About Caterease








Caterease pricing
Caterease does not have a free version but does offer a free trial. Caterease paid version starts at US$99.00/month.
Alternatives to Caterease
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- Industry: Hospitality
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Review Source
Good base but needs a lot of work
We started using Caterease in 2009. Our firm has anywhere from 50-100 events a day and run different departments.
Pros
-Good foundation
-convenient invoicing
-good communications tool
-good for tracking events
Cons
-Poor Support
-Caterease will do anything to make a dollar
-Limited features for larger catering firms
-Poor production function
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Caterease in College Food Service
Caterease has been worthwhile for our business, as it has streamlined our catering department. It is the bedrock of our operation, and I cannot imagine what our department would do without this software. It's a game-changer.
Pros
Caterease makes it so easy to communicate to our kitchen what is needed and separate items in the menu by cooks/salad/bakery workers. The order form that is populated is easy to read, and is consistent for everyone in our department to easily understand what is needed and who needs to do it.
Cons
Caterease could use an autosave feature, as well as the ability to recognize trends and offer changes to the user based on the trends.
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Bought the desktop version, was not told that it could only be run on one computer at a time.
We now own this catering software forever-more, so if anything happens with whatever else we're doing, I know we can at least fall back on this.
Pros
The Vantiv credit card processor was good value, it dropped out processing fees a bit... But that's a different company. The Caterease customer service started out okay; they were friendly at least.
Cons
Very convoluted software, difficult to use, leaves you wondering 'why would they do that??' when looking at the way it was designed. If you buy one of the 'cheaper' versions, they lock most of the useful features (unlike a service like Total Party Planner). The customer service was OKAY at first, but once I realized we were not told of the restrictions the desktop version has, I asked for a refund as we had not even owned it for 6 months yet. You know that didn't happen. I've been told we'll get a refund for the unused maintenance service.
Response from Caterease
We're so sorry that you had a bad experience with our software. The desktop version certainly can work on more than one computer at a time. I'm sorry you were told otherwise.
We've just released a new web-based version that is quite cutting edge. We'd love to give you a trial run on it if you would like to see all the new stuff.
In any case, please call our offices so we can properly review your account and see what we can do for you..
Again - we're sincerely sorry for your bad experience.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Monthly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Caterease Use and Implementation
Overall, my experience was positive. It does have many capabilities. However, we were ready for a change.
Pros
It was fairly easy to use from a brand new user standpoint. Our back of house staff liked it for recipe and menu complilation.
Cons
Sometimes it began to feel clunky and antiquated.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Monthly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Not User Friendly
It helps to create a proposal to send to the client for the bagged lunches we sell and to create a kitchen detail that gives them the quantities and information they need to make the food.
Pros
There is not really that I like much about this software. I think that there are some benefits for our catering sales team (some kind of link between staffing/labor and the software or other features for ease of use) but they generally do not apply to the way I use the software. I normally use it at least once a month but I am not as familiar as them with the ins and outs. It does make a decent looking proposal to send to the client and creating it on my end is simple.
Cons
It is not intuitive at all. The buttons are in weird place and very small with tiny little icons. It opens so many windows at a time just to complete a simple task and in general with everything you do there are so many steps involved. Within the windows there are more windows with little scroll bars everywhere and everything is cut off unless you enlarge the window and it just gets confusing and messy. You have to save everything you do along the way so if you accidentally close out one of your 5 windows you loose your work. Even starting the program takes about 6 different steps. Every screen just looks really outdated and isn't user friendly. It is not easy to search for events. You can't put in the actual date. You just have to click next week or next month so if your company has lots of events you will be scrolling for awhile. Creating your event details menu lines is also annoying. If you don't put them in exactly the order you want the first time dragging and moving them later is much harder than you would think.
Response from Caterease
We wanted to contact you, but cannot find any company or user with the name you have listed. Please contact us and we can absolutely help you out.
Screen displays and tool bars can be customized by each company using the program. If you are experiencing scrollbars, etc., someone on your team likely redesigned screens in a way that doesn't suit you. This can be changed and locked down.
Caterease also DOES NOT make you save things along the way. We are renowned in the industry for how we handle multi-tasking. Contact us with examples and we can help!
You are also able to search by a specific date and drag/drop menu items (and other details!). We also offer customizable wizard tools that even make the entire event-booking process three simple steps.
Candidly, after reading your post and not being able to find your company in our records, I was almost wondering you were talking about be a completely different program!
Please contact us and we can transform your experience!
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
I Never Want For Anything
I really do love this system. You can check overlapping of events.. it has flags that identify each event as
"Tentative" if they have not yet committed, "Definite" if they have and other important markers. You can customize HOW you want to see or view most things. I really could not imagine that anyone would not just
love this system.
Pros
It covers just about anything you could want it to do. There have only been a few things ever I wished
it could do and it couldn't. It is easy to use and reports are easy to obtain. I really love this software.
