If you are looking at Craftybase alternatives, start here. Five tools that a candle, soap, cosmetics or food maker realistically ends up choosing between, with the one number that separates them: what you have to pay before batch and lot tracking is included. That single figure runs from €30 to well over $500 a month.
We make one of the five. Every competitor figure below was read from that company’s own published pricing on 21 August 2026 and is linked at the foot of the page. Where we could not verify something, the table says so rather than guessing.
| Tool | Entry price | Cheapest plan including batch / lot tracking | Users included | Who it is built for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masto Control | €30/mo, €25 annually, excl. VAT | €30, in the base plan | 1, then +€12 each | Solo makers and workshops of one to four who need batch-level costing |
| Stocksmith formerly Craftybase | $20/mo Pro, single channel at very low volume | $99 Indie | Unlimited, no per-seat fee | Makers selling across several channels, and teams of five or more |
| Zoho Inventory | Free for 50 orders; $29/mo Standard | $79 Professional | 2, then +$7.50 each | Multi-currency sellers, and anyone already inside the Zoho suite |
| inFlow | $99/mo Stockroom, $129 Inventory, $179 Manufacturing | Supported; plan coverage not published | 2 on entry plans | Distribution, warehouse operations and barcode-driven stock work |
| Katana | Free for 30 SKUs; Core from $299/mo | $299 Core, with a Traceability add-on listed separately at $249/mo | Unlimited | Established manufacturers with a shop floor and production scheduling |
Prices are as published by each vendor, in their own currency, and we have not converted between them. Ours exclude VAT, which Paddle adds at checkout by country. Every one of these offers a free trial of 14 days or more.
Every tool here advertises a low entry price. None of those entry prices tells you what you will actually pay, because for a maker the deciding feature is usually the same one: knowing which delivery of wax, oil or base went into which batch of product, what that batch really cost, and when it expires.
That is a compliance requirement if you make cosmetics or food, and it is the only honest way to cost a unit when your supplier prices move. It is also the feature every vendor puts further up the price list than their headline. Comparing headline prices will mislead you; comparing the third column will not.
The incumbent in this niche, trading since 2013 and renamed from Craftybase on 1 July 2026, so craftybase.com now redirects to stocksmith.io. Six sales channels published (Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, Square, Faire and Amazon) plus QuickBooks, unlimited users on every plan, and a long public review record. It values inventory at weighted average cost rather than FIFO. If you sell across several channels or run a team, this is the one to beat, and on both of those points it beats us. Full head-to-head with Masto Control →
A real MRP system, and the most capable tool on this page by some distance: production scheduling, shop-floor control, warehouse management, demand forecasting. It is also priced for a company that has those problems, with Core starting at $299 a month and Traceability, Warehouse Management and Manufacturing Management listed as separate add-ons at $249, $149 and $199. There is a free tier capped at 30 SKUs. If you are a workshop of two people, this is not a comparison you will win by buying more software; if you are a manufacturer of fifty, we are not the tool for you.
Strongest on the physical side of stock: barcode scanning, warehouse and stockroom work, B2B ordering. It sells separate Inventory and Manufacturing product lines, from $129 and $179 a month respectively, with two team members on the entry tiers and sales orders capped at 100 a month on the cheapest inventory plan. Lot numbers and expiry dates are listed among its features; which plans include them is not published, so ask before you commit. Its stated markets are wholesale distribution and field service rather than small-batch making.
Much the cheapest way in, with a free tier at 50 orders a month and Standard at $29, and the only tool here with genuine multi-currency support, which matters if you buy materials in one currency and sell in another. Batch tracking arrives on Professional at $79. The limitation is what it is for: it describes item groups and assemblies rather than recipes and production runs, and a full make-from-materials workflow is not something their pages set out. Excellent at selling and shipping stock, less so at making it.
