Softwr

Inventory · head to head

Katana vs Litmus Edge

Katana logo

Katana

Inventory

Smart manufacturing ERP for scaling businesses

From
$99/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Litmus Edge logo

Litmus Edge

Manufacturing

Industrial edge platform that collects, normalises and forwards OT data to cloud and enterprise systems

From
$1500/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Katana limited BOM explosion and lead-time offset planning requiring manual work that should be automated; Litmus Edge pricing is by site and data point, so a large tag count at one plant can cost more than a modest tag count spread over several, which is the opposite of how most manufacturers plan a rollout.
  • They diverge on capability: Katana covers Production planning, Litmus Edge covers Prebuilt driver library.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Katana and Litmus Edge actually diverge.

Attributes where Katana and Litmus Edge differ
AttributeKatanaLitmus Edge
Starting price$99/month$1500/month
Pricing modelUnknownPer site by data point count
PlatformsWebLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, On-premise
CategoryInventoryManufacturing
Founded2015Unknown

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

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 Katana

  • Production planning
  • Real-time inventory
  • BOM management
  • Shop floor control
  • Shopify
  • WooCommerce
  • QuickBooks
  • Xero

Only in Litmus Edge

  • Prebuilt driver library
  • Unified data model
  • Litmus Edge Manager
  • Edge applications
  • Store and forward
  • Cloud and broker outputs

What people use each for

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

Katana

  • Production schedulingnot Litmus Edge
  • Material planningnot Litmus Edge
  • Work order managementnot Litmus Edge
  • Inventory optimizationnot Litmus Edge

Litmus Edge

  • A manufacturer with twenty plants and five PLC brands that needs one data acquisition standard rather than twenty bespoke integrationsnot Katana
  • Feeding a cloud data warehouse or lakehouse with normalised production data without asking the controls team to write cloud connectorsnot Katana
  • Retrofitting data collection onto old CNC machines and robots where the protocol support is the hard part, not the analyticsnot Katana
  • Adding local buffering and computation at sites with unreliable WAN links so cloud outages do not create gaps in production historynot Katana

Where each one falls short

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

Katana

  • Limited BOM explosion and lead-time offset planning requiring manual work that should be automated
  • No native invoicing capability, making it standalone without accounting system integration
  • Limited native integrations, with heavy reliance on Zapier for non-core tools
  • Slow performance with large datasets and high SKU counts

Litmus Edge

  • Pricing is by site and data point, so a large tag count at one plant can cost more than a modest tag count spread over several, which is the opposite of how most manufacturers plan a rollout.
  • The entry package sits around $1,500 per month, an awkward number for a single-site pilot given that the product is infrastructure with no visible output of its own until something downstream consumes it.
  • Litmus does no analytics, so the business case always depends on a second purchase; the platform on its own produces no result a plant manager can see.
  • Full pricing beyond the entry tier is not published and the Growth and Scale packages are quoted, so scaling costs are unknown at the point you commit to the architecture.
  • A capable controls team can approximate a single-site deployment with an open-source broker and a driver gateway for a fraction of the cost, so the value case depends entirely on how many sites you are managing centrally.

Pricing, plan by plan

Katana

$99/month
  • Essential$99/month
    • Core inventory management
    • Production scheduling
    • Stock tracking
  • Pro$299/month
    • Shop floor control
    • API access
    • Advanced reporting

Litmus Edge

$1500/month
  • Foundation$1500/month
    • Entry package sized by site count and data points
    • Core driver library and edge runtime
    • Store and forward to cloud and brokers
  • Growth$undefined/month
    • Larger site and data point allowance
    • Litmus Edge Manager fleet management
    • Priced on application
  • Scale$undefined/month
    • Enterprise multi-site deployment
    • Higher data point ceilings and support tier
    • Priced on application

Which should you pick?

Choose Katana if

  • You need production planning.
  • You also want real-time inventory.
Katana review

Choose Litmus Edge if

  • You need prebuilt driver library.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, On-premise.
  • You also want unified data model.
Litmus Edge review

Questions people ask

Is Katana or Litmus Edge better?
Neither clearly leads. Katana starts at $99/month and Litmus Edge at $1500/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Katana or Litmus Edge?
Katana starts at $99/month and Litmus Edge at $1500/month.
Does Katana or Litmus Edge run on more platforms?
Katana runs on Web. Litmus Edge runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, On-premise.
What is Katana best used for?
Katana is most often used for production scheduling, material planning, work order management, inventory optimization. Of those, production scheduling and material planning are not what Litmus Edge is typically brought in for.
What can Katana do that Litmus Edge cannot?
Katana covers Production planning, Real-time inventory, BOM management, Shop floor control. Litmus Edge covers Prebuilt driver library, Unified data model, Litmus Edge Manager, Edge applications.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Katana: What is Katana's pricing structure?

Katana starts at $99/month for the Essential plan with core MRP features. The Pro plan costs $299/month and adds shop floor control and API access. Add-ons for traceability, manufacturing, and warehouse management cost extra and can reach $747-$1,095 total.

Source
Litmus Edge: Does Litmus Edge do analytics or dashboards?

Only lightweight edge computation and basic visualisation. It is a data acquisition and normalisation layer; the analysis happens in whatever you send the data to.

Katana: Does Katana support multi-level bills of materials?

Katana has limited BOM explosion and lead-time offset planning capabilities. Complex multi-level BOMs with sub-assemblies require manual workarounds, which becomes increasingly problematic as SKU count grows.

Source
Litmus Edge: How is it priced?

By number of sites and number of data points, in packages. The entry package starts around $1,500 per month; larger tiers are quoted.

Katana: Can Katana integrate with my accounting software?

Katana has no native invoicing capability and limited integrations with accounting systems. It is essentially standalone and requires manual data export or Zapier integration for most accounting workflows.

Source
Litmus Edge: Can it replace my historian?

No. It buffers and forwards but is not a long-term historian. Most deployments send data into a historian, warehouse or lakehouse.

Katana: Does Katana have an offline mode?

No, Katana is a cloud-only solution requiring internet connectivity. There is no built-in offline mode for production floor access without internet.

Source
Litmus Edge: Does it need Litmus hardware?

No. It runs on standard industrial PCs, virtual machines or containers; there is no proprietary appliance requirement.

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