Katana
Formerly Katana MRP. If you were searching for that name, this is the same product.
by Katana
A polished cloud manufacturing platform with sub-assembly BOMs, batch and expiry tracking, capacity planning and a shop-floor app, now sold as a free plan capped at 30 SKUs or a custom-priced annual contract called Advantage.
Why it is classified this way
We call this a Full MRP product. Verified to take dated demand, net it against stock and incoming orders, explode a bill of materials, apply lead times, and produce dated buy-or-make recommendations.
This product meets all six of our Full MRP tests, and each one is backed by a first-party page we link below.
The six Full MRP tests, and how Katana does on each (6 of 6)
- YesIt represents a bill of materials, recipe, or formula.Evidence: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab); Vendor video, 2026, at 8:51(opens in a new tab)
- YesIt accepts dated demand, sales orders, a forecast, or a master production schedule.Evidence: support.katanamrp.com › Planning and anticipating stock levels(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › How to use forecast demand(opens in a new tab); katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)
- YesIt nets that demand against stock on hand and orders already incoming.Evidence: support.katanamrp.com › Understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Planning and anticipating stock levels(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Basics of the planning and forecasting add on(opens in a new tab)
- YesIt explodes requirements through at least one level of the bill of materials.Evidence: support.katanamrp.com › Basics of the stock screen(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab)The Stock screen article: "Materials are committed to products on open SOs and MOs based on the Product Recipes of the products." Committed stock is part of the open demand the replenishment tab projects a stockout date from, so demand for a finished product becomes demand for its materials. Scope: open sales and manufacturing orders; whether a suggested Make order explodes before it becomes a manufacturing order is not stated. Needs the Planning and forecasting add-on for the dated suggestions. Checked 2026-09-19.
- YesIt uses lead times or required dates.Evidence: support.katanamrp.com › Sku lead time and minimum order quantity moq(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab)
- YesIt produces dated buy, make, transfer, release, or reschedule recommendations.Evidence: support.katanamrp.com › Understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Sku lead time and minimum order quantity moq(opens in a new tab)
These rules are applied identically to every product and enforced at build time, a record cannot be published as Full MRP unless all six pass with a source attached. Read the methodology.
Best for
- Product brands that have outgrown spreadsheets and want production, stock and a shop-floor app in one place
- Teams with many people who benefit from unlimited-user pricing instead of per-seat billing
- Shops that need expiry dates and serial numbers alongside batch tracking
Not a fit when
- Anyone who needs a published price above the free tier: the only paid plan is custom-priced on an annual contract
- Buyers who need a written price for MRP planning before a sales call. The page no longer prices anything but the Free plan, and the help center still calls planning an add-on
- Very small makers, who will pay far more here than at Stocksmith or Inventora for overlapping capability
Pricing facts
What it costs to do manufacturing in this product.
Free plan
Up to 30 SKUs, with unlimited users, integrations and inventory locations, all Katana features and API access. "For your first 15 days you can work with unlimited SKUs." "For e-commerce, only Shopify currently integrates with Free."
Free plan
$0/month
Billing basis
Quote only
Free trial: 15 days.
What moves the real bill
- Onboarding fee. No figure. Advantage "covers a fully personalized build, setup, and support, all in one contract".
