Disclosure: Mercura publishes this comparison. Information about Canals comes solely from its public website (as of October 28, 2026, sources listed at the end of the article). Found an error? Write to us via /contact; we review and correct within 5 business days.

Highlight Summary

• For distributors and manufacturers that want bids, orders and supplier price requests in one system, Mercura is the better fit.

• Both offer AI order entry for distributors: they match emailed requests line by line to your item master and enter orders into the ERP.

• PDF quotes with technical attributes and a product configurator are documented for Mercura; Canals’ website does not mention them. Canals describes supplier quoting only in its procurement app for contractors.

• Choose Canals for phone and voicemail order entry, AP/AR and PO tracking on the same platform, or a contractor ordering app.

What is Mercura, what is Canals?

Mercura is AI software for quote and order automation in technical sales, for distributors and manufacturers. It reads written requests, bids and emailed orders, matches every line to your item master, sends supplier price requests for missing lines and writes the approved quote or order into your ERP. Inside sales approves every quote; uncertain lines are flagged, not guessed. How request, quote, follow-up and order come together in one flow is described in our article on quote-to-order automation.

Canals describes itself as “AI built for the construction and industrial supply chain”. It calls itself an “End-to-end platform for Sales, Purchasing, Receiving, AP and AR” and has separate offerings for distributors and manufacturers. How order entry can be automated at industrial and MRO distributors is shown in our article on order entry automation for industrial distributors.

Comparison at a glance

Legend: ✅ documented = described on the vendor’s website. ◐ partly = partly described (reason in brackets). – not mentioned = not mentioned on Canals’ website, as of October 28, 2026; this does not mean it is missing. ✗ not offered, per vendor = the vendor’s own pages say so (quote in the source). Mercura column: standard features, as of October 2026; “configurable” = available, set up per customer.

Can Canals create supplier price requests straight from a bid?

For distributors, Canals’ website does not describe price requests to their own vendors. Its distributor-side supplier features are PO acknowledgment, ASN and invoice processing, and its order entry lists “Non-stock sourcing” without further detail. Canals’ ASAP app lets contractors import BoMs and get quotes from their preferred suppliers. For lines you don’t stock, Mercura creates an Excel price request from the bid, sends it from the rep’s mailbox and files the replies, so request, reply and quote stay on one record. More on quotes and tenders.

Example (illustrative): In a 150-line plumbing bid, ten lines, including a backflow assembly you don’t carry, go out as one Excel request to two vendors. Replies are filed on the bid; the approved quote goes into the ERP.

Does Canals produce quote documents and configure product variants?

Canals’ website does not mention a product configurator or a PDF quote with technical attributes. It documents that “Reps simply review the pre-built quote, submit to your ERP with a click”. Mercura offers both, plus accessories with multipliers and mandatory items. How AI reads requests and BoQs and creates quotes in the ERP is described in our article on how to automate quote creation.

Example (illustrative): For a 60-line engineer’s spec, Mercura selects the variant per line, adds mounting kits as mandatory accessories and flags one line where size and capacity don’t match. Inside sales sends a PDF quote with technical attributes.

How do duplicates and failed ERP exports compare?

Canals’ website does not mention duplicate order detection or flagging failed ERP exports. It documents “Branch-based availability” and “Non-stock sourcing”; in takeoffs, “ambiguous specs, missing info, odd formats” are “highlighted for review”. Mercura offers both.

Example (illustrative): A contractor emails the same electrical order to the counter and to their rep. Mercura warns about the duplicate, marks the breakers that branch does not stock and flags the order for retry if the ERP handover fails. More on order processing.

Which security and ERP requirements are documented?

Canals documents SOC 2 Type II, penetration tests and “SSO/SAML and MFA with role-based access controls”. Its website does not mention SCIM or ISO/IEC 27001. Mercura is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and offers Entra ID SSO with SCIM, public REST API, webhooks and SFTP, a separate tenant per customer, hosted in Europe.

Canals lists ERPs including Acumatica, Epicor Eclipse and Prophet 21, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SAP S/4HANA, each “built and maintained by Canals engineers.” Mercura’s standard integrations are SAP S/4HANA, SAP ECC, SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce, proALPHA and UniTrade; other ERPs connect via REST API, webhooks or SFTP, as described under integrations.

