A stacked foil microreactor (SFMR) was developed and used to study methanol synthesis under high pressure. Two catalyst foil coatings were applied: Pd/CeO2 by sol-gel coating and impregnation and CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 by coprecipitation and slurry coating. Laboratory fixed-bed reactor (FBR) experiments were made for comparison. The results show that active foil coatings of both Pd/CeO2 and CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 can be prepared. The activity of Pd/CeO2 coated foils is significantly better than Pd/CeO2 particles prepared by deposition-precipitation. The differences found between the two reactor types using the same Cu catalyst can be partly related to heat exchange properties.