Katana
Manufacturing ERP for scaling makers and brands
What it does
Katana is cloud-native manufacturing ERP (MRP — Manufacturing Resource Planning) built for makers, small manufacturers, and D2C ecommerce brands that make what they sell. It handles bills of materials (BOMs), production orders, ingredient/component tracking, real-time inventory across raw materials + WIP + finished goods, multi-location, and shop-floor visibility for teams doing actual production. Deep native integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, QuickBooks, and Xero make it the default choice when a D2C brand outgrows spreadsheets but is not ready to leave the cloud stack for a legacy ERP.
Free tier
No
Starts at
$179/mo
Setup
medium
Key features
Integrates with
Shopify, QuickBooks, Xero, WooCommerce
Who this fits
- D2C ecommerce brands that manufacture (cosmetics, supplements, food, apparel, hardware)
- Small-to-mid contract manufacturers (5-50 employees) needing production orders and BOMs
- Shopify/WooCommerce sellers who used to run inventory in spreadsheets
- Multi-location makers needing warehouse transfers and per-location stock
- Teams that want cloud-native, mobile-friendly, no-DevOps ERP
Who it does NOT fit
- Businesses without physical production or inventory
- Very large manufacturers (500+ employees) — will outgrow into full ERP (NetSuite, Acumatica, SAP B1)
- Distributors without manufacturing (Cin7 or Fishbowl fit better)
- Regulated industries needing full lot recall audit trail with electronic signatures (need a compliance-first ERP)
Pricing
Real gotchas
- Onboarding fees are separately quoted and effectively mandatory (Source: Brahmin Solutions: https://www.brahmin-solutions.com/blog/katana-pricing). Budget an extra $999-$1,499 on top of Year 1
- Advanced Manufacturing is a $449/mo add-on that many production shops NEED — the base price is misleading if the workflow involves subcontracting, complex routings, or multi-level assemblies
- Warehouse Management is a separate $99/mo add-on; multi-warehouse without it is limited
- The Starter tier is thin. Real production shops jump to Standard within weeks
- Shopify/WooCommerce sync is deep but not real-time for every field — some updates run on schedule, not instantly
- QuickBooks integration is one-way for sales orders in most configurations; verify direction of sync for your workflow
- Barcode scanning support depends on plan and hardware — check compatibility before buying scanners
Integrations that matter
Otto’s take on this tool
Recommend Katana when: business is a maker/manufacturer/D2C brand, business_size is 2-50, and current pain is "our inventory in Shopify never matches what we actually have / we're managing BOMs in Excel." Highest fit for D2C ecommerce brands that manufacture, small contract manufacturers, and Shopify sellers past ~$500K/yr in production volume. Do NOT recommend for service businesses, non-manufacturing ecommerce (Cin7 fits better), or enterprises. If comparing to Fishbowl: Katana wins on cloud-native UX and D2C ecommerce integration; Fishbowl wins on QuickBooks depth and warehouse ops. Always call out the mandatory onboarding fee and the Advanced Manufacturing add-on cost — the sticker price on the plan is not the real Year 1 price.
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