Craftable is the closest established product to RestaurantMate's cart, so it gets a careful comparison. Both let you build one order for several vendors in a single cart. The difference is which vendors fit in that cart and how the price gets there.
Craftable reaches vendors through their ordering systems and adds the controls a purchasing department wants: approvals, spend limits, budgets and contract price checks. RestaurantMate signs in to your vendors' websites with your own login, from a small device in your restaurant, and shows the same item from each vendor on the same unit (per pound, per each) before you order. Craftable is sold by quote. RestaurantMate is free for your first 60 days, then $99 per location per month.
If you are looking for a Craftable alternative, this page shows what each one does and where Craftable is stronger. Craftable facts come from its own website and help center as of October 2026, with links at the end.
The two at a glance
Three terms come up a lot. EDI (electronic data interchange) is a direct link between two companies' computer systems, used to send orders and invoices. Punchout means clicking from Craftable into a vendor's own website, building the order there, and having Craftable record it. AP (accounts payable) is the work of checking and paying vendor bills.
| Craftable | RestaurantMate | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | "Mid-size to enterprise restaurant groups and hotel operators" (its words) | Restaurants and restaurant groups, from one location to many |
| One cart for several vendors | Yes | Yes, split by vendor, with each vendor's minimum shown |
| How the order reaches the vendor | EDI ordering with select vendors, punchout, and email or text to any vendor | RestaurantMate fills each vendor's online cart and checks every line; you review and check out |
| Where prices come from | Vendor catalogs (EDI feed or file import), contracts and invoices | Your own account on each vendor's website, checked every night; invoices and price sheets for email-only vendors |
| Same item at different vendors, per lb or per each | Not described on the pages we read | Yes |
| Approvals | Multi-step approvals with limits by location, department and amount | A permission split: one person builds the cart, another sends it |
| Budgets, spend limits, contract price enforcement | Yes | Not offered |
| Invoices | Each line checked against the order and delivery receipt; AP automation | Reads every invoice; you mark items damaged, short or wrong |
| Price | Quote only | 60 days free, then $99 per location per month; no card |
Where Craftable is stronger
If you run purchasing for a group, Craftable does several things RestaurantMate does not.
- Approvals can have several steps. Craftable lets you "build multi-step approvals" and set approval limits "by location, department, and amount." It says it blocks unauthorized or duplicate orders before they are placed.
- You can set budgets from past spend and vendor pricing, then watch spend against budget across departments as orders go in. Spend limits can follow budget, location or GL code (the accounting category a cost is filed under).
- Contract prices are enforced. If you negotiated a price with a distributor for the year, Craftable matches invoices to that contract at the SKU level (a SKU is the vendor's product number). It flags overcharges, substitutions and price creep before a bill is approved for payment.
- Every invoice line is checked against your purchase order (the order you sent) and the delivery receipt.
- More vendors can receive an order directly. For vendors connected by EDI, Craftable puts the order straight into the vendor's ordering system. Its help center also says it "supports ordering with ALL vendors via Email and/or Text Message." In RestaurantMate, a vendor without a website cart is still ordered by hand.
- It covers more of the back office. Craftable includes AP automation, inventory, recipes and daily insights. RestaurantMate does not pay bills or sync with accounting software.
- It has a long track record. Craftable says it is "Trusted by 10,000+ operators for more than 10 years." It also lists SOC 2 (an outside security audit) and single sign-on, which group IT teams ask for. RestaurantMate is live in 10+ restaurants.
Which vendors fit in each cart
Craftable
Craftable's ordering page says you can place multi-vendor orders from a single cart "via EDI, Punchout, or Enhanced Catalogs." Its help center describes four kinds of vendor connection: e-invoicing, EDI ordering, vendor catalogs and punchout.
With punchout, you build the order on the vendor's website and Craftable records a matching order on its side, so your approval rules still apply.