Choose Canals if …

• phone and voicemail orders matter to you: Canals lets reps “Answer customer calls and process voicemails”.

• you want sales and back office on one platform, including AP, AR and PO acknowledgment tracking.

• you want a contractor ordering app: ASAP “comes standard with every Canals Sales Order Entry subscription” and lets contractors import BoMs and get quotes from their preferred suppliers.

• you want to “Test-drive the platform at no cost or obligation”, a “risk-free pilot” with results “within days” and “Implementation and rollout in under a week”.

• your IT asks for SOC 2 Type II, or you run one of the many ERPs on Canals’ integration list.

Choose Mercura if …

• you are a plumbing, HVAC or electrical distributor and want supplier price requests from the bid, as in plumbing and HVAC wholesale or electrical wholesale.

• you send PDF quotes with technical attributes, or need variant selection and accessories with multipliers.

• your IT requires ISO/IEC 27001, Entra ID SSO with SCIM, or SAP ECC or Business One.

• you want to test on your own item master, usually within 2 working days.

At the plumbing and HVAC distributor Sanitär-Heinze, a quote takes 2 hours instead of 2 days, up to 90% faster, and 100% of incoming requests are processed, up from around 70%. Read the Sanitär-Heinze story. Mercura’s average match rate is 92%; it varies by customer and catalog.

Methodology

Sources: Canals’ public website (32 pages from its sitemap), retrieved October 27, 2026, and re-checked in full on October 28, 2026 (96 pages, including blog posts, case studies and its public API reference), without login or demo. Mercura information: standard features, as of October 2026. Reviewed quarterly; corrections via /contact within 5 business days. All Mercura comparisons: Mercura vs. competitors.

FAQ

Is Mercura a Canals alternative?

Yes, for quoting and order entry from written requests; see the table above for where each documents more. How AI quoting works for steel requests is shown in our article on steel distribution software.

What do Canals and Mercura cost?

Neither publishes prices. Canals states “We offer a tiered, usage-based pricing model” and “No hidden integration fees or setup costs”. Mercura pricing: via /contact.

Does Mercura handle phone orders?

No. Mercura processes written requests: emails and attachments such as PDFs, Excel files and photos.

Who is Canals a better fit for?

Distributors that want one platform from sales to AP and AR, including phone orders.

Sources

• Canals website, home page: self-description as AI for the construction and industrial supply chain. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “Order Entry” for distributors (Products section): information on input formats, phone and voicemail orders, branch-based availability, ERP submission and pricing model. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “Integrations”: list of ERP and Outlook connections. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “Canals for Enterprise”: information on SOC 2 Type II, penetration testing, SSO, roles, confidence scoring and file exchange. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “Why Canals”: information on the platform for sales, purchasing, receiving, AP and AR, the free test drive and rollout time. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “Canals AI”: information on turning customer requests into quotes and orders, and on industries. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page for manufacturers: offering for manufacturers. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page for distributors: offering for distributors and information on integration and setup fees. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “ASAP” for suppliers: information on the ordering app for contractors. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “Takeoff Automation” for distributors (Products section): information on takeoffs and on flagging unclear specs. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “PO Tracking” for distributors (Products section): information on processing PO acknowledgements and ASNs. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “Live Evaluation”: information on the live demo and on integrations built by Canals. Retrieved October 27, 2026.

• Canals website, page “ASAP” for contractors: information on importing BoMs and takeoffs and on quotes, live pricing and ordering from preferred suppliers. Retrieved October 28, 2026.

• Canals website, page on sales order entry for lumber and building materials dealers: information on non-stock sourcing for mill-direct or wholesaler items. Retrieved October 28, 2026.

• Canals website, blog article with an interview on how AI can help electrical distributors save time and money: information on the risk-free pilot. Retrieved October 28, 2026.

• Canals website, page “Evaluation Guide”: information on processing a real order live during the evaluation call. Retrieved October 28, 2026.

• Canals website, all pages listed in the site’s sitemap (checked for the “not mentioned” rows). Retrieved October 27, 2026, re-checked in full October 28, 2026.

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