Real-time inventory, orders & forecasting

A Simpler Alternative
to Katana MRP.

Katana is built for manufacturing. If you sell finished products, not assemble them on a shop floor, you need something simpler. VNDLY gives you inventory, sales, and AI insights without the MRP complexity.

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Watch how VNDLY helps product businesses manage inventory, sales, and forecasting.

Katana vs VNDLY

KatanaVNDLY

Starting price$299/mo$49/mo

VNDLY AI

AI demand forecasting

B2B Portal

Built forManufacturingProduct sales

Setup complexityHigh (MRP)Low

Multi-location

E-commerce integrations

Product dev pipeline

Free trial

Katana MRP shows up constantly in inventory software searches because it's genuinely excellent at what it's built for: manufacturing resource planning. But 'manufacturing' is the key word — a lot of people searching for a Katana alternative aren't manufacturers at all, they're brands and distributors who just need to buy, stock, and sell finished goods. Here's the honest difference.

What Katana is actually built for

Katana is a cloud manufacturing ERP: it manages Bills of Materials, production scheduling, shop-floor operations, and raw-materials-to-finished-goods workflows. If you physically make things — assemble components, run production batches, track work orders — Katana is a strong, purpose-built tool and one of the better options in that specific category.

The catch is that all of Katana's core value is manufacturing-shaped. If you don't run production — if your business is buying finished inventory from suppliers and reselling it wholesale, direct-to-consumer, or both — a huge share of Katana's feature set (BOMs, production stages, operators, work centers) is dead weight you're paying for and configuring around rather than using.

Where VNDLY is different

VNDLY skips manufacturing entirely and focuses on the workflow that actually matters for product brands, wholesalers, and distributors: purchase orders in, sales orders out, accurate landed cost and stock levels in between, and a B2B portal for wholesale buyers to self-serve. There's no BOM screen to configure because there's no production to schedule.

In its place, VNDLY includes an AI assistant (BYOK — bring your own OpenAI/Anthropic key) built into every plan, plus native demand forecasting and stock projections — the reporting muscle a growing distributor actually needs, without a manufacturing module standing between you and it.

Pricing, side by side

Katana starts at $299/month for its entry Starter plan (limited users and locations), scaling up through Standard and Professional tiers as you add production complexity, integrations, and users.

VNDLY starts at $49/month (Starter: 2 users, 500 orders/month) and $149/month on Professional (10 users, 5,000 orders/month, B2B portal + Sales Agents included) — both include the full AI assistant and forecasting with no manufacturing tier to unlock or pay extra for, because that layer simply doesn't exist in the product.

Who this is (and isn't) for

VNDLY is a good fit if...

You buy finished goods from suppliers and resell them — you're not running a production floor.
You want AI-assisted demand forecasting included in the base price, not a separate module.
You sell wholesale and want a self-serve B2B portal for buyers alongside your D2C channels.
You want to be live and using the system within days, not weeks of BOM setup.

Katana is the better call if...

You physically manufacture or assemble products and need Bills of Materials and production scheduling.
You run multi-stage work orders across shop-floor operators and work centers.
You need raw-materials-to-finished-goods costing tied to a production process.
Manufacturing resource planning (MRP) is a core, non-negotiable requirement.

Best Katana alternatives

The 5 best Katana alternatives in 2026

Katana is a strong choice if you manufacture — but if you don't, here's how the alternatives stack up.

Integrations

Connect the commerce stack you already trust.

Plug VNDLY into your store, shipping, and accounting tools in minutes.

Trusted by growing businesses.

See what inventory and sales teams are saying about VNDLY.

Lauren Carter

“VNDLY's purchase order workflow got me from signup to first PO in under an hour. Inventory tracking across my store and pop-ups is finally in one place instead of scattered spreadsheets.”

Lars A.

“Implementing this system has significantly boosted our productivity and streamlined our warehouse operations.”

David M.

“Before VNDLY we had no real system, just spreadsheets and a lot of manual work. Since switching, our order processing is faster, stock accuracy has improved significantly, and invoicing takes a fraction of the time.”

Pricing

Plans that grow with your operation.

