Cin7 vs Katana: which one fits a brand that makes its own products?

What are Cin7 and Katana?

Cin7 is inventory management software that tracks stock, purchase orders and sales orders across channels, with a monthly plan for its Core product. Katana is inventory and production software made for small product businesses, with live stock levels, bills of materials (the list of parts that go into each product), and shop floor tracking. Both connect to Shopify (an online store platform) and Amazon, and both sync with QuickBooks Online (accounting software).

The difference is who they were shaped for. Cin7 leans toward multichannel and wholesale selling. Katana leans toward makers who need to know if they have enough raw material to fill tomorrow's orders. For a deeper look at the category, see my guide to inventory management systems.

How do the prices compare?

As of November 2026, here is what each vendor publishes. Prices are in USD.

Tool	Published price	What the limits look like
Cin7 Core Standard	$349 a month	5 users, 2 store or app connections, 6,000 sales orders a year
Cin7 Core Pro	$599 a month	10 users, 4 connections, 24,000 orders a year, material requirements planning
Cin7 Core Advanced	$1,199 a month	15 users, 6 connections, 120,000 orders a year, advanced warehouse tools
Katana Free	$0	Up to 30 SKUs (one SKU is one sellable variant), unlimited users, connections and locations
Katana Advantage	Custom quote, one annual contract	Unlimited SKUs, users and connections, with setup and a customer success manager included

Cin7 prices are for new customers and exclude taxes. Cin7 sells extra users, extra connections and more order volume as add-ons, and its AI forecasting tool, ForesightAI, is an add-on too. Check Cin7's pricing page for add-on prices. My article on what Cin7 really costs goes deeper.

Katana is the one to watch. Its pricing page now shows only a free plan and a custom-quoted Advantage plan, so any fixed Katana tier you see on other sites may be out of date. You will not know your Katana price until you talk to their team.

Which one handles manufacturing better?

Katana, for small makers. Production is its main job. It shows materials, work in progress and finished goods in one view, and it tracks batches and serial numbers from supplier to customer. Cin7 handles making things too. Even its Standard plan lists assembly manufacturing with bills of materials, and the Pro plan adds material requirements planning (MRP, which works out what to buy based on what you plan to make).

Here is how I would split it. If you have one or two steps, like mixing, filling and labeling, either tool works. If you have routings (a set order of production steps) and care about shop floor tasks, Katana is built around that. Cin7 lists a shop floor mobile app under its Advanced Production Manufacturing option, which Standard does not include. Cin7 shines when the harder part of your business is selling: many channels, wholesale accounts, a B2B portal, big-box retail rules. If manufacturing is the heavy part, read my manufacturing software guide too.

How do the integrations compare?

Cin7 says it connects to over 700 app partners, including QuickBooks Online, Xero, Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce and ShipStation (shipping label software). The catch is the plan limit: Standard includes only 2 store or app connections, Pro 4 and Advanced 6. If you sell on Shopify, Amazon, Walmart and a wholesale portal, you hit that cap fast. My Cin7 integrations guide covers the details.

Katana lists Shopify, Amazon, QuickBooks Online and HubSpot (a customer database) as main connections, plus BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Xero. It includes unlimited integrations on both plans. Katana also offers an AI connection called MCP, which lets an AI assistant like Claude read your data. I come back to that below.

What about Unleashed and Fishbowl?

Unleashed is inventory software for product-based businesses, covering purchasing, production and sales. Its Core plan lists at $399 a month and Pro at $729, with 3 and 5 users included. Production with bills of materials is a $69 a month add-on, its forecasting tool (the Advanced Inventory Manager) is $149 a month, and extra users cost $69 to $89 each. It also runs a limited offer of 90% off the first three months. Unleashed includes 100 sales orders a month, with higher tiers you buy. Check Unleashed's pricing page for the current offer.

Fishbowl is inventory and manufacturing software that works with QuickBooks and Xero. Its Essentials, Growth and Scale plans are billed yearly: Essentials is $229 a month for 2 users, Growth is $429 for 5 users and adds multichannel selling, and Scale is $729 for 10 users. Its manufacturing edition starts at $675 a month and adds work orders and MRP. Check its pricing page for what extra store and marketplace connections cost on each plan. For when Fishbowl stops fitting, see my Fishbowl alternatives guide.

In short: Unleashed is closest to Cin7, Fishbowl is the one for heavier manufacturing, and Katana is the lightest for a small maker.

A worked example: a candle brand

These figures are made up to show the math. Say a candle brand has 120 SKUs once you count sizes and scents, 3 team members, a Shopify store and an Amazon listing, and about 1,500 orders a month. That is 18,000 orders a year.

• Cin7: Standard caps at 6,000 orders a year, so you need Pro at $599 a month, plus the AI forecasting add-on if you want it. That is $7,188 a year before add-ons.
• Katana: Free stops at 30 SKUs, so 120 SKUs means a quote for Advantage. You get unlimited connections and a setup team, but no public number to budget with.
• Unleashed: Core at $399 plus the $69 production add-on is $468 a month, but 1,500 orders a month is far above the 100 included, so you buy a higher order tier. Unleashed lists an up-to-1,500-orders tier at $200 a month, which would take this to about $668 a month before any extra users or integrations.
• Fishbowl: Growth at $429 handles multichannel, but the production features are in the manufacturing edition from $675 a month.

The lesson: the sticker price is only the start. Order volume, connection counts and production add-ons decide the real bill.

What do both tools leave out?

Neither tool reads the messy parts of your week. Supplier price lists arrive as PDFs and spreadsheets in odd formats. Someone still types them in. Neither tool tells you that an Amazon order looks strange, or sends a plain-English note to your buyer when a raw material runs short. Reports are fixed shapes, so the one your accountant wants usually lands in a spreadsheet you rebuild every month.

These are small, specific jobs, and they are where an AI helper or a light custom layer pays off, without replacing the main tool. The AI connection I mentioned in Katana is one way in, since it lets an AI assistant read your stock data. See my guide to AI for ecommerce stores and the wider ecommerce tool stack.

Cin7 vs Katana: which should you pick?

• Pick Katana if: you make the product yourself, your catalog is small or growing slowly, and you want production, stock and sales in one view with unlimited connections.
• Pick Cin7 if: you sell in many places, take wholesale orders, need a B2B portal or retail compliance, and want a published price you can plan around.
• Pick Unleashed if: your needs look like Cin7's but you prefer its module pricing.
• Pick Fishbowl if: production is complex and you want work orders and MRP in the core product.

Need something completely custom?

Everything above is a path to get it running quick and cheap. But sometimes none of these fit, and what you need is something custom that you own, built uniquely for your business from the ground up, with AI thoughtfully designed into the parts of it that your processes actually benefit from. An asset that grows in value, not a generic, one-size-fits-all boilerplate that's an expense with a lock-in. This is a complete bespoke build, and it's something I do very well. Get in touch to know more.

How I'd approach this

I would count three numbers before looking at any demo: your SKUs, your orders per year, and the number of channels you sell on. Those three decide which plan limits you hit. Then I would ask each vendor for a written quote with every add-on you need, not the starting price. Start on a free trial with one product line and run real orders through it for two weeks. Do not move everything in one weekend.