Ekos is the broadest-installed craft brewery, cidery, and distillery management platform in North America, covering production, inventory, sales orders, TTB reporting, and accounting in one surface. Next Glass acquired Ekos in October 2025 and froze pricing for existing customers for two years; new and renewing customers quote in the $200 to $300 per brewery monthly range for the entry tier with the upgrade tier roughly 70 percent above that. The cost flips when an operator wants transparent published pricing instead of custom quotes, when a nano or small-volume brewery is paying enterprise-shaped fees for shelfware modules, when a taproom-led brewery wants service ops first and production tracking second, or when an enterprise multi-location craft brewery needs deep ERP plus accounting rails that Ekos handles only at the Plus tier.
Where alternatives win
Ollie sits in the same Next Glass family as Ekos and publishes flat per-brewery rates with a 3-year price lock, the clearest exit for operators hitting renewal sticker shock who want predictable pricing on a comparable production-and-sales surface.
Beer30 by The 5th Ingredient publishes Essentials, plus-Sales, and plus-Finance bundles with starting rates well below Ekos's mid-quote, and ships a Beer30 Lite tier from roughly thirty dollars monthly for nano and one-tank breweries that Ekos over-prices.
Arryved is the brewery-built taproom POS and brewhouse ops platform funded primarily through payment processing, the obvious pick for taproom-led breweries where service ops and customer payments outweigh production module depth.
Orchestrated Beer (now under Encompass after the Orchestra Software acquisition) is built on SAP Business One and runs deeper on enterprise multi-location ERP plus financial consolidation than the Ekos Plus tier ever reaches.
By Subrupt EditorialPublished Reviewed
Craft brewery, cidery, and distillery operators reach for Ekos because it puts production, inventory, sales orders, TTB reporting, and accounting on one screen, with the broadest installed base in North American craft beverage software. The day-to-day reality is a brewer logging fermentation steps in the morning, an ops manager pulling a TTB report in the afternoon, and a controller reconciling against QuickBooks at month-end, all out of the same platform.
Next Glass acquired Ekos in October 2025 and announced a two-year price freeze for existing customers, which buys current operators predictability through 2027 but leaves new and renewing customers facing quote-based pricing in the $200 to $300 per brewery monthly range. Ollie sits inside the same Next Glass family and publishes its rates with a three-year lock. Beer30 by The 5th Ingredient publishes Essentials, plus-Sales, and full-stack bundles plus a Lite tier for nano breweries. Arryved is built around taproom POS and brewhouse ops with payment-processing-funded pricing rather than a fat platform fee. Orchestrated Beer, now under the Encompass umbrella, runs on SAP Business One for enterprise multi-location work.
On cost, the spread is real. Beer30 Lite for a one-tank nano runs roughly an order of magnitude less than the Ekos mid-quote. Ollie Ops and Beer30 Essentials match the Ekos entry tier within a few percentage points but publish their numbers. Arryved transfers the platform cost into payment processing, which inverts the math for taproom-led breweries that already process card payments anyway. Orchestrated Beer runs roughly two to three times the Ekos entry rate but adds SAP-grade financial consolidation that Ekos Plus does not match.
Quick map by brewery shape. Hitting renewal sticker shock and want published rates: Ollie. Production, recipe, and lab depth led by a head brewer: Beer30. Taproom is the revenue center and production is secondary: Arryved. Enterprise multi-location ERP plus financial consolidation: Orchestrated Beer under Encompass. Already deep in Ekos and renewed under the freeze: stay with Ekos, revisit in 2027.
Affiliate disclosure: Subrupt earns a commission when you switch to a service through our recommendation links. This never changes the price you pay. We only recommend services where there's a real cost or feature advantage for you, and our picks are based on the data on this page, not on which programs pay the most.
Quick pick by use case
If you only have thirty seconds, find your situation below and skip to that pick.
Detailed brewer logs, lab QC workflows, and recipe versioning tuned for production-led head brewers; Beer30 Lite covers nano breweries at a fraction of the Ekos quote.
Brewery-built mobile POS with tabs, hybrid service, and integrated payments; the platform fee gets folded into card processing rather than a separate seat license.
SAP Business One foundation under the Encompass roof, with multi-location financial consolidation that Ekos Plus does not reach.
Skip these picks if: If you renewed Ekos after the October 2025 Next Glass freeze and your team is fluent in the Ekos surface, the freeze locks your cost through 2027 and the migration disruption is hard to justify. Revisit when the freeze expires or when a new requirement (taproom POS, SAP consolidation, multi-location) genuinely outstrips the current setup.
At a glance: Ekos alternatives
Quick comparison across pricing floor, best fit, and switching effort. Tap a row to jump to the full pick.