Cons
No Quickbooks interface. It would be nice to be able to transfer an invoice into the accounting system. Instead, I literally have to re-type every event over again into Quickbooks. This can be frustrating when you are receiving deposits or payments on events that are two or three years down the road and need to enter the event to apply the payment to it; along with all of the other daily invoices you have to do. And then keep up with all the menu / rental / room changes and updating THOSE in quickbooks.
I do wish the notes and comments section on events would automatically place the initials of whom ever made the comment and the DATE . This could be tied to your log in. Often times there could be 3 or 4 people working on an event and if they forget to put their name.. and the date.. you dont know who they
are. Also anyone can CHANGE or EDIT another persons notes or comments which I dont like. There is
an "audit report" you can produce that will tell you who did what... but its not that easy to read and it takes some experience of looking at it to understand what the report is telling you.
Response from Caterease
Danny, thank you for the nice review. I do want you to know that we DO have an awesome interface with both Quickbooks desktop and Quickbooks online. One click and you can send information to Quickbooks one event at a time or in batch. Please call your sales representative and they will set you up with it.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The program has revolutionized the ability to move from Mom & Pop to Corporate Seamlessly.
The software has changed my life and given me thousands of hours of time to better manage my business and my employees. Caterease has allowed me to take many companies from paper and pen to the cloud. Caterease has put many of my clients businesses back in their control.
Pros
The ease of use and windows familiar aspects of Caterease are perfect. Mark and the sales team have helped me as a food service consultant serve many of my clients needs. Customer Support is always available and knowledgeable. The software is not just a program but a catering operational system. I am able to customize so many parts that makes the system adapt to any company with comfort. I started using caterease years ago and the company has made updates many times and has made it exciting to look forward to. Years ago i would spend countless days and weeks making complex spreadsheets to calculate so many informational needs that i had to repeat weekly. Caterease has been built with so much functionality that my weekly repetitive work has dropped down to almost zero and my time as well as my employees time has spiked in productivity. This Software is priceless!!!!
Cons
What i like least about the software was that i had little access to information on events without my computer!! BUT they recently released the Caterease APP.... Now me and my team access event info on our phones and cant be happier.
- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Caterease Connect helped bring our events process into the 21st century!
Pros
I love the versatility of this software. It allows you to input information once and send it to many. It also provides real time reports, invoicing and event orders with one click! Because we use the web based software, I can access it anywhere I have internet connection or phone service. It allows smooth exporting to the calendar that our entire organization uses and allows others to read or print any set up information they need.
Since it is similar to Microsoft office in it's layout, it is very user friendly from the beginning. Service has been outstanding. with the chat feature and emails and FAQ sections for technical assistance there is virtually no wait time when you need help.
Cons
Only 2 things I don't like:
There is sometimes a lag when Google updates are released for Caterease to catch up. This causes headaches with my public event calendar.
To run caterease you have to have citrix installed and that can conflict with some programs causing your computer operation to slow down. (Especially with older models.)
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Caterease has the best customer service!!
This software produces professional proposals, contracts, and invoices with ease that my staff and the clients love. It also produces very specific paperwork that helps my culinary team and event staff produce and orchestrate the best events possible. The friendly, efficient customer service at Caterease is exceptional!
Pros
We have used this amazing catering software for over 24 years! It has grown and evolved with the industry over the years and remains the best catering software on the market - that I have ever seen. This product pays for itself and the cloud based version allows my staff to work on the fly from any venue, which saves time and money. My staff loves using the Caterease program. The help desk is always friendly, efficient, knowledgeable, and far exceed my expectations of customer service in today's market. They truly go the extra mile!!
Cons
I do not have any cons for this product or the support staff - give it a try - you, your staff and your clients will be glad you did!
Response from Caterease
Thank you, Clarence, for your kind words. We really appreciate you taking the time out to share your experience with Caterease. We count ourselves lucky for customers like you. You get five stars in our book, as well!
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Caterease
Pros
The email capabilities and the customer service.
Cons
That you do not have access to the historical date after you discontinue service.
Response from Caterease
Kimberly,
Thank you for your kind words about our hard-working support team! I'm sorry you seem to have had trouble learning the program. As you know, in addition to free support we have several online and live training options available to help ensure our customers are comfortable.
I'll admit I am very surprised to see you did not view Caterease as extraordinary when it comes to features and functionality. We are renowned for our incredible feature set - which far surpasses any other software in the industry. I imagine your opinion here is connected to your comfort level with the program - which is completely understandable.
Of course, we are always sorry when any customer discontinues service. Nonetheless, we go out of our way to make this transition easier for customers - even extending access for a period of time. Of course, as with any subscription service, we obviously cannot continue to provide access indefinitely - as I'm sure you can understand.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Great product that makes business easier.
It makes our work easier.
