Honest comparison
Curate vs CaterKit
The short version: Curate is proposal software that pays for itself per proposal — and you pay for the jobs you lose. Its plans start at $275/month and run a proposal quota: on the entry tier, you get about 240 proposals a year, and declined inquiries count against it, with $200 per extra 100 on top (verified July 2026). CaterKit is flat — Solo $59/month, Pro $99/month — with no per-quote or per-lead limit, ever. Quote as many jobs as it takes to win one.
If you run a high-volume events and floral business with a design-heavy proposal process, Curate is polished and well-liked, and this page says so. If you’re a low-volume caterer who quotes a handful of events a month, the quota model charges you exactly where it hurts.
When Curate is the right choice
Curate is a genuinely beautiful proposal tool, and its users love it for that. The single most-praised thing in the reviews is how the client-facing proposal looks:
The value Curate gives me in style alone is priceless; my clients love the look of my proposal.
It also does the pricing math its users need at quote time — labor and markups factored in — and it rates 4.7/5. If your business is proposal-first and volume-heavy, that polish is worth real money. Pick Curate if:
- You send a lot of proposals and design is the centerpiece of your sale.
- You run events and floral together (Curate grew out of the floral world, and it shows).
- Your volume is high enough that a per-proposal quota never bites and the $275+/month is easy to justify.
Curate’s own reviews skew toward florists and event designers, which is a fair signal of who it’s for. CaterKit is for the caterer at the other end of the volume curve — the one quoting 2 to 15 events a month and watching every fixed cost.
Side by side
Here’s the model, side by side, with Curate figures verified July 2026:
| What matters | Curate | CaterKit |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $275/mo (Growth, ~240 proposals/yr) · ~$333 (Premium) · $500 (Scale, unlimited) | Free to start · Solo $59/mo · Pro $99/mo, flat |
| Proposal limit | Yes — a quota. Declined inquiries count against it. +$200 per extra 100. | None. No per-quote or per-lead limit on any plan, free included. |
| Extra users | +$30/mo | Solo & Pro are single-seat; team seats are a separate, flat add-on. |
| Rentals add-on | +$50/mo | — |
| Recipe / portion costing | Profitability-oriented | Per-portion recipe costing with live margins, on every plan (free holds 15 recipes). |
| AI menu import | None | Photograph a menu. AI drafts costed recipes you review before they count (5/50/150 imports a month by plan). |
| Event-day lists | None | Shopping, prep & pack lists build themselves from the menu you sold, offline and printable. |
Curate pricing verified July 2026 from their public pricing pages. Their current numbers may differ, so always check their site. We never invent competitor claims: rows we can't verify say so.
The quota is the problem
Sit with the quota row for a second, because it’s the whole argument. A proposal quota that counts declined inquiries means you’re billed for the "no." You quote a job, the client goes another way, and that quote still spent one of your 240. Quote freely enough to win — send a revision, chase a lead, price a maybe — and you march toward the $200-per-100 overage. The pricing quietly discourages the exact behavior that wins catering jobs: quoting fast, quoting often, and following up.
The caterer nobody built for
The cleanest description of who this hurts came from a Curate user, in her own words:
Pricing is a little high for the very sporadic use we do. I would LOVE it if we could pay for a ‘1-6’ per year just to crank out that handful.
That’s a minority voice in Curate’s reviews — but it’s precisely our customer, asking out loud for the thing CaterKit is. You don’t need a 240-proposal plan to quote six great events a year. CaterKit’s free tier lets you quote without a subscription at all, and Solo is a flat $59/month whether you send three quotes this month or thirty.
(We cite that reviewer as a "low-volume event professional" on purpose: Curate’s base skews floral, and we won’t overclaim her as a caterer. The plea is the point, whatever she caters.)
The promises, line by line
- No setup fees. Neither of us charges one — good. Hold the rest of the line.
- Clients pay you directly. We never take a cut. Your deposits land in your own account through your own payment links.
- No per-quote quotas. This is the one. Curate meters proposals and bills for declined ones. CaterKit never limits quotes — on any plan, free included.
- Existing customers are never repriced. The price you sign up at is the price you keep.
- Export everything, free, on every tier, forever. Recipes, clients, events, quotes — CSV or JSON, subscribed or not.
FAQ
Is Curate good software?
Yes — it’s polished, it rates 4.7/5, and its proposals are the best-looking thing many of its users have. For a high-volume, design-first events business, it’s a strong tool. The quota model is what makes it a poor fit for low-volume caterers.
How much does Curate cost?
Plans start at $275/month (Growth, ~240 proposals/year), with Premium around $333 and Scale at $500/month for unlimited proposals plus a customer success manager. Extra proposals are $200 per 100, extra users $30/month, and the rentals add-on $50/month (all verified July 2026).
Do declined leads really count against the Curate quota?
Yes — the proposal quota counts inquiries whether or not they book (verified July 2026). That’s the practice promise #3 exists to reject: you should be able to quote a job you might lose without paying for the privilege.
Does CaterKit limit how many quotes I can send?
No. There’s no per-quote or per-lead cap on any plan, including free. Send as many quotes, revisions, and follow-ups as it takes to win the job.
I only cater a few events a year. Is CaterKit overkill?
No — that’s who it’s built for. The free tier gives you 2 new events a month, 15 recipes, and 5 AI menu imports with no card and no expiry. When you outgrow it, Solo is a flat $59/month, not a 240-proposal commitment.
Try the other way, free
the same branded page your client would accept on their phone, built from a photographed menu, with no setup fee between you and your first job.
Or see the full pricing page. It lists every limit and every price, so there are no surprises at checkout.