Comparison

Best moving apps, compared by one of them

Straight up: BoxLister publishes this page, and BoxLister is one of the six apps on it. So read the table rather than the adjectives. Every price below was read from the vendor's own pricing page or its App Store listing on 31 August 2026, and every one is linked so you can check it. BoxLister is not listed first, and there are three apps here that beat it at specific things. Those are named.

A moving app has one job: three weeks after the truck leaves, you need the phone charger, and you need to know which box it is in. Everything else is detail. Here is what six of them cost, what they run on, and which one fits which kind of move.

The short version

BoxBuddy: Best if you are on an iPhone and want QR labels and family sharing built in
BoxLister: Best if you want to buy the offline tier once, start without an account, and use any phone or laptop
Moving Organizer Pro: Best if you want the cheapest possible box list and nothing else
Nest Egg - Inventory: Best if you want a permanent home inventory that outlives the move
Sortly: Best if you are inventorying a business, and overkill if you are moving house
MoveAdvisor: Best for finding and comparing a moving company, which is a different job

The comparison

Eight axes that actually differ between these tools. Where a vendor does not state something, this says "not stated" rather than guessing.

App	Price	Model	Free tier	Platforms	Offline	Account to start	QR labels	Item search
BoxBuddy	$19.99/yr individual, $29.99/yr family	Subscription	First 10 boxes	iPhone and iPad	Not stated	Yes	Yes, core feature	Yes
BoxListerOurs	$4.99 AUD Pro Offline, $9.99 AUD Cloud Sync (12 months)	One-time (Cloud Sync: 12 months)	First 5 boxes, no card and no password	Any browser, installable on iPhone, Android and desktop	Yes, by design	No	Optional, not required	Yes, item level
Moving Organizer Pro	$0.99 one-time	One-time	A separate free Lite version, one move at a time, with ads	iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated	Yes
Nest Egg - Inventory	$6.99 one-time, plus optional $1.99 add-ons	One-time	A separate free Lite version	iPhone and iPad	Yes, data stays on the device	No	Yes, via a $1.99 add-on	Yes
Sortly	$24 to $149 per month, with a free tier	Subscription	100 items, 1 user	Web, iOS and Android	Yes	Yes	Yes, on paid plans	Yes
MoveAdvisor	Free	Free, lead generation	The whole thing	iOS and Android	Not stated	Not stated	No	Not its purpose

All figures read on 31 August 2026. Prices change, and promotional rates in particular expire. Each app's source is linked in its section below.

Which one should you pick?

The table has the facts. This does the arithmetic. Find the line that sounds like your move.

Everyone helping with the move is on an iPhone, and you want to scan a box to see what is inside it

BoxBuddy. It has the most moving specific features of anything here, and QR labels and family sharing are first class rather than bolted on. You are paying yearly for that, and nobody on Android can join in.

Your household is split across an iPhone, an Android and a laptop, and you would rather not subscribe to anything

BoxLister. Of the six apps on this page, BoxLister is the only one that runs on all of those, sells its main tier as a single payment that does not expire, and lets you start without making an account. Every other app here fails at least one of those three. You can check that against the table above. Its optional sync tier is the exception to the first point: that one buys twelve months rather than forever.

You have an iPhone, you want the cheapest thing that does the job, and you do not care what it looks like

Moving Organizer Pro. Under a dollar, paid once. It lists boxes, holds their contents, and searches them. The interface is dated and it is iOS only, but at that price the value is not really arguable.

You want a record of your belongings that outlives the move, mainly for insurance

Nest Egg - Inventory. It is built for cataloguing a household rather than running a move, and the barcode lookup that auto fills product details is genuinely good for that. Pay once, no account, data stays on your device. iOS only.

You are moving a business, or you need several people in the inventory at once

Sortly. This is the only tool here built for that, with custom fields, multiple users and real reporting. It is the wrong answer for a house move, where you would be paying $24 a month to pack a kitchen.

You have not booked a mover yet

MoveAdvisor. Different job entirely. Use it to compare moving companies and get quotes, then use one of the others to track what goes in the boxes.

The six, in detail

Ordered by how closely each one fits the job of tracking a house move, not by preference.

BoxBuddy

Best if you are on an iPhone and want QR labels and family sharing built in

The most feature complete moving specific app in this list. QR code labels, voice dictation, photo inventory and real time family sharing are all first class, and it is built for moving rather than adapted to it. Two things to weigh: it is a yearly subscription rather than a one off, and it is iPhone and iPad only, so a household split across iPhone and Android cannot share a move on it.

Price: $19.99/yr individual, $29.99/yr family
Free tier: First 10 boxes
Runs on: iPhone and iPad

Source: BoxBuddy pricing, stated on its own site, read 31 August 2026.

BoxLister

Best if you want to buy the offline tier once, start without an account, and use any phone or laptop

This is our app, so read the table rather than this paragraph. Where it genuinely wins: the offline tier is a single payment that does not expire, you can start listing boxes without creating an account, and because it runs in the browser it works on whatever devices your household actually owns. Be clear about the sync tier though: it buys twelve months of syncing rather than forever, and if you want to keep syncing after that you buy it again. Nothing auto renews, and your boxes stay on your device either way. Where it loses: it is the newest and smallest tool here, and if you want QR labels and voice capture as polished first class features, BoxBuddy does that better today.