The help center keeps a table of vendors and the connections each supports, some with conditions. For a vendor not in the table, it asks you to contact customer care. Any vendor can still get orders from Craftable by email or text.
RestaurantMate
If a vendor has a website where you log in to order, RestaurantMate connects with your login. The RestaurantMate device plugs into your router and does those sign-ins from your restaurant's own internet, because vendor websites block logins from cloud servers. Your logins are stored privately, used only to sign in to that vendor, and never shown back.
Vendors that only email you connect through the RestaurantMate inbox, an address like juniper-kitchen@mail.rmate.ai that you give your reps. You can also connect Gmail or Outlook, read-only. RestaurantMate imports PDF invoices, price sheets and bills from senders you have listed as vendor reps. If a vendor you buy from is not connected yet, tell us and we will set it up.
When the cart is ready, you send your order to every vendor's online cart from one place. RestaurantMate fills each cart and checks every line, so you can review and check out on the vendor's site. For a vendor with no website cart, you place the order by phone or email as you do today, and its invoice still arrives through the inbox. Orders are tracked from placed to delivered for vendors that share order status, and every purchase is tracked from the invoice on.
Craftable's punchout starts the order on the vendor's website and records it in Craftable. RestaurantMate starts it in one cart and fills the vendor's website for you.
How each one finds the price
Craftable
Craftable's prices come mainly from vendor catalogs. A catalog is a list of a vendor's items and prices that you link to your own items, so your team "always sees the most up-to-date prices." It arrives by EDI feed from vendors that offer one (set up by Craftable's integrations team) or as a file that you or your vendor import. The help center says catalogs need eProcurement as part of your Craftable subscription. Contracts and invoices then let Craftable check whether you were charged what you agreed.
On the ordering pages and help articles we read, we did not find a view that puts the same item from different vendors side by side on the same unit. That does not prove Craftable lacks one. Ask to see it in a demo.
RestaurantMate
Every night the device signs in to each of your website vendors and reads the price your account sees, including any contract price you already have. RestaurantMate then works out a price per unit from the vendor's own pack size. When a vendor leaves the pack size out, it asks you once instead of guessing. For email-only vendors, prices come from their invoices and price sheets.
Here is one item at three made-up vendors:
| Vendor | Pack | Case price | Per lb |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valley Fresh Produce | 10 lb bag of yellow onions | $7.20 | $0.72 |
| Heartland Foodservice | 50 lb bag of yellow onions | $32.50 | $0.65 |
| Club Wholesale | 25 lb bag of yellow onions | $14.75 | $0.59 |
The formula is case price divided by pounds in the case. Valley Fresh has the lowest case price and the highest price per pound. If you use 100 lb of onions a week, paying $0.59 instead of $0.65 a pound is $6 a week, about $312 a year, on one item. RestaurantMate runs this for each item you buy at each vendor that sells it. In the cart, a line that is cheaper at another of your vendors shows a "Save" note with that vendor's name.
Craftable checks invoices against agreed prices before the bill is paid. RestaurantMate also shows prices at the moment you choose a vendor.
RestaurantMate's approvals are simpler
Approval in RestaurantMate is a permission split. Someone with Ordering Edit access can shop and build the cart. Someone with Ordering Full access can also send it to the vendors. Your kitchen manager fills the cart, and you or your buyer review it and press Send. Nothing reaches a vendor's cart before that.
That is the whole approval system. RestaurantMate has no approval chain with dollar limits. It also has no budgets, spend limits or contract price enforcement.
The nearest thing is an alert. Drop a vendor's price sheet into Alerts and write "tell me if we pay more than these prices." RestaurantMate matches the sheet to your items and emails you when a delivered price is over the agreed price. It checks every 10 minutes, so alerts are not instant. That catches an overcharge after the delivery. It does not stop the order or hold the bill. If holding vendors to contract prices across many locations is your main job, Craftable does more of it.
