A one-time profit check or a monthly profit app: which fits your shop

It depends on the question you want answered. A monthly profit app connects to your shop and tracks profit order by order for as long as you pay for it. A one-time profit check asks you a few numbers and shows where your money goes right now, without a connection or a monthly bill.

Both are useful. They do different jobs, and the right one depends on how many orders you have, how often you want to look, and whether you want software reading your shop at all. Below are four well-known monthly apps, described from their own pages, and the one-time check we make, so you can see which fits.

Two different jobs

A connected profit app reads your orders, fees, refunds and ad spend from the platform, adds the product costs you enter, and keeps a running profit and loss. Its strength is that it keeps going: every new order lands in the numbers without you typing anything.

A one-time check works from what you tell it: your average order, what an item costs you, what you charge and pay for shipping, and what you spend on ads. It can't see your real orders, so its figures are estimates at your numbers. Its strength is speed and a plain answer: where the money goes, and which fix is worth the most.

Four monthly apps and a one-time check, side by side

A few details from the same pages. Sellerboard says accounts top out at 30,000 products. BeProfit's yearly plans save 20%. Lifetimely adds Amazon data for $75 a month on paid plans, per its Shopify listing. ProfitTree says it pulls your numbers from your Etsy account ledger once your shop is connected, and its pricing page shows a monthly or annual toggle; we list the monthly prices.

What a monthly profit app does well

• It keeps counting. Once it's connected, new orders, refunds and fees show up without any typing.
• It goes deep. Sellerboard tracks more than a hundred Amazon fee types, and Lifetimely and BeProfit report profit by product, customer group and channel.
• It covers more than profit. Inventory warnings, ad tools, review requests or product research come with some plans.
• It suits a shop with enough orders that patterns only show up over weeks and months.

The trade-offs are the ones that come with any connected tool: a monthly bill, a setup where you enter product costs, and a dashboard to learn. Prices also rise with your order count on the Sellerboard, BeProfit and Lifetimely pricing pages.

What a one-time check does well

The free check-up asks seven short questions in your platform's own words. There is no login and nothing to connect. You get a grade in plain words, what each order and each month keep, your month as an itemized receipt, and your three biggest losses, each with its fix and what that fix is worth at your numbers, if orders hold. You can see a sample result before you start.

If you want more, the profit report is $19.99, paid once, and ranks every loss with numbered steps. The full audit is $29.99 for more products and includes a day-30 re-check. Neither renews, and either can be refunded within 14 days for any reason.

The limits are real too. It reads your answers, not your shop, so it is only as close as your estimates. It doesn't watch new orders, it doesn't track inventory, and it won't tell you which customer group is most valuable. It is a check-up, not a tracker.

Who each suits

• Sellerboard suits Amazon sellers who want every Amazon fee, refund and ad cost tracked as it happens, along with inventory and PPC tools.
• BeProfit suits Shopify stores that also sell on Amazon or WooCommerce and want one profit and loss across them.
• Lifetimely suits Shopify brands that care about lifetime value, cohorts and customer cost. Its free plan covers stores with up to 50 orders a month.
• ProfitTree suits Etsy sellers, especially print-on-demand sellers, who want profit pulled from their shop, with a free plan to start.
• A one-time check suits a seller who wants to know where money goes now, across Etsy, Shopify or Amazon, without connecting a shop or adding a monthly bill.

You can use both

These aren't either-or. One path is to start with a check to see whether fees, shipping, ads or pricing cost you the most, fix that, and add a monthly app later if your order volume makes continuous tracking worth paying for. Another is to find the check answers your question and a dashboard can wait.

A few questions before you pick

1. Which platform do you sell on? Most apps are built around one, so start with the ones built for yours.
2. How many orders a month? Several apps price by order count, so check the plan your volume lands in.
3. Do you want to look every day, or once to set things right?
4. Are you comfortable connecting your shop to another service?
5. What will you do with the answer? A tool is worth its price only if it changes a decision.

If you'd like to see your own numbers first, the free check-up takes about a minute, and the calculators answer single questions such as fees on one sale or the price that gives you a margin.