Katana is a good starting point. Manuva is where you go when you've outgrown it — when your BOMs need versioning, your team has hit per-user pricing, or you need capacity planning that a real shop floor can run on. Built for Shopify-first product brands, priced flat, set up in a day.
30 days free, full Pro access. No credit card.Katana covers the basics — inventory, simple BOMs, work orders, and Shopify sync. As your operation matures, five gaps tend to drive teams to evaluate alternatives. Each item below is based on Katana's publicly documented feature set as of May 2026. Check Katana's current site before you decide.
When a component changes — a supplier swap, a price update, a recipe revision — Katana overwrites the BOM. There's no version history, no rollback, and no way to see what the cost or margin impact of a change actually was. Manuva treats every BOM change as a numbered version with full diff and one-click rollback.
Real manufacturing has scrap. Cutting fabric, sanding wood, pouring chemistry — every process consumes more material than the nominal quantity. Katana's BOM math assumes 1:1 consumption, so purchasing and production planning systematically under-order. Manuva lets you set yield per component so material requirements reflect what you actually consume.
Katana charges per user. A 10-person operation — three office staff, six on the floor, one supervisor — hits multi-hundred-dollar monthly bills before you've added a single advanced feature. Manuva charges per account at $499/mo flat for the full Pro tier, with unlimited users from Growth ($249/mo).
Katana doesn't model who works in which department, what hours they're available, or what each production run actually cost in labour. Manuva's Pro plan ships departments, staffing levels, capacity vs load reporting, and full staff costing for the same flat price.
Did your supplier deliver what you ordered, on time, at the agreed price? Katana doesn't surface this. Manuva measures promised vs actual on every purchase order — by supplier, component, and time window — so renegotiations happen from data, not gut feel.
Manuva vs Katana, line by line.
Quick reference for the capabilities most teams ask about when evaluating a switch.
Comparison based on Katana's publicly documented feature set as of May 2026. We re-check competitor claims quarterly. Spot something out of date?
Both products advertise an entry tier under $200/month, but the trajectories diverge fast. Katana scales with headcount. Manuva scales with capability.
Per-user pricing. Numbers scale linearly with team size.
Advanced manufacturing features and additional integrations are gated behind higher tiers. Total cost climbs further as those are added.
Flat per account. Unlimited users from Growth.
Unlimited users from Growth — no seat charges, ever. Manuva pricing in AUD, billed annually. Monthly add ~20%. Katana figures are their published USD list price.
At 10 users: Katana's per-user tiers typically work out to ~$600/mo or higher before advanced manufacturing add-ons. Manuva Pro is $499/mo flat — and you get capacity planning, staff costing, and the financial profitability dashboard included. Confirm current Katana pricing on their site before locking in a budget.
Three categories where Manuva ships meaningful functionality Katana does not.
Every change captured as a numbered version. Compare any two versions to see added, removed, and changed components with cost and margin delta. Roll back with one click. The audit trail every regulated or growing manufacturer eventually needs.
Set scrap allowances per component. Material requirements automatically reflect real consumption, not theoretical 1:1 math. Stops the systematic under-purchasing that plagues teams running Katana at scale.
Model departments, staffing levels, and hours available. Track actual vs planned time per production order. Roll labour costs into unit economics. Available on Pro at the same flat rate as everything else — no per-user surcharge.
Yes for the core workflows: inventory, BOMs, production orders, purchasing, and Shopify sync. Manuva covers everything a small-to-mid-size Shopify-first manufacturer relies on Katana for, plus capabilities Katana does not ship at any tier — BOM versioning with side-by-side comparison, yield % per component, BOM templates, capacity planning, and PO variance reporting.
Yes. CSV import is available for components, BOMs, suppliers, purchase orders, and stock balances. Most teams export from Katana, clean up the data, and import in under a day. For larger or more complex migrations, the Manuva team will run the import for you as part of onboarding on Growth and above.
Manuva uses Shopify webhooks for real-time sync. When an order is placed in Shopify, Manuva allocates inventory and cascades to production orders within seconds — no nightly batch import, no manual refresh. Product and variant catalogues stay in sync automatically, and inventory levels flow back to Shopify as production completes.
Run them in parallel during your 30-day Manuva trial — disconnect Katana's Shopify webhook before connecting Manuva's, so only one system is writing to Shopify at a time. Once you're satisfied, cancel Katana directly with their billing. Manuva will not lock you in: you can export all your data from Manuva at any time, on any plan.
Try Manuva free for 30 days.
Full Pro access. No credit card required. Run it in parallel with Katana — switch your Shopify webhook when you're satisfied.