Price: $4.99 AUD Pro Offline, $9.99 AUD Cloud Sync (12 months)
Free tier: First 5 boxes, no card and no password
Runs on: Any browser, installable on iPhone, Android and desktop

Two things worth knowing. Prices are charged in Australian dollars, with no automatic conversion by country yet, so a US or UK buyer is billed in AUD. And Cloud Sync grants twelve months of syncing rather than permanent access: it does not auto renew, so nothing is charged again unless you buy it again, and Pro Offline does not expire at all.

Source: BoxLister pricing page, read 31 August 2026.

Moving Organizer Pro

Best if you want the cheapest possible box list and nothing else

A dollar, one payment, and it does the core job: boxes, contents, and a search to find which box something is in. It also prints to PDF and backs up to Dropbox. It is iOS only and its interface shows its age, but at this price the value is hard to argue with if you have an iPhone and want nothing clever.

Price: $0.99 one-time
Free tier: A separate free Lite version, one move at a time, with ads
Runs on: iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision

Some third party roundups list an Android version. The App Store listing shows iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision only, and no Android release could be verified, so this table says iOS.

Source: App Store listing, read 31 August 2026.

Nest Egg - Inventory

Best if you want a permanent home inventory that outlives the move

Closer in philosophy to BoxLister than anything else here: pay once, no account, your data stays on your device. It is built for cataloguing a household rather than running a move, so it is stronger for insurance records and weaker for the pack and unpack workflow. Barcode lookup that auto fills product details is genuinely good. iOS only, and several features people expect as standard are $1.99 add-ons.

Price: $6.99 one-time, plus optional $1.99 add-ons
Free tier: A separate free Lite version
Runs on: iPhone and iPad

Source: App Store listing, read 31 August 2026.

Sortly

Best if you are inventorying a business, and overkill if you are moving house

The most powerful tool in this list by a distance, and the least suited to a house move. It is business inventory software: custom fields, multiple users, barcode and QR label generation, proper reporting. The free tier caps at 100 items, which a three bedroom move passes easily, and the next step up is $24 a month. If you run a business that also happens to be moving, this is the right answer. For one move, you are renting a warehouse system to pack a kitchen.

Price: $24 to $149 per month, with a free tier
Free tier: 100 items, 1 user
Runs on: Web, iOS and Android

The $24 figure is the current promotional rate, listed as 50 percent off a regular $49. Prices were read from the vendor pricing page and promotional rates expire.

Source: Sortly pricing page, read 31 August 2026.

MoveAdvisor

Best for finding and comparing a moving company, which is a different job

Included because it comes up constantly in moving app roundups, and because it is worth knowing what it actually is. MoveAdvisor is a platform for comparing moving companies and requesting quotes, funded by connecting you to movers. That is a genuinely useful job, and it is not the same job as tracking what is in box 34. Use it to book the truck, use something else to pack it.

Price: Free
Free tier: The whole thing
Runs on: iOS and Android

Source: MoveAdvisor site, read 31 August 2026.

How this was put together, and what it is not

This is desk research, not a hands on test. Every price, platform and feature claim above was read on 31 August 2026 from either the vendor's own pricing page or its App Store listing, and each one is linked in its section so you can check it yourself. Nothing here was taken from another roundup.

What that means in practice: we have not packed a house with all six of these running side by side, so this page will not tell you which one felt nicer on move day. It will tell you accurately what each one costs, what it runs on, whether it works without signal, and whether you have to make an account before you can start. Those are the things you can check before you commit, and they are the things that change the decision most.

Two honest limits. Where a vendor does not publish something, the table says "not stated" rather than filling the gap with an assumption. And prices move, especially promotional ones, so treat the date above as the expiry on everything here.

There are no ratings or scores on this page, from us or from anywhere else. A five star average assembled by a company that sells one of the products is not information, and BoxLister is far too small for any number we published about ourselves to mean anything.

Questions people ask when choosing

What is the best app for moving house?

It depends on which part of the move you want help with, which is why this page does not crown one. For tracking what is in each box on an iPhone, BoxBuddy has the most moving specific features. For paying once rather than subscribing, and for working on whatever devices your household owns, BoxLister. For the cheapest possible list, Moving Organizer Pro at under a dollar. For finding a moving company, MoveAdvisor, which does not track boxes at all.

Is there a free moving inventory app?

Several, with limits. BoxLister is free for the first five boxes with no card and no account. BoxBuddy is free for the first ten. Sortly has a free tier capped at 100 items and one user. Moving Organizer has a free Lite version that handles one move at a time and shows ads. For a whole house you will hit one of those ceilings, so the real question is what the next step up costs and whether it is one payment or a recurring one.

Do I need QR codes on my moving boxes?

No. QR labels are genuinely useful if you like scanning a box to see its contents, but they add a step: you have to print them and stick them on before you can scan anything. A number written on the side with a marker does the same job as long as the app can search what is inside. Treat QR as a preference rather than a requirement, and do not pick an app on that feature alone unless you know you will print labels.

Is a spreadsheet good enough for a move?

For a small move, honestly yes. A sheet with box number, room and contents will get you through a studio or a one bedroom flat. It starts to hurt on a house, mostly because you are updating it on a laptop while packing with your hands, and because searching it on a phone mid unpack is awkward. The apps here mainly buy you fast entry on a phone and fast search afterwards.

If the one-time price is what sold you.

List what goes in each box as you pack it, then search any item later and BoxLister tells you the box and the room. The first five boxes are free, with no card and no password, which is enough to know whether you like it.

Try it free, five boxes