Is Artisan still free?

Yes. Artisan is free and open source and nothing on this page suggests otherwise. The paid part is artisan.plus, a separate service for green inventory, scheduling and reporting, from €50 a month. Almost nobody goes looking because the roasting got hard; they go looking because a wholesale account asked for a traceability record and it took two days to assemble.

Isn't Artisan with artisan.plus cheaper than RoastConsole?

Yes, and by a lot if you are small. artisan.plus PRO is €50 a month with unlimited roasts; HOME is €50 a year under 500 kg of green. Cloud is $79 a month and rises with roasted weight. What the extra buys is everything after the roast: roasted stock as product, packing, wholesale orders, invoicing with payment, cupping tied to batches, and an API, none of which are in artisan.plus's published features. If a spreadsheet handles those for you and it works, keep the cheaper one. The case for us is the month that spreadsheet stops working.

Can I import my Artisan roast profiles into RoastConsole?

Yes. Artisan roast data imports directly, and any roast exports back out to Artisan CSV or .alog whenever you want it. Both directions work on purpose.

Does RoastConsole support my roaster?

Check before you switch. Full control is tested on Kaleido and IKAWA; control is built for Aillio, Hottop, ROEST and Sandbox Smart but not yet run on a real one of each; Loring, Probat, Giesen, Diedrich, Mill City, Toper, Joper, Coffed, IMF, San Franciscan, Sivetz and Besca read and record over Modbus or Siemens S7; anything with thermocouples reads through a Phidget board. Shorter than Artisan's two hundred, and every line of it is stated at the level we can honestly back. Pilot is free, so one batch will tell you either way.

Should I switch if I only care about roast profiles?

Probably not. If the roast is the whole job and the operation around it fits in your head, Artisan does that job well and costs nothing. Pilot is free and worth an afternoon if you are on a Mac and tired of the roast record living on one machine that only you can reach. It is not a reason to abandon something that works. The case for moving shows up later, usually the first time you have to price a wholesale rate card and realise you do not actually know what a bag costs you to make.

CompareArtisan

RoastConsole Pilot as an Artisan alternative

The thing that replaces Artisan is Pilot: a free Mac app that reads your probes and draws the curve. Artisan's own paid half is artisan.plus, which takes the green inventory off the spreadsheet and costs less than we do. Cloud is our paid half, and the difference is where each one stops: artisan.plus ends at the roast; Cloud carries the coffee through to the invoice. Most of this page is about the free half, and the rest is about that line.

Credit where it is due

What Artisan does well

Machine coverage nothing else matches

Over 200 machines, 50 devices, four operating systems, more than 30 languages. Pilot's list is shorter and honestly tiered: full control tested on Kaleido and IKAWA, control built but not yet hardware-tested on Aillio, Hottop, ROEST and Sandbox Smart, and read-and-record drivers for Loring, Probat, Giesen, Diedrich, Mill City and a dozen others over Modbus or Siemens S7, with a Phidget board for anything that only has thermocouples. If you are on Windows, or your machine is not on that list, Artisan is the one that will talk to it today.

Genuine roast control, not just logging

Sliders, alarms, PID, roast replay. Artisan drives the roaster rather than just recording it, and roasters have been improving it in the open for more than ten years. Pilot does the same job — PID control, and Auto roast holding the machine to a curve you picked — so this is one of the few rows where the two of us are genuinely close, and Artisan got there first.

Free, and open source

No licence, no seat count, and nobody who can decide later what happens to your data. Free is the actual model, not a trial that runs out.

artisan.plus is real inventory software at a low price

Their paid service does the thing Artisan alone cannot: green purchases and stock by warehouse, with every roast deducted automatically, plus daily and weekly scheduling, blends, certifications, and reports. PRO is €50 a month or €500 a year for up to ten users and unlimited machines. HOME is €50 a year for one person roasting under 500 kg of green. If that list is your whole problem, it is cheaper than us at every volume, and the gap widens as you grow, because their price is flat and ours is metered.

The honest limit

Where roasteries outgrow it

Artisan is roasting software and has never claimed to be anything else, so none of this is a criticism. It starts to matter at the moment the batch hits the cooling tray, because that is where Artisan's job ends and the rest of yours begins.

In Artisan alone, the green never becomes inventory
A roast in Artisan knows which coffee it was. It will not take 22 lb off that lot, so the number you order against lives in a spreadsheet somebody updates from memory on Friday. artisan.plus fixes exactly this: the roast is deducted from stock when it is saved. Ours does the same. This row is a wash once you are paying either of us.
artisan.plus stops at the roast
Its documentation covers four things: plan the roasts, control the green, roast, report. The batch finishes and the record ends there. Roasted stock as product, bagging, wholesale orders, invoices, cupping scores, and an API are not in what they publish. So when an account calls about the bags that shipped on the 14th, you are opening artisan.plus and a spreadsheet and your email to answer one question. That is the job Cloud exists for, and it is the only reason to pay us more.
Compare the whole bill, not the headline
Artisan plus artisan.plus PRO is about €50 a month and covers the roast and the green. Cloud is $79 plus usage and covers the roast, the green, the roasted stock, the orders, and the invoice. If you run the rest of that on a spreadsheet and it works, you should keep the cheaper one. If you run it on a second subscription, add that in before you compare.
One machine, one operator, one screen
Artisan runs beside the roaster and so does Pilot, so that part is a wash. It matters when the green buyer, whoever plans production and whoever sends invoices all need the same figures. A folder of roast files on one Mac cannot give them that.

