Katana Cloud Inventory , 154 reviews

This app works brilliantly - the UX/UI is very well done, customer support is quick and it's a perfect solution for our business. Costly, but worth the money!

Update 24/01/2024.
A Disheartening Experience with Katana's Pricing Policies

As a small business, Solid Stash, with an annual turnover of approximately 300kEUR and handling around 3000 orders monthly, we initially chose Katana for its affordability and features. However, our journey with Katana has been increasingly disheartening, marked by unexpected and steep price hikes that have put our business in a challenging position.

Initially, we were content with a reasonable monthly fee of about 100 USD. This was manageable for a business of our scale. However, due to a change in Katana's billing rules related to sales order rows, we experienced our first major setback: an abrupt increase in our monthly fee to over 300 USD. This was a significant blow to our finances, but we reluctantly accepted it, hoping for cost stability in the future. We also anticipated the benefit of batch tracking, a feature crucial for our operations.

Our disappointment was further compounded when Katana introduced a new pricing structure. Not only did we face another hike in our monthly fee, but batch tracking, previously included, was now a separate add-on costing an additional 199 USD per month. This escalation meant our expenses on Katana's services skyrocketed from around 100 USD to over 500 USD monthly – a fivefold increase in just two years.

This pricing strategy feels like a trap. We initially invested in Katana, dedicating time and resources to set up and train our employees, only to find ourselves facing exorbitant fees that are unsustainable for a small business like ours. The lack of predictability in Katana's pricing is alarming. There's a constant fear that next year might bring another doubling of costs or a new, arbitrary billing metric.

We feel cornered and exploited. The assumption that the high switching costs will force us to accept these unreasonable increases is unfair and disrespectful to loyal customers. We are not just numbers on a spreadsheet; we are a small business striving to survive and grow.

We are making a sincere request to Katana: please reconsider your pricing strategy. We need stability and fairness in pricing. We made our initial investment based on the original pricing structure, and these drastic changes are not just a financial strain but also a breach of the trust we placed in Katana.

In conclusion, while Katana's software may offer certain operational benefits, their pricing policies are a source of major concern and disappointment. We urge potential customers to consider this aspect carefully before committing to Katana. The financial unpredictability and lack of consideration for small businesses in their pricing strategy are significant drawbacks that cannot be overlooked.

-------------
We are a startup and produce and deliver vegan freezer meals. We found that Shopify didn't have sufficient functionalities to manage our production and stock. Katana is the right fit for us, as it's very user friendly & intuitive. It helps us run our production as we've uploaded our recipes in the tool. Customer support is excellent.

Katana has revolutionised our business. We are now able to accurately cost our manufacturing, have everyone know exactly when materials will be in and how long before products are ready. As a small business this has saved us countless hours and headaches.

It is a bit of a learning curve though, and a slightly smoother integration with shopify and shipping (dpd, royal mail etc) interface would be really helpful, hence the taking off one star.

We're pretty new to Katana but so far it is everything that we have been crying out for! Stock levels are now obvious and keeping track of inventory is so much easier. As we integrate this into our working week I am sure it will transform the efficiency with which we do everything.

The advantage to using your app is we see how it can help our business grow and know where are money is being spent. The disadvantage is the time difference and having to wait for response or get up at an odd time for training, also we have had problems uploading.

Simple to use, comprehensive functionalities and above all highly flexible to fit our DTC and made to order workflow. It has been transformational for our business and looking forward to keep growing powered by Katana!

We are still in the setup phase, so I am unable to speak fully to how Katana works. What I can say, though, is that every concern we have brought to them, they have implemented a fix in short order, already had the resolution in their development schedule, or have otherwise been very open and helpful. A+ on customer service. I look forward to finishing implementation. It looks like it's going to be a really fantastic solution for us.

I gave them 4 stars because we are still waiting on a few of the new developments that are important for us, such as separated user roles. Currently, there is only one user type and there is no customization available for who has access to which portions of the app. There is no separation of duties.

Katana has been a tremendous help for our business. Specifically, It has made Bundling our products and managing their inventory much easier. Another feature that has really helped out with inventory is reorder minimums. Since implementing we always know we have enough stock to produce what we need without guessing or counting each time.

Easy to access shopify orders and the guys are very responsive to set up the system and help if anything occurs or need to optimize.

This app is fantastic! I have several products that I manufacture and each product is made up of various components. Before Katana, manually keeping track of all my inventory was difficult. With Katana all of my products are broken down into recipes. If someone orders a product all of my components stock levels are adjusted and I'm alerted when I need to re-order them. Worth it's price. No regrets.