Katana Pricing: Plans, Cost and QuickBooks Alternatives

Katana's Core plan starts at $299 per month, but that number covers inventory and sales only. Manufacturing Management, the module that makes Katana an MRP system rather than a stock tracker, is a separate $199 per month add-on, so a manufacturer's realistic floor is about $498 per month. Core also includes just one inventory location, and pricing is usage based on the sales orders you deliver, so the bill moves with volume. There is a genuinely free plan capped at 30 SKUs, and a custom priced Advantage tier above Core.

Every Katana price below was read directly from katanamrp.com in September 2026, and the comparison prices were read from fishbowlinventory.com and sosinventory.com the same week. Vendors change pricing, so confirm on their pages before you buy. We sell a bank statement converter, not inventory software, so we have no reseller stake in any tool named here.

Katana pricing at a glance

Katana publishes three tiers. The important structural detail is that Core is a starting price rather than a fixed one, because Katana moved to usage based pricing: what you pay flexes with sales order volume, the number of inventory locations, and which add-ons you switch on.

Unlimited users on every tier, including the free one, is the genuinely unusual part. Most inventory tools in this bracket charge per seat, and that is where budgets quietly break as a warehouse team grows. Katana does not price on seats at all, which makes it cheap for a team of fifteen and comparatively expensive for a solo operator.

The add-ons, and why $299 is not the real number for manufacturers

This is the part most pricing roundups miss. Katana is widely known as Katana MRP, and buyers reasonably assume that a plan called Core on a manufacturing platform includes manufacturing. It does not. Manufacturing Management, which covers manufacturing routings and manufacturing insights, is priced separately, and so are traceability and warehouse management.

Stack those honestly against a real requirement list. A small food manufacturer that needs production routings and lot traceability for recalls is looking at $299 plus $199 plus $249, which is $747 per month before extra locations or sales order volume. That is a defensible price for what it does, but it is two and a half times the number in the headline, and it is the number you should take to a budget conversation.

How Katana's usage based pricing works

Katana states that instead of fixed limits, the bill adjusts to actual usage across three dimensions. This is worth understanding because it changes how you forecast the cost.

• Sales orders. Billed on the number of sales orders delivered, with a lower per unit cost as volume rises.
• Locations. One inventory location is included in Core. Each additional location is charged, with lower per location costs as you add more.
• Add-ons. Only the modules you switch on, and you can scale them up or down as the business changes.

For a seasonal business this is genuinely favorable, and Katana says as much: you do not pay peak season capacity through a quiet quarter. For a business with steady high order volume it is the opposite of favorable, because the thing that grows is exactly the thing that is metered. Katana offers both monthly and annual billing, and publishes a calculator on its pricing page so you can model your own order volume rather than guessing.

What the free plan is actually for

Katana's free plan is not a time limited trial. It is capped at 30 SKUs and includes unlimited users, unlimited integrations, unlimited locations, access to the API and, per Katana's own comparison table, access to Katana features and add-ons. There is also a 15 day window to test unlimited SKUs before the 30 SKU cap applies.

Thirty SKUs is a real constraint for most product businesses, but it is enough to run a genuine pilot: connect QuickBooks Online, push a week of real orders through, and see whether the inventory numbers reconcile against your books before you commit $299 a month. That is a better evaluation than a demo, and it is the main reason to take the free tier seriously rather than dismissing it as a lead magnet.

Katana vs Fishbowl vs SOS Inventory on price

These three come up together on almost every QuickBooks inventory shortlist, and all three publish enough for an honest comparison. Note that each headline price hides something different, which is why comparing headlines alone is misleading.

On raw entry price SOS Inventory is far cheaper and includes assemblies and a QuickBooks integration at $69.95 per month. It gets more expensive per head, at $25 for each user beyond two, so a ten person operation lands near $269 per month on the Companion tier before any feature upgrade. Katana's unlimited users then start to look reasonable. Fishbowl sits differently again: strong on barcode driven warehousing, with an explicit warning on its own pricing page that the Inventory plans exclude bills of materials, work orders and MRP.

The short version: SOS Inventory wins on price for small teams, Katana wins on price for large teams that need a modern interface, and Fishbowl wins when barcode scanning and multi warehouse fulfillment are the requirement. None of them is cheap once you add the module you actually came for.

The QuickBooks angle: do you need this at all?

Before spending $299 a month, check whether QuickBooks already covers the job, because for a lot of businesses it does. QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced include inventory tracking with FIFO valuation, reorder points and automatic cost of goods sold posting. If you buy finished goods and resell them from one location, that is usually enough, and the add-on is solving a problem you do not have.

The genuine triggers for adding a tool like Katana are specific. QuickBooks Online cannot build assemblies from a bill of materials, cannot track stock across multiple warehouses or bins, has no barcode scanning, and offers only rudimentary serial and lot handling. If you manufacture, hold stock in more than one place, or need recall grade traceability, QuickBooks will not get there at any subscription level and an add-on is the honest answer. We set out exactly which plans include what, with current add-on costs, in our guide to QuickBooks inventory management and inventory tracking software.

