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Restaurants · head to head

Craftable vs HotSchedules

Craftable logo

Craftable

Restaurants

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

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
HotSchedules logo

HotSchedules

Restaurants

Restaurant employee scheduling software

From
$2/employee/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; HotSchedules hotSchedules is sold by Fourth and its pricing page publishes no rate, no per location or per employee cost, no module price and no minimum commitment
  • They diverge on capability: Craftable covers Weight based bottle counting, HotSchedules covers Employee scheduling.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Craftable and HotSchedules actually diverge.

Attributes where Craftable and HotSchedules differ
AttributeCraftableHotSchedules
Starting priceOn request$2/employee/month
Pricing modelquotesubscription
FoundedUnknown1999

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web, iOS, Android), 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 Craftable

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

Only in HotSchedules

  • Employee scheduling
  • Time tracking
  • Team messaging
  • Labor forecasting
  • Shift swapping
  • Compliance
  • All major POS
  • Payroll systems

What people use each for

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

Craftable

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

HotSchedules

  • Employee scheduling for restaurants and retailnot Craftable
  • Labor cost management and optimizationnot Craftable
  • Shift coordination for multiple locationsnot Craftable

Where each one falls short

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

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.

HotSchedules

  • HotSchedules is sold by Fourth and its pricing page publishes no rate, no per location or per employee cost, no module price and no minimum commitment
  • Obtaining a price requires a sales call or a demo request
  • Fourth sells HotSchedules alongside separate products including Adaco and MacromatiX, each quoted rather than listed

Pricing, plan by plan

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

HotSchedules

$2/employee/month
  • Scheduling$2/employee/month
    • Scheduling
    • Communication
  • EnterpriseFree
    • Custom pricing
    • Full platform

Which should you pick?

Choose Craftable if

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

Choose HotSchedules if

  • You need employee scheduling.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want time tracking.
HotSchedules review

Questions people ask

Is Craftable or HotSchedules better?
Neither clearly leads. Craftable starts at On request and HotSchedules at $2/employee/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Craftable or HotSchedules?
Craftable starts at On request and HotSchedules at $2/employee/month.
Does Craftable or HotSchedules run on more platforms?
Craftable runs on Web, iOS, Android. HotSchedules runs on Web, Ios, Android.
What is Craftable best used for?
Craftable is most often used for a cocktail bar where liquor shrinkage is material and eyeballed bottle counts are not accurate enough, a hotel food and beverage department running several outlets and one central store, a restaurant group that needs supplier invoices coded and exported to sage intacct without manual entry, an operator who wants pour cost variance reported by bartender rather than only by venue. Of those, a cocktail bar where liquor shrinkage is material and eyeballed bottle counts are not accurate enough and a hotel food and beverage department running several outlets and one central store are not what HotSchedules is typically brought in for.
What can Craftable do that HotSchedules cannot?
Craftable covers Weight based bottle counting, Invoice digitisation, Recipe and plate costing, Variance reporting. HotSchedules covers Employee scheduling, Time tracking, Team messaging, Labor forecasting.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

HotSchedules: Does HotSchedules offer a free trial?

HotSchedules offers a promotional trial of one year free to new customers. Specific terms and conditions apply, and contact with their sales team is required to activate the offer.

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.

HotSchedules: How is HotSchedules pricing determined?

HotSchedules pricing is customized based on business needs. Potential customers must contact Fourth's sales team via the demo request form to receive a personalized pricing quote.

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.

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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