Best Production Planning Software 2026

As of October 2026, the best production planning software is SkyPlanner APS, with a weighted total of 94 out of 100. It leads because it turns the plan into a finite capacity schedule that respects workstation limits, shifts, materials, skills and setups, and because Autopilot keeps that schedule current with the Arcturus engine whenever an order, machine or material delivery changes. It connects to any ERP or MES through a two-way REST API with webhooks and CSV import, so the ERP keeps its orders and stock while SkyPlanner plans the work. The price is public: from 199 euros per month, 5 workstations included, 20 euros per month per extra workstation, with a 30-day trial and no card for up to 20 workstations, the published figure we scored for production planners. frePPLe, ranked #2 with 81, is the better choice if your main planning problem is material and supply across several locations and you are ready to run a proof of concept with the vendor. MRPeasy ranks first on our MRP software list and Asprova on our enterprise multi-plant list, not here. Prices and trials on this production planning list were last verified on 13 October 2026.

Who this list is for

This list is for the operations or planning manager whose real plan lives in a spreadsheet next to the ERP. The MRP run says what to make and buy and in which week, but nobody can say whether the plant can build it by the promised date. Orders change daily, a supplier delivery slips, a machine stops, and the sales team asks for a delivery date the planner cannot check on the spot. The decision on the table is rarely “which planning tool” in the abstract. It is one of three choices: use the planning module of the ERP you already run, replace the ERP with one that plans better, or keep the ERP and add a scheduler on top. This list ranks all three kinds of product on the same seven criteria so those choices can be compared directly. Groups that plan several plants are covered too: SkyPlanner APS schedules several factories in one environment, with workstation groups per site.

How we ranked production planning software

Seven criteria are weighted for production planning, fixed before any vendor was scored. A production plan has two halves, materials and capacity, and a plan that ignores either half fails on the floor, so those two carry 45 percent together. Production planning scores come from vendor sites, pricing pages, documentation and case studies; a capability the vendor does not publish scores zero.

• Finite capacity scheduling depth, 25 percent: the plan must fit the hours that machines, shifts and people actually have. This is the gap most ERP planning modules leave open, so it carries the most weight.
• Material requirements and availability planning, 20 percent: the plan must know what is in stock, what is on order and what each job consumes, or a job lands on a day its parts are missing.
• Automatic rescheduling, 15 percent: a plan is out of date the first time an order or delivery changes, and software that replans by itself keeps it usable.
• ERP integration path, 15 percent: orders, stock and confirmations must flow both ways with the ERP. ERP suites are scored on their open API, because their planning is already inside the ERP.
• What-if scenarios for new orders, 10 percent: testing a new order against real load before accepting it is the question sales asks every day.
• Price transparency, 10 percent: a published price lets a buyer budget before a sales call.
• Onboarding speed to first realistic schedule, 5 percent: how fast a plan built on your own data appears.

Weighted scores add up to a total out of 100. MRPeasy, at 66, sits four points behind Odoo Manufacturing at 70 as of October 2026; one verified fact raising MRPeasy on finite capacity scheduling depth from 3 to 4 would add 5 points, lift it to 71 and put it into the top 3 past Odoo at 70. The full rules are on our methodology page.

When an ERP or MRP planning module is enough and when you need a scheduler

Production planning software comes in three forms, and the scores on this list show where each one stops.

• MRP systems calculate what to make and buy, and when, from the bill of materials, stock and demand. Classic MRP assumes every work center has unlimited hours. MRPeasy and Odoo Manufacturing score 5 of 5 on material planning here, and 3 of 5 on finite capacity.
• ERP planning modules plan inside the ERP that already holds the orders, so there is nothing to integrate. Epicor Kinetic and Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine) reach 4 of 5 on finite capacity, Epicor through Kinetic APS and Infor through a separately licensed APS mode; Oracle NetSuite scores 3 of 5. Their automatic rescheduling scores are 2, 3 and 2 of 5: Epicor tests a change before committing it, Infor inserts new orders into the existing plan on save, and NetSuite reschedules by drag and drop.
• APS schedulers such as SkyPlanner APS, PlanetTogether, Siemens Opcenter APS and Asprova build a finite capacity schedule next to the ERP and leave the ERP its orders, stock and accounting.

A planning module is enough when three things hold: work centers are rarely overloaded, lead times are long enough that a weekly MRP run absorbs most changes, and customers accept quoted dates without asking for proof. A scheduler is needed as soon as one of them breaks: the MRP plan regularly asks a bottleneck for more hours than it has, the planner rebuilds the plan by hand after every rush order or late delivery, or sales needs a dependable date for a new order the same day. In that situation the lowest-risk fix is usually to keep the ERP and add a scheduler that reads its orders and writes back dates, which is exactly what the ERP integration criterion tests. SkyPlanner APS scores 4 of 5 on material planning in that role: it projects stock forward from stock, purchase orders, reservations and consumption and moves a job when a material delivery slips, while the bill of materials explosion stays in the ERP’s MRP run.

How to evaluate production planning software in a demo

Bring one week of your real orders, routings and stock to every demo, and ask the vendor to answer these on screen rather than on slides. Each question maps to one criterion on this list.