Starter

$49/mo

For small businesses and solo entrepreneurs

Users: 2
Locations: 2
E-Commerce Stores: 2
Orders / month: 500
Full order-to-ship pipeline
Mobile App & Barcode Scanning
Serial Number Tracking
Lot / Batch Tracking
VNDLY AI (BYOK)
Planning & Forecast
Sales Strategy
Packing Visualizer
CRM & Sales Pipeline
Development Projects
Marketing & Email Campaigns
Reports & Analytics
PDF & CSV Export
API & Integrations
B2B Customer Portal
Sales Agents (Beta)
Custom Integrations*
Custom KPIs & Reports*

Start Free Trial

Professional

Enterprise

$349/mo

For large organizations with high volume

Users: Unlimited
Locations: Unlimited
E-Commerce Stores: Unlimited
Orders / month: Unlimited
Full order-to-ship pipeline
Mobile App & Barcode Scanning
Serial Number Tracking
Lot / Batch Tracking
VNDLY AI (BYOK)
Planning & Forecast
Sales Strategy
Packing Visualizer
CRM & Sales Pipeline
Development Projects
Marketing & Email Campaigns
Reports & Analytics
PDF & CSV Export
API & Integrations
B2B Customer Portal
Sales Agents (Beta)
Custom Integrations*
Custom KPIs & Reports*

Start Free Trial

MonthlyYearly Save ~17%

Switching from Katana to VNDLY

If you don't need the manufacturing layer, moving off Katana is a straightforward data migration, not a re-implementation.

1
Export your finished-goods product list
Pull your product/SKU data from Katana as CSV — VNDLY imports products, suppliers, and current stock counts directly.
2
Connect your sales channels
Link Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or Squarespace so orders and stock sync automatically.
3
Bring across open purchase orders
Import any in-transit POs so landed costs and incoming stock stay accurate during the switch.
4
Turn on the B2B portal (if you sell wholesale)
Give wholesale buyers self-serve ordering without manual quote-and-invoice back-and-forth.
5
Invite your team
Add users with role-based permissions — most teams are fully live within a week.

FAQ

Common questions

Yes — VNDLY starts at $49/month versus Katana's $299/month starting price. VNDLY doesn't charge extra for AI forecasting or reporting; Katana's manufacturing-focused tiers scale up with production complexity and user count.

No. VNDLY is built for businesses that buy and resell finished goods, not manufacturers. If you need BOMs, work orders, or production scheduling, Katana or Cin7 Core are better fits.

Yes. VNDLY supports CSV import for products, suppliers, and customers, and can bring across open purchase orders so stock and cost figures carry over accurately.

VNDLY is focused on buy-sell workflows rather than assembly. If you need basic kitting alongside inventory, Unleashed or inFlow may be a closer fit; for full production scheduling, Katana remains the stronger choice.

For businesses without a manufacturing process to migrate, most customers are fully onboarded within a week — it's a data import and channel-connection process, not a re-implementation.

14 days with full access to all features. No credit card required to start.

Yes. VNDLY supports CSV import for products, customers, and suppliers. You can also sync directly from Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and other platforms.

VNDLY integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, PrestaShop, Magento, Xero, Visma, EasyPost, Sendcloud, Fraktjakt, and more. New integrations are added regularly.

Absolutely. VNDLY uses row-level security, AES-256 encryption for API keys, and runs on enterprise-grade infrastructure. Your data is isolated per tenant and backed up continuously.

Yes. All plans support multi-location inventory with stock transfers, per-location stock levels, and location-specific reporting.

Bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic API key. The AI queries your real business data to generate reports, detect anomalies, compare periods, and answer questions in natural language.

Yes. Refer customers to VNDLY and earn 20% recurring commission for as long as they stay — tracked through Rewardful with a 60-day cookie window. Payouts via PayPal once you hit $50. Apply at vndly.io/partners.

Yes. No contracts, no cancellation fees. You can downgrade or cancel from the billing page at any time. Your data stays accessible until the end of your billing period.

Yes — save approximately 17% with annual billing compared to monthly. You can switch between monthly and annual at any time.

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Earn with VNDLY.

Refer inventory and sales teams to VNDLY and earn 20% recurring commission for every customer you bring in, for as long as they stay.

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A Simpler Alternative to Katana MRP.