The four models in one paragraph each
Hosted catalog: you create and maintain the items, inside the platform. Maximum control, maintenance is yours. Included on every plan.
Supplier global catalog: the supplier publishes to any buyer at list price. Best for discovery and urgent low-value buys.
Supplier/client catalog: the supplier maintains a catalog holding your negotiated prices, visible only to you. Best for anything contracted.
Punchout: the buyer shops in the supplier's own store and returns with a cart. Best for very large or fast-changing assortments.
Decide by category, not by preference
Run each significant category through this test and the answer is usually obvious.
- Stable list of items you buy monthly, price already agreed → hosted catalog
- Contracted category with a supplier willing to maintain it → supplier/client catalog
- Tens of thousands of SKUs, or configurable products → punchout
- Category you do not buy often and have no second source for → supplier global catalog
- Category with no repeat pattern at all → keep it in RFQ, not in a catalog
Who carries the maintenance
This is the question that predicts whether a catalog program survives its first year. Hosted catalogs put the work on your team, which is fine at 50 items and painful at 5,000. Supplier-managed models and punchout move that work to the party that already maintains the data.
If you have no owner for catalog maintenance, do not start with a large hosted catalog.
What does not change between models
In every model the purchase still checks budget availability before commitment, still follows the approval rules for its amount and category, and still ends in three-way match before payable. Catalogs change where the item and price come from — not whether the purchase is controlled.