When hunting for efficiency gains in production, technology is often the solution. However, choosing the best manufacturing software for your specific needs is never simple. It needs to fit into your budget, complement your processes, and most importantly, provide a boost in productivity.
And that’s just the start.
Every business has different needs and resources. The right solution for you will also depend on your unique requirements and the problems you’re trying to solve. To help you on your discovery journey, we’ve curated this list of the best manufacturing software based on functionality, application, reputation, and price – along with numerous nice-to-have features.
What makes the best manufacturing software?
The best manufacturing software can be defined as that which best solves the problems hindering production efficiency in your workplace. It should provide a positive return on investment by improving productivity and reducing production costs. It needs to be affordable – in relation to your budget size – and sufficiently accessible, so that you can quickly train staff how to use it.
Manufacturing automation is the general goal of all manufacturing software tools; efficiencies are won or lost depending on how automated your processes are. Every time you automate a manual process with manufacturing software, those gains directly benefit your bottom line.
When building this list, we considered all these key factors, as well as online customer reviews and the reliability of various software providers. Keep reading to discover the results of our research.
The 5 best manufacturing software in 2024
In case you’re short on time, here’s a quick summary of our findings.
The top 5 manufacturing software of 2024:
- Unleashed: The best manufacturing inventory management system
- GanttPRO: Best for project management
- Prospect CRM: Best for customer relationship management
- Orchestrate: Best for production planning and scheduling
- FactoryMaster: Best for material requirements planning
Comparing the best manufacturing software
Manufacturing software | Core features | Pricing (USD) | User ratings (average across Capterra, Trustpilot, and G2) | What it's best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Unleashed | Inventory management, bill of materials management, purchasing management | Medium $359, Large $649, Large Plus $999 | 4.4/5 | Managing raw materials, assemblies, and finished goods inventory |
GanttPRO | Workload management, time management, resource management | Basic $9.99/mo per user, Pro $15.99/mo per user, Business $24.99/mo per user, Enterprise (contact sales team) | 4.7/5 | Project planning and time management |
Prospect CRM | Customer relationship management, RFM analysis, opportunity tracking | Start-Up $200/mo, Professional $400/mo, Advanced $2,199/mo | 4.6/5 | B2B customer relationship management |
Orchestrate | Production planning, master planning, production scheduling | Contact sales team | 4.9/5 | Production planning and scheduling |
FactoryMaster | Job costing, estimating and quoting, stock control | Contact sales team | 4.5/5 | Material requirements planning |
Best manufacturing software for inventory management
Inventory management presents one of the greatest opportunities for efficiency gains and cost reduction in a manufacturing business.
The best manufacturing software for inventory management helps you track and update inventory movements in real time, streamline your purchasing processes, and maximise visibility across the entire product life cycle – from inventory sourcing and tracking through to bill of materials management and sales.
Unleashed
Unleashed is a cloud-based manufacturing software that streamlines your production workflows and maximises inventory visibility across the business. It automates key manual processes – such as purchase order management, bill of materials, and demand planning – to boost operational efficiency and reduce production costs.
For small–medium manufacturing firms, Unleashed unlocks improved productivity throughout the entire supply chain by bringing all your inventory, production, and sales data under one roof.
Key features of Unleashed include:
- Real-time inventory tracking: Stock movements are updated across the business as they occur, giving you an always accurate picture of your inventory levels for every raw material, component, and finished good.
- Bill of materials management: Easily track and manage multi-level bills of materials from raw materials inventory planning through to custom assemblies and product costing.
- Multichannel reporting: Unleashed integrates all your sales channels, inventory data, and customer management to create a centralised source of truth. Track key performance data in real time and build cross-channel reports for total financial visibility.
- B2B ecommerce platform: Give your business-to-business customers a seamless online shopping experience with a built-in B2B ecommerce store. You save hours on sales admin while enabling customers to reorder goods and check order statuses quickly and easily.
- Demand forecasting: Unleashed’s powerful demand forecasting software tool, Advanced Inventory Manager (AIM), helps you set smart minimum and maximum stock levels to optimise replenishment and protect your cash flow.
Admittedly, we’re a little biased when it comes to our inventory management software. That’s why we encourage you to compare Unleashed with other competitors – and check out our customer reviews on Trustpilot, Capterra, and the Xero App Store.
Unleashed pros
- Enables smarter decision-making and accurate production planning by providing real-time visibility across all your inventory levels, production statuses, and purchase orders.
- Streamlines B2B sales order management and reporting with automated workflows and cross-channel performance monitoring.
- Improves cash flow and profitability thanks to powerful inventory optimisation and demand forecasting features.
Positive reviews for Unleashed:
Unleashed cons
- Lacks accounting and point-of-sale functionality found in some larger, more expensive inventory software.