Plans
| Plan | Price | Add-ons and setup |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | — |
| 30 SKUs, and every raw material is usually its own SKU. Unlimited users. The pricing page says the Free plan includes "All Katana features" and "API access" within the 30-SKU cap. | ||
Pricing detail
On 2026-10-09 the pricing page listed two plans. Free: "$0, no card required", "Up to 30 SKUs", "Unlimited users, integrations and inventory locations", "All Katana features" and "API access"; the FAQ adds "For your first 15 days you can work with unlimited SKUs" and "For e-commerce, only Shopify currently integrates with Free." Advantage: "Custom pricing", "Unlimited SKUs, users and integrations". The FAQ is explicit that this is the whole price list: "Katana is packaged as Advantage, a custom annual contract. We scope your needs, map your tech stack and current workflows, and work out what to set up around them. You get one price for everything in the agreed scope of work", and "Everything you need to run Katana is in the price: unlimited users, inventory, manufacturing, purchasing, traceability, warehouse management, the shop floor app, integrations, implementation, a dedicated Solutions Engineer and a customer success manager." "Do you charge per user? No." The Core plan ("starts at $299/month", 1 inventory location, priced up by sales-order volume) and the priced add-ons it carried until at least 2026-07 (Manufacturing Management $199, Traceability $249, Warehouse Management $149 a month) are gone; the only mention of Core left is the FAQ question "I'm on Standard, Professional, Professional Plus or Core. What happens to my plan?", answered "We'll contact you directly about any changes to your plan." The Compare plans table still lists Manufacturing Management, Planning and forecasting, Traceability and Warehouse Management as feature rows for both plans, without prices. So there is no published paid price, and the former add-ons are described as included in the Advantage quote.
Price history
- Essential $99, Advanced $299 and Professional $799 USD a month billed annually, plus a required $600 guided onboarding fee. Archived page, January 12, 2024(opens in a new tab)
- New plans: Starter $179, Standard $359, Professional $799 and Professional Plus $1,799 a month billed annually ($199, $399, $899 and $1,999 billed monthly), with Advanced manufacturing at $199, $499 or $999 a month on the top three plans. Archived page, February 2, 2024(opens in a new tab)
- Starter was gone and a Free plan ($0 a month, 30 SKUs) was listed; Standard $359, Professional $799 and Professional Plus $1,799 a month billed annually ($399, $899 and $1,999 billed quarterly), with Advanced manufacturing at $199, $449 or $999 a month. Archived page, September 1, 2025(opens in a new tab)
- Paid tiers replaced by one Core Plan starting from $299 a month next to the Free Plan, with add-ons Manufacturing Management $199, Traceability $249 and Warehouse Management $149 a month. Archived page, February 17, 2026(opens in a new tab)
- Advantage Plan added with custom pricing; Core Plan still starting at $299 a month with the same add-on prices. Archived page, July 6, 2026(opens in a new tab)
From copies of the vendor's pricing page kept by the Internet Archive.
Checked on October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com(opens in a new tab). Prices change. Check before you buy.
Manufacturing capability
23 of 25 fields resolved. "Unknown" means we have not found first-party evidence. It is not a No.
Planning
Working out what to buy or make, and when.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Accepts dated demandYou can tell it what is due and when, sales orders with dates, a forecast, or a production schedule. | Yes | The Planning tab monitors expected stock from "Sales orders (SOs)", "Purchase orders (POs)", "Manufacturing orders (MOs)" and "Outsourced purchase orders (OPOs)", and "Katana projects anticipated stock levels by week or month"; forecast demand can be calculated from sales history or entered by hand. Requires the Planning and forecasting add-on. Suggested manufacturing orders that have not been created yet do not appear to be exploded into material demand. For a subassembly with no history the help center suggests a workaround: "Example: Increase the manual forecast for a subassembly without historical data to align stock levels with expected requirements." That is our inference from the workaround, not a direct statement.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: support.katanamrp.com › Planning and anticipating stock levels(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › How to use forecast demand(opens in a new tab); katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Nets against stock on handIt subtracts what you already have before telling you to buy more. | Yes | The projected stockout date is "Based on your current stock levels and open demand (sales + manufacturing orders)", and the suggested quantity "Considers your demand forecasts, MOQ, and any open supplier orders." Requires the Planning and forecasting add-on.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: support.katanamrp.com › Understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Planning and anticipating stock levels(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Counts incoming ordersIt knows about purchase orders and production orders already placed, so it does not tell you to order twice. | Yes | Open purchase orders, manufacturing orders and outsourced purchase orders are all inputs to the projected stock level, and the suggested quantity accounts for "any open supplier orders". Requires the Planning and forecasting add-on.