JobBOSS alternative for job shops: JobBOSS2 ERP compared with per plant scheduling software
ProductionPlanning.ai is a JobBOSS alternative for machine shops and job shops whose real problem is the schedule, not the paperwork. JobBOSS2 from ECI is a full shop management ERP sold per user, in Silver, Gold and Platinum packages, with no prices published and a quote for every shop. We do one job: load every work center against its real shifts and tell you which orders are going to be late. One flat price per plant, from 149 USD a month, with unlimited users. The comparison below is honest, including where JobBOSS2 is the better buy.
Why shops look for a JobBOSS alternative
JobBOSS2 has a long history behind it. ECI merged the original JobBOSS with the E2 Shop System in 2021, so the installed base is thousands of US job shops and the feature list covers quoting, job costing, purchasing, inventory, time keeping and quality. Most shops that go looking for an alternative are not disputing any of that. They hit one of these instead.
- Scheduling is a package decision, not a given. On the Silver and Gold packages you pick either Scheduling or Quality Management; you get both only on Platinum
- The licence is per user, so putting the schedule on a screen at the machine costs a seat for every person who looks at it
- There is no published price, so every comparison starts with a discovery call and a quote
- Replacing quoting, costing and accounting is a project, and the shop that is already shipping late does not have a spare quarter for it
- Shops that already run QuickBooks and a quoting process want the schedule fixed, not their whole back office rebuilt
If two or more of those sound familiar, the question is not which shop management ERP to buy. It is whether you need to replace the system you have, or put a real finite capacity schedule next to it.
What is in each JobBOSS2 package
ECI sells JobBOSS2 in three packages. This is what its own pricing page lists.
| Included | Silver | Gold | Platinum |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERP and shop management, cloud based | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Quoting, orders, jobs and work orders | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Inventory, purchasing and receiving | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customer and vendor management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Time keeping, dashboards, reporting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Document repository and attachments | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| QuickBooks integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Support, updates, training and tutorials | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Report Designer | No | Yes | Yes |
| Accounting: AR, AP and GL | No | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduling | One or the other | One or the other | Yes |
| Quality Management | One or the other | One or the other | Yes |
The row that decides this for a plant manager is the last but one. On Silver and Gold you choose Scheduling or Quality Management, not both. A shop that runs to AS9100 or ISO 9001 and also needs a machine schedule is therefore on Platinum by definition. ECI also states that every package has a minimum of one user and is licensed per user, so the number of people who need to see the plan is a pricing question.
JobBOSS2 vs ProductionPlanning.ai, side by side
| What matters | ProductionPlanning.ai | JobBOSS2 (ECI) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat per plant, unlimited users | Per user, minimum one seat |
| Published price | Yes, on the pricing page | No, quote only |
| Entry price | 149 USD per plant per month | Not published |
| Finite capacity scheduling | The whole product, on every plan | Included on Platinum, an either or choice on Silver and Gold |
| Quoting and estimating | No | Yes, with estimated against actual job costing |
| Job costing and labor tracking | No | Yes |
| Inventory and purchasing | Material shortages per order and date | Full inventory, purchasing and receiving |
| Accounting: AR, AP, GL | No, export to your system | Gold and Platinum |
| Quality, calibration and corrective actions | No | Yes, on Platinum or as the Silver and Gold choice |
| QuickBooks integration | Export the schedule, keep your books where they are | Native QuickBooks integration |
| Operators viewing the schedule | Included, no seat count | A licensed user each |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud, private hosted cloud or on premise |
| Implementation | None, import a spreadsheet and run | Structured onboarding, quoted separately |
| Time to a first real schedule | Usually the same afternoon | Weeks, as part of an ERP rollout |
| Best for | Shops that ship late and need the machine plan fixed | Shops replacing quoting, costing and shop paperwork in one system |
JobBOSS2 figures come from ECI's own product and pricing pages at the time of writing. ECI publishes no dollar amounts, so the price rows above say so rather than guessing. If you want the arithmetic behind the estimates that circulate online, we worked through them in JobBOSS pricing.
What a per seat licence costs a shop that wants everyone on the schedule
This is the part that surprises people, and it has nothing to do with whether JobBOSS2 is good software. A per user licence prices access. A schedule is only useful when the people who execute it can see it: the planner, the shop supervisor, the second shift lead, the buyer chasing material, the person quoting delivery dates on the phone. In a 25 person shop that is easily six to ten people, and on a per seat model each one is a line on the invoice every month.
Our price does not move with headcount. Line is 149 USD per plant per month and Plant is 429 USD, and on both of them the whole shop can log in.
| Who needs to see the plan | JobBOSS2 | ProductionPlanning.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Planner | A licensed seat | Included |
| Shop supervisor and shift leads | A licensed seat each | Included |
| Operators at the machine | A licensed seat each | Included on Plant |
| Buyer chasing shortages | A licensed seat | Included |
| Owner checking the week | A licensed seat | Included |
| Monthly total | Quote, per seat | 149 USD on Line, 429 USD on Plant |
The honest caveat: those seats are not buying schedule access alone. In JobBOSS2 they also buy quoting, job costing, time keeping and inventory for the same person. If your shop genuinely runs all of that in one system, the seat is doing more work than a schedule seat and the comparison is not really about price. See what our plans include on the pricing page.