Built for one to ten people making things in small batches. Batch tracking with purchase price, purchase date and expiry is in the €30 base plan, materials are consumed FIFO at the price actually paid, recipes carry a waste allowance per line and lock once used in production, and there are no order-line caps. The honest limits: Etsy is our only sales channel, there is no accounting sync, no two-factor authentication, no public API, no multi-currency and no barcode scanning, and we launched in 2026 with none of the track record the others have. Four of the five above beat us on breadth. We are the cheapest route to batch-level costing, and that is the claim we will defend.
More than one, and the integration list decides everything else. Stocksmith publishes six, Katana and inFlow connect widely, we publish one. No amount of costing detail compensates for orders you have to key in by hand.
Flat unlimited-user pricing (Stocksmith, Katana) overtakes per-seat pricing somewhere around the fifth or sixth person. Below that, per-seat is cheaper; above it, it is not.
If you plan production across machines, people and dates, you want an MRP and you want Katana. If you make a batch when stock runs low, scheduling is a feature you will pay for and never open.
FIFO at real batch cost and weighted average are both permitted under IAS 2 and give different unit costs the moment supplier prices move. Neither is wrong. Know which one your tool uses before you price a product on its number.
It depends on how many sales channels you use and how many people work with you, but the figure that decides it for most makers is the cheapest plan that includes batch and lot tracking. On that measure the five common options run: Masto Control at €30 a month with it included in the base plan, Zoho Inventory at $79 on Professional, Stocksmith (formerly Craftybase) at $99 on Indie, inFlow supporting it without publishing which plans include it, and Katana from $299 on Core with a Traceability add-on listed separately at $249. If you sell across several channels, Stocksmith is the strongest of these; if you schedule production across a shop floor, Katana is.
It was renamed Stocksmith on 1 July 2026. Same company and same software: Stocksmith Pty Ltd has been the legal entity since 2013 and the product brand was changed to match it. craftybase.com now redirects to stocksmith.io, and existing accounts and integrations were not affected.
For a workshop of one to four people, usually yes. Katana is a full MRP with production scheduling, shop-floor control and warehouse management, and it is priced accordingly: Core starts at $299 a month, with Traceability, Warehouse Management and Manufacturing Management listed as separate add-ons at $249, $149 and $199. There is a free tier capped at 30 SKUs. It is the most capable tool of the five and the wrong shape for a two-person studio.
Zoho Inventory has the lowest way in, with a free tier at 50 orders a month and Standard at $29, and Stocksmith lists a Pro plan at $20 for a single sales channel at very low volume. Both are below Masto Control at €30. The ordering changes once batch and lot tracking is required, because Zoho gates it at $79 and Stocksmith at $99 while it sits in the Masto Control base plan.
No. Etsy is our only published sales channel, and it is the largest single gap between us and the rest of this list. Stocksmith publishes Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, Square, Faire and Amazon plus QuickBooks. If you sell across several channels, that difference will matter to you every week and no amount of costing detail makes up for it.
Because it changes the unit cost you price against. Masto Control consumes material batches first-in-first-out at the price actually paid for each batch. Stocksmith values inventory at weighted average cost. Both are permitted cost formulas under IAS 2 and neither is wrong, but they diverge as soon as your supplier prices move, so it is worth knowing which one produced the number you are about to set a price from.
Read on 21 August 2026 from each vendor’s own published pages: Stocksmith pricing, Katana pricing, inFlow pricing and Zoho Inventory pricing, together with the feature pages each vendor publishes for batch and lot tracking. Prices and plan contents change without notice, and a comparison table is only as good as its date. Check each vendor before you decide, and tell us if something here has gone stale - we will correct it.
Craftybase and Stocksmith are trademarks of Stocksmith Pty Ltd; Katana is a trademark of Katana MRP; inFlow is a trademark of Archon Systems Inc.; Zoho and Zoho Inventory are trademarks of Zoho Corporation. Masto Control Oy is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them, and the names are used here only to identify the products being compared. Our own figures come from our pricing and features pages.