PlanetTogether Alternatives (2026): A Fair Guide for High-Mix Shops

What PlanetTogether publishes about itself (checked October 10, 2026):

• Company: an APS company headquartered in San Diego, building on Cornell University research, helping manufacturers since 2004. Its homepage says it has been acquired by CAI Software and is now CAI PlanetTogether.
• Product: finite-capacity advanced planning and scheduling around capacity, materials, labor, routings, setups, changeovers and due dates, with what-if scenarios, Theory of Constraints sequencing and more than 50 sequencing methods.
• ERP integration: bi-directional, using APIs, database connections, flat files, middleware, Azure Data Factory or iPaaS. Example systems include SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, NetSuite, Infor, Epicor and QAD.
• Architecture: client-server; the server runs in the cloud or on-premise and the scheduling client is a local application. Built on Azure, with SOC 2 compliance. Supports multiple users and sites.
• Implementation: a focused SureStart rollout of about 45 days for a defined scheduling workflow; standard implementations typically 4–6 months.
• Pricing: not published.

• Size. A single-site job shop may not need multi-plant planning, supply-chain features or a 4–6 month standard implementation.
• ERP fit. ProShop, Fulcrum and JobBOSS² aren't among the example systems PlanetTogether lists. That doesn't mean they can't be connected, but it's a question to ask early.
• Who runs the model. Deep APS products reward a planner who configures and tunes them. Shops without that person want a plan that recomputes from live data with less tuning.
• Price visibility. PlanetTogether doesn't publish prices; some buyers want a number before the first call.
• Roadmap after the acquisition. PlanetTogether says a move from client-server into the browser is being explored, with no decision yet, and that deeper integration with CAI's Parsable is on the roadmap. Ask what that means for your deployment.

Vendor capabilities change. Verify critical requirements with each vendor on your own data.

• You plan several plants and want them synchronized in one APS, with demand, capacity and materials across sites.
• Your ERP is SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Infor, Epicor or QAD, and you want an APS vendor with integration experience there.
• You have planners who want deep control: dozens of sequencing methods, campaign rules and KPI-weighted optimization.
• Process or batch manufacturing. Campaigns, batch changeovers and cleaning steps are areas PlanetTogether covers; Skody is built for discrete shops.
• You want APS inside a broader suite. CAI positions PlanetTogether alongside its connected-worker and MES products.

• Your ERP is ProShop, Fulcrum or JobBOSS² (or Acumatica or SYSPRO) and you want the schedule fed live from it.
• The plan goes stale during the shift, and you want the whole shop recomputed instead of a planner rescheduling by hand.
• People are the constraint. On the Plant & Enterprise plan, operator skills and shifts limit every recompute.
• You want a published starting price and no long contract. The Shop plan starts at $1,500 per month, month-to-month.
• You want cloud with no local client. Hosting is included, with ITAR-ready Gov Cloud and SOC 2 Type II.

Three Sigma Manufacturing is an example: its planning horizon went from one week to one year, and the planner accepts the computed baseline about 99% of days.

• Shop plan: starts at $1,500 per month, month-to-month. Includes machine capacity scheduling, finite-capacity scheduling, automatic conflict resolution, due-date-first optimization, ERP integration, delivery-risk and late-job visibility, planner overrides and what-if scenarios, and production dashboards.
• Plant & Enterprise plan: custom pricing based on scope. Adds workforce capacity scheduling, skills and personnel availability constraints, machine and workforce optimization, pallet pool and multi-part scheduling, lights-out production planning, MES and machine telemetry integration, multi-department and multi-site deployment, and advanced integrations.
• Pricing is per shop, not per user. There is no free trial; Shop plans are month-to-month instead.
• Every deployment is hosted in ITAR-ready Gov Cloud. SOC 2 Type II.

See pricing.