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Katana vs Fishbowl logo

Why Choose Katana over Fishbowl?

See how Katana gives modern product businesses the visibility, control, and scalability they need—without the complexity or cost of legacy ERPs.

What makes Katana different?

If you’re managing raw materials, BOMs, or production and sales across multiple channels, not every system is built for your reality. Katana is purpose-built for product businesses that need flexibility and speed—without sacrificing inventory accuracy or operational control.

Don’t lose control over your bill of materials

Gain full control over your product composition, ensuring accurate BOM management and protecting product ownership, even as your business scales.

Don’t let rapid growth overwhelm your operations

Katana’s intuitive system enables you to keep up with increasing demand, staff, and revenue, streamlining operations without overwhelming your team.

Get expert support when you need it

When you need assistance, we’re there for you. Our 24-hour support answers in under an hour. No cumbersome tickets and waiting for hours or days to get a response.

Katana wins in 87% of review categories versus Fishbowl

According to customers, Katana is 4 times faster to go live, support you better, and get to positive ROI almost twice as fast. Here are a few more reasons why you should choose us.

Katana Logo
Average Go Live Time (months)* 1 month 4 months
Average ROI (months)* 9 months 17 months
Users Unlimited 2 users included, additional users at extra cost
Integrations Unlimited Only accounting integrations included, others cost extra
Katana Cloud
vs
Fishbowl Logo
Ease of Use
90%
77%
Ease of Admin
89%
78%
Ease of Setup
85%
77%
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?
93%
79%
Product direction (% positive)
100%
75%

Get a demo and see why our customers love us

Katana Features

Get your products to customers faster

Katana supports your workflows, regardless of industry, with the features and seamless integrations needed to do business your way.

Katana inventory management system showing item table with stock, committed, expected quantities, and highlighted 143 in-stock badge with location filter

Take control of your inventory in real time

Katana’s Smart Inventory provides live, connected insights across all channels and locations — helping you maintain the correct stock levels. Track items in real-time, forecast demand with confidence, and manage costs without end-of-month surprises.

  • Real time visibility
  • Barcode workflows
  • Expiry dates
  • Batch/lot and serial number tracking
  • Automated stock movements
  • Multilocation support
  • Omnichannel order sync
  • Planning and forecasting
  • User permissions
Purchasing widgets including stock row, purchase order card, and status selector to balance supply with demand and avoid overstocking

Stay ahead with demand-led purchasing

Track everything that’s purchased and trace its journey from supplier to production. Katana maintains a comprehensive record to support compliance, simplify audits, and facilitate prompt responses to recalls, strengthening trust in your company.

  • Multicurrency support
  • Purchasing insights
  • Reorder recommendations
  • Receiving
  • Contract manufacturing
  • Multilocation support
Katana manufacturing system showing production order table with tasks, deadlines, and statuses plus task card view to track shop floor progress in real time

Manufacturing you can see, control, and deliver

Gain complete visibility into your entire production process. Plan capacity, allocate resources, and ensure materials are ready when needed. Live shop floor updates enable you to identify and resolve issues promptly, keeping production on track.

  • Shop Floor App
  • Insights and planning
  • Contract manufacturing
  • BOM and subassemblies
  • Barcode scanning
  • Manufacturing cost calculations
  • Real-time inventory management
  • Role-based access
  • MTS and MTO workflows
Order management software interface showing product stock levels, purchase orders, and real-time updates for seamless multi-channel fulfillment

Manage orders seamlessly across all of your channels

Connect sales channels, such as Shopify, Amazon, or WooCommerce, to Katana to ensure that all orders sync automatically. Eliminate worrying about double entries, lost orders, or messy spreadsheets — just accurate, up-to-date data across every channel.

  • Return management
  • Kits and bundles
  • Partial order fulfillment
  • Sell goods and services
  • Omnichannel sales order sync
  • Custom fields and internal notes
  • AI-powered assistant
Katana warehousing UI elements showing stock table, purchase order widget, and status menu to manage receiving, picking, and packing

Reliably move stock in and out of warehouses

Supply your team with mobile access to real-time tasks, barcode scanning, and role-based views. The Warehouse App ensures that receiving, picking, packing, and transfers are completed accurately and on time, keeping inventory reliable and customers happy.

  • Warehouse app
  • Bin locations
  • Barcode scanning
  • Multilocation support
  • Pick and pack
  • Receiving and partial receiving
  • 3PL & WMS support

1500+
customers worldwide

Overall, my experience with Katana has been really, really great.

Alexander Blanchard

Operations Coordinator at Delta Development Team

Revenue has gone up because we manage more orders without hiring more staff.

Simon Bedding

Managing Director at Sylmasta

Customer support is very responsive and wants you to succeed as a user.

Nadia Hussain

Supply Chain Manager at Raw Coffee Company

If I didn’t have Katana, I would be drowning in spreadsheets, which would all break at some point.

Lisa Diep

Chief Operating Officer at Peace Collective

Everything is integrated, making for effective company-wide resource planning and control.

Danielle Louw

Production Manager at CT LAB

Our turnaround of taking orders to manufacturing and to then dispatching them has gone from 7-10 days to 2-3 days.

Jeff M.

Managing Director

Book a demo

Book a demo with our team to explore how Katana can streamline your inventory management and manufacturing processes.