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Restaurants · head to head

Craftable vs Lavu

Craftable logo

Craftable

Restaurants

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

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Lavu logo

Lavu

Restaurants

iPad POS for restaurants and bars

From
$99/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.; Lavu iPad-only solution with no Android or Windows alternative
  • They diverge on capability: Craftable covers Weight based bottle counting, Lavu covers iPad POS.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Craftable and Lavu actually diverge.

Attributes where Craftable and Lavu differ
AttributeCraftableLavu
Starting priceOn request$99/month
Pricing modelquoteUnknown
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidiPad
FoundedUnknown2010

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 Craftable

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

Only in Lavu

  • iPad POS
  • Split checks
  • Tab management
  • Happy hour pricing
  • Inventory tracking
  • Kitchen display
  • QuickBooks
  • Xero

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 Lavu
  • A hotel food and beverage department running several outlets and one central storenot Lavu
  • A restaurant group that needs supplier invoices coded and exported to Sage Intacct without manual entrynot Lavu
  • An operator who wants pour cost variance reported by bartender rather than only by venuenot Lavu

Lavu

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

Lavu

  • iPad-only solution with no Android or Windows alternative
  • Hardware costs are significant with devices starting at $700
  • Limited offline functionality compared to some competitors

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

Lavu

$99/month

No published plan breakdown. See the Lavu review.

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 Lavu if

  • You need ipad pos.
  • You work on iPad.
  • You also want split checks.
Lavu review

Questions people ask

Is Craftable or Lavu better?
Neither clearly leads. Craftable starts at On request and Lavu at $99/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Craftable or Lavu?
Craftable starts at On request and Lavu at $99/month.
Does Craftable or Lavu run on more platforms?
Craftable runs on Web, iOS, Android. Lavu runs on iPad.
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 Lavu is typically brought in for.
What can Craftable do that Lavu cannot?
Craftable covers Weight based bottle counting, Invoice digitisation, Recipe and plate costing, Variance reporting. Lavu covers iPad POS, Split checks, Tab management, Happy hour pricing.

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.

Lavu: What devices does Lavu support?

Lavu is iPad-based and works with iPad Pro, Air, and Mini models. It is compatible with peripherals from Ingenico, Magtek, and supports various receipt printers, cash drawers, and barcode scanners.

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.

Lavu: Does Lavu offer financing for hardware?

Yes. Lavu offers 0% no-interest financing on hardware for 3-year contracts, and supports both 1-year and 3-year contract terms.

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.

Lavu: What is Lavu's pricing range?

Lavu monthly POS software costs range from $99 to $279 per month, with hardware starting at $700 and up to $1,500 for full systems.

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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