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: support.katanamrp.com › Basics of the planning and forecasting add on(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Uses lead timesIt works backwards from when you need something to when you must order or start it, using supplier and production lead times. | Yes | Each SKU carries a lead time, "the number of days it takes to replenish stock (either from a supplier or internal production)". The order-by date is the projected stockout date offset backwards by that lead time: "If a product has a lead time of 7 days and is forecasted to run out on July 21, Katana will suggest placing an order by July 14." Requires the Planning and forecasting add-on.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: support.katanamrp.com › Sku lead time and minimum order quantity moq(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Produces dated buy/make suggestionsThe output is an actionable list with dates, order this much by this date, start this batch on this date. | Yes | The Replenishment tab lists a "Suggested order by" date, "Latest date to place an order based on the item's lead time to avoid a stockout", with Buy and Make buttons that create a pre-filled purchase or manufacturing order. Requires the Planning and forecasting add-on.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: support.katanamrp.com › Understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Sku lead time and minimum order quantity moq(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Capacity planningChecks whether your people and machines can do the work in the time available. | Yes | "Plan capacity, allocate resources, and ensure materials are ready when needed", with schedules adjustable on the fly.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
Production
Recipes, bills of materials, and running the work.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Bill of materialsA list of the parts and quantities needed to make one of something. | Yes | "Create and manage bills of materials, including subassemblies, to ensure accuracy in production."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Multi-level BOMSub-assemblies inside assemblies, a part that is itself made from other parts, nested as deep as you need. | Yes | Sub-assemblies are explicitly included in bills of materials.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Recipes & formulasBatch-style production by weight, volume, or percentage, including scaling a batch up or down. | Partial | Katana calls its BOM the "product recipe". In a 2026 vendor live training, size variants of one formula (an 8, 12 and 16 oz candle) share one product card: "So recipes that are identical or proportionally scaled are a perfect fit." No demo shows a formula scaled to a batch size.Source: Vendor video, 2026, at 8:51(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Work / manufacturing ordersA record authorising and tracking the making of a specific quantity. | Yes | Production orders are tracked with serial numbers, stock status and dates, with tasks tracked in real time.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Routings & operationsThe ordered steps a product goes through, and which machine or station does each one. | Yes | In a 2026 vendor live training, the product recipe carries production operations in sequence: "Each one has a resource assigned whether that's ... a person, a station, a work area, a cost per hour, and an estimated time." Operations flow into every manufacturing order and the Shop Floor app. The pricing page puts this behind the Manufacturing Management add-on ($199/mo on Core): "Access manufacturing routings, and manufacturing insights".Source: Vendor video, 2026, at 12:24(opens in a new tab); katanamrp.com › Pricing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Shop-floor trackingOperators report progress, time, and completions as the work happens. | Yes | "Give your production team clear task lists, priorities, and instructions directly on the shop floor with no limits on the number of users." Note the pricing page also lists a separate Shop Floor app.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab); katanamrp.com › Pricing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Quality controlsChecks, tests, holds, and non-conformance records tied to production or receiving. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of quality inspections, checks, or non-conformance handling.Know the answer? |
Inventory & traceability
Knowing what you hold and being able to trace it.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Batch & lot traceabilityWhich incoming material lots went into which finished batch, and where those finished goods went. | Yes | "End-to-end traceability for materials and products with batch tracking", with auto-generated batch and internal barcodes. Sold as a $249/month Traceability add-on.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab); katanamrp.com › Pricing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Expiry & shelf lifeBest-before dates on materials and finished goods, with warnings before they lapse. | Yes | "Track the expiry date of items and stay in control of expiring stock."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Serial numbersUnique identifiers on individual units, for warranty or field service. | Yes | "Use serial numbers to identify individual products for warranty claims, maintenance, and customer support."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
Commerce & accounting
