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Restaurants · head to head

Aloha POS vs Craftable

Aloha POS logo

Aloha POS

Restaurants

Industry-leading restaurant POS solution

From
$150/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Craftable logo

Craftable

Restaurants

Back of house inventory, invoice processing and costing built first for beverage led venues

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Aloha POS high upfront hardware costs ($1,000+ per terminal) make it expensive to deploy across multiple locations; Craftable beverage and food are separately licensed modules, so a venue with a full bar and a full kitchen is quoted twice for the same address and the effective per venue cost is roughly double the headline.
  • They diverge on capability: Aloha POS covers Table management, Craftable covers Weight based bottle counting.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Aloha POS and Craftable actually diverge.

Attributes where Aloha POS and Craftable differ
AttributeAloha POSCraftable
Starting price$150/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWindows, AndroidWeb, iOS, Android
Founded1988Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Restaurants).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Aloha POS

  • Table management
  • Order management
  • Labor scheduling
  • Inventory control
  • Enterprise reporting
  • Loyalty programs
  • NCR Back Office
  • Third-party delivery

Only in Craftable

  • Weight based bottle counting
  • Invoice digitisation
  • Recipe and plate costing
  • Variance reporting
  • Purchasing and ordering
  • Accounts payable export

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Aloha POS

  • Point of Salenot Craftable
  • Order Managementnot Craftable
  • Inventory Controlnot Craftable
  • Staff Schedulingnot Craftable

Craftable

  • A cocktail bar where liquor shrinkage is material and eyeballed bottle counts are not accurate enoughnot Aloha POS
  • A hotel food and beverage department running several outlets and one central storenot Aloha POS
  • A restaurant group that needs supplier invoices coded and exported to Sage Intacct without manual entrynot Aloha POS
  • An operator who wants pour cost variance reported by bartender rather than only by venuenot Aloha POS

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Aloha POS

  • High upfront hardware costs ($1,000+ per terminal) make it expensive to deploy across multiple locations
  • User interface is dated with functionality from 2005-era design, requiring training for staff familiar with modern applications
  • Network connectivity issues cause terminals to lose access to central database when Wi-Fi drops, leading to transaction failures
  • Requires proprietary terminals unlike competitors that run on standard iPads or Android tablets
  • Complex customization requires expensive professional services and cannot be configured by restaurant staff

Craftable

  • Beverage and food are separately licensed modules, so a venue with a full bar and a full kitchen is quoted twice for the same address and the effective per venue cost is roughly double the headline.
  • Invoice digitisation only helps if your suppliers are covered and their documents are legible; a venue buying from small local producers with handwritten dockets will still key those in by hand.
  • Accurate variance depends on counting on a fixed cadence, and venues that slip from weekly to monthly counts get numbers too stale to act on, which is the most common reason implementations quietly fail.
  • Weight based counting needs connected scales at each venue, an unbudgeted hardware cost that grows with the number of bars in the building.
  • Implementation requires mapping every item to supplier catalogue codes and building recipes before the first useful report, typically several weeks of a manager time that nobody has allocated.

Pricing, plan by plan

Aloha POS

$150/month
  • Essentials$150/month
    • POS
    • Basic reporting
  • Professional$250/month
    • Advanced features
    • Labor management
  • EnterpriseFree
    • Custom pricing
    • Full suite

Craftable

On request
  • Beverage module$undefined/year
    • Bar inventory, pour costing and variance by product
    • Priced per venue
    • Scale hardware quoted separately
  • Food module$undefined/year
    • Kitchen inventory, plate costing and purchasing
    • Priced per venue and quoted in addition to the beverage module
  • Invoice and accounts payable$undefined/year
    • Invoice digitisation with line item detail
    • Ledger coding and export to the accounting system
    • Volume of invoices affects the quote

Which should you pick?

Choose Aloha POS if

  • You need table management.
  • You work on Windows, Android.
  • You also want order management.
Aloha POS review

Choose Craftable if

  • You need weight based bottle counting.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want invoice digitisation.
Craftable review

Questions people ask

Is Aloha POS or Craftable better?
Neither clearly leads. Aloha POS starts at $150/month and Craftable at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Aloha POS or Craftable?
Aloha POS starts at $150/month and Craftable at On request.
Does Aloha POS or Craftable run on more platforms?
Aloha POS runs on Windows, Android. Craftable runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Aloha POS best used for?
Aloha POS is most often used for point of sale, order management, inventory control, staff scheduling. Of those, point of sale and order management are not what Craftable is typically brought in for.
What can Aloha POS do that Craftable cannot?
Aloha POS covers Table management, Order management, Labor scheduling, Inventory control. Craftable covers Weight based bottle counting, Invoice digitisation, Recipe and plate costing, Variance reporting.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Aloha POS: What are the hardware options for Aloha POS?

Aloha offers two main products: Aloha Essentials POS which runs on Windows servers at your location, and Aloha Cloud POS which operates on Android-based mobile terminals connected to cloud systems. Hardware costs approximately $1,000 per terminal or available through subscription.

Source
Craftable: Is Craftable the same product as Bevager and Foodager?

Yes. Those were the beverage and food product names before the platform was consolidated under the Craftable brand; they are now modules rather than separate products.

Aloha POS: What features does Aloha include for restaurant operations?

Aloha includes kitchen automation, table management, staff rosters, payment processing, inventory tracking, reporting, customer loyalty programs, and employee time tracking.

Source
Craftable: Does it replace my accounting system?

No. It codes and exports invoices into an existing ledger such as QuickBooks or Sage Intacct rather than becoming the ledger.

Aloha POS: Is Aloha POS available as a subscription?

Yes. NCR Aloha offers an all-in-one monthly subscription model that includes software, hardware, payment processing, and 24/7 customer support. Upfront implementation costs vary based on specific needs.

Source
Craftable: Do I need the scale hardware?

Only for beverage. Weighing partial bottles is what makes liquor variance reliable; without it you are back to tenth of a bottle estimates.

Aloha POS: What are the network requirements for Aloha POS?

Aloha Essentials requires a stable network connection between terminals and the Windows server. Network disruptions cause terminals to lose access to the central database, resulting in transaction failures and payment errors.

Source
Craftable: Can it handle multiple venues under one group?

Yes, with consolidated reporting across venues, but each venue is priced individually.

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