Cetec ERP

Cetec publishes the most transparent price list in this entire category, and it is worth reading closely because the structure is unusual. The core is 50 dollars per user per month with a five-user minimum. Support is then a separate line with three tiers: Self-Supported at 0 dollars a month, Standard at 650 dollars a month and Enterprise at 3,200 dollars a month. Shop Floor users are cheaper at 25 dollars per user per month, and Customer and Vendor Portals are 20 dollars per portal per month. Add-ons are each priced: Resident Hosting is 3,500 dollars setup then 99 dollars a month, the Cetec ERP BI Platform is 2,000 dollars a month, EDI Support is 300 dollars a month, ITAR-compliant hosting is 500 dollars a month, a Test Instance is 250 dollars a month, and AP Automation is 250 dollars a month for up to 250 vouchers then 1 dollar per voucher. Integrations are priced individually too: QuickBooks Online at 300 dollars a month and a ShipStation shipping plugin at 200 dollars a month. Training through UniversitERP is 375, 325, 250 or 200 dollars per user depending on user count, and expert services are 315 dollars an hour. A currency caveat applies: the page uses only the dollar symbol and never names a currency code, so the currency is recorded as unstated below rather than asserted as US dollars.

What that structure means in practice. Transparency is genuinely valuable, but do not mistake the 50 dollar headline for the price. Work a realistic example: twenty office users and ten shop floor users on Standard support is 1,000 plus 250 plus 650, so 1,900 dollars a month before any add-on. Add BI at 2,000 a month and the software line more than doubles. That is still inexpensive by mid-market manufacturing ERP standards, but the BI Platform at 2,000 dollars a month costing more than thirty users of the ERP itself is a striking piece of packaging and worth questioning. Similarly, EDI at 300 a month and the QuickBooks Online integration at 300 a month are the kind of items that get discovered after signature elsewhere; here they are at least visible in advance.

The free and trial distinction. There is no free version. The Self-Supported tier at 0 dollars a month is a support option included with your subscription, not a free licence, and it should not be read as a free edition. Cetec does offer a free trial: the page states that every Cetec ERP instance starts with a free trial so you can explore the system and test things out. A trial is not a free version, and the fields below reflect that.

What is not verified. Only the pricing page was read, so no functional capability is claimed. The general ledger, payables, receivables, fixed assets, purchasing, inventory, manufacturing modules, project accounting, HR and payroll, multi-company, multi-currency, tax, reporting and mobile access were not sourced and are recorded as unknown. Two inferences can be drawn cautiously from the price list itself and are noted as such: the existence of an AP Automation add-on priced per voucher implies accounts payable functionality, and the Shop Floor user type implies shop floor functionality. Neither is recorded as a verified capability because a price list is not a feature statement.

The ITAR-compliant hosting option at 500 dollars a month is a notable detail: it signals that Cetec serves US defence supply chain manufacturers, a segment usually addressed only by far more expensive products.

It fits well when:

• You are a small or mid-sized manufacturer who wants to know the price before talking to anyone. Cetec is close to unique in this category for that, and it makes budgeting and board approval dramatically easier.
• You have a large shop floor headcount relative to office staff, where the 25 dollar Shop Floor user rate against the 50 dollar standard rate changes the economics substantially.
• You are in the US defence supply chain and need ITAR-compliant hosting, which is offered at 500 dollars a month, an unusually accessible price for that requirement.
• You want to keep QuickBooks Online and connect it rather than replace it, which is priced as an integration at 300 dollars a month.
• You are comfortable with a self-supported model. The 0 dollar Self-Supported tier makes that an explicit, costed choice rather than a compromise.

It fits badly when:

• You need fewer than five users. There is a five-user minimum.
• You want analytics included. The BI Platform is 2,000 dollars a month on top, which can exceed the cost of the ERP licences themselves.
• You want vendor-led hand-holding at a low price. Standard support is 650 dollars a month and Enterprise is 3,200 dollars a month, and expert services are 315 dollars an hour, so a high-touch relationship is priced accordingly.
• You are a large enterprise with complex consolidation requirements. Nothing is positioned there and multi-company was not verifiable.
• You need to verify functional depth from public material before engaging, since only the pricing page was read here.

How to use the price list properly. Build a full-year model before the first call: office users at 50, shop floor users at 25, the support tier you will actually need rather than the one you hope to need, portals, plus every add-on on your requirement list including EDI, BI, test instance and AP automation at your voucher volume, plus training at the per-user rate for your headcount, plus a realistic allowance for expert services hours during implementation. Then confirm the currency, since the page prints only a dollar symbol. Then use the trial, which Cetec says every instance starts with, to verify the functional requirements this profile could not. With published pricing and a trial available, there is very little excuse for a poorly informed decision on this product.