Sarah Chen
Manufacturing Operations Consultant | 8 Years
Sarah specializes in production workflow optimization and inventory systems for electronics and contract manufacturers. She has helped 30+ manufacturing teams transition off spreadsheets and into modern inventory systems.
"Free MRP software" mostly means one of three things: a capped trial disguised as a plan, open-source software you host and maintain yourself, or a genuinely free tier that only covers part of what MRP does. None of the honest options are actually free of trade-offs — this is what each one really gives you, including where Nstock's own free tier stops.
Search "free MRP software" and most results are affiliate roundups recycling the same five names with no real detail on what "free" excludes. This is a plainer look at what actually exists in 2026 for a small manufacturer trying to run production planning, BOMs, and inventory without paying for it — at least at first.
Katana's Free Plan: 30 SKUs, a 15-Day Grace Period
Katana MRP publishes a genuine $0/month plan: unlimited users, integrations, and locations, with all core features and add-on modules unlocked. The catch is the SKU cap — 30 SKUs, with unlimited SKUs available only during a 15-day grace period after signup. Once that window closes or you cross 30 SKUs, whichever comes first, you're routed to a paid plan (Core starts at a published $299/month, and the manufacturing features most producers actually need — traceability, advanced multi-level routings, warehouse management — are separate add-ons on top of that; see our breakdown of Katana's real total cost for the numbers).
For context: 30 SKUs sounds generous until you count raw materials, packaging components, SKU variants, and intermediate products separately, the way real production actually requires. A modest operation with a handful of recipes can hit that ceiling before finished goods are even in the count. Treat Katana's free plan as a short, full-featured trial rather than a standing free tier — because structurally, that's what it is. Figures above are as of July 2026; always confirm current terms on katanamrp.com before planning around them.
Odoo Community Edition: Free, But You're the IT Department
Odoo's Community edition is open-source and free to use, including a Manufacturing app with BOMs and work orders. The trade-off is that "free" means self-hosted: you (or someone on your team) install it, host it on your own server or cloud instance, handle upgrades, and troubleshoot it yourself — there's no vendor support line to call. Odoo's paid Enterprise tier exists specifically to remove that burden, with hosted infrastructure and support, which tells you where the real cost of Community edition actually lives: not in a subscription fee, but in hours.
If your team already runs Linux servers and is comfortable with self-managed software, Community edition is a legitimately capable, no-license-fee option. If IT isn't a core competency in your business, the "free" software can end up costing more in setup time and ongoing maintenance than a modest paid subscription would have.
InvenTree: Open-Source, Genuinely Free — With a Learning Curve
InvenTree is a smaller, open-source inventory and parts-tracking system with BOM support, popular in electronics and maker communities. It's free under an open license with no user or SKU caps built into the software itself, and — like Odoo Community — it's self-hosted, typically run via Docker on your own infrastructure. There's no polished onboarding flow or dedicated support team; documentation and community forums are the support channel.
InvenTree is a strong fit if you want full control, don't mind a technical setup process, and your manufacturing needs are closer to parts and component tracking than full production-floor MRP with sales quoting, purchasing workflows, and financial reporting built in. It's a less natural fit if nobody on the team wants to own server maintenance.
Spreadsheet Templates: The Original Free Option
The oldest free option is still in play: a BOM spreadsheet, a production log, and a manual reorder-point calculation. It costs nothing beyond the time to build it, and for a genuinely small operation — a handful of SKUs, one person doing the counting — it can work fine for a while. The limits show up predictably as volume grows: no real-time inventory deduction when production consumes materials, no automatic cost rollup through multi-level BOMs, no lot traceability, and version-control chaos the moment more than one person edits the file. Free templates are a reasonable starting point, not a long-term system.
Where Nstock Fits
Nstock runs two things side by side, and it's worth being precise about which is which. First, a genuinely free tier: finished-goods tracking, free forever, no expiry date, no SKU countdown. Second, and separately, every new account gets a 90-day full-featured trial of the Business plan — bills of materials, multi-level BOM cost rollup, production runs, lot tracking, sales quotes — so you can put real manufacturing features through their paces before deciding what you need long-term.
Being equally direct about what the free tier does not include: bills of materials, multi-level BOM cost rollup, production run tracking, and lot tracking are trial and paid features, not part of the permanent free tier. If your operation is pure reselling or light assembly with no multi-stage recipes, free finished-goods tracking might be all you need. If you're running actual multi-stage production — a bulk mix or sub-assembly feeding a finished product — you'll eventually need BOMs and cost rollup, which means a paid plan (Starter starts at $49/month) once the trial ends. See current pricing for exact plan details, and our companion piece on free inventory software generally for the broader category beyond MRP specifically.
Which Free Option Actually Fits Your Stage
- Just reselling or lightly assembling, low SKU count: a genuinely free, no-expiry tier like Nstock's finished-goods plan is likely enough on its own.
- Testing full manufacturing features before committing: a time-boxed trial — Katana's 15-day window or Nstock's 90-day trial — lets you evaluate real BOMs and production runs without paying yet; the longer window gives more room to actually validate the fit.
- Comfortable running your own servers, want zero license cost long-term: Odoo Community or InvenTree are legitimately free, provided someone owns the hosting and maintenance.
- Very small, simple, single-person operation: spreadsheet templates remain a fine starting point, with the understanding that they won't scale past a certain point.
If you're already on another platform and evaluating whether to move, switching to Nstock is worth comparing against the specific limits above rather than marketing claims — including ours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is any MRP software actually free forever, with no catch?
Genuinely uncapped, no-expiry free tiers exist, but they're narrower than full MRP — Nstock's free tier covers finished-goods tracking, not BOMs or production runs. Open-source options like Odoo Community and InvenTree are free of license fees indefinitely, but "free" there means self-hosted, with setup and maintenance time as the real cost instead of a subscription.
What's the real difference between a free plan and a free trial?
A free plan is meant to run indefinitely at a capped scope — Nstock's finished-goods tier, for example. A free trial is time-boxed or usage-capped and expects conversion to a paid plan — Katana's 30-SKU, 15-day free plan functions this way, as does Nstock's separate 90-day Business trial.
Can open-source MRP software handle real production, not just parts tracking?
Odoo Community includes a manufacturing app with BOMs and work orders capable of running real production, provided you're willing to self-host and maintain it. InvenTree leans more toward parts and inventory tracking than full production-floor MRP with quoting and purchasing workflows — a reasonable fit for component-heavy electronics work, less so for full multi-stage manufacturing.
Does Nstock's free tier include bills of materials?
No. The free tier covers finished-goods tracking only. BOMs, multi-level cost rollup, production run tracking, and lot tracking are available during the 90-day full-featured trial and on paid plans afterward, starting at $49/month. See pricing for current plan details.