CAI PlanetTogether alternatives: 10 production planning tools compared
Planners look beyond CAI PlanetTogether when quotes add a line for each planner and connector, when the 2026 change of ownership raises roadmap questions, or when a separate scheduling layer feels heavy for the plant. Alternatives range from a free community planner to lighter boards, ERP-bound modules and simulation engines.
Short answer: Looking for a replacement for CAI PlanetTogether? TACTIC, frepple and Just Plan It come first in our production planning ranking. We open the ranking with smaller vendors and put the established brands from fourth place onward. Start with TACTIC if you want the same ERP-companion idea from a small single-product vendor. Below are 10 alternatives, each taken from the Best Production Planning Software in 2026 ranking, with its main difference from CAI PlanetTogether.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Built for: A mid-market plant adding finite scheduling to an ERP it keeps
Not for: Buyers who want a published price and a self-serve trial
01
Why buyers look past CAI PlanetTogether
01
The quote builds up in parts
Our category record describes pricing as quoted per planner and per connector, with the connector often a separate line. The pages we read on planettogether.com carry no price list. A plant with several ERPs or a shop-floor system to link should ask for every connector to be itemised before comparing totals.
02
A new owner and a new pairing
CAI Software acquired the product in 2026 and now presents it as CAI PlanetTogether beside CAI Parsable, its connected worker platform. The home page describes planners building the schedule and the frontline executing it. Customers who use another execution system should ask how the roadmap treats that combination.
03
The scheduler lives next to the ERP
PlanetTogether states that it complements ERP and does not replace it. Master data arrives from the ERP or Excel through APIs, database links, flat files or middleware, and the schedule goes back the same way. That suits a plant keeping its ERP, but each interface is a piece to build and test.
campaigns, cleaning steps and qualifications dominate your schedule
#18
03
What each one does differently
1
TACTIC
United States · On request
Waterloo Manufacturing Software makes one product, TACTIC, a finite-capacity scheduler that reads orders from the ERP or runs by itself. It sequences work against machines, staff and available material and shows what an expedited job does to the rest. The vendor is small, quotes are per organisation, and it installs on your own server or PCs.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if you want the same ERP-companion idea from a small single-product vendor.
frepple, from Belgium, offers a free open source community edition and cloud and self-hosted enterprise editions priced through an online calculator based on item and location pairs. A one to two week proof of concept is listed at 2,000 to 5,000 euros. The Gantt chart and changeover optimisation sit in the paid editions.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if you want to test a planner openly before any negotiation.
Just Plan It is a cloud scheduling board from Boyum IT Solutions for small make-to-order shops. Jobs come in from Excel or the ERP, and the engine schedules them by priority against finite machine and staff capacity. Pricing is by package plus a one-time onboarding fee. It does no material planning, and beyond roughly fifty resources the board gets crowded.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if the schedule lives on a whiteboard and you want something light.
GANTTPLAN from DUALIS in Dresden takes orders from the ERP, schedules them against machines, tools, staff and material with optimisation runs, and writes the sequence back. DUALIS sits inside the Duerr group via iTAC Software. Injection moulding and other setup-heavy work is where references appear. Material is German-first, a web-client trial exists and pricing is quoted.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if you need a German optimiser with setup-heavy shop references.
Proficy Scheduler, formerly ROB-EX, makes the Gantt the product, so experienced planners become productive quickly. The Danish vendor now belongs to GE Vernova. An Advanced Scheduling module orders jobs to reduce changeovers and a materials module projects stock. Per named user licences are quoted, and outside Denmark support runs through resellers such as Novotek and Symasol.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if your planners think in a Gantt and you value Nordic support.
Synchrono schedules around the constraint, the bottleneck resource, and links that schedule to live floor status, alerts and demand-driven replenishment of materials. It rewards plants that already work in lean or demand-driven ways, because the method has to be adopted with the software. Quotes are per organisation and the vendor is American.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if bottleneck management is how your plant already thinks.
Asprova reschedules very large order books in seconds, which is why automotive and electronics plants with tens of thousands of operations use it. Licences are perpetual per seat with annual maintenance. Configuration goes through a dense property model, so budget for training. In Europe it is sold through Asprova GmbH.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if the order book is huge and speed of rescheduling decides.
Simio schedules by simulating the plant, so the model that tests a new line also generates the sequence and the risk of slipping. That helps where variability is the main problem. Someone must build and maintain the simulation model, which is a specialist task. Licences are per seat by edition, and Aegis completed its purchase in 2026.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if variability, not sequencing rules, is what breaks your plans.
