Everyone models the order. Nobody models the run.
The figures below are the vendors’ own published prices and documentation, read in August 2026. Check them yourself. We cite nothing we cannot show.
What each one solves, and where it stops
Categories, not scorecards. Every product below does its own job better than we would.
Craft inventory tools
Solves well: cost of goods for a maker selling on marketplaces, with real material costing and tax-ready reports.
Stops at: it records what already happened. There is no live floor, and a run in progress is not a thing it has.
Cloud MRP
Solves well: planning and purchasing across products and orders, with a clean picture of what to make next.
Stops at: it assumes the recipe is followed. A batch cannot be split mid-run, and lot traceability sits in the top tiers.
Full ERP
Solves well: everything, eventually. If you have the implementation budget and eighteen months, it will fit.
Stops at: the shop with twelve people and no IT department, which is the shop this is for.
Paper and a whiteboard
Solves well: more than software vendors admit. It is free, it never goes down, and the supervisor already trusts it.
Stops at: the recall, the audit, and the question of why this month cost more than last.
scalebatch
Solves well: what happens between the store room and the finished product, with the stop, the scrap and the extra input recorded in the phase where they occurred.
Stops at: it does not ship. Four of the products above will run your shop this month and we will not.
The rows that decide it
Mechanism by mechanism
| Mechanism | Elsewhere | Here |
|---|---|---|
| Split a batch mid-run | Refused by design | The base model |
| Costing method | Moving or weighted average | Actual lots consumed |
| See the entry before it posts | Not available | Preview, then approve |
| Reason on every stop | Free text, or nothing | Seeded list, sortable |
| Lot traceability | Top tiers only | Every plan |
| Runs with no accounting attached | Needs the cloud ledger | Standalone or connected |
| Shipping today | Yes | No. In development |
The last row is the one that matters most right now, and it is why this page exists in this shape. Better you find that out here than three weeks into a trial.
If your recipe is always followed, buy one of the others.
This exists for the shop where a run gets blended, split, held and reworked, and somebody has to explain the cost afterwards.