QAD ERP pricing and QAD Adaptive ERP cost per user, with the three year math for a 50 user plant

Nothing with a dollar sign. G2 says QAD has not provided pricing information, and Software Advice lists pricing as available on request. The quote comes from QAD's sales team after discovery, and what you can learn in advance is the shape of the contract rather than the number.

• The current product is QAD Adaptive ERP, a cloud subscription billed per named user per month, with module based tiers. VendorBenchmark reports that hosting, infrastructure, security patching and version updates are included
• The older QAD Enterprise Edition, on premise or hosted, is still supported, but new perpetual licenses are increasingly rare and new customers are steered to Adaptive ERP
• Users come in types. Full users cost the most, Limited users significantly less, and View Only users the least
• QAD has been owned by Thoma Bravo since November 2021, when the private equity firm completed a take private deal valued at about 2 billion USD
• In February 2023 QAD bought Redzone, a connected frontline workforce platform for manufacturers, which is sold and priced separately

ERP Research lists QAD's target customers as companies with 251 to 1,000, 1,001 to 5,000 and more than 5,000 employees, with automotive, life sciences and consumer goods as the strongest fits. That context explains most of the numbers below.

Every figure comes from a directory or a benchmarking firm. They do not measure the same thing, so read each one as a clue, not a rate card.

Why they disagree: the per user ranges describe a seat, while the annual and total figures describe a whole contract with Limited users, extra modules and support. ERP Research's own pages do not reconcile with each other, and VendorBenchmark notes the same gap: 50 users at 150 to 300 USD a month comes to 90,000 to 180,000 USD a year, well under its own 180,000 to 400,000 USD estimate for a 50 user manufacturer. Treat the per user rate as the floor and the deal profiles as the more honest guide.

Seven things decide the number. Have an answer to each before the first call.

• Named users and their types. Count everyone who logs in during a month, then sort them into Full, Limited and View Only. VendorBenchmark reports that a role analysis which moves people off Full seats lowers the subscription by 20 to 35 percent
• Modules. Tiers are module based, so quality, supply chain planning, EDI and the industry editions change the price. Life sciences deployments run 20 to 30 percent higher per user than comparable industrial ones
• The term and the escalator. Three years is the minimum. The standard escalator is 3 to 5 percent, and VendorBenchmark sees renewals without an explicit cap rise 6 to 12 percent. A five year commitment buys a further 5 to 8 percent discount
• When you sign. QAD's fiscal year ends in January, and VendorBenchmark reports 5 to 10 points of extra discount on deals signed then
• Competition. A competitive evaluation earns 10 to 15 points more discount than a sole source deal, so have a second ERP in the process even if you favor QAD
• The implementation partner. The project is billed separately and is usually the larger number in year one, with data migration alone at 100,000 to 300,000 USD
• Redzone and other add ons. Frontline worker apps are a separate subscription. If what you really wanted from Redzone is training and certifying shop floor staff, a corporate learning system is a far smaller purchase than another module

Your own people's time is the cost nobody quotes. A 6 to 15 month single site rollout takes planners, buyers and supervisors off their jobs for days at a time.

Take a 200 person automotive supplier where 50 people need full access. This is arithmetic on the published estimates, not a QAD quote.

Implementation is held at the bottom of VendorBenchmark's mid market range in every row. A 5 percent yearly escalator adds about 5 percent to each three year subscription total, so 270,000 USD becomes roughly 284,000 USD.

For the same plant, our Plant plan costs 2,574 USD a year paid yearly, which is 7,722 USD over three years, with all 200 people included and no implementation fee. Group covers up to five plants for 7,740 USD a year, or 23,220 USD over three years. That is not a like for like comparison. QAD runs the whole business and we only schedule, which the next section spells out.

QAD money buys a full ERP for a regulated, multi site manufacturer, and for that buyer the price can be fair. A 200 person plant that runs an older ERP well enough and keeps missing ship dates is pricing a whole new system to answer one question. If you are still deciding whether to buy an ERP at all, our manufacturing ERP alternative hub walks through that choice.

Write these down first. They are the questions that change the number.

• What is the price per user per month for Full, Limited and View Only users, in writing
• Is there a minimum user count, a minimum annual commitment or a platform fee
• Which modules are in the quoted tier, and is production scheduling in it or a separate line
• Is the term three years or five, what is the yearly escalator, and will you cap renewals at 3 percent or CPI
• Are true up users billed at our contracted rate or at list price
• Who runs the implementation, is it fixed price, and what does data migration cost on its own
• Is Redzone in the proposal, and can it be removed without changing the discount
• How long until planners publish a schedule the floor follows, not just a go live date

Put the answers next to the same questions asked of every other vendor. Our Infor SyteLine pricing, Epicor Kinetic pricing and Plex ERP pricing articles give you the same facts for the systems most often on a QAD shortlist.

QAD does not publish pricing. Third party estimates put Adaptive ERP at 150 to 300 USD per named user a month on a three year minimum term, with implementation of 200,000 to 600,000 USD at mid market scale. A plant with 50 full users should budget roughly 470,000 to 740,000 USD over three years, project included.

Estimates range from 90 to 300 USD per user a month. ERP Research lists a 90 USD starting price and a typical 150 to 300 USD range, Top10ERP about 250 USD with a 10 user minimum, and VendorBenchmark 150 to 300 USD negotiated. Limited and View Only users cost less than Full users, so the mix matters.

Yes. Adaptive ERP is a cloud subscription billed per named user per month, with hosting, patching and updates included, on a three year minimum term. The older QAD Enterprise Edition is still supported on premise or hosted, but new perpetual licenses are increasingly rare and new customers are steered to Adaptive ERP.

ERP Research gives 5 to 10 months in its pricing breakdown and 6 to 15 months for a single site manufacturing rollout in its FAQ. Multi site deployments run 18 to 36 months. A scheduler that imports a spreadsheet publishes its first finite schedule the same afternoon, which is useful while the ERP decision is still open.

Usually, yes. ERP Research lists QAD's target customers as companies with more than 250 employees and calls it potentially over engineered for small businesses. A 30 person plant paying 150 USD or more per user, a three year term and a six figure rollout is buying far more system than it needs, especially if the schedule is the real problem.

For a whole ERP, mid market plants usually compare QAD with Epicor Kinetic, Infor CloudSuite Industrial, Plex, IFS and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and our IFS pricing article does the same arithmetic for IFS Cloud. For a plant that needs finite capacity and a late order list without an ERP project, ProductionPlanning.ai costs 149 USD per plant a month on Line or 429 USD on Plant, with unlimited users. Our best production scheduling software roundup compares the scheduling tools with real prices.