Search “best software for makers” or “best inventory software for small manufacturers” and you'll get a list mixing a $49-a-month maker tool with a full manufacturing ERP, ranked as though they're competing for the same customer. They aren't. Craftybase, Katana, and a purpose-built tool for made-to-order deposits solve three genuinely different problems, for three genuinely different businesses. The fastest way to waste a month is to pick based on review scores instead of picking based on which one of these three businesses you actually are.
Name change: Craftybase is now Stocksmith
Checked 8 September 2026: craftybase.com now redirects to stocksmith.io, and the pricing page there reads “Craftybase → Stocksmith · Same team, same software — just a new name.” Stocksmith is the same product formerly sold as Craftybase, so it sits in exactly the same place in this comparison. We have kept the Craftybase name below because that is what most sellers still know it as, and the prices quoted are Stocksmith’s current published plans.
The short version
If you hold finished stock and sell repeatable products across channels, Craftybase's materials-and-recipes model fits. If you're coordinating a real production floor with multiple staff and bills of materials, Katana's MRP tools earn their cost — and their price tag. If you take custom, made-to-order work with a deposit up front and a balance due later, and you don't hold stock or run a floor, neither of those fits well — that's the gap a made-to-order-specific tool exists to close. Most sellers can answer this in one question: what actually triggers your next unit of work — a stock reorder, a production schedule, or a single customer's order?
The one question that sorts this out first
Before comparing features, answer this: what triggers your next piece of work?
- “We're running low, time to make more to restock the shelf” — you're holding inventory, and tools built around stock levels and reorder points are the right category.
- “The production schedule says line 3 starts the next batch” — you're coordinating a floor with multiple people, and that's a manufacturing-planning problem.
- “A specific customer just paid a deposit for a specific piece” — there's no stock to reorder and no floor to schedule. There's just one order, one deposit, and one balance due later.
Each of these maps cleanly onto one of the three paths below.
If you hold finished stock and sell repeatable products → Craftybase
What it's built for
Craftybase is built around materials, recipes, and manufacture runs: you define what goes into a product, record a manufacture, and it deducts the materials from inventory and calculates your cost of goods. It syncs with Etsy, Shopify, and other sales channels so stock updates automatically as orders come in.
Signs this is you
- You sell the same handful of products repeatedly, even if there are variations
- You hold or plan to hold finished stock, not just raw materials
- You need accurate, automatic cost-of-goods calculations across many SKUs and channels
- Your main operational question is “do I have enough materials to make more,” not “what does this one customer still owe me”
Where it falls short
Craftybase can log a custom, one-off order manually, and it lets you mark an order as paid. But that “paid” flag is informational — it isn't built around a deposit-now, balance-later payment schedule, and there's no live view of what's still owed across several open custom orders at once. If bespoke, deposit-based work is a side channel next to your stocked products, Craftybase will track the materials fine and leave the deposit and balance tracking to you.
If you run a multi-person production floor → Katana
What it's built for
Katana is manufacturing resource planning software: production scheduling, bills of materials, shop floor tracking, and real-time inventory across warehouses and channels. It's genuinely strong at coordinating what a production team is working on right now and what materials are available to support it.
Signs this is you
- You have staff on a production floor, not just yourself and maybe one other person
- You need to schedule and sequence manufacturing runs across a queue of orders
- Your order volume and revenue justify infrastructure built for coordination, not just record-keeping
Where it's overkill
Katana's pricing has shifted toward usage-based tiers — the Core plan lists at $299 a month, and add-ons like traceability, extended manufacturing features, and warehouse tools can push real monthly cost toward $750–$1,100 once a growing shop needs them. Some long-time small-shop users have reported that Katana's pricing model penalizes businesses with high order counts and lower price points per item, pushing them toward the same cost tier as much larger companies regardless of actual revenue. For a solo maker or a two-person studio without a literal production floor to coordinate, that's a lot of infrastructure — and a lot of cost — for a problem you don't have yet.
Would a lighter, made-to-order tool fit better than a full MRP system?
See how it worksIf you take custom, made-to-order work with deposits → something built for that
What this actually requires
No stock to reorder. No floor to schedule. Just a sequence of individual custom orders, each starting with a deposit, each finishing weeks or months later with a balance due, and each needing its own cost calculated once the piece is actually built. Neither an inventory-and-recipes tool nor a full production-scheduling system is built around that shape — because it isn't the shape either of them was designed to solve.
Signs this is you
- Every order is effectively unique — commissioned furniture, custom jewelry, made-to-order fixtures, bespoke fabrication
- Customers pay a deposit up front and the balance on completion or delivery
- You don't hold finished stock, and you're not coordinating a multi-person production schedule
- What you actually need to see, at a glance, is what's been collected and what's still owed across every open order
This is the specific gap Ordamo is built to close — deposits, balances, and per-order production cost tracked in one place, without borrowing a “paid” checkbox from inventory software or a scheduling board from an ERP built for factories.
