Katana alternative

You resell more than you make? Skip the factory ERP.

Stock by place, purchase orders, sales orders and lots, with your customers, quotes and invoices in the same app. Manufacturers should stay on Katana.

Start free

Free plan, no card. Import your items from one CSV.

Northwind Studio GoodsCustomersQuotesInvoicesA small home-goods brand that buys from makers

Katana and Alori, side by side.

KatanaAlori

Paid planPriced on request, one annual contractFrom $99 a month, month to month

PeopleUnlimited usersUnlimited users

Bills of materials and manufacturing ordersYes, its coreNo

Shop floor app and barcode scanningYesNot yet

Purchase and sales ordersYesYes, from a quote to an invoice

Lots and serial numbersYesYes, with expiry and lot tracing

CRM, deals, email and callsAnother appBuilt in

From a quote to a shipped order.

The customer accepts the quote, it becomes a sales order, the stock is committed, and what ships is invoiced.

1The quote is accepted
2It ships from the warehouse

The quote is accepted

What changes on Monday.

01
BeforeA production ERP for a team that buys finished goods
With AloriJust items, suppliers and orders
02
BeforeThe quote is in the CRM, the sales order in Katana
With AloriAn accepted quote becomes the sales order in one step
03
BeforeA paid plan that starts with a scoping call
With AloriListed prices, month to month, and a free plan to start

Suppliers you buy finished goods from.

Give each item one or more suppliers with their code, price, minimum order and days to deliver. Reordering picks the preferred one.

Buy by the case, count by the unit.
Receive in parts; what's still to come stays incoming.
Supplier bills and what's left to pay.

Ask John before you promise a date.

John, your AI inventory manager, reads your stock and your open purchase orders, so sales can ask before promising.

"How many walnut stools are available?"
"When do the wool rugs come in?"
"What's below its safety stock?"

Change it by asking.

Your app isn’t frozen on day one. Write what you need, the way you’d text it. Alori makes the change and shows you before anything goes live.

Make a sales order from Quillstack's accepted quote
How many walnut stools are available?
Draft purchase orders for everything low
When does PO-1012 come in?

The full guide

Everything above, in detail: how it works, what it replaces and what it does not.

Short answer: Katana is built for manufacturers. Alori is a Katana alternative for small teams that mostly buy, stock and resell, and want their customers, quotes and invoices in the same app as their stock. Alori has no manufacturing: if you make your products, stay on Katana. If you resell, switching starts with one spreadsheet of your items.

Why teams leave Katana

Katana is a strong manufacturing ERP with bills of materials, manufacturing orders and a shop floor app. Some small teams leave it for these reasons:

A team that buys finished goods and resells them uses a fraction of an ERP made for production.
Katana Advantage is priced per business under one annual contract, after a scoping call.
Leads, deals, quotes, email and calls sit in a separate CRM.

What you pay

Katana, as listed on its pricing page in November 2026:

Team of 5	Katana	Alori
Free plan	Up to 30 items, unlimited users	Free plan, no card
Paid plan	Advantage: priced on request, one annual contract	Solo from $99 a month, Business from $249, monthly
People	Unlimited users	Unlimited users
CRM, deals and calls	Another app	Built in

AI, texts, calls and emails use credits. See pricing.

What Alori replaces

Items and stock by place: in stock, incoming, committed and available at each place, with counts, moves and a history you can undo.
Purchase orders: order, receive in parts, buy by the case, spread freight and customs into the cost, and track the supplier's bills.
Reordering, with a safety stock per place and one click that drafts purchase orders for everything low.
Sales orders from an accepted quote: pick, ship, deliver and invoice, with price lists and payment terms per customer.
Lots and serial numbers with expiry dates and a lot's full trail for a recall.
John, your AI inventory manager, who answers stock questions in chat.
Your CRM: customers, deals, email, calls and tasks next to the orders.

What Alori doesn't do yet

Manufacturing: bills of materials, manufacturing orders, production planning and a shop floor app. Also barcode scanning, ecommerce syncs such as Shopify, and accounting syncs for stock and orders. If you make what you sell, Katana is the right tool: stay on it.

How to switch

Start free. Describe your business and say you keep stock. Already started? Tell Alori "add inventory".
Export your items from Katana as a CSV file.
Import your items. In Inventory, click Import and pick the file. Alori finds the columns (code, name, unit, cost, sale price, quantity, place, supplier and the supplier's code), adds new items and updates the ones already there.
Bring your customers. Paste your customer list into Ask Sam after "Add these customers:". Alori adds them, with an Undo button.

Questions

Another question? Ask it when you start.

Only if you mostly resell. Alori has stock, purchase orders, sales orders and lots, but no bills of materials or manufacturing orders. Manufacturers should stay on Katana.

Both have a free plan. Katana's holds up to 30 items. Alori's free plan needs no card, and you can import your items and build your app for free.

Alori's paid plans are listed: Solo from $99 a month and Business from $249, month to month, with unlimited users. Katana Advantage is priced on request under an annual contract.

Your items from a CSV export: codes, names, units, costs, prices, quantities, suppliers and their codes. Recipes, manufacturing orders and past orders stay in Katana.

Small teams, usually under 50 people. For product companies, see Alori for wholesalers and distributors.

See all →

Your turn.

Describe your business in a sentence. Alori builds the app.