Katana MRP and Shippo: prices, catches and who they suit

The Weekly 2% Edge looks for small, repeatable gains in how a business runs. This page summarises our research on Katana MRP and Shippo, read from the vendors’ own pages and from what other buyers report. It is not a hands-on test.

Katana MRP

Cloud manufacturing and inventory platform for product businesses. Live inventory control, production scheduling and order syncing across your sales channels — know exactly what to make and when.

What it costs

Free up to 30 SKUs; Core from $299/mo, plus a per-delivered-order charge and extra locations, with add-ons at $149 to $249/mo. Read on Katana MRP’s own pricing page on 2026-09-23; check the live page before you buy.

The $299 headline is the floor. Core is billed on top per delivered sales order and per extra location, at rates Katana no longer publishes, and production routings and traceability are paid add-ons at $199 and $249 a month, which are exactly the features most manufacturers need. It's genuinely capable manufacturing software; just get a quote on your own order volume and price the add-ons you need, not the base plan.

Who it suits

Product makers and small manufacturers who need live inventory, production scheduling and multi-channel order sync in one cloud platform.

Who should skip it

Skip it if you're a simple reseller who doesn't manufacture (a plain inventory tool is cheaper), or your volume is too low to justify the add-on-driven real cost.

Getting started

The fastest route to something real is to leave the demo data in place at first. Katana's setup guide recommends editing the sample products, recipes and sales orders before entering anything of your own, then clearing it later with the Demo data button in the navigation bar. Set base currency and units of measure under Settings before importing, because those choices propagate into every item created afterwards. Bulk loading runs through Settings > Data import > Add new products, where an .xlsx template is downloaded. Each row represents a variant, and the Product name field groups variants under one product.

Shippo

Multi-carrier shipping software for e-commerce. Compare rates, print discounted labels and automate tracking across carriers — shipping that scales with your store.

What it costs

Free plan (30 labels/mo); Pro from $19/mo for 1-200 labels, or $205/yr. Read on Shippo’s own pricing page on 2026-09-25; check the live page before you buy.

The pricing is honest but layered. The free tier stops at 30 labels a month, and its 5¢ per label on your own carrier accounts quietly adds up. Pro looks like a flat $17 a month until you read the comparison table: it covers up to 10,000 shipments and then bills $0.08 for every label beyond that, so a good sales month adds a variable line to a subscription that reads as fixed. Address validation outside the US is metered too, at 9¢, 8¢ or 6¢ depending on plan. The real money is elsewhere anyway — in the carrier rate discounts, which vary by lane and weight.

Who it suits

E-commerce sellers shipping across multiple carriers who want rate comparison, label printing and tracking in one place with genuine rate discounts.

Who should skip it

Skip it if you ship a handful of packages monthly through one carrier (their native tools are fine), or you're big enough for direct carrier contracts to beat aggregated rates.

Getting started

Price five real shipments before you look at a plan. Take your five most common parcels — the actual weights, the actual destinations — and compare Shippo's quoted rates against what you pay your carriers today. Discounts vary by lane and weight, so this is the only comparison that predicts your bill, and it dwarfs the subscription either way.