Comparison

Katana vs JigBoard: Product Manufacturers vs Job Shops

Katana is manufacturing software built for product makers — companies with SKUs, bills of materials, and Shopify or WooCommerce stores. It’s well-priced (flat pricing, unlimited users, same as us) and well-built. It’s just built for a different kind of shop than yours.

JigBoard is built for job shops: custom parts made to customer specs, one job at a time, not repeating SKUs from a webstore. On price we’re comparable. On fit for custom job work, we’re native — Katana is a product manufacturer’s tool retrofitted for jobs.

Pricing comparison

Katana and JigBoard both price per account with unlimited users included — no per-seat tax on either side. That means the real comparison isn’t price, it’s fit.

KatanaJigBoard
Entry tier$99/mo (Essential)$99/mo (Pro)
Starter tier$179/mo (annual billing)$99/mo
Free tierFree: 30 SKUs, 3 locationsFree: 1 user, 10 active jobs
Model fit for job shopsRetrofit — SKU-orientedNative — job-oriented

Katana Essential is $99/month; Starter is $179/month (annual billing) with more inventory features. Both include unlimited users. JigBoard Pro is $99/month with unlimited users. Price isn’t the deciding factor — model fit is.

Feature comparison

Katana is strong on e-commerce sync and product manufacturing. JigBoard is strong on custom job flow. Same industry, very different day-to-day:

FeatureKatanaJigBoard
Quotes → jobs → invoices workflowbasic
One-off custom parts (no SKU)
Machine scheduling / Ganttlimited
Time tracking on the floor
Materials & inventory
Purchase orders
Visual shop floor plan
Live TV display for the shop wall
Customer portal (job status link)
QuickBooks integration
Flat pricing (unlimited users)
Shopify / WooCommerce sync
Bills of materials (BOM)basic
Multi-warehouse inventory
SKU-based product management

Pick Katana if...

  • You make products (not custom parts) — SKUs, catalogs, repeat orders
  • You sell on Shopify, WooCommerce, or another e-commerce platform
  • Bills of materials and multi-warehouse inventory matter
  • You’re a maker or product manufacturer, not a job shop

Pick JigBoard if...

  • Your work is one-off or short-run custom parts made to customer drawings
  • You quote, win the work, schedule it, run it, invoice it — job by job
  • You want a tool that speaks "jobs and operations", not "SKUs and orders"
  • You need a shop-floor view and TV mode for operators, not a fulfillment dashboard
  • You quote off drawings or RFQs, not off a product catalog

On the fence between the two?

Simple test: do you have a catalog and a webstore, or do you have customers with drawings? Katana is designed for the first case; JigBoard is designed for the second.

Some hybrid shops do both (repeat SKUs plus custom work). If custom job work is more than half your revenue, JigBoard is the better home — you can track SKU-style repeats as job templates, but a job shop retrofitted with product management fights the tool every day.

See it running your shop's work

Free plan, no credit card, real product. Set up in under an hour.