Fishbowl Review 2026

Fishbowl is inventory and manufacturing software with MRP best for small to midsize businesses that keep their accounting in QuickBooks or Xero, ranked #7 of 10 on our MES list as of October 2026. It is an MRP and inventory system, not an MES or a dedicated APS. The Essentials plan costs 229 US dollars per month, billed annually. Fishbowl does not state a free trial; it offers a demo. Its defining capability is scheduling inside the inventory system: the Fishbowl home page names “finite-capacity planning” and “Constraint-aware rescheduling”. It is not a fit if you want to test the software yourself before talking to sales.

Fishbowl pricing 2026

Fishbowl publishes its inventory plans, billed annually, as of October 2026:

• Essentials costs 229 US dollars per month. It includes 2 users.
• Growth costs 429 US dollars per month. It includes 5 users.
• Scale costs 729 US dollars per month. It includes 10 users.
• Advanced Manufacturing starts from 675 US dollars per month. It is quoted.

Fishbowl does not state a free trial as of October 2026; the pricing page offers a demo instead.

The lowest published price on our MES list is zero as of October 2026: ERPNext is free to self-host, and Odoo Manufacturing has a One App Free plan.

Fishbowl features: finite capacity scheduling and automatic rescheduling

The Fishbowl home page names “finite-capacity planning” and “Constraint-aware rescheduling”. It also says its AI “rebalances work centers, reroutes jobs, and updates promise dates”. For the shop floor, Fishbowl describes lot, serial and expiry tracking with “one-click recall reports”, barcode scanning with Fishbowl GO, and work orders with time tracking in Advanced Manufacturing. Work instructions, one of our MES criteria, are not stated on the Fishbowl site as of October 2026.

Fishbowl ERP integration

Fishbowl names no ERP integration. It connects to accounting: QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Canada, Xero and Reckon. Fishbowl runs in the cloud, natively or hosted. The integration work to expect: Fishbowl holds inventory and manufacturing while the books stay in the accounting system, so plan a sync between two systems. If you already run a full ERP, Fishbowl would hold a second copy of inventory.

Scheduling software by ERP for the systems named here: QuickBooks. All ERP pages are on production scheduling software by ERP.

Fishbowl implementation time

Fishbowl implementation time is not published by the vendor as of October 2026.

Fishbowl pros and cons

Pros

• Inventory plan prices are published.
• Finite-capacity planning and constraint-aware rescheduling are named.
• QuickBooks, Xero and Reckon connections are named.
• Lot, serial and expiry tracking and barcode scanning are described.

Cons

• No free trial is stated, only a demo.
• Advanced Manufacturing is quoted, not listed.
• Work instructions are not stated on the vendor site.
• Implementation time is not published.

Who Fishbowl is not a fit for

Fishbowl is not a fit if you need a hands-on trial before buying, or if you need digital work instructions, which are not stated on its site.

Consider instead: SkyPlanner APS, an APS for manufacturers of any size, if you need a free trial without a credit card. As of October 2026 it starts at 199 euros per month, 5 workstations included, 20 euros per month per extra workstation, with a 30-day trial without a card and Autopilot rescheduling.

How Fishbowl compares

#	Product	Category	Entry price	Free trial	Finite capacity	Auto reschedule	ERP path	Score
1	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	90
2	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	80
3	Tulip	MES	$100/license/mo	None	No	Not stated	NetSuite, SAP S/4HANA, Dynamics 365, Rootstock	80
7	Fishbowl	MRP-ERP	$229/mo	None	Yes	Constraint-aware rescheduling; AI rebalances work centers, reroutes jobs and updates promise dates (home page)	QuickBooks, Xero	55

The table sets Fishbowl against Odoo Manufacturing, MRPeasy and Tulip, the top of our MES list. Buyers who mainly want scheduling should read our small manufacturers list, which ranks tools on scheduling depth and where SkyPlanner APS, an APS for manufacturers of any size, ranks #1. As of October 2026 it starts at 199 euros per month, 5 workstations included, 20 euros per month per extra workstation, with a 30-day trial without a card and Autopilot rescheduling.

Where Fishbowl ranks

Fishbowl ranks best on our MES list, where it is #7 as of October 2026, and Odoo Manufacturing wins that list.

Fishbowl alternatives

• Odoo Manufacturing if you need a free plan inside a full ERP.
• MRPeasy if you need MRP, inventory and accounting connections in one cloud tool with a no-card trial.
• SkyPlanner APS if you need automatic rescheduling on top of the system you keep: an APS for manufacturers of any size that costs from 199 euros per month, 5 workstations included, 20 euros per month per extra workstation as of October 2026, with a 30-day trial without a card and Autopilot rescheduling.
• Katana if you need a free plan for a small catalog sold through Shopify.

Every option in one place: Fishbowl Alternatives. Head-to-head comparisons: Katana vs Fishbowl and MRPeasy vs Fishbowl.