Pros
The software is great overall! It interfaces with so many different programs, and it's been a huge help that makes our job easier. There is always more to learn about the software, so it's nice to keep adding to the list of abilities. In the past, we used two different programs for booking and invoicing, so it's a huge time saver. Our team only has to make updates once, so it minimizes potential for error.
Cons
I've had a support ticket for what seems like a simple fix in for a few months, and haven't really received much feedback on it. Also, if there is an issue with the interface, the support staff for each different software says that it is a problem with the other software, so that has been a little difficult.
Response from Caterease
David - Thank you for the kind words! According to our records, you seem to be using a fairly old version of our program. As you probably know, your updates are completely free - and I have confirmed that the feature you requested will indeed be included in our next release (in testing now). As a matter of fact, we improved upon the request by adding a couple of options! Thanks again! Chris Kopriva Caterease Software
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
I would recommend Caterease to any catering company
Pros
We use Caterease in over 20 of our accounts and it has been a great relationship from Mark in the sales department to Theo and the other tech support crew in the tech support department. The program itself offers all the tools we need to build proposals, beo's, contracts, invoices, etc. It helps us manage our financial viability with the reporting tools it offers as well as prospecting new clients. Caterease offers ongoing training and new tips to help maximize the program to its fullest potential. I would recommend Caterease to any company offering catering services from an off-site caterer to any on site facility.
Cons
We haven't found anything that we don't like. It does everything we've wanted it to do as far as a software is concerned.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Caterease Is Aptly Named
Pros
It is very intuitive, and once you put in the pertinent data, you can create many different and useful documents. Also the reporting options are outstanding.
Cons
I can't think of anything, it really does satisfy all of our needs.
Alternatives Considered
Amadeus Sales & Event ManagementReasons for Switching to Caterease
It was a superior product- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Caterease has quite a bit of experience with catering software. Unfortunately, it can be...
If everything is working perfectly, bids are much easier to write.
Pros
We like that Caterease is can be almost endlessly customized. This becomes overwhelming at times. It seems like it works best for hotel and banquet facilities.
Cons
The customer service is often rough. There seems to be an attitude that everything is always user error. It might be, but we would like to hear a little more concern when we call in.
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Review Source
Caterease requires a stronger connection
The problem with Caterease is that I office out of my home and live in an area with satellite only internet connection. Caterease requires a stronger connection. This was never told to me in the beginning and not until I had paid for the software and tried to begin using it. After months and months and months of problems, I am finally starting to use the software (I purchased the software in September. This is now April.) They system is slow, at best, and I have to reboot it several times a day. I have to quit using it around 3 pm when apparently my satellite gets too busy. Had the Sales Manager told me the requirements of the system, I would not have purchased the system. The requirements listed in the original set up stuff is vague. My IT guy assures me that we comply with all the requirements. AT&T does not service my area. The only landline internet connection is through a shabby cable company who wants to charge me $$$$. I still believe the proper thing to do would have been to refund my money. I am using the software now because I paid for it and am going to make it work.
I remain disappointed in the sales department, the customer service department and in the whole process. The software is slow and hard to learn. The tech support Caterease offers is great and I have so appreciated their assistance. But there is not training available with purchase (unless you pay more), everything is an upgrade and the whole experience has been less than pleasant.
Pros
The tech support Caterease offers is great and I have so appreciated their assistance
Cons
no training available with purchase (unless you pay more), everything is an upgrade and the whole experience has been less than pleasant
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
We use Caterease for our Hotel Conference Center booking and catering.
Time savings and a great way for staff to stay up-to-date on scheduled events. Prevents double booking and overbooking for staff available.
Pros
Makes scheduling easy & can customize to fit our needs. Mobile app makes checking on schedule while out of the office a breeze! Awesome customer service and great training available. Video tips are always accessible to learn a new feature or to review how to do something.
Cons
So many components to learn the function of and some features are added cost. Would like more "side by side" function of having multiple managers (ie: scheduler & event manager) on screen at once.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used for 6-12 months
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Review Source
We switched from Caterese due to ease of use
Customer service is great, but they need to update their software and make it easier to work with clients. When you're doing private event business the ease of use and less steps is very important.
Pros
In the beginning I enjoyed how the software made it simple to work with the client to process contracts. Customer service was always knowledgeable and responsive. Our clients also seemed to have an ease of use as well.
Cons
I felt that the software could do more and offer more compatibility with our websites and clients. We ended up switching to Gather because they have a lot more options in producing documents, having clients digitally sign and provide payment and it integrates with a lot of other software. Caterase lacks in those departments and we needed something that provided less steps for the vendor and the client.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Very happy
I am impressed, not only with the program but your customer service. The program is everything I could have hoped for and continually saves me time and money, also your customer service is impeccable!!
Pros
Its user friendliness and ease of access
Cons
Unless you get the whole package, you miss out on some benefits
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Customization is amazing!!!!!
