ECI M1 ERP alternative for small discrete manufacturers who need the schedule fixed, priced flat per plant
ProductionPlanning.ai is an ECI M1 ERP alternative for small and mid sized discrete manufacturers whose real problem is late orders, not a missing ERP. M1 is a full manufacturing ERP from ECI Software Solutions, the company that also sells JobBOSS2, priced on a quote with no published price. Third party estimates start around 200 USD per user a month, and ITQlick puts year one for ten users at 28,000 to 66,000 USD with implementation. We do one job: load every machine against its real shifts and setups and show which orders will ship late, for a flat 149 USD per plant a month with unlimited users. The comparison below is honest, including where M1 is the better buy.
Free for 14 days on your own orders and machines. No card.
Machine shop, This week's schedule, finite capacity per work center
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- Late
- Changeover
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What ECI M1 is, and who it is built for
M1 is ECI's ERP for discrete manufacturers. ECI describes it as built for small and medium businesses in make to stock, discrete, repetitive and make to order manufacturing, and lists job shops, machine shops, aerospace and defense, electronics, medical devices and food and beverage among its industries. In one system it covers estimating, sales orders, purchasing, inventory, MRP driven by the master production schedule and bills of material, shop floor entry for labor and material, accounting and a scheduling module that ECI says plans jobs against machine capacity, labor skills and shift patterns, with scenarios you can copy and test before you commit.
ECI also sells JobBOSS2 to job shops, and ERP Research points out that the two products compete for the same buyer: JobBOSS2 leans to quoting and job costing, M1 to repeatable production where scheduling and material planning matter more. So if you are on an M1 shortlist, you are buying a whole ERP. That is the right purchase for some plants and the wrong one for others.
Why plants look for an ECI M1 alternative
M1 is a mature system, and ECI says thousands of manufacturers run it. Plants that start pricing other options usually hit one of these.
- The quote comes before the fix. ECI publishes no price for M1, and estimates run from 100 to 250 USD per named user a month in the cloud, or 30,000 to 150,000 USD upfront for a perpetual license with about 20 percent a year in maintenance
- Implementation is a project. ITQlick puts onboarding at 10,000 to 30,000 USD, VendorBenchmark puts a light implementation at 50,000 to 100,000 USD over three to nine months
- Advanced scheduling can be its own line. VendorBenchmark lists advanced planning and scheduling as a module at 20 to 40 USD per user a month in the cloud, on top of the base ERP
- The plant only needs one part of it. Orders, stock and invoices already work in QuickBooks or the current ERP. What is missing is a finite capacity plan for the machines and an honest list of the orders that will be late
- Every person who needs to see the plan is a seat. Shift leads, setup techs and sales each need a login to read the schedule
If the fourth line describes your plant, the choice is not between two ERP systems. It is between a months long ERP rollout and a schedule you can run this week.
What ECI M1 costs, according to the people who track it
ECI does not publish list prices for any of its ERP products, and M1 has no free trial or free version. The figures in circulation are third party estimates. They disagree, so treat every line as a range to test on the sales call, not a price list.
| Source | What it says about ECI M1 pricing |
|---|---|
| ITQlick | From about 200 USD per user a month; 10 users 1,500 to 3,000 USD a month; onboarding 10,000 to 30,000 USD; year one for 10 users 28,000 to 66,000 USD |
| VendorBenchmark | Cloud 100 to 250 USD per named user a month, three year contracts typical; perpetual 30,000 to 150,000 USD upfront plus about 20 percent a year maintenance |
| VendorBenchmark, modules | Base ERP 100 to 150 USD per user a month; advanced planning and scheduling 20 to 40 USD; quality 15 to 30 USD; EDI 15 to 30 USD |
| VendorBenchmark, implementation | Light 50,000 to 100,000 USD, standard 100,000 to 200,000 USD, three to nine months |
| ERP Research | No published list price; quoted per customer on users, modules, deployment and implementation scope |
| ECI | Demo request, quote after the call |
VendorBenchmark sells contract benchmarking and describes buyers with 25 to 200 named users, so its figures lean high for a 20 person plant. ITQlick's figures are closer to a small shop. Both agree on the shape: the bill grows with every named user, implementation is priced separately, and scheduling depth depends on which modules are quoted.
ECI M1 vs ProductionPlanning.ai, side by side
| What matters | ProductionPlanning.ai | ECI M1 |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Finite capacity production scheduling software | Full manufacturing ERP for discrete manufacturers |
| Owner | Independent | ECI Software Solutions, which also sells JobBOSS2 |
| Pricing model | Flat per plant | Per named user, or a perpetual license plus maintenance |
| Published price | Yes, on the pricing page | No, quote after a demo |
| Entry price | 149 USD per plant a month | Estimates from about 200 USD per user a month |
| Users | Unlimited on every plan | Each user licensed |
| Finite capacity on every machine and shift | Yes, the whole product | Scheduling module with machine capacity, labor skills and shifts |
| Late order warnings with projected finish dates | Yes, for every open order | Through the scheduling and MRP screens |
| MRP, purchasing and inventory | No | Yes, driven by the MPS and bills of material |
| Estimating and quoting | No | Yes |
| Accounting | No, keep your books where they are | Yes, built in |
| Time to first schedule | An afternoon, from a spreadsheet import | After implementation, three to nine months per VendorBenchmark |
| Best for | 5 to 60 person plants that ship late and keep their current systems | Discrete manufacturers replacing their books, MRP and shop floor tracking with one ERP |
M1 facts come from ECI's product pages and the directories named above. Our plans are on the pricing page.