Annual platform cost in USD at each brewery size, using published entry-tier rates where available and mid-quote estimates where pricing is custom. Arryved's platform fee is light because revenue comes primarily from payment processing; the figure shown is a conservative platform-fee approximation, not the all-in card-processing cost. Orchestrated Beer is enterprise-quoted; mid-market and enterprise figures are typical-quote approximations.
Ollie sits inside Next Glass alongside Ekos, which means it shares parent-company guarantees but resolves the single biggest operator complaint against Ekos: opaque renewal pricing. Ollie Ops at $201 per brewery monthly covers production, realtime inventory, lot codes, raw-material forecasting, and TTB reporting on a three-year price lock; Ollie Standard at $366 layers on sales, marketing, dashboard metrics, self-distribution tools, and a prepopulated retailer database, also locked.
The trade: Ollie's surface is intentionally narrower than the full Ekos stack. Operators who lean on Ekos-specific QuickBooks integration depth or multi-location custom workflows will find Ollie pares those back, and the customer base is smaller so peer-template content is thinner.
The upside: the renewal conversation disappears. Operators tell vendor case-page interviewers (Good City Brewing, March 2025) that the year-over-year subscription line drops by several thousand dollars after the switch and the contract math becomes legible. For mid-volume craft breweries outside the Ekos freeze window, that legibility is the whole pitch.
“We instigated this because we had to re-apply with Ekos and have a full subscription fee, and there was sticker shock. I know we're saving several thousands of dollars across a year's subscription with Ollie.”
Strengths
+Published rates on a 3-year price lock
+Same Next Glass parent as Ekos
+Unlimited users at every tier
+Ops tier ships TTB plus lot codes plus forecasting
Trade-offs
−Narrower surface than full Ekos stack
−Smaller installed base and peer-template depth
−QuickBooks integration shallower than Ekos at the Plus tier
Ops
$201/brewery/mo (3-yr price lock)
Standard
$366/brewery/mo with sales and marketing
Heritage
Next Glass-owned (same parent as Ekos)
Pricing verified
2026-05-11
Migration steps
Book a demo at getollie.com and ask the sales rep to compare your Ekos quote against the Ops and Standard published rates side by side.
Export your Ekos production batches, recipe library, and TTB reporting history; Ollie's onboarding team will map them into the equivalent fields.
Run Ollie in parallel with Ekos for one production cycle, with brewers logging both for that cycle to verify nothing material is missing.
Move sales orders and inventory to Ollie at month-end so the cutover lines up with your accounting close.
Cancel Ekos once Ollie covers one full month of production, inventory, sales, and TTB reporting with no fallback edits.
Not for: Pass on Ollie if your Ekos setup leans hard on Plus-tier multi-location custom workflows or a deep QuickBooks integration with bespoke finance mappings; the Ollie surface is narrower by design.
Beer30 by The 5th Ingredient publishes its three core bundles: Essentials at $118 per brewery monthly (cloud, unlimited users, live brew alerts), Essentials-plus-Sales at $194 (outside sales, live inventory, delivery planning), and the full stack at $313 (cost of goods, accounting sync, raw material inventory). Beer30 Lite, introduced in April 2026, starts around thirty dollars monthly and is engineered specifically for nano and one-tank breweries that the Ekos quote over-prices.
The trade: Beer30's center of gravity is the production floor, which means accounting integration is thinner than Ekos's QuickBooks rails at the Plus tier and the platform leans on the brewer rather than the controller. The customer base is smaller outside production-led shops.
The upside: brewers move faster. Recipe versioning, batch splitting, lab tracking (cell counts, dissolved oxygen, gravity), and brewer logs are first-class primitives, not tabs hidden two levels deep. Vendor case studies on the5thingredient.com (Kona Brewing, Market Garden, Central Waters) all describe a switch driven by production workflow fit, not pricing alone.
+Recipe, lab, and brewer logs as first-class primitives
+Strong production-led customer references
Trade-offs
−Accounting and finance integration thinner than Ekos Plus
−Production-floor center of gravity, lighter on sales-team surface
−Smaller installed base outside production-led brewers
Essentials
$118/brewery/mo (cloud + unlimited users)
Plus-Sales
$194/brewery/mo with delivery planning
Full stack
$313/brewery/mo with COGS and accounting sync
Lite
From ~$30/brewery/mo (nano breweries)
Pricing verified
2026-05-11
Migration steps
Schedule a demo at the5thingredient.com and ask for the Essentials-vs-plus-Sales-vs-full-stack feature matrix on your production volume.
If you are a nano brewery, ask specifically about Beer30 Lite and what the upgrade path looks like as you scale past one tank.
Export Ekos recipes, production batches, and lab history; the Beer30 onboarding team imports them into the brewer-logs structure.
Train head brewer and any lab staff on Beer30 first, then layer in sales and accounting users once production is stable.