Contractors weighing a similar decision on the job side rather than the stock side face the same structure, where the QuickBooks plan decides most of the answer. Our breakdown of QuickBooks job costing software covers that comparison.

Getting the cost data underneath it right

Whichever tool you land on, an inventory system inherits the quality of your purchase records. Katana will happily calculate a margin from a material cost that was never updated, and QuickBooks will happily report a gross profit that assumes materials were free because the supplier payment was categorized to a generic expense account.

This bites hardest during a cleanup, because QuickBooks bank feeds typically reach back only about ninety days and reconnecting does not extend that window. Older supplier purchases have to be imported instead, and there is no date limit on importing a .qbo file, so converting the PDF statements into a QuickBooks import file is the practical route to getting a prior year of material costs into the ledger with real dates and amounts.

It is also worth knowing that this same supplier and materials data gets reused elsewhere once you have it clean. Manufacturers increasingly get asked by larger customers to report on purchased goods and services, and the usual starting point is classifying supplier invoices into an emissions footprint by spend category, which only works if the purchase records are complete in the first place.

How to price Katana for your own operation

1. Count your SKUs. Under 30 and the free plan may genuinely run your business today.
2. Decide whether you manufacture. If you need routings, add $199 per month to every quote you have seen.
3. Count inventory locations. Core includes one, and every extra is billed.
4. Check whether traceability is a compliance requirement or a nice to have. At $249 per month it is the most expensive add-on.
5. Estimate monthly sales orders delivered and run them through Katana's own calculator rather than accepting the starting price.
6. Compare the total against SOS Inventory at your real user count, since that is where the two cross over.

Do that and the comparison stops being $299 against $229 against $69.95, which is a meaningless comparison, and becomes a real total for your operation.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Katana cost per month?

Katana's Core plan starts at $299 per month and pricing is usage based, so the final figure depends on sales orders delivered, inventory locations beyond the one included, and which add-ons you enable. There is a free plan limited to 30 SKUs, and an Advantage tier priced on request. Manufacturing Management, traceability and warehouse management are charged on top of Core.

Does Katana have a free plan?

Yes. Katana publishes a free plan with no credit card required, capped at 30 SKUs, with unlimited users, unlimited integrations, unlimited locations and API access. Katana also offers a 15 day window to test unlimited SKUs. It is a real free tier rather than a countdown trial, which makes it usable for a genuine pilot against your QuickBooks data before you commit.

Is manufacturing included in Katana's Core plan?

No. Manufacturing Management, which provides manufacturing routings and manufacturing insights, is a separate add-on at $199 per month on top of the $299 Core plan. This is the single most misquoted part of Katana's pricing, because the product is commonly called Katana MRP and buyers assume manufacturing is included. A manufacturer's realistic starting cost is about $498 per month.

How much are Katana's add-ons?

As published in September 2026: Manufacturing Management is $199 per month, Traceability is $249 per month, and Warehouse Management is $149 per month. Onboarding is an optional one time $2,000 on the Core plan and is included with Advantage. Add-ons can be scaled up or down as your requirements change rather than being locked in at signup.

Does Katana charge per user?

No. Every Katana tier, including the free plan, includes unlimited users with unrestricted access. This is unusual in this software category, where per seat pricing is the norm, and it is the main reason Katana can work out cheaper than seat priced alternatives for a larger warehouse or production team while looking expensive to a one person operation.

Does Katana integrate with QuickBooks Online?

Yes. QuickBooks Online is one of the integrations Katana lists prominently alongside Shopify, Amazon and HubSpot, and integrations are unlimited on every tier including the free plan. Katana handles the inventory and production side while QuickBooks remains the accounting system, so the two run together rather than one replacing the other.

Katana vs SOS Inventory: which is cheaper?

It depends almost entirely on user count. SOS Inventory starts at $69.95 per month including 2 users, then charges $25 for each additional user, so a ten person team lands near $269 per month. Katana's Core plan is $299 per month with unlimited users. Small teams pay far less with SOS Inventory, while larger teams narrow the gap or cross over.

Do I need Katana if I already use QuickBooks?

Not necessarily. QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced already track inventory quantities, reorder points and cost of goods sold using FIFO, which covers a single location buy and resell business. Katana becomes worth paying for when you manufacture from a bill of materials, hold stock in more than one location, or need batch and serial traceability, none of which QuickBooks Online supports.

Katana's pricing page is more transparent than most in this category: the tiers, the add-on prices and the usage model are all published rather than hidden behind a demo request. The trap is not secrecy, it is framing. The $299 headline describes an inventory and sales system, while the product most buyers are shopping for is the manufacturing system that sits behind a $199 add-on. Price the modules you actually need, run the free plan against your real orders first, and check whether QuickBooks already covers the job before you add a second subscription to the stack.