# 10 Questions to Ask Before Buying Wholesale Nursery Software > A practical checklist for wholesale nursery owners evaluating ordering and inventory software: data ownership, pricing models, offline use, integrations, and more. - **URL:** https://get-nursery-app.com/blog/10-questions-to-ask-before-buying-nursery-software/ - **Date:** 2026-09-03 - **Category:** Buying Guide - **Publisher:** Reed Dynamic (https://get-nursery-app.com) Software demos are designed to look good. These ten questions are designed to find out what the demo doesn't show—who owns your data, what happens offline, and what the price really covers. Bring them to every vendor call, including ours. ## 1. Who owns my data—and can I export it today? Your plant catalog, customer list, pricing, and order history are the accumulated value of your business. Ask for the export button, not a promise. If getting your own data out requires a support ticket or a fee, that's a lock-in strategy, not a feature. (Our answer: [you own it, export anytime](/ownership/).) ## 2. Can each customer see their own pricing? Wholesale is relationship pricing. A platform that shows one price list to everyone forces you back to manual quoting—which is the phone-call problem you were trying to solve. Per-customer pricing should be a core capability, not an add-on. ## 3. Does it work on a job site with no signal? Landscapers browse and order from trucks, fields, and half-built subdivisions. If the software only works with a strong connection, your customers will hit a spinner exactly when they're ready to buy. Ask specifically: can a customer browse the catalog and build an order offline, and does it sync later? ## 4. What does the monthly price actually include? Get the full list in writing: hosting, updates, backups, support, new customer accounts, app-store updates. Then ask what costs extra. Per-user fees, "premium support," and surprise implementation invoices turn a reasonable sticker price into something else entirely. (Our model: [one flat monthly fee](/pricing/), no long-term contract.) ## 5. Is there a setup fee or a long-term contract? A vendor confident in their product doesn't need to lock you in for three years. Month-to-month terms keep the vendor motivated to earn your business continuously. Setup fees are worth questioning too: ask exactly what work they cover. ## 6. Will it work with what I already use? You shouldn't have to abandon Counterpoint, QuickBooks, or even your spreadsheets to add online ordering. Ask how your plant list and pricing get in, how they stay current, and whether order data can flow back out. The honest answer usually starts with "if your system can export a CSV…"—because that's how most real integrations begin. ## 7. What do my customers have to install or learn? Every step between your customer and their first order costs you adoption. Can they use a browser immediately? Is there a branded app in the App Store and Google Play? Is the first order doable without a training call? Software your customers won't use is worse than no software—you pay for it and still answer the phone. ## 8. What happens to my crew's workflow? Ordering software should end at a pick list your crew can actually use—organized by growing location, printable or on a tablet, with items checked off as they're pulled. If the vendor's answer stops at "you get an email when an order comes in," the hard half of fulfillment is still yours. ## 9. Who do I call when something breaks in May? Ask who answers support requests, how fast, and whether peak season changes that. A small vendor who knows your nursery by name can be a better answer than a ticket queue at a big one—but make them say it out loud. ## 10. Can I talk to a nursery that uses it? Not a testimonial—a conversation. Ten minutes with a working nursery tells you more than any demo: what setup was really like, what their customers said, what they'd do differently. A vendor who can't arrange this is telling you something. For a deeper walkthrough of the category, see our [wholesale nursery software buying guide](/blog/wholesale-nursery-software-buying-guide/). ## The pattern behind all ten Every question above tests the same thing: was this built for how wholesale nurseries actually operate—relationship pricing, field conditions, seasonal crush, crews pulling physical plants—or is it a generic storefront with plant photos? Ask all ten, take notes, and the difference becomes obvious fast. --- Part of the Reed Dynamic Nursery App blog: https://get-nursery-app.com/blog/ — more pages in Markdown at https://get-nursery-app.com/llms.txt