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Posted on May 29 • Originally published at tpdowns.com

Cin7 vs Unleashed vs Katana: Best Inventory Management Software for NZ Small Business (2026)

#smallbusiness #business #productivity #startup

Cin7 vs Unleashed vs Katana: Best Inventory Management Software for NZ Small Business (2026)

Spreadsheets break the moment you stock more than 50 SKUs across two warehouses. If you're running a product-based business in New Zealand (retail, wholesale, or light manufacturing), you've probably felt it: the oversell, the lost stock, the Xero reconciliation that takes half a Friday afternoon.

Three platforms dominate the NZ market for inventory management: Cin7 Core, Unleashed, and Katana. All three integrate with Xero. All three are used by NZ businesses. But they're built for different stages and different types of product businesses, and picking the wrong one is an expensive mistake.

This guide compares them on pricing, NZ fit, and which type of business should use which.

The short version

Tool	Best for	Starting price (USD)	NZD billing?
Cin7 Core	Multi-channel retailers and wholesalers	$349/mo	No (USD only)
Unleashed	NZ wholesalers and manufacturers	$399/mo	Yes
Katana	Manufacturers and makers	$299/mo	Yes

All prices exclude GST.

Cin7 Core

Cin7 started in New Zealand, founded in Auckland in 2012 before expanding globally. The product has evolved significantly, especially after acquiring DEAR Systems in 2022. Today it's marketed as Cin7 Core (cloud-based) and Cin7 Omni (enterprise).

Pricing (USD, as of May 2026):

Standard: $349/mo (5 users, 6,000 sales orders/year, 2 integrations)
Pro: $599/mo (10 users, 24,000 orders/year, 4 integrations)
Advanced: $999/mo (15 users, 120,000 orders/year, 6 integrations)

At the mid-2026 NZD/USD exchange rate (roughly USD x 1.65), that's approximately $576 to $1,648/mo NZD before GST.

What Cin7 Core does well:

It handles multi-channel stock brilliantly. If you're selling on Shopify, Amazon, and through a physical store simultaneously, Cin7 keeps a single stock ledger across all three. The Xero integration is deep: cost of goods sold, purchase orders, landed costs, and sales all sync without manual entry.

Point of sale, B2B portal, and EDI connections are all available as add-ons. If you're selling to supermarkets or retail chains in NZ that use EDI, Cin7 is one of the few tools that handles it.

Where it falls short:

Support. After the DEAR Systems acquisition, customer reviews consistently flag long wait times for critical issues. One customer on Capterra wrote: "We've had a critical support case open for 3 weeks and it is still not resolved." For a tool that controls your entire stock flow, a multi-week queue is a real risk.

Manufacturing features on the Standard plan are also limited. You get standard assembly and bill of materials tracking, but MRP (material requirements planning) requires the Pro plan at $599/mo. If you're doing any kind of production runs, budget for Pro.

Who it's right for:

Multi-channel retailers and wholesalers who need deep e-commerce integrations and are already selling at reasonable volume (>500 orders/month). If you're primarily a manufacturer rather than a distributor, Unleashed or Katana will serve you better.

Unleashed

Unleashed is another NZ-founded company, based in Auckland. It's been in the market longer than most of its competitors and has a strong reputation with NZ accountants and bookkeepers. It offers a free account for external accountants, which means your Xero advisor can see your stock data without extra cost.

Pricing (USD, as of May 2026):

Core: $399/mo (3 users, 100 sales orders/mo, upgradeable)
Pro: $729/mo (5 users, 100 sales orders/mo, key modules included free)

NZD billing is available, which matters for cash flow forecasting. At current rates, that's approximately $658/mo NZD for Core, or $1,202/mo NZD for Pro.

Modules and add-ons:

The add-on structure is important to understand. On the Core plan, these cost extra:

Advanced Inventory Manager (MRP): +$149/mo
Warehouse Management (multi-bin): +$149/mo
Analytics (Evo): +$69/mo
Production and Manufacturing: +$69/mo

On the Pro plan, all four are included free. So if you need more than basic stock tracking, the jump to Pro ($729/mo vs $399/mo plus $436/mo in add-ons) is actually better value.

What Unleashed does well:

Landed costs. If you're importing product from overseas (containers from China or the US, airfreight from Australia), Unleashed calculates landed cost accurately and syncs it to Xero. This is the kind of detail that saves hours at tax time and gives you accurate margin data.