What ten M1 users would cost over three years
Take a plant with ten people who need to be in the system. ITQlick's range for ten users is the closest published figure to a small shop, so the sketch uses it. It is arithmetic on estimates, not ECI's number.
| Cost line | Low case | High case |
|---|---|---|
| Basis | 10 users at 1,500 USD a month | 10 users at 3,000 USD a month |
| Year one subscription | 18,000 USD | 36,000 USD |
| Onboarding, one time | 10,000 USD | 30,000 USD |
| Years two and three | 36,000 USD | 72,000 USD |
| Three year total | 64,000 USD | 138,000 USD |
ProductionPlanning.ai for the same plant is 894 USD a year on Line or 2,574 USD on Plant, so 2,682 or 7,722 USD over three years, with every person on the floor included and no implementation fee.
The fair caveat is large. M1 money buys estimating, MRP, purchasing, shop floor entry and the general ledger as well as the schedule. If you need all of that, comparing it with a scheduler on price is the wrong test. The comparison only matters when the schedule is the part you are short of.
Where ECI M1 is the better choice
We would rather you buy the right system than the wrong one from us. Choose M1 if any of these applies.
- You want estimating, sales orders, purchasing, inventory, MRP and accounting in one database, and you are ready to retire the systems you run today
- Your production is repeatable or mixed mode and you plan material from a master production schedule and bills of material
- You need shop floor entry for labor time, attendance and material issues tied to job costing
- Your customers or your auditors expect quality records, EDI or service management, which ECI sells as M1 modules
- You have the budget and an internal owner for a rollout measured in months, and want one vendor for everything
For a discrete manufacturer of 30 to 200 people replacing several disconnected systems, M1 is one of the established choices, and the one ECI itself steers repetitive and make to stock plants toward.
Where a per plant scheduler wins
- A published price, 149 USD per plant a month on Line and 429 USD on Plant, monthly and cancellable, or six months' price for a year (50 percent off)
- Unlimited users, so every shift lead, operator and salesperson can see the plan without a seat count
- Finite capacity on every machine and shift, with holidays and maintenance windows, on every plan
- Setup times per product family and automatic grouping of similar jobs on Plant, so changeovers stop eating capacity
- Projected finish dates for every open order and the week's bottleneck named with the jobs it will make late
- Nothing to install, and live the same afternoon from a spreadsheet of open jobs and routings
- It sits next to what you already run, so QuickBooks, your current ERP and your quoting stay as they are
The clearest fit is a 5 to 60 person plant that has outgrown the whiteboard and does not want an ERP project to fix it. See how we load machines on machine scheduling software and handle make to order work on job shop software. If ECI is also pitching JobBOSS2, our JobBOSS alternative page covers that side, and the manufacturing ERP alternative page sets the other ERPs on the shortlist next to a scheduler.
How to compare the two on your own jobs
1. Export open jobs and routings
Pull open jobs with part number, quantity and due date, and each operation with its work center, setup and run time, from your current system or the spreadsheet you schedule in today. An M1 demo and our import both start from this list.
2. Enter work centers and shifts
Add each machine or cell with the shifts it runs, holidays and planned maintenance. For a plant with 20 machines this takes about an hour, and it is what makes the schedule finite.
3. Run a week next to your current plan
Publish the schedule and compare the late order list and the bottleneck with what the floor sees today. Ask ECI to schedule the same jobs in the M1 demo.
4. Decide what you are really buying
If the schedule is the only thing missing, a scheduler next to your books is the cheaper and faster fix. If estimating, MRP and accounting all need replacing, M1 belongs on the shortlist and the scheduler question is answered inside it.
Questions people ask before choosing ECI M1
What is the best alternative to ECI M1?
It depends on why you are looking. For a whole ERP, buyers compare M1 with JobBOSS2, Epicor Kinetic, Global Shop Solutions and Infor VISUAL. If late orders are the problem and your books already work, a dedicated scheduler is the cheaper fix: ProductionPlanning.ai costs 149 USD per plant a month with unlimited users. Our best production scheduling software roundup compares eleven tools with real prices.
How much does ECI M1 cost?
ECI does not publish M1 pricing and quotes after a demo. ITQlick estimates about 200 USD per user a month, 1,500 to 3,000 USD a month for ten users and 10,000 to 30,000 USD onboarding, so 28,000 to 66,000 USD in year one. VendorBenchmark puts cloud use at 100 to 250 USD per named user a month.
Is M1 the same as JobBOSS?
No. Both are ECI products for discrete manufacturers, but they are different systems. JobBOSS2 is aimed at job shops where quoting against a drawing and job costing drive margin. M1 is aimed at repeatable, make to stock and mixed mode production where scheduling and material planning matter more, though ECI also sells it to job shops.
Does ECI M1 have production scheduling?
Yes. ECI says M1 schedules jobs against machine availability, labor skills and shift patterns, aligns work with maintenance windows and lets planners copy a schedule to test changes. VendorBenchmark lists advanced planning and scheduling as a separate module, so ask whether it is in your quote. ProductionPlanning.ai includes finite capacity scheduling on every plan.
Can I keep M1 and add a scheduler?
Yes, if M1's schedule is the part your planners work around. Export open jobs and routings from M1 to a spreadsheet, import them, and the board shows projected finish dates and the bottleneck. On Plant the schedule exports back to your ERP, and Group adds an API.
Can I try ProductionPlanning.ai before I buy?
Yes. Run the demo on a sample week of orders, or start on Line at 149 USD a month and cancel any time. Most plants import their open jobs and see a first schedule the same afternoon, with no installation and no sales call.
Fix the schedule this week, before you price an ERP
Start on the Line plan at 149 USD a month with the whole plant included, or run the demo on a sample week of orders first. You will see your own bottleneck the same afternoon.
Your data stays yours. Export or delete it any time. No card to try the demo.