VinNOW Alternatives: Moving to a Cloud Based Winery Platform
VinNOW has run wine clubs and tasting rooms for decades. The platform is low cost, and its reporting and club tools are strong. Wineries usually start looking for an alternative for one of three reasons: they want to run their business from anywhere rather than a computer at the winery, they are tired of stitching compliance and shipping onto it through separate tools, or their payment processing fees have climbed above 5% due to using legacy processors. If any of this sounds familiar, here is what to weigh.
Where wineries outgrow VinNOW
It is rooted in a local install. VinNOW was designed to run on a computer or a local network at the winery, with a cloud option added over time. If you want your POS on an iPad, your club management accessible in different locations, and your data in one place you can reach from anywhere, a cloud-based native platform is the right move.
Compliance and shipping run through integrations. VinNOW connects to ShipCompliant for compliance and carriers for shipping labels. That works, but it means more relationships, vendors, contracts, and more moving parts.
Locked into high payment processing rates. By managing your own merchant processing relationship this means monthly invoices that include processing fees + statement fee, PCI fee, authorization fee, and batch processing fee.
What to look for in a replacement
One system instead of several. POS, club, online store, compliance, tax, state reporting, and payment processing on a single platform means one customer record and one set of numbers, not a local database plus a compliance and shipping tool.
Cloud access. Run the tasting room, the club, and the reports from any device, anywhere, without depending on one machine at the winery.
Built in compliance and expansion. A platform that verifies age, calculates tax, and includes all the state reports that you need to report and file on time.
How Vinoshipper compares
Vinoshipper runs your online store, club, and point of sale on one cloud platform, with compliance, tax, payment processing, and fulfillment built in. The POS works on a computer, iPad, or iPhone with Apple Tap to Pay and the Stripe M2 Connect reader, so you are not tied to a single machine. Age verification, tax to the nine digit ZIP code, and volume limits run automatically, and the trademark production agreement lets you expand your brands reach to over 40 states.
If you already use Vinoshipper for shipping alongside VinNOW, moving fully onto Vinoshipper consolidates the two into one system, so customer data and reporting stop living in separate places. Migration is handled by Vinoshipper at no cost, including your customer records, club members, and order history, plus credit cards where your processor allows it. There are no sign up fees and no monthly fees. Pricing is based on transactions.
VinNOW is a capable system, and some wineries have no reason to leave it. The wineries that benefit most from the move are the ones who want a modern platform instead of a local install with all other items stacked around it.
Frequently asked questions
Is VinNOW cloud based? VinNOW was built to run on a local computer or network, with a cloud option available. Vinoshipper is cloud native, so the POS, club, and reports run from any device.
Does VinNOW handle compliance and shipping? VinNOW connects to ShipCompliant for compliance and to carriers for labels through integrations. Vinoshipper includes compliance, filings, and shipping to over 40 states in one platform, with no separate compliance vendor.
I already use Vinoshipper with VinNOW. Should I consolidate? If you run Vinoshipper for shipping alongside VinNOW, moving fully onto Vinoshipper puts your POS, club, store, and brand expandsion in one system, which ends the double entry and split reporting between them.
What does it cost to switch? Migration is handled by the Vinoshipper team at no cost, and there are no sign up or monthly fees. Pricing runs on successful transactions.
Thinking about the move? Get started with Vinoshipper.