For today's hospitality operators, maximizing profitability means leveraging technology to gain tight control over every aspect of the business. When it comes to managing your high-margin beverage program, this often leads to a crucial decision: Is it better to use a dedicated, specialized tool or a comprehensive, all-in-one platform?

This question perfectly frames the comparison between Backbar, a platform laser-focused on beverage inventory, and Craftable, a complete hospitality platform that includes a dedicated beverage module called Bevager. This post will break down their distinct approaches to help you decide which is the right fit for your operation as of June 11, 2025.

At a Glance

1. Core Focus: Dedicated Specialist vs. Integrated Platform

• What is Backbar best for? -> Specialized beverage inventory management with a focus on ease of use and profitability.
  
  Backbar: Backbar is a specialist. It is built with one primary goal: to be the best-in-class platform for managing a beverage program. Every feature is designed to solve the specific challenges of bar inventory—from tracking partial kegs and wine bottles to providing precise pour cost analytics. Its strength is its depth and focus.
  
  
• What is Craftable best for? -> An all-in-one platform for managing food, beverage, accounting, and HR within a single, integrated system.
  
  Craftable: Craftable is a comprehensive, integrated platform. It is designed to be the central nervous system for an entire hospitality operation. While it has a powerful, dedicated beverage module (Bevager), its main value proposition is how that module connects seamlessly with its other components for food (Foodager), accounting, and HR.
  
  

2. Inventory Management & Costing

• Backbar: This is Backbar's entire world. The platform is engineered for speed, accuracy, and actionable insights for the bar.
  • Backbar offers advanced beverage-specific features like rapid mobile counting, detailed variance reporting to pinpoint waste, and intuitive recipe costing that makes it easy to optimize drink prices and profitability.
    
    
• Craftable: Craftable's "Bevager" module offers robust beverage inventory features.
  • Craftable provides detailed inventory for food and beverage, connecting directly to electronic invoices and POS data. Its strength lies in real-time recipe costing that updates automatically as supplier prices change, providing a live view of cost of goods sold (COGS).

3. The Problem Each Platform Solves

• Backbar: Backbar solves the crucial operational challenge of making the bar as profitable and efficient as possible. It answers questions like: "What is my top-selling, highest-margin cocktail?", "Where did I lose product this week?", and "How can I simplify my inventory process to save hours of work?".
  
  
• Craftable: Craftable solves the enterprise-level challenge of data synchronicity and operational unity. It answers questions like: "How can my inventory, sales data, and accounting ledgers all update in real-time?", "Can I manage purchasing for my entire enterprise from one dashboard?", and "How do my labor costs compare to my food and beverage costs today?".
  
  

Key Differences

• Scope: Backbar is exclusively for your bar; Craftable is an enterprise-wide platform for all departments.
  
  
• Approach: Backbar is a stand-alone, best-in-class tool; Craftable is a suite of interconnected modules.
  
  
• Core Value (Backbar): Unmatched depth and simplicity for beverage management, leading to higher bar profits.
  
  
• Core Value (Craftable): A single source of truth for all operational and financial data across the entire business.
   

Who Should Choose Backbar?

You should choose Backbar if:

• You want a powerful, easy-to-use tool that is 100% dedicated to perfecting your beverage program.
• Your main priority is lowering pour costs, reducing waste, and simplifying your inventory process.
• You already have systems for food, accounting, and HR that work for you.
• You value a "free forever" plan that provides significant power and can scale with your needs.
  
  

Who Should Choose Craftable?

You should choose Craftable if:

• You run a large restaurant, hotel, or hospitality group and want a single, integrated system for all your operations.
• Your biggest challenge is getting your different departments and data points (inventory, sales, accounting, labor) to work together seamlessly.
• You need enterprise-level features like multi-unit reporting and advanced accounting automation.
  
  

Conclusion: The Right Tool for Your Operational Strategy

Backbar and Craftable are both top-tier platforms, but they represent different strategic choices.

If your goal is to empower your bar manager with the best possible tool for the job, leading to direct and immediate improvements in bar profitability, Backbar offers the focus and specialized features to deliver results.

If your goal is to implement a comprehensive, enterprise-wide system that unifies every aspect of your operation from procurement to payroll, Craftable provides the integrated power to achieve that vision.