- May be an unsuitable solution for large enterprises with complex inventory needs and 250+ employees.
- Software implementation can be a time-consuming process; may require an additional onboarding package to ensure a smooth transition.
Negative reviews for Unleashed:
Unleashed pricing
Unleashed manufacturing software comes in three subscription plans to suit different business sizes and requirements.
Every plan includes access to each of Unleashed’s core features: cloud-based inventory management, bill of materials management, purchasing, unlimited warehouses, sales order management, and business intelligence. A free 14-day trial is available for all plans.
The Medium Plan is the cheapest option at $359/mo (USD). It includes three users and 125,000 API calls. The Large Plan is the next option at $649/mo. It includes eight users and 250,000 API calls. The Large Plus Plan is the most expensive option, with up to 20 users and 500,000 API calls included.
- Note: Unleashed helps manufacturers unlock efficiency across all areas of the business. Minimise your production costs, slash administrative time, and achieve maximum manufacturing productivity with the world’s most-loved manufacturing inventory software. Start your free 14-day trial of Unleashed today.
Best manufacturing software for project management
When it comes to project management, the best manufacturing software needs to be super-organised, easy to use, and designed to support seamless collaboration. It should help you manage production schedules and workloads with simple time-logging features your whole team can access.
GanttPRO
GanttPRO is an online project planning and scheduling tool based on Gantt charts – a type of bar chart that shows the dependency relationships between activities and current schedule statuses. It’s an ideal manufacturing software for project management, with features that facilitate total project visibility, efficient collaboration, and simple-to-use resource allocation.
While GanttPRO’s functionality may be useful for many business types, tools like budget tracking, custom reporting, and project planning make it especially suited to businesses in the manufacturing industry.
GanttPRO pros
- User-friendly interface that many customers report as having a very small learning curve.
- Simplifies production scheduling and progress tracking with an easy-to-use, uncomplicated system.
- Includes customisable project templates to help you get started with minimal manual input.
Positive reviews for GanttPRO:
GanttPRO cons
- Some users report difficulties in exporting data from their projects.
- Limited personalisation and fluidity regarding page layout and project tracking dashboard designs.
- Unfamiliarity with GanttPRO or other project management tools may mean new users must spend some time getting used to the functionality.
Negative reviews of GanttPRO:
GanttPRO pricing
GanttPRO manufacturing project management software comes with four subscription options.
Every plan includes access to GanttPRO’s core features: Gantt charts, project calendar, auto-scheduling, basic task management, and basic project planning for 5+ users. A free 14-day trial is available for all plans.
The Basic Plan is the cheapest option at $9.99 per user per month (USD). The PRO Plan is the next cheapest option at $15.99 per user per month. It includes all the features of Basic, along with additional project planning functionality, custom task management fields, and custom project templates. The Business Plan costs $24.99 per user per month. It includes everything in PRO, plus workload management, budget planning, and time tracking.
There is also an Enterprise Plan (pricing can be attained by speaking to sales), which includes everything in Business, plus additional users, roles, and support as required.
Best manufacturing software for customer relationship management
The best manufacturing software for customer relationship management (CRM) needs to be capable of handling the complex nature of B2B sales. It should include all the standard CRM features that help businesses manage customers and improve customer lifetime value, while also attending to the unique needs of manufacturers. That means providing features for quoting, ordering, special pricing, and serial number and asset tracking.
A good manufacturing CRM system also ought to integrate seamlessly with your existing inventory management and accounting platforms for accurate reporting and data.
Prospect CRM
Prospect CRM is a stock-aware customer relationship management system specifically designed for B2B businesses, such as manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors.
Unlike other CRM software, Prospect CRM comes with practical tools for handling the unique operational challenges of operating a manufacturing business – along with all the essential CRM functionality you might need.
While popular CRM tools like Salesforce and HubSpot may suffice for ordinary businesses, they fall short when it comes to integrating B2B sales for physical products. Prospect CRM integrates product and inventory data with your key customer sales information to completely streamline the B2B sales process.
Key Prospect CRM features include:
- Stock-aware CRM
- RFM segmentation
- Quote-to-order optimisation
- End-to-end reporting
- Inventory tracking
In addition to Prospect CRM, it’s worth also mentioning Prospect eCommerce – its sister-software. Prospect eCommerce helps manufacturers sell online with B2B trade portals and web shops.
Prospect CRM pros
- Intuitive, easy-to-use interface with exceptional customer support and integrations.
- One of the only CRM tools with features specific to the manufacturing industry, such as its stock-aware CRM and B2B ecommerce portal.
- RFM segmentation feature enables businesses to evaluate customer spending behaviour to gain valuable insights for driving manufacturing growth.
Positive reviews of Prospect CRM:
Prospect CRM cons
- A high degree of customisation and functionality may make it unsuitable for very small businesses.