Where JobBOSS2 is the better choice
We would rather you buy the right system than the wrong one from us. Pick JobBOSS2 if any of these is true.
- You are replacing a shop management system end to end, not adding a schedule to one
- Quoting speed and quote accuracy are the thing costing you money, and you want estimated against actual job cost per job
- You need labor and machine time collected against jobs for costing, not only for scheduling
- Quality records, calibration and corrective actions have to live in the same system as production
- You want accounting, AR, AP and GL inside the ERP rather than in QuickBooks
- You need an on premise or privately hosted deployment for policy reasons
- You are a legacy E2 Shop System or original JobBOSS customer and the migration path is already funded
ECI does not publish pricing, so ask for the quote at your current seat count and at the headcount you expect in two years, and ask specifically which package includes Scheduling. Their sales line is 1-800-959-3367.
Where we win
- Finite capacity on every work center and shift, including planned downtime, on every plan
- Setup times per product family, with similar jobs grouped so changeovers stop eating the week
- The week's bottleneck named, with the orders it will make late and by how many days
- Sequencing rules you can compare before you publish: earliest due date, shortest operation first, customer priority
- One flat price per plant, published, with unlimited users and no seat count
- Live the same afternoon from a spreadsheet import, with no implementation project
- Runs next to the ERP, quoting tool or QuickBooks setup you already have rather than replacing it
Shops that already keep jobs, quotes and costs in a system and still build next week on a whiteboard are the clearest case. See how the load view works on capacity planning software, how changeovers are handled on machine scheduling software, and the shop floor view on job shop scheduling software.
How to put a real schedule next to JobBOSS2, or move off it
1. Export jobs, operations and due dates
JobBOSS2 reports export to spreadsheets. Pull open jobs with quantities, due dates and the operation steps with their setup and run times. The operation list is the part a scheduler needs and the part a whiteboard never has.
2. Enter work centers and shifts
Add a work center per machine or cell, the shifts each one runs, and the holidays and maintenance windows. This is what makes capacity finite instead of an assumption, and it usually takes about an hour for a 20 machine shop.
3. Run the schedule and read the bottleneck
The first run gives a projected finish date for every open job and names the work center that is limiting the week. Most shops find the answer is not the machine they assumed.
4. Decide what stays where
Plenty of shops keep quoting, costing and purchasing exactly where they are and move only the schedule. That is a supported setup rather than a halfway house: the finished plan exports so promise dates stay consistent in both systems.
Questions people ask before switching from JobBOSS
What is the best alternative to JobBOSS?
It depends what you use it for. If you need a full shop management ERP, the like for like shortlist is ProShop, Fulcrum, Global Shop Solutions and Infor CloudSuite Industrial. If what you actually need is a finite capacity schedule next to the system you already run, a dedicated scheduler such as ProductionPlanning.ai fits better and starts at 149 USD per plant with unlimited users.
How much does JobBOSS cost?
ECI does not publish JobBOSS2 pricing. It is licensed per user with a minimum of one seat, across Silver, Gold and Platinum packages, and every shop gets a custom quote. Review sites publish estimates from roughly 45 to 200 USD per user per month and they disagree with each other, which is why we walk through the real cost drivers in JobBOSS pricing.
Does JobBOSS2 do production scheduling?
Yes, and ECI markets finite capacity planning, a drag and drop calendar, load balancing and bottleneck alerts. The catch is packaging: Scheduling is one of two options on Silver and Gold, so a shop that also needs Quality Management has to be on Platinum to get both.
Is JobBOSS2 the same as E2 Shop System?
Effectively yes. ECI acquired Shoptech, the maker of E2, in late 2020 and launched JobBOSS2 in May 2021 as the single cloud product replacing both E2 and the original JobBOSS. Legacy E2 shops are supported and JobBOSS2 is the migration path, which is why old E2 prices still float around online.
Can I run a scheduler alongside JobBOSS2?
Yes, and it is a common setup. Keep jobs, quotes, costing and purchasing in JobBOSS2, export open operations with setup and run times, and schedule them separately. The plan exports back as a spreadsheet so the dates your customers hear match the dates in the ERP.
Does JobBOSS charge per user?
Yes. ECI states that every JobBOSS2 package has a minimum of one user and that you never pay for a seat you do not plan to use, which is another way of saying the licence is counted in seats. ProductionPlanning.ai charges one flat price per plant instead, so the number of people watching the schedule never changes the bill. The same per seat question comes up with MRPeasy, compared on our MRPeasy alternative page, while Katana and Fishbowl price it differently again.
Fix the schedule first, for a flat price per plant
Start on the Line plan at 149 USD a month with everyone in the shop included, or run the demo on a sample week of jobs first. It takes an afternoon to see your own bottleneck.
Your data stays yours. Export or delete it any time. No card to try the demo.