Batch and serial tracking is solid. Businesses dealing with expiry dates (food, supplements, chemicals) or serial numbers (electronics, medical) get proper traceability.

The Xero integration is arguably the best of the three for NZ businesses because Unleashed was built alongside Xero from the start. The two tools share the same customer base and have invested in the integration accordingly.

Where it falls short:

The 100 sales order/month cap on entry-level plans catches people out. Upgrading to medium-volume handling adds $200/mo on top of the base price. If you're doing 500 orders/month, you're looking at $599/mo just for the Core plan with the right order tier. At that point, Pro starts making more sense anyway.

It's also not the right tool if you do complex manufacturing with multi-level bills of materials or production scheduling. For that, Katana is better.

Who it's right for:

NZ wholesalers, importers, and distributors with physical stock, particularly those who rely on Xero as their primary financial system. Also a strong fit for businesses with regulatory traceability requirements (batch/serial numbers for food, medical, or industrial products).

Katana

Katana is an Estonian company with a different philosophy: build for manufacturers first. Its free plan (up to 30 SKUs) is genuinely useful for testing, and the Core plan starts at $299/mo USD (approximately $493/mo NZD).

Pricing (USD, as of May 2026):

Free: Unlimited users, up to 30 SKUs, 3 locations (no credit card required)
Core: $299/mo base (unlimited users, unlimited SKUs, 1 location)

Add-ons on the Core plan:

Traceability: +$249/mo
Warehouse Management (bin locations, pick and pack): +$149/mo
Manufacturing Management (production routings, labour): +$199/mo

Note the $2,000 onboarding fee on the Core plan. It's a one-off, but factor it into the first-year cost.

What Katana does well:

The free tier is genuinely usable for a small maker or product business testing the water. No per-user fees is a real differentiator. Most competitors charge per seat, so a 10-person team pays 10x the licence cost. Katana doesn't.

The manufacturing workflow is purpose-built. You can track production runs, allocate materials to jobs, record labour time, and see real-time material availability before you confirm an order. For a small NZ manufacturer, this is meaningfully better than what Cin7 or Unleashed offer at a similar price.

Shopify and QuickBooks Online integration is solid. Xero integration is available but slightly less mature than Unleashed's.

[!WARNING]
Katana's add-on pricing can add up fast. A manufacturer needing Traceability, Manufacturing Management, and Warehouse Management is paying $299 + $249 + $199 + $149 = $896/mo before the onboarding fee. Run the numbers against Unleashed Pro ($729/mo with those modules included) before signing up.

Where it falls short:

If you're purely a distributor with no manufacturing, Katana is purpose-built for a problem you don't have. The sales order management and landed cost features aren't as developed as Unleashed's.

Who it's right for:

Makers and small manufacturers: food producers, supplement brands, artisan product businesses, light-industrial manufacturers. If you build a product rather than just distribute it, Katana is worth a serious look.

Hardware worth pairing with any of these

All three platforms support barcode scanning for stock movements. A decent scanner and label printer make a real difference to warehouse accuracy.

For a NZ small business just getting started with scanning, a reliable handheld USB or Bluetooth scanner works with all three platforms. The Honeywell Voyager and Zebra DS2208 are standard choices in NZ warehouses.

For label printing, a thermal printer eliminates ink costs entirely. Check thermal label printers on Amazon and handheld barcode scanners to kit out your stockroom.

The bottom line

You sell and distribute physical product (wholesale, retail, import): Start with Unleashed Core at $399/mo USD. The Xero integration is the best of the three for NZ, NZD billing is available, and the landed cost features are worth the monthly cost alone if you're importing.

You manufacture or make your product: Try Katana's free plan with your actual SKU catalogue. If you outgrow 30 SKUs, the Core plan at $299/mo is the cheapest entry into real manufacturing inventory management, and the no-per-user pricing is a meaningful saving once your team grows.

You sell across multiple channels (Shopify plus Amazon plus retail POS): Cin7 Core at $349/mo is the right call. Multi-channel stock management is its strongest feature, and the 700+ integrations cover almost every e-commerce setup you'd encounter in NZ.

If you're still on spreadsheets and under $200K revenue, none of these are the right call yet. Start with a shared Notion or Airtable stock tracker, connect it to Xero manually, and move to purpose-built software once your monthly order volume justifies the $400 to $700/mo outlay.

Originally published on tpdowns.com