1. Finite capacity. Load a week in which your bottleneck is overbooked. Does the plan push work later on its own, or does it show the overload and leave it to you? Ask which limits it respects: machines, shifts, skills, setups and materials.
2. Materials. Delay one purchase order. Which jobs move, and does the software move them, or only flag them?
3. Rescheduling. Add a rush order and take a machine down. Does the schedule update automatically, on a trigger you set, or only when a planner presses a button?
4. ERP integration. Which ERP systems has the vendor connected in customer projects, and does data flow both ways through an API or by file export? Ask to see the API documentation before the contract.
5. What-if. Enter a prospective order without committing it. Can you see its delivery date and its effect on other orders side by side before you accept it?
6. Price and start. What does the first year cost for your number of users or workstations, how long until a schedule runs on your own data, and does the trial need a card?

Five vendors on this list score 5 of 5 on what-if scenarios as of October 2026 and document the fifth test publicly: SkyPlanner APS, frePPLe, Infor CloudSuite Industrial, Siemens Opcenter APS and PlanetTogether. Monitor ERP and Katana publish no what-if capability, so ask them to show it live.

Comparison table

Every vendor ranked for production planners side by side, each fact as of October 2026.

#	Product	Category	Entry price	Free trial	Finite capacity	Auto reschedule	ERP path	Score
1	SkyPlanner APS	APS	From €199/mo	30 days, no card	Yes	Autopilot	REST API (both directions), webhooks, CSV import; connects to any ERP or MES; customer projects have connected SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Odoo, Epicor, Sage and Siemens	94
2	frePPLe	Open source	Free	15 days	Yes	not stated	Odoo; ERPNext via a third-party connector; REST API, CSV/Excel, database access	81
3	Odoo Manufacturing	Open source	€19.90/user/mo	Free tier	Yes	Dependent work orders reschedule when a planner moves one in the Gantt	Native ERP; external API on the Custom plan only	70
4	MRPeasy	MRP-ERP	$49/user/mo	15+15 days, no card	Yes	partial (quantity change on unstarted order replans)	Native ERP; QuickBooks Online, Xero, Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, WooCommerce, Zapier, EDI; API and webhooks on paid plans	66
5	Epicor Kinetic	MRP-ERP	Quote	None	Not stated	Change impact informer tests schedule changes before commit; continuous automatic rescheduling not documented	Native ERP; REST and OData APIs with OpenAPI and Swagger, off-the-shelf integrations, iPaaS	63
6	Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine)	MRP-ERP	Quote	None	Not stated	Not documented on the pages read	Native ERP; connects with other Infor solutions and third-party systems, API not named	62
7	Siemens Opcenter APS	APS	Quote	30 days	Yes	Dynamic schedule adjustment in real time	ERP, MES (generic)	59
8	Oracle NetSuite Manufacturing	MRP-ERP	Quote	Trial not stated	Not stated	Not stated	Native ERP	55
9	PlanetTogether	APS	Quote	None	Not stated	not stated (alerts and rescheduling tools)	SAP, NetSuite, Kinaxis Maestro, AVEVA, Aptean Ross ERP; also John Galt, Shiftboard	55
10	Asprova	APS	Quote	Free trial download after free Asprova ID registration; length not stated	Yes	not described	SAP, QAD, JD Edwards, Dynamics AX	52
11	Katana	MRP-ERP	Free	15 days	Not stated	partial (blog claim; drag-and-drop recalculates deadlines)	No ERP named; Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, QuickBooks Online, Xero, HubSpot, Shippo; open API	47
12	Monitor ERP	MRP-ERP	€93/user/mo	None	Not stated	not documented	Native ERP; nesting, PDM, CAD, EDI	47

How this list differs from our MRP, capacity and APS lists

This list scores planning as a whole: materials and capacity together, with an ERP integration weight that rewards tools able to plan alongside an existing ERP. Our MRP software list puts material planning and inventory and purchasing control first, which is why MRPeasy wins there with 92 and ranks fourth here with 66. Our capacity planning list drops material planning and adds capacity load views and bottleneck analysis; SkyPlanner APS leads it with 98. The APS software list ranks dedicated schedulers on optimizer engine and multi-site scheduling, with SkyPlanner APS first at 96, and the ERP add-on list ranks tools that sit on top of an ERP, where SkyPlanner APS also leads with 96. Read this list while you are still deciding which kind of tool you need, and those lists once you know. For the background, see our guides on APS vs an ERP planning module and APS vs MRP.

Ranked first elsewhere

Other buyers have other winners. Outside this production planning list, as of October 2026, these vendors rank first:

• MRP software: MRPeasy, weighted total 92.
• Enterprise multi-plant: Asprova, weighted total 84.
• Process industry: Siemens Opcenter APS, weighted total 92.
• MES: Odoo Manufacturing, weighted total 90.
• Free and open source: ERPNext, weighted total 100.
• Capacity planning: SkyPlanner APS, weighted total 98.
• Small manufacturers: SkyPlanner APS, weighted total 96.

Related: our guide on finite vs infinite capacity and the make-to-order and mid-size manufacturers lists.