Pros
This saves so much time and basically pays for itself in the end! I love all the customizable features available and I recommend this to any event company/coordinator!
Cons
They charge for training which I am not a fan of. And also the customer service isn’t very accessible.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Incredibly amazing software!
Its an incredibly effective product,makes creating and managing events and processes so easy!!!
Pros
I love how it's easy to check and track payments also it's great for using even with a number of users at the same time!!
Cons
Not much to dislike,only wish it could be possible to also including payments in the software instead of using a different platform.
Alternatives Considered
CaterZenReasons for Choosing Caterease
I tried Caterease and I liked it and never went back to caterzenReasons for Switching to Caterease
Because of efficiency and usability!!- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Weekly for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Great features, but a major learning curve
The program will work for us and help achieve our goals, but it takes far more work to get the framework in place than we anticipated.
Pros
The system is very robust and offers a tremendous amount of personalization. I love the incorporation of our menus and various options to streamline the process.
Cons
The system boasts windows like usability. This is an exaggeration - it takes a ton of building the framework and learning the processes. Very complicated.
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Review Source
So flexible!
I started using Caterease 7 years ago when I started my "backyard" catering operation. Gradually my business grew to full fledge off site only operation. Since then I added a fine dining restaurant to the mix. Caterease has always been at my fingertips, taking me from simple contracts and proposals to fully detailed and intricate functions. I love the fact that I never have to type something twice. I am also using Qbooks and the interface is very practical. The reports that come with the program are great too. This morning I was looking at 4 years worth revenue, cleary identified, all in one and all at the click of one button. But the power really shows when you run a query. Caterease is a superb tool and also it is intuitive, fun to use and cool to look at!
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Review Source
The most user friendly software we have ever used
We have a large and complex catering business, offering on-premise, off-premise, and delivery events. We spent 3 years researching catering software, meeting with all of the vendors, testing different options and finally decided Caterease was the only real solution. 6 years later I am very happy to say switching to Caterease was the best decision we ever made for our business. The program is continually updated with new features. One of the biggest reasons we picked Catrease was because the program is very easy to use. The interface looks very similar to regular Microsoft Office applications. If you can use Outlook, you can use Caterease.
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Review Source
Caterease has been a huge component of our success
Caterease has provided value for our company we are able to stay organized and be efficient with all of the tools it has to offer. The time we save when running reports has been a huge help as well. We are able to gather real-time data within seconds, which allows our sales and operations team to perform at the most optimum levels. The tech support team is extremely easy to get in touch with. Anytime I have a question, it is resolved within minutes of me calling. They are constantly improving and updating their software and are always open to feedback on what they can incorporate next time.
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Review Source
We would be lost without Caterease!
Caterease has systemized our processes so professionally, we beat our competition in service, information and details every time! We are able to create a proposal in minutes after speaking to the potential guest, giving them a tangible connection to us, detailed information that makes them feel empowered and that leads to a loyalty you don't receive by giving away information on the phone and waiting for them to get back to you. It's flexible, easy to use, and very customizable. We highly recommend it!
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Cheap for the program but you get what you pay for
Worst customer service experience I have worked with in regard to fixing the issues we had. As a customer service company who handles clients everyday this program was to be utilized to help that process. In turn it didnt do much of that at all and was an antiquated system that required a connection server that made issues arise everyday. It impeded days of business where i couldn't retrieve my BEOs because the citrix system was down or inoperable. When i would call or email I would generally get sent to more than one individual to try and solve the problem. Functions of the program that where said to integrate, did not and when asked when they would be live again they told me "we're working on it" and it still hasn't been resolved to my knowledge. Even for the money the program is basically a days worth of formula tracking away from being an excel spreadsheet
Pros
The ease of understanding of the windows based screens and exec function of the program
Cons
Customer service, the third party integrations, the antequated system boot
Response from Caterease
We are very sorry to hear that you had issues with our program. Our senior management team has reached out to your company directly but has not heard back. Our records indicate that you had some problems with password resets. While these can sometimes be tricky, we have recently implemented multi-factor authentication into the program which eliminates the need for password resets at entirely. Additionally, we see that you experienced a problem when Google updated their integration platform and broke our interface with their calendar tool. That has been addressed as well and is no longer an issue. We regret that these issues kept you from experiencing the scope and power of Caterease and would be happy to work with you to help you explore the full potential of this program.
Kind Regards,
Chris K.
VP of Corporate Sales
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
To use Caterease or not to use Caterease
My hotel used Caterease for many years and were very content with the final product
Pros
It was very user friendly and easy to navigate
Cons
The Inability to make changes to a Banquet Event Order
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Caterease is a LifeSaver
Pros
It is easy to use, it comes with lots of great tools, and it is customizable to your company.