Cancel Ekos after Beer30 carries one full production-and-sales cycle including end-of-month accounting sync.
Not for: Pass on Beer30 if your value driver is Ekos's controller-facing accounting depth or you run sales-heavy without a brewer-led production rhythm; the Beer30 surface is production-first.
Arryved is the brewery-built mobile POS and brewhouse ops platform, with mobile tabs, hybrid service workflows, integrated payment processing, and an online storefront that hosts free. The platform fee is light because the company makes its money on payment processing volume, which inverts the economics for any brewery that already takes cards in the taproom.
The trade: Arryved's production module depth is shallower than Ekos, Ollie, or Beer30. A brewery whose primary need is recipe versioning, lab QC, or multi-location production planning will find the surface thinner than the production-first platforms.
The upside: for the taproom-led brewery (taproom revenue equal to or larger than wholesale), Arryved consolidates POS, payments, online storefront, and operational reporting in one place, with payment processing pricing that the brewery is already going to pay regardless of platform. The math typically lands well under an Ekos plus separate-POS stack.
Strengths
+Brewery-built mobile POS plus brewhouse ops
+Platform fee folds into payment processing
+Online storefront hosting included
+Mobile tabs and hybrid service workflows native
Trade-offs
−Production module shallower than production-first platforms
−Pricing requires demo to nail down precisely
−Best fit when taproom revenue at least matches wholesale
Pricing model
Payment-processing-funded, light platform fee
Service tier
Mobile POS + tabs + storefront + payments
Insider tier
Adds analytics + multi-location + brewhouse ops
Audience
Taproom-led craft breweries
Pricing verified
2026-05-11
Migration steps
Book a demo at arryved.com and ask the sales rep to model your card processing volume against the platform fee for a true total-of-ownership comparison.
Map the Ekos sales orders and taproom transactions onto Arryved tabs, menu items, and event workflows.
Pilot Arryved in one taproom location for two weekends with staff trained on the mobile POS before cutting over.
Move online storefront and customer payment history to Arryved once the in-taproom flow is steady.
Cancel Ekos for the taproom and POS surface; keep a lightweight production tracker (spreadsheet or Beer30 Lite) on the brewing side if Arryved's production module does not cover your needs.
Not for: Pass on Arryved if your wholesale and distribution side dominates and the taproom is a side channel; the production module depth is not where Arryved invests.
Orchestrated Beer was built by Orchestra Software on the SAP Business One platform and now sits under the Encompass roof after the acquisition. The product runs deeper on enterprise ERP than any standalone brewery platform: financial consolidation across multiple locations, planning and forecasting modules, purchase orders, sales orders, lab data, and accounting automation all native to SAP B1.
The trade: entry cost is well above Ekos, the implementation is a months-long enterprise project rather than a weekend cutover, and the surface is dense for a small craft brewery that just wants production tracking and TTB reporting.
The upside: for a regional craft brewery running multiple locations, dealing with multi-state distribution, or already running parts of the business on SAP, Orchestrated Beer consolidates financials at a depth that Ekos Plus does not reach. The Encompass parent also runs the Distribution Cloud product, so vertical integration across production and distribution is a real lever.
Strengths
+Built on SAP Business One enterprise ERP
+Multi-location financial consolidation native
+Encompass parent ships matching Distribution Cloud
+Deep planning, forecasting, and accounting modules
Trade-offs
−Roughly 2-3x the Ekos entry cost
−Months-long enterprise implementation
−Heavy surface for small craft breweries
Pricing
Custom (enterprise quote)
Foundation
SAP Business One
Parent
Encompass (acquired Orchestra Software)
Audience
Enterprise multi-location craft and regional
Pricing verified
2026-05-11
Migration steps
Schedule an Encompass demo via encompasstech.com and ask specifically for the Orchestra Software and Production Cloud roadmap under the new parent.
Plan a 6-12 month implementation; pilot Orchestrated Beer at one location with the SAP Business One team before consolidating financials.
Migrate Ekos production, accounting, inventory, sales, and CRM history with SAP B1 mappers; expect chart-of-accounts work, not a one-click import.
Run finance close on Orchestrated Beer for one quarter while keeping Ekos in read-only mode for reference.
Cancel Ekos once enterprise financial consolidation runs cleanly across all locations on Orchestrated Beer.
Not for: Pass on Orchestrated Beer if you run a single-location craft brewery with no immediate multi-location plans; the SAP B1 foundation is heavier than your finance team will use.
Paid plans from $595.00/mo
When to stay with Ekos
Stay with Ekos if your craft brewery, cidery, or distillery production, inventory, sales, and accounting flow are already tuned to its surface, you renewed under the Next Glass two-year price freeze announced after the October 2025 acquisition, or your QuickBooks plus TTB workflow runs cleanly today. The picks below are honest exits for operators who hit sticker shock at renewal, want transparent published pricing, or run a taproom-led model that the production-first Ekos surface under-serves.