- Reporting functionality can be quite complex.
- Onboarding and implementation may take a while and will require working regularly with customer support.
Negative reviews of Prospect CRM:
Prospect CRM pricing
Prospect CRM is available in three tiered subscription options.
Every plan includes access to Prospect CRM’s core integrations, unlimited customer accounts, quoting and order processing, sales pipeline management, and customer service management. A free 14-day trial is available for all plans.
The Start-Up CRM Plan is the cheapest option at $200 per month (USD). The Professional CRM Plan starts at $400 per month and includes consultative onboarding assistance and training, more integrations, and extra product features. The Advanced CRM costs $2199 per month. It includes everything in Professional CRM, plus additional users, extended onboarding and training, all integrations and features, and more.
Best manufacturing software for production planning
The best production planning software for manufacturing businesses should increase capacity while streamlining all your production planning activities. It needs to provide visibility across your production schedules and progress while allowing you to manage every assembly in real time.
Orchestrate
Access Orchestrate is a cloud-based production planning software that delivers greater efficiency and accuracy across all your production planning and scheduling activities. It enables you to capture shop floor data, integrate production management with your other business systems, and optimise the entire production planning process.
Orchestrate pros
- Improves equipment and labour utilisation while increasing your production capacity.
- Gives you full visibility with a single master production schedule that rests on the cloud.
- Reduces, downtime, planning time, and work-in-process with optimised production planning.
Positive reviews of Orchestrate:
Orchestrate cons
- May require additional integrations or add-ons for a complete MRP solution.
- Could be unsuitable for major enterprises and simple manufacturing operations.
- Integrating with large ERP systems may take some time and require additional admin hours.
Negative reviews of Orchestrate:
Orchestrate pricing
Pricing for Orchestrate can be found by contacting their sales team for assistance.
Best manufacturing software for material requirements planning
When it comes to material requirements planning, the best manufacturing software should optimise materials purchasing and boost production visibility with automated functionality. Ideally, MRP software will help ensure maximum quality and efficiency in your production processes while minimising costs and labour time.
FactoryMaster
FactoryMaster is a cloud-based MRP system that helps you plan and optimise the various materials and resources used in manufacturing operations. It provides end-to-end purchasing control while lifting productivity and efficiency across the business.
FactoryMaster pros
- Improves product quality and performance visibility with comprehensive production reporting.
- Helps you optimise your stock levels to improve cash flow and minimise manufacturing waste.
- Streamlines key production management workflows to reduce business costs and lift efficiency.
Positive reviews of FactoryMaster:
FactoryMaster cons
- Best suited to small and medium manufacturers; may be unsuitable for complex enterprises.
- Lacks some important raw materials inventory management functionality.
Negative reviews of FactoryMaster:
FactoryMaster pricing
Pricing for FactoryMaster can be found by contacting their sales team for assistance.
- Learn more: ERP vs MRP Systems – What's the Difference?
Other manufacturing software solutions
We couldn’t include every manufacturing software in this list for various reasons. However, we implore you to conduct thorough research before making any purchasing decisions.
The following are a few more popular cloud manufacturing solutions that didn’t make our top five for one reason or another (but may still be worth investigating):
- Katana MRP
- Cin7
- Onshape
- NetSuite
- MRPeasy
- AutoCAD
- Zoho Inventory
- ERPAG
What is the best manufacturing software overall?
Unleashed manufacturing inventory software is more than just an inventory management tool for production teams – it enables you to connect each aspect of your business for a fully synchronised, fully optimised production process.
While we may be biased in saying it’s the best overall, several features make it especially practical for manufacturers. The ability to synchronise order management, stock control, and production planning with your purchasing activities gives you the freedom to unlock ERP levels of efficiency at a much more affordable monthly subscription rate.
If you’re ready to start optimising your production processes with Unleashed manufacturing software, get started today with a free 14-day trial – or chat with one of our friendly experts to learn how Unleashed can help you cut costs and boost manufacturing productivity today.
Manufacturing software FAQs
What is manufacturing software?
Manufacturing software refers to automated computer systems designed to improve manufacturing processes. Examples include inventory management software, MRP systems, and CAD software. Most manufacturing software solutions help improve productivity and efficiency by streamlining repetitive processes and improving accuracy with real-time data.
What’s the best manufacturing software for me?
The best manufacturing software for your business will depend on the problems you’re trying to solve and the budget you have available to solve them. To determine which solution is best for you, first identify which areas of your operations are leading to the greatest cash flow consumption and efficiency losses. Then seek out software that specifically targets those problems.
What are the risks of manufacturing software?
Investing in manufacturing software is not without risks. Because of the high cost of implementation, a return on investment may never happen unless the correct system is implemented at the right time. Additionally, staff must be trained on how to use new software which can take up valuable resources and time.