Costs, purchasing, storefronts, and the books.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Product costing & COGSWhat it costs you to make one, and the cost of the goods you sold. | Yes | "Automatically calculate manufacturing costs based on your BOMs, operations, and material usage. Compare planned and actual consumption."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Manufacturing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| PurchasingRaising and tracking purchase orders to suppliers from inside the system. | Yes | Purchase orders can be created pre-filled from a replenishment suggestion with the Buy button, and received in parts. The help center: "Keep your inventory accurate by receiving items from a purchase order in multiple shipments," after which "The PO is updated to Partially received". No plan restriction is stated on the receiving article. Checked 2026-09-19.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: support.katanamrp.com › How to partially receive a purchase order po(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Accounting connectionSends financial data to bookkeeping software, or includes its own general ledger. | Yes | The help center has a Xero integration overview, which lists "Send purchase orders (POs) to Xero as bills". QuickBooks Online is shown in a 2026 vendor walkthrough: "To connect the QuickBooks Online integration to Katana, you first need to make sure that you have the integrations permission."Source: support.katanamrp.com › Xero integration overview(opens in a new tab); Vendor video, 2026, at 0:07(opens in a new tab); Vendor video, 2026, at 0:29(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Ecommerce connectionPulls orders and pushes stock levels to a storefront or marketplace. | Yes | Shopify is shown in a 2026 vendor walkthrough, and the help center has overviews for WooCommerce ("Once connected, products, customers, and sales orders are automatically pulled into Katana."), BigCommerce and Amazon FBA and FBM. The pricing page FAQ says only Shopify is available on the Free plan.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: support.katanamrp.com › Woocommerce integration overview(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Bigcommerce integration overview(opens in a new tab); support.katanamrp.com › Amazon fba integration overview(opens in a new tab); Vendor video, 2026, at 0:09(opens in a new tab)Question this |
Openness & your data
Getting data in, out, and away if you leave.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| APIA documented programming interface so other software can read and write your data. | Yes | API access is listed as included with the Core plan.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: katanamrp.com › Pricing(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| WebhooksThe system can notify other software the moment something changes. | Yes | The vendor states: "Webhooks offer an easy way to receive programmatic notifications from Katana regarding changes to your data as they occur." From Katana's developer documentation. Checked 2026-09-14.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: developer.katanamrp.com › Getting started with katana webhooks(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| MCP supportA Model Context Protocol server, letting an AI assistant read or act on this data. Useful, but it has nothing to do with whether the product plans materials. | Yes | In a 2026 vendor live training, Katana staff connect the first-party Katana MCP server to Claude and ChatGPT: "you can using the MCP read create update any data that you have in Gatana. We have ... not allowed deleting your data this time." The trainer says it is free to connect, and non-owner users need an MCP permission.Source: Vendor video, 2026, at 10:03(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| CSV exportYou can get your lists out as spreadsheet files. | Yes | A 2023 vendor tutorial exports the serial-number list from the Stock screen: "exporting that we can export as an a CSV file or an Excel file". The same list can be brought back in through Settings, Data import.Source: Vendor video, 2023, at 4:38(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Full data exportYou can take everything, including history and relationships, not just a few screens' worth of rows. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of a complete account export, database dump, or equivalent.Know the answer? |
Deployment, licensing and your data
- Deployment
- Cloud (hosted for you)
- Licensing
- Proprietary SaaS
- Team sizes
- 2–5 people, 6–20 people, 21–50 people
- Manufacturing styles
- Countable assembled products, Batch & recipe products, Kits & bundles
Integrations
- QuickBooks Online
- Shopify
- Xero
- WooCommerce
- BigCommerce
- Amazon
Jobs this product qualifies for
Derived from the capability table above, not hand-assigned.
Editorial notes and cautions
Things we would want a friend to know before buying.
- Katana moved from a published price list to sales-only pricing between July and October 2026. Until July the page listed Core from $299 a month with priced add-ons; now every paid buyer is sent to "Talk to our team" for an annual contract. Keep the archived figures ($299 base, $498 with manufacturing, $747 with traceability, 2026-07-06) in mind as the floor to expect, and get the quote itemized, because the page no longer shows what any part costs.
- Full MRP with the Planning and forecasting add-on. Katana's help center documents per-SKU lead times, a projected stockout date and a "Suggested order by" date offset from it, and commits materials to open sales and manufacturing orders through each product's recipe, which clears all six of our tests. Without the add-on it is light manufacturing. On 2026-09-19 we briefly withdrew the label when BOM explosion became its own test, and restored it the same day once the Stock screen article was found.
