Is RoastConsole cheaper than Cropster?

Not at the entry point. Cropster Starter begins near $35 and there is a free tier for ten roasts a month, both under our $79. Where it turns is what each plan contains. Cupping analysis, traceability, order management and automated production planning sit in their Scale tier at around $319; they are in our base plan. So if all you need is profiling and green inventory, Cropster Core at about $109 is the better buy and you should take it.

Can I import my Cropster roast data?

Yes. Cropster and Artisan roast data import directly, with bulk CSV and JSON for lots, suppliers, products, customers, and price lists. A full tenant export is available in open formats too, so the same door works in both directions.

Does RoastConsole support my roasting machine?

Check first. Cropster's hardware coverage is broader, and gas, airflow, and drum-speed capture are not things Pilot does. If your roasting practice depends on that instrumentation, Cropster is the better tool and this is the wrong page for you.

We are a large multi-site roastery. Should we switch?

Not on the strength of a comparison page, no. Depth and a long track record at scale are real advantages once you are running several sites, and we do not have either yet. The roasteries who gain most from moving are the small and mid-sized ones paying Scale prices for two features. Send us your volume and site count and we will tell you honestly which of those you are.

CompareCropster

RoastConsole as a Cropster alternative

Nobody goes deeper at the machine than Cropster, and this page will not pretend otherwise. It is also not going to claim we are cheaper, because at the entry tiers we are not. What we do cover is more of the roastery: equipment maintenance, expenses, a CRM pipeline, a task board and a marketplace are in our base plan and are not things Cropster sells at any tier.

Credit where it is due

What Cropster does well

Depth at the machine nothing here matches

CurveIQ predicts where a roast is heading and matches it against a reference, which is a different thing from following a curve and is the one piece of the roasting side we do not have an answer to. Their hardware list is longer than ours too. We read gas, airflow and drum speed where the machine exposes them, and Auto roast will hold a PID-capable roaster to a target, so the gap is narrower than it used to be — but predictive matching is theirs.

A decade of production use behind it

Thousands of roasteries have been finding its edge cases since before we existed, and those edges are all sanded down by now. There is also a good chance the roaster you would hire next already knows it, which is worth more than any feature on this page.

Reach beyond the roastery

Cropster Cafe handles espresso operations and retail sites; Cropster Origin runs processing at the mill; and Firescope, the Seoul roast-profiling app they acquired in October 2025, brings a few thousand more roasteries with it. If your business runs past roasting into cafes or importing green, those are whole territories we do not enter and are not planning to. It is also worth knowing that the company is consolidating rather than standing still: Verdane took a majority stake in 2024 and Cropster has said it is funded for further acquisitions. Whether that reads as stability or as a moving target is a judgement about your own risk, not something this page can settle for you.

The honest limit

Where roasteries look elsewhere

These are the complaints we hear from roasteries who go looking, not defects. Most of them are consequences of Cropster being big and modular rather than of it being poor.

You buy the platform in pieces
The platform arrives in pieces you buy separately, so the bill grows each time you join another part of the operation up. That is manageable when you know what you need next. It is harder when you are three years in and still finding out — and some of the pieces are not for sale at all, because a roastery also runs on equipment servicing, expense records, a sales pipeline and somewhere to put the week's jobs.
The operations layer sits high up the plans
Profiling and green inventory arrive early, but cupping analysis, traceability, order management and automated production planning are Scale features, and green contracts and the API are Advanced or add-ons. A roastery that wants the whole operation on one record is shopping near the top of the range rather than the bottom.
More platform than a small roastery needs
A lot of it is built for operations with several sites and someone whose whole job is quality. If you are two people and one roaster you pay for that depth, spend a week configuring it, then click past most of it every morning. Being smaller does not make us better. It makes us a better fit for a particular size of roastery, and you know which one you are.
Every plan carries a volume charge on top
Every published price is a starting-from. Each Roast plan is a monthly fee plus a volume component that moves with roasted weight, connected machines and hardware. Ours works the same way, so neither of us is being sly about it. It does mean the numbers on both pricing pages are the beginning of a quote rather than a quote, and only your own volume settles it.

Side by side

Including the rows where Cropster wins.

	Cropster	Pilot · free	Cloud · paid
Entry price	From $35/mo, plus volume	Free	$79/mo base, plus volume
Whole operation on one plan	Scale, from $319/mo	—	Included at base
Users	Unlimited from Core ($109)	Per Mac	Unlimited people and machines
Live curve and control	CurveIQ predictive matching, replay	PID control and Auto roast to a curve	—
Gas, airflow, drum speed	Captured	Captured where the machine exposes them	—
Machine integrations	Industry-wide	Four tested, more with drivers built	—
Cupping and QC	Scale tier	—	Included
Green lots and contracts	Contracts are Advanced or an add-on	—	Included
Automated production plans	Scale tier	—	Included
Order management	Scale tier	—	Included
Wholesale customer portal	Not in their published plans	—	Included
Invoicing and card payments	Not in their published plans	—	Invoicing, Stripe payments
Equipment and maintenance	Not in their published plans	—	Registry, depreciation, servicing
Expenses and finance reports	Reporting yes; expenses not listed	—	Included
Leads and CRM pipeline	Not in their published plans	—	Included
Point of sale	Cropster Cafe	—	Counter and walk-in
Team task board	Not in their published plans	—	Kanban, calendar, list
API and webhooks	Advanced tier	—	Included at base
Cafe and espresso	Cropster Cafe, from €39/machine	—	Not covered
Origin and processing	Cropster Origin, from €199/mo	—	Contracts and suppliers only
Your data out	Export available	Artisan CSV and .alog	Full archive, open formats

Moving

If you are considering the move

Your Cropster history imports

Cropster roast data comes across directly, alongside CSV and JSON for lots, suppliers, products, customers, and price lists. Years of roasting do not become a reason you cannot leave.

Check the machine list before anything else

This is the row that decides it. Cropster talks to more roasters than we do — our tested list is four, and everything else reads through a Phidget board rather than a driver of its own. If yours needs a native integration, nothing else on this page matters. Pilot is free, so one batch on a Tuesday afternoon will tell you before anyone signs anything.

Compare the whole bill, not the entry price

Add up the tiers and add-ons you would actually be on, then read our rate card against that total rather than against their entry price. For a lot of larger roasteries the answer comes back Cropster, and we would rather you found that out with a calculator than four months into a migration.

Questions

Including the ones where the answer is “stay”.

Is RoastConsole cheaper than Cropster?: Not at the entry point. Cropster Starter begins near $35 and there is a free tier for ten roasts a month, both under our $79. Where it turns is what each plan contains. Cupping analysis, traceability, order management and automated production planning sit in their Scale tier at around $319; they are in our base plan. So if all you need is profiling and green inventory, Cropster Core at about $109 is the better buy and you should take it.
Can I import my Cropster roast data?: Yes. Cropster and Artisan roast data import directly, with bulk CSV and JSON for lots, suppliers, products, customers, and price lists. A full tenant export is available in open formats too, so the same door works in both directions.
Does RoastConsole support my roasting machine?: Check first. Cropster's hardware coverage is broader, and gas, airflow, and drum-speed capture are not things Pilot does. If your roasting practice depends on that instrumentation, Cropster is the better tool and this is the wrong page for you.
We are a large multi-site roastery. Should we switch?: Not on the strength of a comparison page, no. Depth and a long track record at scale are real advantages once you are running several sites, and we do not have either yet. The roasteries who gain most from moving are the small and mid-sized ones paying Scale prices for two features. Send us your volume and site count and we will tell you honestly which of those you are.

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