth of procurement, fulfillment, and reporting workflows makes OpenBoxes a substantial operational system, not just a stock counter.

Key features

Inventory and fulfillment

Purchase orders and supplier management support replenishment, while requisitions, picking, packing, and shipment tracking carry work through fulfillment. Cycle counting and multi-warehouse support round out the inventory workflow. This range can help organizations coordinate supply movement across sites, but it also means OpenBoxes is best evaluated against the processes the organization actually needs to manage.

Reports and integrations

Built-in reports cover consumption, stockouts, expirations, transactions, stock analytics, and quantity on hand. The features include REST API, webhooks, ERP integration, and EDI support, and name n8n, OpenFn, Boomi, Crowdin, and DHIS2. These options give teams routes to connect stock operations with other systems, though they imply integration work rather than a promise that every connection is turnkey.

Access and mobile workflows

Audit trails, Superuser, Manager, and Read-only roles, location-based access restrictions, and LDAP authentication support controlled access across facilities. The mobile-optimized interface includes barcode scanning, inventory lookups, and receiving and shipping workflows, which can help staff work at the point of handling rather than returning to a desktop for every update.

Pricing

OpenBoxes is free to use and modify under the Eclipse Public License, and its pricing page says there are no user-license fees. Community support is free. The free Community Self-Hosted plan is free, allows unlimited users, and leaves hosting and storage on the organization’s own server; there is no minimum term. It is the clearest fit for teams with infrastructure and staff to manage the system, but it does not include managed hosting.

Shared OpenBoxes Lift is 75.00 USD per month, billed from $75 per month. It covers up to 10 users, 10 GB storage, a 99.0% uptime SLA, 1k API calls/hour, and 30 days of backups. This is the smaller managed option for teams willing to trade unlimited seats and self-managed storage for hosting and guaranteed service levels, within explicit user, storage, and API limits.

Dedicated OpenBoxes Lift is 899.00 USD per month, billed from $899 per month, with up to 50 users, 100 GB storage, a 99.5% uptime SLA, 25k API calls/hour, and 60 days of backups. Its 12-month minimum term makes it a more committed choice for organizations that need dedicated managed capacity and stronger service levels. Enterprise OpenBoxes Lift has custom pricing, custom users and storage, a 99.9% uptime SLA, 24/7 support including holidays, and 90+ days of backups; it is aimed at organizations needing those higher service commitments.

Platforms

OpenBoxes supports Android, iOS, API, web, and self-hosted deployment. The web-based system can run in the cloud or on-premise. Cloud use requires consistent internet connectivity; on-premise offline capability requires suitable hardware and staff, so offline operation is not a cost-free substitute for cloud access.

Who it's for

OpenBoxes is a strong candidate for healthcare facilities, relief organizations, and warehouse or distribution operators that need lot, serial, expiry, and location-level inventory records alongside procurement and shipment workflows. The free self-hosted option is especially relevant to teams able to operate their own infrastructure. Organizations that need managed hosting can choose Lift, but should match user counts, storage, API demand, and service-level needs to the plan. It is less suitable for teams that require offline capability but lack the equipment and staffing to support an on-premise deployment.

Pros and cons

Pro: Detailed location, lot or serial, and expiration tracking, backed by stock and consumption reports, suits traceability-sensitive operations.
Pro: Unlimited users on the free self-hosted plan and no user-license fees avoid per-seat licensing costs.
Pro: Mobile barcode scanning and receiving and shipping workflows support work away from a desktop.
Con: The free plan is self-managed, so the organization carries hosting and upkeep responsibilities.
Con: Cloud use depends on consistent internet; offline on-premise use requires hardware and staff.
Con: Lift plans impose user, storage, and API limits at shared and dedicated tiers, and Dedicated carries a 12-month minimum.

Alternatives

For a broader shortlist, see Warehouse Management Software and Order Fulfillment Software. Consider Ongoing WMS instead if a paid system with a free trial and direct-to-carrier shipment pricing of €0.03 per shipment fits your operation. EPG LFS is a paid alternative with Android, iOS, Linux, self-hosted, web, and Windows platforms and quote-based pricing tied to project requirements, processes, and functions. Made4net WMS is another paid, no-free-plan option, with custom pricing based on features, warehouse size, and cloud or on-premise deployment. Generix Resource Management System is a paid API and web option with pricing handled by contacting an expert. Manhattan Active Inventory Replenishment, Körber Transportation Management, and Ramco Enterprise Asset Management are also alternatives to consider. Choose Packiyo WMS if its paid 3PL plan suits your operation: the 3PL plan is 949.00 USD per month, billed per month, with 5 users and up to 5,000 shipments per month.

Verdict

OpenBoxes is a compelling choice for healthcare, relief, and warehouse teams that need traceable inventory, purchasing, and fulfillment across sites, especially when they can use the unlimited-user self-hosted plan or justify managed Lift support. Look elsewhere if the organization cannot take on hosting and offline infrastructure responsibilities or needs plan limits and service commitments that do not fit its scale.

	OpenBoxes	SphereWMS
Free plan	Yes
Paid from	$75/mo
Platforms	Android, api, iOS, self-hosted, Web	Android, api, iOS, Web
Free plan	Yes	No
Paid from	24 /mo
Mobile app	Yes	Yes
Barcode scanning	Yes	Yes
Cycle counting	Yes	Yes
Shipping labels	Yes	Yes
Multiple warehouses	Yes	Yes
Multi-warehouse support	Yes
Picking methods		wave

OpenBoxes vs SphereWMS

OpenBoxes

SphereWMS