- The Compare plans table lists Planning and forecasting, Manufacturing Management, Traceability and Warehouse Management as feature rows under both Free and Advantage with no prices, and the FAQ says manufacturing, traceability and warehouse management are "in the price" of Advantage. Whether planning is in a given Advantage quote is still something to get in writing before comparing against MRPeasy.
- Since 2026-10 the pricing page carries no paid price at all: Core ($299) and the Manufacturing Management ($199) and Traceability ($249) add-ons have been replaced by Advantage, "Custom pricing" on an annual contract. Budget from a quote, not from older reviews that still say $299.
- The free plan's 30-SKU cap is genuinely restrictive for a manufacturer, where every raw material tends to be its own SKU.
Alternatives to Katana
An alternative is always an alternative for a reason. There is no universal replacement.
For a maker who needs recipes, lots and COGS but not capacity planning, Stocksmith covers those from $99 a month with a published price, where Katana now quotes its paid plan.
- MRPeasyLower cost
MRPeasy documents all six of our planning tests and includes planning on its $49-per-user Starter plan. Katana documents all six too, but its only paid plan, Advantage, is custom-priced on an annual contract and the planning add-on is not confirmed in it.
Compared on Atlessa Manufacturing's page, where we wrote: "Katana adds lead-time based purchase planning, multi-location stock and a public API, and connects to more storefronts than Shopify alone."
Compared on BatchBuddy's page, where we wrote: "Katana documents dated replenishment from lead times and committed stock, which BatchBuddy's 30-day shortage list does not; it lacks BatchBuddy's GMP batch records and its paid pricing is now quote-only."
Evidence and verification
Pricing and the production, traceability and shop-floor capabilities are well sourced. On 2026-09-18 the five planning fields were sourced from the help center's Planning and Forecasting articles, which moves Katana to Full MRP with the add-on. On 2026-09-18 MCP, routings and CSV export were sourced from vendor videos (2023 and 2026), and the Xero, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Amazon integrations from help-center overviews. On 2026-09-19 BOM explosion became a separate test with its own evidence; Katana's public articles do not establish it, so the Full MRP class was withdrawn and the record returned to Light manufacturing. Later on 2026-09-19 the Stock screen article (materials committed to open SOs and MOs through product recipes) established explosion, and the Full MRP class was restored. Re-read 2026-10-09: the pricing page had dropped Core and every priced add-on in favor of the custom-priced Advantage plan, so the record now carries no useful manufacturing entry price; the capability evidence is unchanged.
Sources we checked (19)
developer.katanamrp.com
support.katanamrp.com
- 8937030 basics of the planning and forecasting add on(opens in a new tab)
- 8937095 understanding replenishment and order suggestions(opens in a new tab)
- 8937097 sku lead time and minimum order quantity moq(opens in a new tab)
- 8937093 planning and anticipating stock levels(opens in a new tab)
- 9305014 how to use forecast demand(opens in a new tab)
- 5968154 xero integration overview(opens in a new tab)
- 5968239 woocommerce integration overview(opens in a new tab)
- 6465834 bigcommerce integration overview(opens in a new tab)
- 14059905 amazon fba integration overview(opens in a new tab)
youtube.com
- Vendor video, 2026, at 10:03(opens in a new tab)
- Vendor video, 2026, at 0:07(opens in a new tab)
- Vendor video, 2026, at 0:29(opens in a new tab)
- Vendor video, 2026, at 0:09(opens in a new tab)
- Vendor video, 2023, at 4:38(opens in a new tab)
- Vendor video, 2026, at 12:24(opens in a new tab)
- Vendor video, 2026, at 8:51(opens in a new tab)
What we still want to confirm
We publish our gaps rather than hiding them. If you can point us at a first-party page for any of these, we will update the record and credit the correction.
- Confirm with Katana sales what Advantage costs for a small manufacturer and whether Planning and forecasting is in the quote. The pricing page publishes no paid price; its FAQ names Core among the plans being migrated.
- Confirm directly (demo or support) that suggested, not-yet-created manufacturing orders are not exploded into material suggestions. The help center only implies this through its manual-forecast workaround for subassemblies.
Still unknown: quality controls, full data export.