Carbon

Against what buyers need

Manufacturing (MRP/MES): covers 93% of the checklist. ERP, MRP, shop floor and quality in one open-source system on a single Postgres database: quotes, orders, purchasing, multi-level BOMs with revisions, finite-capacity scheduling, operator terminals with digital travelers, actual job costs, inspections, non-conformance and CAPA, and lot and serial genealogy. The core is AGPL-3.0 and free to self-host, and Carbon Cloud costs US$40 per user a month on Starter. The REST API, webhooks and MCP server need the Business plan at US$100 per user a month, or an enterprise licence when self-hosted. There is no machine connectivity or OEE. Missing: machine connectivity and OEE and downtime tracking. Paid edition only: an API with room to use it.

Judgement

What it is

Complete system

What it does

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.

Adopt it 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.

Watch out

It is open core: the enterprise files, API keys and the MCP server need a paid plan or, when self-hosted, a commercial licence.

Ready for

Usable

Runs as

Self-hosted server and cloud service

Built with

TypeScript, React, PostgreSQL and Rust

How established

Established: started 2 years ago, no tagged release yet.

What the license allows

Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.

Judged on 2026-11-06 from the project's README and GitHub data. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Compare Carbon

Built from

Follow it down: Carbon → TypeScript → Go → runs on a microchip

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

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