Cons
It takes a long time to truly understand how to maxmize the use of its settings.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Outdated and not worth the money
I found over my two years with Caterease, the very tool I purchased had become more of a chore than a tool. Nothing about the application made my job easier. I spent more time inputting ingredients, menus, recipes, events, emails, and clients than I'd ever like to admit, and at the end of two years nothing ingredients didn't calculate on menus correctly, menus didn't calculate recipes correctly, and all of their templates for emails/prints/reports look like garbage.
Pros
Not much, really. Other than than storing contacts, there was not a single facet in Caterease that made the system easy to use for the end user what-so-ever. I would have been better off tracking events, ingredients, and inventory in Google Sheets for free instead of paying $1800 a year for Caterease.
Cons
From the top:
Logging in and lack of mobile availability: From a PC, you have to log into a citrix client before accessing your application. You can have the fastest PC on the planet and still have to rely on the speed of their Citrix server to get anything done (which isn't the best.) There is also a VERY bare-bones mobile "companion" app that is almost useless. You cannot add clients or events, adjust the calendar, etc. The only thing you can do is view your current calendar and contact list. And to make it worse, it doesn't store your password AND they have a forced password reset EVERY TWO WEEKS.
The application itself: It's very dated and not user friendly. What should take minutes takes upwards of an hour. Want to copy and paste inside the app? That's going to cost you $600 more a year for the "professional" version. Yes, you cannot copy, duplicate, or paste an event without paying for premium service. I already was paying $1800 a year, that's an insane markup for basic functionality. Everything looks like it was made in the Windows 98 era, and hasn't been updated since.
Reporting: Reporting is a joke. Very limited, very complicated, and overall useless. Again, unless you pay more!
Printing and emailing: Because the application runs through Citrix, printing is very complicated (even worse with wireless printing). Emails, you can create emails directly from Caterease, but it's a gamble if the email sends the caterease-generated attachment.
Reasons for Choosing Caterease
I switched from Better Cater to Caterease hoping to spend less time and effort on admin tasks. Better Cater worked fine for what it was, but lacked features. Caterease promised more features, and then managed to mess up every single one of them to the point of being useless. I've switched to Curate and will never look back. It was a lateral move, I didn't spend any more or less money moving from Caterease to Curate. However, Curate is intuitive, user friendly, and the product support staff is on point.Switched From
Better CaterReasons for Switching to Caterease
I don't know, but it was a mistake.Response from Caterease
Unfortunately, there is a lot of inaccuracy in this post. First, Caterease utilizes the most current Windows technology. While this customer might not like Windows in general, a quick look at any video on our website shows that program screens perfectly reflect Windows 10 design. More importantly, there is no truth to the description here of features: passwords are controlled by the user and NEVER reset; copying is indeed included and offers more options than any other program; reporting is robust and the most substantial in the industry; printing and emailing are seamless. Obviously, in his frustration with Windows this customer just assumed facts that are not true. Please visit our website or contact our team to see the real program in action. We have only 1000 words to reply here, but a 5 minute webinar can demonstrate that all of these assertions are categorically false. We hope you'll see for yourself.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The name says it all! Caterease has put the Ease into our Catering Operations
One of the biggest benefits to Caterease is all there integrations. From credit card processing with Vantiv to event staff scheduling and communication with Nowsta to EASY, STRESS FREE online ordering setup through Zuppler, Caterease has centralized multiple outside operations of our catering company into one place. This alone has cut our time it takes to prepare, schedule and collect payment for every event we create in half, if not more. Caterease has boosted our business operations and continues to help in our growth on a daily basis.
Pros
The customization of EVERY ASPECT of Caterease is one of the reasons why we love it so much. Everything can be made to suit your individual businesses needs. You can use their basic templates for prints such as contracts, receipts, billing statements and more or create your own with whatever information you would like. Every single bit of information can be displayed or removed from prints. Anything!! You can even customize your screen views. We have 6 different users linked to our Caterease and each users desktop/window views are customized down to the theme color. We have 2 divisions to our catering company, one is rather simple and the other is very complex. We have one user set up for the simple division and have cut out 80% of the features Caterease offers from that users display because we do not use them with that division so now, those features that we use for the complex catering side don't clutter up or confuse our simple home meal delivery user. The reports and query features are amazing. You can pull a report or query for literally any piece of information the you want. Want a query of all events that had more than 20 peoples worth of rice pilaf in the month of June 2 years ago, its one click away with Caterease. I've been in the catering business for 10+ years and Caterease is hands down the best Catering Software out there if you want to make things your own and customized to your business. I could go on for days about why I love Caterease!
Cons
Because it is so big and customizable, it does take a while to set up. You can come into it new and work off templates and be just fine but if you want to really take advantage of all the great features Caterease has, be ready to spend some time setting it up. Although it may take some time to setup, once you do, you are all set! With the endless video tutorials and help center articles, you have everything you will need to set things up your way.
- Industry: Events Services
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Great Concept but Very Buggy. Slow customer service.
