Tool profile
Caterease: cost, fit and limits
Caterease is a catering and event management program made by Horizon Business Services, Inc., sold as Caterease Software, that handles event booking, menus, staffing, equipment packing and payments for caterers, with an AI-driven Horizon Hub for reading event data from any device.
What to know first
Caterease sells three printed tiers billed annually: Express at $99 a month, Standard at $149 and Professional at $199, plus a Starter Pack priced by request. Every user also pays a one-time $200 fee, and added users cost $28 a month. The page says the Horizon Hub, described as AI-driven, is included in all plans. The privacy policy states US-based servers.
Caterease at a glance
| Maker | Horizon Business Services, Inc. (doing business as Caterease Software), United States |
|---|---|
| Free plan | No |
| Entry price | $99 per month billed annually for Express |
| API access | No |
| Category | Best AI Catering Software in 2026, rank 1 of 11 |
| Website | caterease.com |
Who Caterease is best for
Off-premise caterers
Standard adds recipe-level menu tracking and automatic equipment packing lists, which helps a kitchen that has to load a truck from the same record that holds the client's order.
Teams with commissioned salespeople
The feature list includes sales commission calculation and an audit trail of changes, so owners who pay by booking can check who edited an event and what each seller earned.
Owners who want to read data on a phone
Horizon Hub is described as live AI-driven access to Caterease data from any device, aimed at managers who want answers about events while away from the office desktop.
Caterease plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Express | $99 per month billed annually | Wizard-driven event and client management, a custom library of event prints, program add-ins and interfaces, and payment processing. |
| Standard | $149 per month billed annually | Everything in Express, plus shift and event staff management, recipe-level menu tracking and automatic equipment packing lists. |
| Professional | $199 per month billed annually | Everything in Standard, plus batch merge emails, enhanced user security and the copying of default menus and prints. |
| Express Package (Starter Pack) | Pricing by request | A single-user package priced on request. The pricing page says it comes with no modules and no additional users, so it suits a one-person shop. |
Checked November 2026.
What Caterease does
- Event booking wizard
- A dynamic wizard walks staff through client, date, menu and room details for a new booking, and a task checklist with customizable screen displays shows what is still open on each event.
- Client event portal
- Clients get a portal tied to their event record, which moves some questions and approvals out of email. The pricing page lists the portal without describing its limits.
- Horizon Hub
- The page calls Horizon Hub AI-driven access to Caterease data from any device and says it is included in every plan. It does not describe which questions it answers or which model sits behind it.
- Payments and commissions
- Batch payment processing runs through Mosaic Payment Processing, and the system calculates sales commissions. Conditional required fields and an audit trail record who changed what on an event.
- Add-on modules
- Enhance and Integrate are separate modules at $25 a month each. The pricing page does not spell out what each contains, so ask which features your workflow needs before assuming the tier price is final.
How Caterease handles your data
The privacy policy states that servers are located in the United States and that personal information is kept as long as needed for the purposes in the policy, while customer data is kept under the customer agreement. The page does not say whether customer data is used to train AI models, and no certification is stated on the pages opened. The policy still contains unfilled placeholders, such as a 2018 date and [TBD] fields, so confirm the current terms with the vendor before storing client payment records.
Where Caterease falls short in practice
- Per-user fees stack up. Every user pays a one-time $200 fee on every plan, and added users cost $28 a month. A five-person office therefore pays $800 in one-time fees before add-on modules, so the $99 headline price understates the first-year cost.
- Unfinished policy text. The privacy policy shows a 2018 date and [TBD] placeholders. A buyer doing vendor review cannot treat it as final, and the AI data use question is left unanswered by the page.
- No API named. The pages list program add-ins and interfaces but no public API. A team that wants to move event data into its own reports should ask what export options exist.
Works with
Alternatives to Caterease
Caterease: common questions
What is Horizon Hub in Caterease?
Horizon Hub is described on the pricing page as AI-driven access to Caterease data from any device, and it is listed as included in all plans. The page gives no example of what you can ask it, so request a live demo that uses your own event records before counting it as a reason to buy.
How much does Caterease cost for three users?
At printed rates, Standard billed annually is $149 a month, plus $28 a month for each of two added users, and a one-time $200 fee for each of the three users. That works out to about $2,424 in the first year before the $25 Enhance and Integrate modules.
Does Caterease handle recipe costing?
The pricing page lists recipe-level menu tracking on Standard and Professional, and equipment packing lists on the same tiers. It does not mention costing by name, so ask for a demo that shows a recipe, its ingredient costs and the resulting event cost.
Where does Caterease store my data?
The privacy policy says servers are in the United States. It also says customer data is kept under the customer agreement, which we did not see. If you need a particular retention period, request the agreement and a written answer on deletion after cancellation.
Is there a free trial of Caterease?
The pricing page does not mention a trial or a free plan. It shows a Starter Pack for a single user at pricing by request. Ask the vendor whether a demo account is available, and whether the one-time user fee applies while you are evaluating.