# 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.

## Scope & fit

| | Carbon | Manufacturo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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

| | Carbon | Manufacturo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Accounting, GL & job costing | Yes | No |
| Purchasing / procure-to-pay | Yes | No |
| Sales orders & quoting | Yes | No |
| 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) | Yes | Yes |
| Quality (QMS) & as-built | Yes | Yes |
| Serial & batch traceability | Yes | Yes |

## Platform & ownership

| | Carbon | Manufacturo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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

| | Carbon | Manufacturo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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.** Manufacturo executes the floor as a cloud MES; the record still lives in an ERP you buy and connect. Carbon keeps the whole backend on an open REST API and MCP, self-hostable, with no seam between the floor and the books.
- **Plan and execute on one model.** Because ERP and MES are the same data, capacity and demand update the moment the floor reports progress — with no round-trip to a separate system of record.
- **No integration to maintain.** Nothing to wire between MES and ERP, and nothing to re-test when either side updates. Start free for 30 days on published, per-user pricing.

Start a 30-day free trial at https://app.carbon.ms, see pricing at https://carbon.ms/pricing, or read the source at https://github.com/crbnos/carbon.