What each one costs
Craftable does not publish prices. As of October 2026, craftable.com/pricing returns a "not found" page, and the buttons on its site lead to "Book a demo." Some software listing sites show a starting figure without saying what it covers, so we have left it out. Ask Craftable for a quote for your number of locations.
RestaurantMate is free for 60 days, and you don't need a card to start. After that it is $99 a month per location. The RestaurantMate device has a $300 refundable deposit, and one device covers up to two locations. Setup is $0 and done with you, and you can leave whenever you want. Two locations come to $198 a month after the free period, plus one $300 deposit that you get back (pricing).
Who should pick which
Craftable is likely the better fit if:
- you run a restaurant group or hotel with several locations or departments, and a purchasing person approves orders
- you have contract prices with your distributors and want every invoice held to them
- your main vendors appear in Craftable's EDI or punchout table
- you want paying vendor bills and purchasing in the same system
RestaurantMate is likely the better fit if:
- you own one or more restaurants and do the buying yourself or with a manager
- you buy from a mix of vendors: a broadline distributor (the big truck that carries a bit of everything), a club store, a produce house and a butcher who only emails
- you want to see which vendor is cheaper for each item, per pound or per each, before you order
- you want a published price and 60 days to try it with your own vendors
Questions to ask both before you decide
Take this list into both demos. The first question matters most.
- List every vendor you bought from last month. Ask each company which of those vendors it supports today, and how: website login, EDI, punchout, catalog file or email.
- Pick five items you buy every week. Ask to see each one from all your vendors, priced per pound or per each.
- Ask where each price comes from and how old it is when you place the order.
- Ask what happens with your smallest vendor, the one who emails a PDF price sheet.
- Ask who can send an order, and what stops a wrong one from going out.
- Ask for the full cost for your number of locations, including setup and any hardware.
One owner's numbers
Miguel runs two restaurants in Los Angeles. RestaurantMate has cut his food purchases by about 10%, and by 20 to 30% on some items where he switched vendors, and his manager gets back 4 to 5 hours a week. When we asked him to wait three weeks for a new version before onboarding his second location, he wrote back: "No, it would be great if you could onboard me today. I cannot imagine running my second location without RestaurantMate anymore."
Try it with your own vendors
The quickest way to compare is to look at your own prices from your own vendors. Get started to create an account (60 days free, no card required), or Try the live demo, which uses a made-up restaurant group and vendors.
Sources
Craftable facts checked October 2026:
- Craftable homepage, craftable.com : "Trusted by 10,000+ operators for more than 10 years"; restaurants and hotels; "mid-size to enterprise restaurant groups and hotel operators"; SOC 2 and single sign-on; modules (Intelligent Ordering, Inventory & Recipe Management, AP Automation, Daily Actionable Insights).
- Craftable Intelligent Ordering, craftable.com/intelligent-ordering : multi-vendor orders from a single cart "via EDI, Punchout, or Enhanced Catalogs"; multi-step approvals and limits by location, department and amount; budgets; contract pricing; invoice lines checked against the purchase order and delivery receipt; mobile approvals.
- Craftable eProcurement, craftable.com/eprocurement : "enforce contract pricing"; flags overcharges, substitutions and price creep; flags discrepancies before payment is approved.
- Craftable help center, vendor integrations, help.craftable.com/learning/craftables-vendor… : e-invoicing, EDI ordering, vendor catalogs and punchout; how punchout works; "Craftable supports ordering with ALL vendors via Email and/or Text Message"; vendor table.
- Craftable help center, vendor catalogs, help.craftable.com/learning/vendor-catalogs : catalogs by EDI or file import; EDI catalogs set up by Craftable's integrations team; eProcurement required.
- Craftable pricing, craftable.com/pricing : returned 404 (not found) in October 2026.
Prices and features checked October 2026 from each company's public website. Product names are trademarks of their owners. RestaurantMate is not affiliated with Craftable. If something here is out of date, email us and we will fix it.