If it was operational 100% there be many but every week there something going wrong
Pros
The concept is great tool for caterers, though you have to pay for every add on
When its operational - i love it
Cons
- Very over priced!!!
- Forever having issues with the program not working. I lose too much time having to followup with customer service to fix issues.
- Is hosted on a 3rd party platform and its forcing a new download access everytime. this make it slow as.. Other CRMs have been smoother operationally.
- You have to pay for every addon... completely stupid idea and makes for costly program. the Web forms are hosted on a separate website which means you cannot customise without using customer service.
- every update seems to create more issues
- its slow in operation to change to different screens
- it doesnt communicate with zapier so creating external forms or merging data is all manual
Response from Caterease
While we're glad you love the program features and concept, we¿re sorry to hear you've had problems. Please know we¿re extremely focused on the performance of our program, and developers work tirelessly to shave precious seconds off of features and ensure a positive experience for every user. Unfortunately, with variables such as internet speed, hardware and more it can be necessary for our team to work with you to troubleshoot your environment.
I realize you are a relatively new user, but I want to encourage you to not accept anything less than exceptional performance, and not assume that any slowdown is the norm for our program. Please contact our support team and we will do we all we can to bring your program's performance up to par with our thousands of other satisfied users.
Regarding price, please know our program has a huge list of features no other software offers, all for no extra price, and advanced modules with unique additional functionality are all purely optional.

- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Enhance your Inhouse System by using Caterease
Software has enabled me to double my business without adding extra support staff. It forces me to answer questions about my events ahead of time so when the event date arrives, I am fully prepared.
Pros
Well thought out! Software can be customized to do just about anything. It is easy to use - learning curve is approximately 6 weeks to become very comfortable with it. A myriad of reports to choose from and customize. Absolutely the best customer service of any software I've purchased. Very quick and clear response time, Questions are answered within a day. Phone and email support unrivaled. Developer is willing to work with End user.
Cons
1. Mouse scroll! I use this program at least 6 hours/day; finding those hiding scroll bars and scrolling is continually frustrating and annoying, especially when the detail grids are expanded. The program looks like Outlook and acts like Outlook with the exception of this feature.
2. Recommendation for data entry: In some places 'tab' gets you to the next column, and in some places it's 'down/up' arrow. Often frustrating to remember which to use. It's a waste of time to use your mouse when the 'tab' would do. I would recommend that this feature be streamlined so it's always either 'tab' or 'arrow' key (mouse still available, of course).
Response from Caterease
Mary-Louise - thank you for the wonderful review. I just wanted to tell you that you can disable the hidden scrollbar feature in your local preferences window. So sorry for any inconvenience that might have caused you.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Caterease is a very detailed software for catering facilities but not the most user friendly
A lot of events/venues to have access to the same information/database
Pros
The possibilities are endless (Creating kitchen prep list, cost, ordering, budgetting, creating BEO's, templates, financial possibilities)
Cons
The software is a little archaic and is not the most user friendly. A lot of the functionality would certainly be used more often if the software was easier to use. A lot of duplicate information has to be entered
Response from Caterease
Thank you for the kind words. We've just released a brand new, cutting-edge version of Caterease. Please call our offices so we can arrange training on it for you. We want you to feel fully comfortable with all facets of the software.
You will find that there is never "duplicate information" that needs to be entered into Caterease.
Again - thank you for your kind words.

- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Caterease is powerful and there's a lot to it.
Pros
The sheer amount of features with Caterease is astounding. There is so much it can do from scheduling and pricing events to inputting menu items, and much more! The integrated tutorials are helpful.
Cons
The interface isn't as intuitive as I would like. It seems like it's in need of a facelift. I feel like we maybe use 20% of all the features we're able to use.
Response from Caterease
Niklaus,
Thank you for your comments about our program. We pride ourselves in the robust collection of features we offer to satisfy the needs of any catering and event planning operation.
We also deliberately design our program to mirror the functionality of the most common Office applications ¿ to keep the learning curve small. From our records, it seems you are using a version of Caterease that is many years old. There is no charge at all for your company to update ¿ and take advantage of new design options as well as a host of powerful new features! I think you will really like the look and feel of this latest version, which reflects the modern design of other Windows 10 applications. Feel free to contact our help desk today and anyone there will be able to assist you.

- Industry: Events Services
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Caterease is customizable and easy to use on the go!
Pros
How customizable it is! We were really able to take the software and use it how it best suited and helped our company. And each of our Sales Team can customize their screens and views to how it best suits their day-to-day needs. The Caterease team constantly provides updates and strives to better fit everyone's needs. We recently switched to the web-based server and it makes a huge difference for our Sales Team.
Cons
As with any software, there are bugs/glitches, etc. but the support teams works quick to fix them and update the software with changes.
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Makes my job so much easier!