We audited every prior pick before authoring. BrewLogix did not resolve to a live domain and was not present in any G2, Capterra, or Software Advice brewery-management listing; it is a fabricated entry from a prior generation and was dropped. Crafter as a Microsoft-Dynamics-based brewery ERP under Encompass also did not exist; Encompass Technologies sells Production Cloud (the former Orchestra Software stack, SAP Business One based, not Microsoft Dynamics) and Distribution Cloud, so Crafter was dropped as well.
Replacements are real vendors with verifiable current pricing or transparent pricing models: Ollie (Next Glass family, published rates on a three-year lock), Beer30 by The 5th Ingredient (published Essentials, plus-Sales, full-stack bundles plus a Lite tier), Arryved (brewery-built POS plus brewhouse ops, payment-processing-funded), and Orchestrated Beer (now under Encompass, SAP B1 foundation, enterprise quote). Pricing was pulled from each vendor's site on 2026-05-11 and the Next Glass acquisition context (October 2025 Ekos acquisition, two-year price freeze for existing customers) is reflected in the verdict and intro.
Update history2 updates
Initial published version with 4 picks.
Rewritten to Stage 2 schema. Audited prior picks: BrewLogix (NXDOMAIN, not a real vendor) and Crafter Encompass-Dynamics (not a real product; Encompass is the former Orchestra Software parent and sells Production Cloud, not a Microsoft-Dynamics ERP) were dropped. New picks: Ollie (Next Glass family sister to Ekos, transparent $201 Ops and $366 Standard per month, 3-year price lock), Beer30 by 5th Ingredient (published Essentials $118, Essentials+Sales $194, full stack $313 per month; Beer30 Lite $30 per month for nano breweries), Arryved (taproom POS plus brewhouse ops, payment-processing-funded pricing), Orchestrated Beer now under Encompass (SAP Business One enterprise multi-location stack). Adds structured verdict with deep-links, Quick Verdict (4 picks plus skipIf), Feature Matrix (8 dimensions), Usage Cost Table (3 brewery sizes), sourced testimonial for Ollie (Dane Mariani, Good City Brewing, attributed on getollie.com case page), per-pick author ratings. Adds note that Next Glass acquired Ekos in October 2025 and now owns both Ekos and Ollie.
Frequently asked questions about Ekos alternatives
What is Ekos pricing now that Next Glass owns it?
Ekos uses custom quote-based pricing, typically landing in the $200 to $300 per brewery monthly range for the entry tier and roughly 70 percent above that for the upgrade tier. Next Glass froze pricing for existing Ekos customers in October 2025 for two years, so renewals through 2027 are protected; new customers and post-freeze renewals are subject to standard quoting.
Is there a free brewery management tool?
There is no permanent free tier in this category. The closest budget entry is Beer30 Lite from The 5th Ingredient, introduced in April 2026, which starts around thirty dollars monthly and is engineered specifically for nano and one-tank breweries. Trials of two to four weeks are common across Ekos, Ollie, Beer30, Arryved, and Orchestrated Beer.
Which alternative is the cleanest if I just hit Ekos renewal sticker shock?
Ollie is the cleanest swap because it sits in the same Next Glass parent and publishes per-brewery rates on a three-year price lock. Operators report saving several thousand dollars annually after the switch, with the trade-off being a slightly narrower platform surface than the full Ekos stack.
What about Beer30 versus Ekos for a production-led brewery?
Beer30 by The 5th Ingredient publishes Essentials at $118 per brewery monthly, plus-Sales at $194, and the full stack at $313, with deeper brewer logs and lab QC than Ekos at comparable price points. Beer30 Lite from around thirty dollars covers nano breweries that Ekos over-prices. The trade-off is shallower accounting integration than Ekos Plus.
When is Orchestrated Beer (now Encompass) worth the higher entry cost?
Orchestrated Beer under Encompass runs roughly two to three times the Ekos entry rate, with the value showing up only when a brewery runs multiple locations, deals with multi-state distribution, or already runs parts of the business on SAP Business One. A single-location craft brewery will under-use the surface.
Ready to switch?
Our top Ekos alternative: Ollie
Ollie sits in the same Next Glass family as Ekos and publishes flat per-brewery rates with a 3-year price lock, the clearest exit for operators hitting renewal sticker shock who want predictable pricing on a comparable production-and-sales surface.
The team behind subrupt.com. We track subscriptions, surface cheaper alternatives, and publish comparisons where the score formula is on the page so you can recompute it yourself. We do not claim 30,000 hours of testing. What we claim is live pricing from our database, a transparent composite score, and honest savings math against a category baseline.
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