A MarketMan alternative for costing across locations
MarketMan is an inventory, purchasing and integration platform for groups with several locations. Mezbano suits teams that care more about brand prices every store starts from, clear store-by-store exceptions, and a month close with a record of every change than about wide purchasing automation. Here is the practical trade-off.
What MarketMan does better
We would rather be fair than argue against a straw man.
- Purchasing: purchase orders sent to suppliers from the web or its mobile app, with suggestions based on par levels.
- Inventory counts in its iOS and Android app, with variance between theoretical and counted usage.
- Accounts payable: invoices read by OCR from a photo or an email, with QuickBooks and Xero connections.
- Groups with a central kitchen: transfers between locations, a head-office roll-up, and approved supplier lists a franchisor can enforce.
Side by side
Each MarketMan entry is what its own page said when we read it on Oct 18, 2026, linked so you can check it.
| What you need | MarketMan | Mezbano |
|---|---|---|
| Getting invoices in | Invoices photographed or emailed in and read by OCR. MarketMan accounts payable, read Oct 18, 2026 | No invoice scanning. You record each delivery yourself, by supplier or one item at a time, with a receipt photo. |
| Inventory counts and variance | Counts in its iOS and Android app, with variance between theoretical and counted usage. MarketMan inventory management, read Oct 18, 2026 | No inventory counts, so no actual-versus-theoretical food cost. |
| Recipe costs and price changes | Costs each menu item and alerts you when a price change affects menu profitability. MarketMan recipe costing, read Oct 18, 2026 | Each dish is costed from the store’s own price, else its latest delivery, else the brand’s standard price. A dish with a missing price shows a partial cost, never a guess. No price alerts. Menu costs lists every dish and size with its recipe food cost and marks the ones above your target. |
| Ordering from suppliers | Purchase orders sent from the web or mobile app, with par-based suggestions. MarketMan purchasing and orders, read Oct 18, 2026 | No supplier ordering or purchase orders. |
| Point of sale and accounting | Lists integrations with distributors, point-of-sale systems such as Toast and Square, and accounting software. MarketMan integrations, read Oct 18, 2026 | No point-of-sale connection. Each day’s sales by channel are typed in from the end-of-day report. No accounting-software connection. Sales, expenses, labour and the profit and loss download as CSV files. |
| Franchises and several locations | Built for franchises and commissary kitchens, with transfers and approved supplier lists. MarketMan multi-unit and commissary, read Oct 18, 2026 | A brand publishes recipes and standard ingredient prices once. Each store records its own prices and menu prices, and can keep its own version of a recipe. |
| On a phone | An iOS and Android app for counts. MarketMan inventory management, read Oct 18, 2026 | Runs in a phone’s browser and can be added to the home screen. There is no app-store app. |
What Mezbano does that MarketMan does not list
We could not find these on MarketMan’s own pages. If one matters to you, ask them too.
- A store’s own version of a brand recipe, kept visible as that store’s own, beside the brand’s published version.
- Daily sales by channel, expenses with receipt photos, labour and a monthly profit and loss with prime cost, judged against the brand’s own targets.
- A month close that locks the month’s sales, expenses, deliveries and hours until the store owner reopens it.
- Opening, service and closing checklists, temperature checks with corrective actions, and a manager’s sign-off of each day.
Trade-offs to compare
What MarketMan publishes about itself, and how Mezbano handles the same thing.
MarketMan advertises inventory plus point-of-sale, accounting and supplier integrations. Mezbano does not offer automatic point-of-sale or supplier syncing today.
With Mezbano: Mezbano says plainly how data gets in: daily sales and purchases are entered in the store, and closing the month checks the records already in Mezbano.
MarketMan’s public material leads with central control, recipe costing and inventory across locations. Teams that need store-by-store cost exceptions should check how their exact rollout would handle them.
With Mezbano: Mezbano publishes the brand’s recipes and usual prices for stores to start from, then keeps each store’s purchases, own ingredient prices and menu prices separate, with every change recorded.
Who should choose which
Choose MarketMan if
Purchasing is your biggest job: you order from many suppliers on par levels, count inventory often, move stock between locations or a commissary, and want invoices read for you and sent to QuickBooks or Xero.
Choose Mezbano if
You want recipe costs, daily sales, expenses, labour and a month close in one place for a small brand, with the brand’s prices as the starting point and each store’s own costs and exceptions kept visible. You do not need ordering or inventory counts.
What Mezbano does not do
- No supplier ordering or purchase orders.
- No inventory counts, so no actual-versus-theoretical food cost.
- No invoice scanning, price alerts, or point-of-sale and accounting connections.
How Mezbano is different
Brand prices, with each store’s own costs
A franchise brand publishes its recipes and its usual ingredient prices once, and every store starts from them. Each store can still record what it really pays, its own ingredient prices and its own menu prices. The brand keeps one set of recipes and prices without wiping out what each store does differently.
Month to month, no setup fee, cancel anytime
Mezbano plans are month to month, with no setup or onboarding fee. When self-serve sign-up and the free trial are open, you can start on your own; when they are not, we set you up.
Simple plans per location
Mezbano charges per location, with no setup fee and month-to-month billing. When public pricing is switched on, the pricing page shows each plan and what it includes; when it is not, ask us for a price for your stores.
A record of every change
Changes to your records are logged with who made them, what they did, when, and what they changed. A closed month is locked in the database. On pages where a save replaces a whole record, such as recipes, a save based on an old copy is refused instead of quietly replacing someone else’s work.
Where this comes from
What we say about MarketMan comes from its own official pages, read on Oct 18, 2026. Products, who can buy them and prices can change; check the current offer before you decide.
See it with your own menu
Book a demo and we will go through your recipes, costs and month close with you.