Pros
This software is fabulous - you can access your program from anywhere in the world when you have Caterease Connect. The reports/queries are easy to manipulate to find the requested data. The engineers listen to our specific needs - requests show up in the next build! The software is VERY simple to use and can be customized for specific needs. The mobile app is great to check upcoming events on the fly. You can run a query to see how much of each item on your menu you've sold for a certain period of time, the forecast what the change in revenue would be if pricing increases/decreases. You can compare sales for a certain month /period to previous years, forecast future time periods and more. The time savings is phenomenal. What used to take hours can be produced in minutes. Our company has used Caterease for so long, I don't know how we would function without it.
Cons
The ONLY problem I have is sometimes tech support doesn't answer the phone because they are tied up on another call. BUT, emailing the support desk usually gets an answer quickly.
- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Buyer Beware
The sales team did not really describe the complexity in setting up this program. Basically you get a complete catering program that must be built up from ground floor by the client. I spent months trying to switching from my current catering software program and never was able to get the program to work. Finally after a few months we took a loss on the money and abandoned the program all together. I could only see the program working for a large company with an IT department that could handle programming the systems to fit the organization. NOT for any form of a small business.
Pros
Caterease has a ton of options. But all must be programmed by the client. High level of computer knowledge and time required.
Cons
Everything is very complex and must be programmed. Our team went from spending hours booking clients to hours learning and programming Caterease. Very very complex and requires a ton of hours to set-up. We even started losing money because all our time was spent setting-up the program. Nothing with this program is "Ready To GO". Very bloated. Many systems are listed in different areas creating a very congested and bloated feel to the UI
Response from Caterease
Chris,
I¿m very sorry you¿re having a tough time transitioning to your new Caterease program. We are well-known for our extreme ease-of-use, but sometimes people who are not used to common Office Products have a slightly tougher time adjusting. Please stick with it ¿ and know that our entire team is here to assist however we can!
Caterease is also known for its amazing flexibility ¿ so much of the program, from screens to prints, can be completely customized. Of course, we deploy the program ¿ready to go¿ with default settings. However, if a user like you wants to completely customize things to his particular needs, that does require a little setup on your part. Most programs don¿t let you customize anything at all. With Caterease, you can simply use the robust, complete program we send you straight out of the box or choose to customize it yourself!
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Very Powerful, can do a lot, but too much for my needs
Caterease kept all of my work schedule running smoothly, it was a bit of a pain for inventory tracking but it can be done.
Pros
Caterease has a ton of options and easy to get information out of it as long as you are a subscriber. The Subscription is pretty steep but if you are doing 6 and 7 figures in sales it is worth it. I am a small shop it was too much for what i needed.
Cons
The Price is too steep for my shop. I have found other software providers but there are some short comings i have to deal with.
Alternatives Considered
Goodshuffle ProReasons for Switching to Caterease
I used Caterease for 8 years then switched mostly because the price was getting to be too much for what it returned.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Buyer Beware! Deceptive Pricing & Salespeople
It's been absolutely horrible.
Pros
Caterease seems to be a very full featured program... unfortunately we never really got the opportunity to use it
Cons
Their sales reps and pitches are extremely deceptive!
- They advertise a monthly price, but that is for 1 user with a fairly limited feature set. If you were one user, there would be no need for a program like this.
- They have "teaser" pricing -- give you a discount in year 1 (which they make up for with an implementation fee) -- and then scale it up in subsequent years. They're not stupid -- they know that this platform would be very hard to transition away from.
- They will say anything (including lie right to you, over email) to get you to sign up. When you call them out on their lie on day 1 of implementation, sorry, no refunds.
STAY FAR AWAY
Response from Caterease
Jason,
I'm very sorry you were confused by our pricing - but please know that it is never - ever - our intention to be deceptive. Indeed, we couldn't mislead you if we wanted to; every piece of information about Caterease, from video tours to detailed pricing, is all easily available on our website.
Please also know that our pricing is structured for the exact OPPOSITE reason than you assumed. Rather than trying to "tease" anyone, we have deliberately arranged less expensive ways for smaller companies to get into the program more affordably - and then their program can grow along with them as it helps their business grow.
In any event, we regret that you misunderstood - and of course we are more than willing to work with you. Give our office a call. I'm confident we can work this out.
Caterease Sales Management
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great for conference center use!
I enjoy working with it daily and it enables my team to access the information they need to successfully book catered events.
Pros
I love the ability to pull simple reports quickly and permission settings.
Cons
It's not very user-friendly and can be slow. Pulling detailed reports is difficult because of limited search functions.
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Contracts are easy than ever to put together.
This product pays for itself. It is so easy to use and I love that it is cloud based.
Pros
I love that we are able to save line items such as our most popular menu items and their prices. It saves a ton of time being able to select the menu items from a list instead of retyping the product and price every single time. We write up about 100 contracts a day and about 40% of them have similar items so it saves a ton of time.