Siemens Opcenter APS carries the Preactor engine, once the default mid-market scheduler. Editions follow capability and are sold through partners, with a trial of Opcenter Scheduling Standard offered. Standalone buyers find support routed through partners, and the entry edition is thinner than Preactor was. It fits sites already in the Siemens stack.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if you already run Siemens software and want a partner-led rollout.
DELMIA Ortems handles awkward constraints that generic schedulers skip, such as shared tanks, cleaning between campaigns and operator qualifications. That suits food, chemicals and pharma. Licences are quoted through Dassault Systemes, with a partner and an upgrade path tied to its catalogue. A French vendor inside a large group, it is a long evaluation.
Switch from CAI PlanetTogether if campaigns, cleaning steps and qualifications dominate your schedule.
You want to try a planner without a sales negotiation
frepple: A free open source community edition produces finite-capacity and finite-material plans, with paid editions adding the Gantt.
02
Your schedule still lives on a whiteboard in a small shop
Just Plan It: Jobs import from Excel or the ERP and schedule automatically against finite machine and staff capacity.
03
You need a German optimiser beside the ERP
GANTTPLAN: DUALIS in Dresden writes optimised sequences back to the ERP, and a web-client trial is offered.
04
Your planners prefer to work directly on a Gantt
Proficy Scheduler (ROB-EX): The Gantt is the product, with resellers such as Novotek and Symasol supporting it outside Denmark.
05
You manage the plant around its bottleneck
Synchrono: It schedules against the constraint and ties the plan to live floor status and demand-driven replenishment.
04
When CAI PlanetTogether is still the right choice
CAI PlanetTogether remains the right choice when the ERP stays and the plant needs a real scheduling engine beside it. Its pages list connectors for SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, NetSuite, Infor, Epicor and QAD, a five-step path from master data to a published schedule, and more than twenty years of use. For sequence-dependent setups it is a mature option, and replacing it rarely repays the migration.
05
What moving off CAI PlanetTogether involves
01
Rebuild the constraint model, not just the data
Resources, calendars, setup matrices and optimisation weights are defined inside PlanetTogether. Export them into a table before you leave, and ask the new vendor how those rules are expressed. Plants that skip this step often find that the schedule differs from the old one for reasons nobody can explain.
02
Run both schedules side by side for a cycle
Keep the existing connector feeding PlanetTogether while the new planner reads the same ERP data for a full planning cycle. Compare the sequences, due dates and changeover totals, and then retire the old link. Confirm how completions and downtime will return from the shop floor under the new setup.
06
Questions about replacing CAI PlanetTogether
6 answers
How is CAI PlanetTogether priced?
Our category record lists pricing as quoted per planner and per connector. The planettogether.com pages we read did not publish a price list, so any figure comes from a sales quote. Ask for connectors, scenarios and support to be shown as separate lines.
Does PlanetTogether replace the ERP?
No. The vendor states that it complements ERP, which stays the system of record for orders, inventory, purchasing and finance.
The planner takes data from the ERP or Excel and sends back schedules, start and finish dates and resource assignments. Alternatives such as MRPeasy or Fulcrum replace the ERP instead.
Which alternative is free to start?
frepple offers a free open source community edition that produces finite-capacity and finite-material plans, and a free 15-day cloud trial is advertised. The interactive Gantt, changeover optimisation and due-date quoting sit in the paid editions, and modelling the plant is a project.
What changed with CAI Software owning it?
CAI Software bought the product in 2026 and the site now shows CAI PlanetTogether next to CAI Parsable, a connected worker platform.
The pairing feeds results from the floor back into the next plan. If you use another execution system, ask what support for it looks like.
Which alternatives are tied to one ERP or supplier?
ORSOFT works on SAP data, SAP PP/DS lives in S/4HANA, and Siemens Opcenter APS and DELMIA Ortems belong to larger software families.
In this list, Siemens and DELMIA are the larger groups, so independent vendors such as TACTIC, frepple and GANTTPLAN are the more neutral options.
Can a small plant use these tools?
Yes. Just Plan It targets small make-to-order shops, and frepple can start on the community edition. Heavier engines such as Asprova, Simio and DELMIA Ortems need configuration effort that rarely pays back under a handful of lines.
—
Sources
Checked 10 November 2026
CAI PlanetTogether home: CAI Software ownership with CAI Parsable, five-step schedule path, 20 years of use, ERP or Excel master data.
PlanetTogether integrations: Complements ERP, connection methods, ERP examples SAP, Dynamics, Oracle, NetSuite, Infor, Epicor and QAD; no price list on the page.
frepple pricing: Price calculator by item and location pairs, proof of concept 2,000 to 5,000 euros, cloud and enterprise editions.
frepple home: Community edition open source and free, 15-day trial, REST API, CSV, Excel and database integration.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Sebastiaan Smits wrote and checked this page, most recently on 11 November 2026. See how we review.
