Operations · Manufacturing
VanVed vs Katana
for Manufacturing
Why businesses choose VanVed over Katana
Katana is a specialist tool at specialist pricing — several hundred dollars a month before the add-ons that carry traceability and warehousing. VanVed gives a small manufacturer working BOMs, production orders that really move stock, and a work-centre capacity calendar as part of a subscription that also covers their CRM, invoicing, payroll and POS, with no per-seat charge for the shop.
Capability by capability
Every row below is what our 2026 research found — including the rows we lose.
| Capability | VanVed | Katana |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Part of the platform subscription; unlimited users | Starts around $179–$299/month before add-ons; traceability, warehouse and manufacturing modules are extra |
| Multi-level BOMs and sub-assemblies | Recursive explosion with circular-reference detection | Multi-level BOMs with sub-assemblies and rolled-up costing |
| Operations / shop-floor app | No operations, no shop-floor app — an order is planned then completed | Operation routings plus a dedicated Shop Floor app for operators |
| Live material availability against open orders | Requirements are shown, but stock availability is only checked at completion time | Live inventory engine reprioritises orders as material availability changes |
| Production scheduling | Work-centre calendar with daily hours vs capacity, computed live from real orders | Drag-and-drop scheduling with resource assignment |
| Batch traceability of finished goods | Completion can stamp a batch number and expiry on the finished goods, which then flow through FIFO costing and the expiring-batches report — the component lots consumed are not recorded against the order, and the web app cannot send the batch | Traceability add-on gives batch/serial tracking through manufacturing |
| E-commerce and accounting integrations | None — it integrates with the rest of VanVed instead | Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Xero and QuickBooks |
| Runs beside CRM, billing, payroll and POS | Same tenant, same users, one bill | Manufacturing and inventory only |
Where Katana is ahead of us today
Katana is built for people who make things all day and VanVed is not. It has operation routings and a Shop Floor app operators use at the bench, a live inventory engine that re-plans as material availability changes, and batch traceability that follows a lot through manufacturing into the finished product. VanVed's production output can now carry a batch number and expiry, but which component lots went into it is never recorded, so a finished lot still cannot be traced back — and it connects to no sales channel or accounting package.
We publish this because a comparison that only flatters us is worth nothing to you. If one of these gaps is the thing you actually need, Katana may well be the better buy.
What VanVed's Manufacturing module does
- Bills of material
Define what a finished product is made from — raw materials and quantities per unit.
- Production orders
Turn a bill of material into a production order that consumes raw stock and produces finished-goods stock.