What if you're a hybrid?
Plenty of makers sell both ways — a line of stocked products plus the occasional bespoke commission. Take a furniture maker who sells a handful of standard chair designs ready to ship, but also takes commissioned pieces built to a client's exact dimensions and finish. The stocked chairs are a Craftybase problem: materials, recipes, reorder points, margin per unit. The commissioned piece is a different problem entirely — there's no recipe to run in advance, no shelf stock to deduct from, just a deposit collected up front and a balance due when the piece ships.
In that case, the honest answer is that one tool rarely covers both halves well. Craftybase will handle the stocked catalog properly; the custom side still needs its own deposit-and-balance tracking layered on top, whether that's a spreadsheet for now or a purpose-built tool once the bespoke side grows enough to matter. Trying to force the commissioned work through Craftybase's recipe-and-manufacture model just to get deposit tracking usually means more setup effort than the custom side of the business can justify.
Craftybase vs. Katana vs. Ordamo: side-by-side
| Craftybase (now Stocksmith) | Katana | Ordamo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built around | Materials, recipes, inventory | Production scheduling, MRP | Deposits, balances, per-order cost |
| Best for | Stocked-SKU makers | Multi-person production floors | Made-to-order, deposit-based sellers |
| Holds/reorders inventory | Yes | Yes | Not the focus |
| Schedules a production floor | No | Yes | No |
| Tracks deposit vs. balance per order | Informational only | No | Native |
| Entry price (Sept 2026) | $49/mo, $41 billed annually | $299/mo+, add-ons common | $29/mo, one plan |
| Team size fit | Solo to small team | Multiple staff, real floor | Solo to small team |
The question that actually matters
Craftybase asks “what did this batch of stock cost to make.” Katana asks “what should the floor be working on right now.” Neither one asks “how much does this one customer still owe us” — because for a stocked-SKU business or a real production floor, that's rarely the question that matters most. For a made-to-order seller running on deposits, it's the only question that matters every single day.
Quick self-check
- Do you hold finished product on a shelf, ready to sell? If yes, look at Craftybase.
- Do multiple people work a production schedule you have to sequence? If yes, look at Katana.
- Is every order custom, paid via deposit, with no stock and no floor to coordinate? If yes, neither of the above was built for you — that's the gap a made-to-order tool fills.
Curious where your business actually lands?
See how it worksFAQ
Craftybase is now called Stocksmith — does that change this comparison?
No. Craftybase was renamed Stocksmith — craftybase.com redirects to stocksmith.io, and Stocksmith's pricing page calls it the same team and the same software under a new name (checked 8 September 2026). It is the same product against Katana that it was before, and the question that sorts the three tools apart is unchanged.
Is Craftybase or Katana better for a small maker?
Neither is universally better — Craftybase fits makers holding stocked inventory across sales channels, while Katana fits businesses coordinating an actual multi-person production floor. Most solo makers are closer to the Craftybase profile, if they hold stock at all.
Can Katana handle custom, made-to-order pieces?
Katana can technically log make-to-order production, but it's built around scheduling and materials planning for a production team, not around tracking a customer deposit against a balance due later. It's a heavier tool than most solo or small custom-order sellers need.
Does Craftybase track deposits on custom orders?
It lets you mark an order as paid, but that's an informational flag rather than a deposit-and-balance system with a live view across open orders.
What size business actually needs Katana?
Based on public pricing and user reports, Katana fits best where there's a real production floor with multiple staff and sales volume that justifies infrastructure in the range of several hundred to over a thousand dollars a month once add-ons are included.
I sell both stocked products and custom commissions — do I need two tools?
Often yes, at least for now. Craftybase (or similar) can handle the stocked side well; the custom side typically needs its own deposit-and-balance tracking, whether that's a spreadsheet early on or a dedicated tool as it grows.
Is there a category between Craftybase and Katana for made-to-order sellers?
That's the specific gap a made-to-order deposit-and-balance tool is built to fill — it doesn't manage held inventory or a production floor, because most made-to-order sellers don't have either.
How do I know if I've outgrown a spreadsheet for tracking custom order deposits?
If you're regularly unsure how much is owed across your open orders without checking each one individually, or a deposit has ever gotten lost between a bank transfer and a spreadsheet update, that's usually the sign.
The bottom line
Craftybase, Katana, and a made-to-order-specific tool aren't ranked against each other — they're built for three different operational realities. Pick based on what actually triggers your next piece of work, not on which tool has the best review score in a list that's comparing apples to production lines. If your answer to that question was “a customer just paid a deposit,” start a free trial of Ordamo and see if it fits the way your business actually runs.
For the two-way versions of that comparison, with current prices and the cases where staying put is the better call: Craftybase against Ordamo and Katana against Ordamo.