Carbon review
Carbon connects BOM changes, production, inventory, quality, and costing in one platform.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Carbon is an engineering-focused manufacturing platform that combines ERP, MRP, MES, and QMS around shared manufacturing data. It is designed for discrete manufacturers, from prototype shops to rate-production operations, including regulated and multi-site businesses. Its scope covers versioned BOMs, engineering changes, inventory, purchasing, work orders, production execution, quality records, traceability, costing, and accounting. The platform is available as managed cloud software, with an open-source core that can be self-hosted.
BOM control is Carbon's defining strength. Teams can manage revision history and effectivity dates, explode multi-level assemblies, compare BOM and item changes before release, and route engineering change notices through staged workflows. The platform also connects BOM data to inventory, purchasing, MRP, job costing, routings, digital travelers, and serial or lot genealogy. A parametric configurator supports variant BOMs and routings, making Carbon a fit for manufacturers whose product structures change across configurations or production stages.
The published monthly plans start with Starter at $40 per user, including automatic updates and backups, basic ERP, MES, and QMS functionality, unlimited records, self-onboarding, and community support. Business costs $100 per user monthly and adds technical support, API access, webhooks, integrations, accounting, audit logging, and all advanced features. Enterprise adds self-hosted or managed deployment, a forward deployed engineer, customizations, training, integrations, CMMC compliance, full setup and migrations, and SSO/SAML. A 30-day trial is available. Carbon should suit manufacturers seeking connected BOM-to-production control; smaller teams wanting a free plan or organizations that only need lightweight BOM tracking should look elsewhere.
Carbon pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Versioned, multi-level BOMs with revisions and effectivity dates
- Connects inventory, MRP, production, quality, and costing
- Supports cloud, self-hosted, API, webhooks, and MCP server
- Where it doesn't
- Starter provides community support instead of technical support
- API, webhooks, and integrations start with the Business plan
- There is no free plan; the paid entry point is $40 per user monthly
Carbon fact sheet, pricing and score →
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