Side by side

Including the rows where Artisan wins.

	Artisan	Pilot · free	Cloud · paid
Cost	Artisan free; artisan.plus PRO €50/month or €500/year, HOME €50/year	Free	$79/month base, plus usage
Platforms	Four operating systems	Mac	Web, plus iOS on the floor
Machines supported	200+ machines, 50+ devices	Control on Kaleido, IKAWA, Aillio, Hottop, ROEST, Sandbox; read-and-record on a dozen commercial machines over Modbus and S7	—
Live curve and control	Sliders, alarms, PID, replay	PID control and Auto roast to a curve	—
Roast profiles and review	Yes	Yes	Shared across the team
Green purchases and stock	artisan.plus: by warehouse, deducted per roast	—	Lots and contracts, drawn down by roasting
Production planning	artisan.plus: daily and weekly schedule	—	Planned → In Progress → Weighing → Complete
Roasted stock as product	Not in their published features	—	By batch and blend bucket, into packing
Orders and invoicing	Not in their published features	—	Included, with online payment
Cupping and QC scores	Not in their published features	—	Included
Multi-user	Artisan per install; artisan.plus PRO up to 10 users	Per Mac	Shared record, unlimited people
API and webhooks	Not in their published features	—	Included
Your data out	Open formats, always	Artisan CSV and .alog	Full archive, open formats

Moving

If you do move

Your roast history comes with you

Artisan roast data imports directly, alongside CSV and JSON for lots, suppliers, products, customers, and price lists. A decade of roasting does not get left behind because the format changed.

You can leave the same way

Any roast exports back out to Artisan CSV or .alog, or to RoastConsole CSV, or to a picture of the curve for a customer. Whole-account exports come as an archive in open formats. If you try us for a season and go back to Artisan, you should leave with everything you brought and everything you made here.

You do not have to choose today

Pilot is a free Mac download and nothing about it expires. Run it next to Artisan for a week and compare the curves against ones you already trust. That is worth more than this page is.

The move itself.

Roast history imports directly, and the business records come across as CSV or JSON. It is not perfect. Open orders and invoices in flight are easier to finish in the old system than to carry over, and anything that only ever lived in a notes field will need a decision about where it goes. Most of the switch is a few hours of checking that the numbers match, not weeks of re-keying, and we do it with you. Send us an export before you decide anything and we will tell you what comes across and what does not.

Questions

Including the ones where the answer is “stay”.

Is Artisan still free?: Yes. Artisan is free and open source and nothing on this page suggests otherwise. The paid part is artisan.plus, a separate service for green inventory, scheduling and reporting, from €50 a month. Almost nobody goes looking because the roasting got hard; they go looking because a wholesale account asked for a traceability record and it took two days to assemble.
Isn't Artisan with artisan.plus cheaper than RoastConsole?: Yes, and by a lot if you are small. artisan.plus PRO is €50 a month with unlimited roasts; HOME is €50 a year under 500 kg of green. Cloud is $79 a month and rises with roasted weight. What the extra buys is everything after the roast: roasted stock as product, packing, wholesale orders, invoicing with payment, cupping tied to batches, and an API, none of which are in artisan.plus's published features. If a spreadsheet handles those for you and it works, keep the cheaper one. The case for us is the month that spreadsheet stops working.
Can I import my Artisan roast profiles into RoastConsole?: Yes. Artisan roast data imports directly, and any roast exports back out to Artisan CSV or .alog whenever you want it. Both directions work on purpose.
Does RoastConsole support my roaster?: Check before you switch. Full control is tested on Kaleido and IKAWA; control is built for Aillio, Hottop, ROEST and Sandbox Smart but not yet run on a real one of each; Loring, Probat, Giesen, Diedrich, Mill City, Toper, Joper, Coffed, IMF, San Franciscan, Sivetz and Besca read and record over Modbus or Siemens S7; anything with thermocouples reads through a Phidget board. Shorter than Artisan's two hundred, and every line of it is stated at the level we can honestly back. Pilot is free, so one batch will tell you either way.
Should I switch if I only care about roast profiles?: Probably not. If the roast is the whole job and the operation around it fits in your head, Artisan does that job well and costs nothing. Pilot is free and worth an afternoon if you are on a Mac and tired of the roast record living on one machine that only you can reach. It is not a reason to abandon something that works. The case for moving shows up later, usually the first time you have to price a wholesale rate card and realise you do not actually know what a bag costs you to make.

The like-for-like swap

Pilot is a free Mac download.

Run it beside what you use now and compare the curves before anything changes.

Download Pilot

Only if you need it

Cloud holds the record the roast belongs to.

Green lots, production, cupping, orders, and invoices, agreeing with each other. Fourteen days, no card.

Start Cloud trial

If you are moving

Ask us about the move from Artisan.

What imports, what needs re-keying, and whether your machine is on the list. A straight answer, including when it is “stay”.

Talk to us