Carbon vs Siemens Opcenter
Carbon and Siemens Opcenter are both manufacturing (mrp/mes) software. Carbon is open source under AGPL-3.0, with 2.8k GitHub stars. Siemens Opcenter is a commercial product from Siemens.
Which to pick
- Pick Carbon when
- You make complex assemblies or high-mix, low-volume parts and want ERP, MES and quality in one system you can self-host or buy as Carbon Cloud.
- Pick Siemens Opcenter when
- A large manufacturer with complex plant operations wants MES tied to Siemens PLM and automation.
Side by side
A manufacturing system that keeps quoting, orders, purchasing, inventory, MRP planning with finite-capacity scheduling, shop-floor travelers and labour capture, quality records and lot and serial traceability in one Postgres database.
Siemens' manufacturing operations management portfolio: MES, advanced planning and scheduling, quality and lab management.
It is open core: the enterprise files, API keys and the MCP server need a paid plan or, when self-hosted, a commercial licence.
It is a portfolio of products needing specialist integrators and substantial investment.
Usable
Production-ready
Self-hosted server and cloud service (both)
TypeScript, React, PostgreSQL and Rust
Not published
Open source, AGPL-3.0 (network copyleft)
Closed source, sold by Siemens
Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
2.8k GitHub stars
No Wikipedia article of its own
Established: started 2 years ago, no tagged release yet.
Not known
Other comparisons
More manufacturing (MRP and MES) systems
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-06 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.