Wholesale
Crate vs RoasterTools
Wholesale commerce alongside your existing roasting workflow.
Crate helps coffee roasters sell wholesale with customer logins, custom prices and repeat ordering, starting at $50/month. Run it standalone or connect Square, Shopify or Clover. RoasterTools combines wholesale ordering with coffee production planning. The choice is whether you need a wholesale commerce system or a system to organize production as well.
Written by Crate. Reviewed September 29, 2026. Based on our product and the providers' published information, not a hands-on test of their services.
Why choose Crate
Choose Crate when your roasting workflow already works and you need a customer portal, custom pricing and wholesale order management. You can run it on its own or connect your existing commerce system without adopting a new production planner.
When RoasterTools may fit better
Choose RoasterTools when planning roasting, blending, labeling and packaging is central to the problem. Its production workflow turns demand into tasks and lets your team track progress alongside wholesale orders.
Compare the details.
Compare the workflows, limits and costs that matter to your business.
What both offer: Both provide a wholesale customer portal with customer-specific products and prices. RoasterTools also documents repeat ordering and order reminders. Custom pricing alone is not a reason to choose one over the other.
| Topic | Crate | RoasterTools |
|---|---|---|
| Starting subscription | Wholesale Starter: $50/month. See current plan details for included features. | Essentials: $99/month, or $83/month billed annually. Production planning is part of the offer. Source |
| How volume affects the bill | Wholesale subscription pricing is not metered by pounds of coffee roasted. | Essentials includes 1,000 lb/month, then $0.10 per additional lb. Its billing guide measures green coffee represented on processed orders. Source 1Source 2 |
| Customer ordering and custom prices | Customer logins, customer-specific prices, price lists and repeat wholesale ordering. | Customer-specific catalogs, prices, exclusive products, repeat ordering and magic-link reminders. Source |
| Roastery production planning | Wholesale commerce and order management. Crate is not a replacement for a roasting production planner. | Plans roasting, blending, labeling and packaging tasks from demand, with progress tracking. Source |
| Square, Shopify and Clover | Work standalone or connect Square, Shopify or Clover. Confirm the catalog, order and payment workflow for your chosen integration. | Lists Shopify order imports. Its pricing page labels Square as coming soon; Clover is not listed there. Confirm current availability with RoasterTools. Source |
| Accounting and fulfillment | Crate offers invoicing, QuickBooks Online integration and shipping-label workflows. Check the plan and integration setup you need. | Documents accounting connections, shipping integrations and RoasterPay. Essentials lists a $29 basic accounting connection and a 0.5% RoasterPay application fee. Source |
| Orders that arrive outside the portal | Crate also offers AI email-to-order parsing, creating draft orders for review. This is a Wholesale add-on for enabled workspaces. Contact us to enable. | Documents a self-service customer portal and automated reminders. The reviewed sources do not establish an equivalent email-to-draft workflow; ask for a demonstration. Source |
USD subscription prices reviewed September 29, 2026. Payment processing and purchased shipping labels are separate. Crate Wholesale pricing.
Where Crate makes the difference.
Crate Starter has a $49 lower monthly subscription than RoasterTools Essentials on monthly billing. This is not a like-for-like production-software comparison: RoasterTools also helps organize roasting operations. Compare your complete bill, including volume, accounting connections, processing and shipping, against the workflows you actually need.
Check it against your business.
- Is the bottleneck collecting wholesale orders, or planning roasting and packaging?
- Can each system demonstrate a real order with your customer prices, products and payment terms?
- If you use Square, Shopify or Clover, which catalog changes, orders and payments actually sync?
- What is the total monthly cost at your green-coffee volume, including accounting and payment charges?
- Can you keep your current production tools, and how will orders reach that workflow?
How Crate connects
Keep the catalog you already maintain.
Your products are already in Square, Clover or Shopify. Connect that catalog to Crate instead of manually creating a second product list. Manage wholesale visibility, unlimited price lists and customer-specific prices in Crate while keeping your existing POS or online store.
- Square
- Bring in the Square catalog. Use Square invoices and linked payment updates when Square is selected for invoicing.
- Clover
- Bring in Clover products and inventory. Use Crate or another supported invoice system; Clover invoice and payment sync are not part of this connection.
- Shopify
- Bring in the Shopify catalog. Use draft-order invoice checkout and linked payment updates when Shopify is selected for invoicing.
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Sources and approach
This comparison is published by Crate. Buyer-fit recommendations are our assessment. We link to official product and pricing pages so you can check the details. An unverified capability is not treated as an unavailable one. Product names identify the services being compared; no affiliation or endorsement is implied.