Cons
While lots of menu items and venues can be saved in the program, it would be helpful if we could also save the tax for the certain county. Each time we need to go and recheck what the tax is for certain areas.
Response from Caterease
Samantha,
Thanks for the review - it's great to hear how much time Caterease is saving you! Just so you know, there actually is a way in the program to save a limitless list of tax schedules. You can even link individual schedules to specific clients or off premise site locations, so the taxes update automatically each time. It's another huge timesaver!
Please feel free to contact our help desk and someone there will be more than happy to walk you through the specifics.
Thanks again!
Chris Kopriva
Caterease Software

- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
The Caterease software is easy to use and perfect for our needs at Indian Ridge Country Club.
The ability to clearly communicate while standardizing information that is distributed to a number of departments within our country club.
Pros
Ease of use. I also appreciated the responsiveness of the sales team when our Club requested to update from outdated version to current version 18.
Cons
I am pleased with the software, which I use daily. If I could make one change, I wish all the fields allowed us to change font style and size.

- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Caterease in Event Planning
Overall, Caterease is a blessing in the event planning industry. From detailed client reports, to custom event prints, it truly covers all the bases and helps things to run more smoothly!
Pros
I like the fact that you can practically customize your Caterease; meaning you can easily add, subtract, and adjust drop-down menu options, event prints, and filters. It helps in making it more user-friendly according to my specific restaurant. Caterease also keeps me organized and helps me to avoid making costly mistakes such as double-booking or forgetting a menu item. I also enjoy it being directly linked to my email, to promptly send clients necessary documents.
Cons
I feel that the Caterease program tends to be a lot to look at and can get overwhelming if you do not know how to use it to its fullest potential. There are many tips and tricks you might not know about without reading through the large user's manual or getting proper training.
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Loved using Caterease, was a bit of a struggle to learn
Loved having all info in one digital and accessible place.
Pros
I love how you can implement other software with it like Allseated and Constant Contact. It is also so detailed and allows you to keep all your info into one digital place!
Cons
I will say that it is a challenge to learn and because of the viewing settings, all users can customize their views which makes t nearly impossible to use any one else's.
- Industry: Restaurants
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used for 2+ years
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Review Source
Expensive, old, clunky
It's just not the best. I eventually moved to Gather, which as much better sales/lead management, event/team communication, and estimate sharing tools. Anything Gather doesn't do, I can fairly easily replicate manually.
Pros
Caterease offers some good basic tools for caterers, and expanded functionality for scheduling and pack lists that other events software lacks (it is really geared to offsite and large catering operations).
Cons
It is just OLD. Layered and complex software that inelegantly tied together in unintuitive ways. Took so much time to set up, and perhaps longer to train even clever people to use it.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Good Event Management Tool
Pros
Easy to enter prospects, create proposals and manage clients.
Cons
Some of the reporting tools are lacking, email blasts to groups are limited and the software doesn't seem to be able to evolve as quickly as it should.

- Industry: Food & Beverages
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Good, but hard to setup
I know this is the best software out there for me at this point, but I just wish it was a little better.
Pros
There are so many layers to this program, it can do so many different things... CRM, email templates, invoicing, etc. The setup process is very time-consuming and difficult at times... but the guys at the help desk are typically VERY helpful! Thanks!
Cons
The training through the setup process. The software is a big investment and there is not a great place to watch videos from start to finish on getting everything setup. There are videos, but they are not comprehensive for the VERY beginner... For instance, I really wasn't even sure how to launch the program the first time I wanted to work on it!
The other thing is that it is pretty buggy on macs. I have A LOT of time waiting between windows, etc.
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
HR's perspective
Caterers is the hub of the business. All staff have access to the platform and use it to improve communication. Can't do business without Caterease!
Pros
I use Catereasr daily to add and archive staff, verify schedules and presence, pulling reports and communicating with all team members at the same time. Caterers is easy to use, intuitive and customer service is superior!
Cons
More customized views, staff information options
- Industry: Hospitality
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Have used Caterease in various positions with 2 employers. Have used one other catering system
Pros
Ease of use across systems (adding an event, account or client is all done with the same + / - icon )
Cons
Unable to batch print or email documents as one attachment
Unable to view the content of sent emails from within Caterease
Unable to pull up an "outstanding invoice list" across accounts
Response from Caterease
Hello and thank you for taking the time to review our software.
Just to clarify: You can batch print and email documents. You can also view the contents of sent emails from within Caterease. You can also review outstanding invoice lists across accounts.
In fact, you can combine all three and batch email attached invoices to all accounts with outstanding balances. Please call our help desk and we'll be happy to show you how. Thanks again for your review.
- Industry: Events Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Caterease Review
Pros
It was very functional for catering management. I liked how everyone could update it in live time.
Cons
It was a little clunky in some places. But I also think it could have been set up better on management end.