« Best software » lists all look alike: five products, four adjectives each, no prices. This one tries the opposite — the figures vendors publish, the gaps where they publish none, and for each solution the situation in which it is the right choice.
The criteria that really decide
Almost all of these programs can record stock coming in and going out. What really separates them comes down to six points, and five of them never appear in the brochures.
- From which plan is stock included? A low entry price often hides stock that is billed two tiers higher.
- Rent or buy? A subscription is paid again every year, with no end. A lifetime licence costs more in the first year and then stops. The right comparison is over five years, not twelve months.
- Does the interface really exist in Arabic? Many claim it, few show it. Ask for a demonstration of the screen, not a sales answer.
- What happens when the connection drops? Online solutions stop. Installed software keeps going. Depending on your neighbourhood, this point weighs more than all the features put together.
- Do you sell by the unit and by the case? A wholesaler who sells the same item by the piece and by the carton needs software that allows for it, or the stock is wrong from the first week.
- Do you track customers on credit? The credit notebook is the reality of many Moroccan shops, and it is the feature most often missing.
Moroccan solutions
They have the advantage of local VAT, the dirham, support in the same time zone and, sometimes, Arabic.
Tadbeery — for cooperatives and producers
A Moroccan cloud platform, in Arabic, French and English. It goes beyond pure trade: production, bills of materials, batch tracking and FEFO rotation, which makes it relevant for a food cooperative, a pharmacy or a processor.
Published prices: 2,490, 4,900 and 7,900 DH per year depending on the number of accounts, subscription only. It offers a 60-day free trial, eight times longer than ours, which lets you test a full season before deciding. That is a real advantage over us, and it shows most if you are still unsure about your needs. Detailed comparison with Gestio.
TIJARA (NSE) — for shops that cannot stop
Published by NSE in Casablanca, on the market since 2007. It is software installed on the computer, with a web interface as a complement and a POS range built around touch-screen till hardware.
Its installed version keeps working without a connection, which is not the case for any of the online solutions on this list, ours included. If outages are frequent where you are, that is the decisive argument. On the other hand NSE publishes no prices: the page talks of competitive prices and points to a quote, and the Arabic interface is not documented on the pages consulted. Detailed comparison with Gestio.
ETmanager — invoicing first, stock second
A Rabat-based vendor, online, with four monthly packs: 60, 150, 240 and 320 DH excluding tax per month. The scope is wide — CRM, projects, opportunities, tickets, accountant access — and multi-depot is documented with valuation at weighted average cost (CUMP) or FIFO.
The point to look at closely is the tier: stock management only appears in the third pack, at 240 DH excl. tax per month, i.e. 2,880 DH excl. tax over the year, and the till in the fourth, at 320 DH excl. tax per month. The 60 DH entry price covers invoicing only. Detailed comparison with Gestio.
Gestio — to get out of subscriptions
Ours, so read this paragraph with the appropriate suspicion. Gestio is stock software built in Morocco, available in Arabic and French and designed for the salesperson's phone. It covers purchases, stock, sales, till and customer debts. Stock is included in every plan.
Two ways to pay: 1 490 DH per year, or 3 900 DH once for a lifetime licence, then 600 DH per year for hosting. It is the only solution on this list where the subscription can stop. Its two weaknesses against the products above: it does not work without a connection, and the trial lasts only 7 days. The features in detail.
International solutions
Odoo and Sage come up in every Moroccan list, for good reasons and with real trade-offs.
Odoo is a modular ERP: stock is just one app among dozens, and the whole can cover accounting, manufacturing and payroll. It is the right choice when several departments must work in the same tool, and the wrong one when you simply wanted to track stock — setup and configuration are of another order of magnitude. Detailed comparison.
Sage is the historical incumbent in Morocco, with an established network of integrators and an accounting integration that firms know. If your accountant already works on it, that is worth weighing. Detailed comparison.
What it really costs, over five years
This is the table nobody publishes, and yet it is the only one that matters when you sign. Orders of magnitude, for one workstation and stock use, from each vendor's listed prices:
- ETmanager, Riyada pack — 240 DH excl. tax/month, i.e. about 2,880 DH excl. tax per year, every year.
- Tadbeery, first plan — 2,490 DH per year, every year.
- Gestio, annual plan — 1 490 DH per year, every year.
- Gestio, lifetime licence — 3 900 DH once, then 600 DH per year.
- TIJARA — not published, ask for a quote.
The difference between renting and buying shows from the third or fourth year. Do the calculation over the time you actually expect to keep the tool, not on the first year's price: that is exactly what monthly-instalment pricing is designed to hide.
How to choose, in practice
If you were to keep only one sentence per situation:
- Frequent internet outages — installed software like TIJARA, or you will not sell on outage days.
- Production, batches, expiry dates — Tadbeery.
- Need for CRM and projects as much as stock — ETmanager.
- Several departments in one ERP — Odoo.
- Accountant already equipped and attached to their tool — Sage.
- Grocery, wholesaler or hardware shop that sells on credit and wants to stop paying a subscription — Gestio.
And whichever name you pick: ask for a demonstration of the screen in Arabic if Arabic matters, have a real invoice with your VAT entered during the trial, and insist on a written price before signing. A vendor who refuses all three has already answered you.