Carbon vs. Manufacturo
Manufacturo is a modern MES: it executes the shop floor, then hands off to an ERP you buy and integrate separately. Carbon is ERP, MRP, MES and QMS on one data model — the same record from quote to shipped part — so there's no seam to build between the floor and the back office.
- 4-in-1
- ERP, MRP, MES & QMS on one data model
- 1 month
- implementations
- 30 days
- free trial, no sales call
- Yours
- full source-code ownership
Carbon vs. Manufacturo, feature by feature
| Carbon | Manufacturo | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope & fit | ||
| What it is | ERP + MRP + MES + QMS in one platform | Cloud MES (shop-floor execution) |
| Built for | Regulated discrete manufacturing, prototype to rate production | High-mix regulated discrete manufacturing |
| Back office / ERP included | Financials, purchasing, inventory, sales — built in | No — requires a separate ERP |
| What's inside the platform | ||
| Accounting, GL & job costing | Built in | Not offered |
| Purchasing / procure-to-pay | Built in | Not offered |
| Sales orders & quoting | Built in | Not offered |
| MRP & inventory | One model with finance and the floor | MRP, inventory & Kanban included |
| Live capacity planning | Updates as the floor reports | Not emphasized |
| Shop-floor execution (MES) | Built in | Built in |
| Quality (QMS) & as-built | Built in | Built in |
| Serial & batch traceability | Built in | Built in |
| Platform & ownership | ||
| Deployment | Cloud or self-host | Cloud, private or on-prem (vendor-managed) |
| Full ownership of the code | Yes — the entire codebase is yours | No — proprietary |
| API coverage | Full backend over REST — every table | 80+ public integration APIs (subset) |
| AI / agent-ready (MCP) | Hosted MCP over the full backend, read & write | Partner AI (Magenta); no MCP |
| ITAR / GovCloud / CMMC | ITAR, GovCloud & CMMC / NIST 800-171 ready | ITAR, SOC 2; FedRAMP pending |
| Getting started | ||
| Implementation | Self-serve; live in days | Enterprise onboarding |
| Pricing | $40–$100 / user / mo, published | Quote-based (enterprise) |
Where Manufacturo still fits
Manufacturo is a capable MES for large aerospace and defense programs that already run a heavyweight ERP and want a modern execution layer on top of it. If you'd rather not run — and integrate — two systems, Carbon covers the same floor with the ERP already inside.
You may be outgrowing Manufacturo if…
You're paying for two systems
An MES, plus the ERP it plugs into, plus the integration between them. Carbon is one platform on one model — the integration doesn't exist because the seam doesn't.
The floor and the office disagree
When execution and finance live in different databases, the numbers drift. In Carbon every operation writes to the same record accounting reads.
You want to own your stack
Manufacturo is proprietary and cloud-only. Carbon is source-available and can run in your own environment, including GovCloud/ITAR.
Why manufacturers choose Carbon
The ERP is already inside
No separate back office to license and integrate. Accounting, job and product costing, purchasing, inventory and planning ship with the shop floor — so cost rolls up from the operation automatically, on one data model.
Open and API-first
The source is yours: run Carbon in the cloud or self-host it, with no lock-in. The whole backend — every table and capability, not a curated subset — is open over REST and MCP, so you point the best agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor) at your live data instead of being boxed into a vendor's built-in assistant.
Live capacity planning
Capacity and demand forecasts update the moment the floor reports progress — not on the next overnight run — so the plan you're looking at is the plan that's true.
No integration to maintain
Start free for 30 days with published, per-user pricing. No sales call, no six-figure implementation, no consultants required to make a change.
See Carbon on your own parts.
Start free for 30 days, or read the source and run it in your own environment. No sales call required.
