The Gearfire alternative for FFLs and ranges
If you are on Gearfire and comparing options, the first thing worth sorting out is which part of Gearfire you actually run. The answer changes what you should be comparing AIM to.
Gearfire is a family of products, not one system
Gearfire sells several products to firearms retailers. AXIS is the point of sale and retail management platform. Gearfire eCommerce Pro is the webstore. Gearfire Payments is the merchant processing. RetailBI is the reporting layer. AXIS and Gearfire are sister companies under common ownership, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.
So when a dealer tells us “we use Gearfire,” it usually means one of two things. Either they run AXIS at the counter, or they run Gearfire for their webstore and payments while their POS is something else entirely.
If you run AXIS at the counter, the point of sale comparison is the one you want. We wrote it up in detail here: the AXIS POS alternative built for FFLs and ranges.
If you use Gearfire for ecommerce and payments and you are shopping for a point of sale, keep reading.
Why FFLs compare AIM and the Gearfire stack
Gearfire came up through ecommerce. Its strength is selling firearms online, with distributor feeds, drop-ship, and a webstore built for the trade. Payments and POS were added to that foundation.
AIM came up the other direction. It was built for the counter first. Point of Sale, Financial Management, Gunsmithing, and Range Management were built in-house as one system for FFLs and ranges, and ecommerce connects to it through integrations you choose.
Neither origin is wrong. It just means the two companies are strongest in different places, and the right answer depends on where your revenue actually comes from.
Where AIM is different
The counter is the product, not an addition to it
Every workflow that makes firearms retail difficult is native to AIM. FFL Transfers, Gun Storage, Delayed Delivery, consignment and trade-in receiving, NICS delays, and 4473 and bound book entries all run inside the same system that rings the sale. Nothing is bolted on.
Financial management that posts to your books
AIM includes native Financial Management with real-time posting to QuickBooks. The Gearfire stack covers reporting and business intelligence through RetailBI. Reporting tells you what happened. Financial management puts it in your general ledger. Ask both vendors which one you are buying.
You pick your ecommerce and your processor
AIM integrates with WooCommerce and AmmoReady for ecommerce, FastBound for bound book data, LeadsOnline for acquisition reporting and Do Not Buy screening, Otter for waivers, and ShipStation for shipping. These are independent products. If you want to change one, you change one.
The Gearfire products are designed to work together as a stack from a single company. That is a real advantage if you want one vendor and one invoice. It is worth understanding up front which parts you would be expected to move over, and what happens to the pieces you already have.
US-based support that knows FFL operations
When something goes sideways during a transfer, you call and talk to a person who understands FFL operations and stays with you until it is resolved.
What each company is built around
| Capability | AIM POS | Gearfire |
|---|---|---|
| Core strength | Point of sale and store operations | Ecommerce and payments |
| Point of sale | AIM POS, native | AXIS, a sister product |
| Ecommerce | WooCommerce and AmmoReady integrations, native storefront in development | Gearfire eCommerce Pro, a genuine strength |
| Financial management | Native, with real-time QuickBooks posting | RetailBI reporting and business intelligence |
| Gunsmithing | Native work orders with A&D handoffs | Available through AXIS |
| Range management | Native lanes, memberships, waivers, online booking | Available through AXIS |
| Vendor model | One POS, integrations you choose | A family of products under common ownership |
| Deployment | On-premise today, cloud path underway | Cloud |
Where Gearfire may be the better fit
If online sales are the center of your business rather than a side channel, Gearfire is built for that and has been for a long time. A store doing serious volume through its webstore, with distributor feeds and drop-ship running all day, has a real reason to stay.
The same goes for consolidation. If you want your webstore, your processing, your POS, and your reporting on one contract from one company, that is what the Gearfire family is designed to provide, and AIM does not compete on that basis.
Frequently asked questions
Is AIM an alternative to Gearfire?
AIM is an alternative to AXIS, the point of sale in the Gearfire family. AIM is not an ecommerce platform, so if what you value most is Gearfire eCommerce Pro, the honest comparison is AIM plus an ecommerce integration against the Gearfire stack.
Can I keep my Gearfire webstore and run AIM at the counter?
This is a question to bring to a demo. It depends on how your current products are contracted and what data needs to move between them. We will give you a straight answer about what is workable rather than a maybe.
Can I migrate my data to AIM?
Yes. Inventory, customer records, and bound book history are handled as part of a guided migration, with staff training included.
What does AIM integrate with?
AIM integrates with FastBound, LeadsOnline, Otter, ShipStation, WooCommerce, AmmoReady, Active-e, QuickBooks, and major distributors for electronic ordering.
See AIM next to what you use now
Book a demo and we will walk your counter, your range, and your back office through AIM, and show you exactly what switching looks like for your store.