Does Flexnet do roast profiling?

Not in anything they publish. Their features are grouped as CRM, Sales, Production, Reporting and Storefront, and none of those describe curve logging or a machine connection. Roasteries running it generally capture the roast in Artisan or Cropster and enter the batch again on the Flexnet side.

Is RoastConsole cheaper than Flexnet?

On the published starting figures, yes: $79 a month against a reported from-$175. Both then move with roasted volume, so neither number is a quote. The more useful comparison is what each covers at that price, and the honest summary is that we include the roasting and green sides they do not publish, while they include finance and fulfilment integrations we do not offer.

We run our books on Sage Intacct. Can you connect?

No. We connect Xero for invoices and Stripe for payments, and that is the extent of it. Sage Intacct and Microsoft Dynamics 365 are both on Flexnet's list and neither is on ours, so if your accounting sits on one of them, Flexnet is the better fit today.

Can we keep Flexnet and use Pilot for the roasting?

Yes, and for some roasteries that is the sensible answer. Pilot is free, runs standalone on a Mac and needs nothing else from us. You would still be entering batches twice, which is the thing we would rather solve, but it costs nothing to find out whether the roasting side is where your problem actually is.

CompareFlexnet

RoastConsole as a Flexnet alternative

This is a comparison about scope rather than quality. Flexnet is a properly built commercial system for roasteries, and the five areas it publishes are CRM, Sales, Production, Reporting and Storefront. Roast profiling, machine logging, green lots and green contracts are not among them, which means the roast record and the buying record live somewhere else and someone joins them up by hand. That gap is the whole of this page.

Credit where it is due

What Flexnet does well

Built for roasteries rather than adapted for them

It came out of commercial roasting in Melbourne and it shows in the shape of it: coffee-centric CRM, wholesale ordering, and storefront catalogues an account can order the right things from. That is a long way ahead of a roastery running a generic CRM with coffee typed into the notes field.

The accounting end is properly wired

Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct and Microsoft Dynamics 365, alongside Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Square and ShipStation. That finance list is longer than ours. We connect Xero and Stripe; Dynamics and Sage Intacct are not integrations we offer, and if your books are already on either of them that is a real reason to stay.

Fulfilment carries through to the courier

ShipStation sits at the end of their order path, so a wholesale order can run from catalogue to label without leaving the system. Ours stops at the packing order and the invoice; the shipping label is your own arrangement.

The honest limit

Where roasteries look elsewhere

Every line below is a statement about Flexnet's published feature list rather than about what their software is capable of behind a demo. Where something is absent here it is absent from what they publish, which is the only thing either of us can honestly compare against.

The roast itself is not in the published features
There is a Production area, and no roast profiling, curve logging or machine connection described anywhere in it. In practice that means the curve is captured in Artisan or Cropster and the batch is entered again on the commercial side, which is the join most roasteries are trying to close when they start looking.
Green lots and contracts are not there either
Nothing in the published features covers green inventory, lot tracking or supplier contracts. For a roastery buying forward on contract, the buying record ends up in a spreadsheet beside the system that runs everything else, and traceability from a bag back to a lot is something a person reconstructs rather than something the software knows.
The price is a conversation
Their site carries a pricing link and no rates. The figure in circulation is a from-$175 a month reported when the product launched in the United States, moving with the volume you put through it. Ours works on volume too, so neither of us hands you a final number from a page. The difference is that our bands are published and you can do the arithmetic before you speak to anyone.

Side by side

Including the rows where Flexnet wins.

	Flexnet	Pilot · free	Cloud · paid
Entry price	From $175/mo, reported at US launch	Free	$79/mo base, plus volume
Rate card published	No rates on their site	Free	Every band published
Roast curve capture	Not in their published features	Live curve, RoR and events	—
Machine control	Not in their published features	PID and Auto roast where exposed	—
Green lots and contracts	Not in their published features	—	Included
Cupping and QC	Not in their published features	Scores against the batch	Included
Production planning	Production area	The day sequenced at the machine	Included
CRM and pipeline	Included	—	Included
Wholesale ordering	Storefront catalogues	—	Customer portal
Accounting	Xero, QBO, Sage Intacct, Dynamics 365	—	Xero, Stripe
Ecommerce	Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Square	—	Shopify, Square
Shipping labels	ShipStation	—	Not covered
Equipment and maintenance	Not in their published features	—	Registry, depreciation, servicing
API and webhooks	Not in their published features	—	Included at base
Your data out	Not published	Artisan CSV and .alog	Full archive, open formats

Moving

If you are considering the move

Start at the machine, where you have nothing to lose

Pilot is a free Mac download and runs standalone. You can put it beside the roaster this week while Flexnet carries on running the office, and find out whether having the curve and the batch in one record is worth anything to you before a single subscription changes.

Bring the roast history you already have

Artisan, Cropster and RoastPATH roast data import directly, with bulk CSV and JSON for lots, suppliers, products, customers and price lists. Whichever tool has been holding your curves while Flexnet held the business, it comes with you.

Count the integrations you would give up

This is the row that decides it. Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and ShipStation are connections we do not offer. If your finance or fulfilment runs through any of them, staying is the right answer and the rest of this page is beside the point.

Questions

Including the ones where the answer is “stay”.

Does Flexnet do roast profiling?: Not in anything they publish. Their features are grouped as CRM, Sales, Production, Reporting and Storefront, and none of those describe curve logging or a machine connection. Roasteries running it generally capture the roast in Artisan or Cropster and enter the batch again on the Flexnet side.
Is RoastConsole cheaper than Flexnet?: On the published starting figures, yes: $79 a month against a reported from-$175. Both then move with roasted volume, so neither number is a quote. The more useful comparison is what each covers at that price, and the honest summary is that we include the roasting and green sides they do not publish, while they include finance and fulfilment integrations we do not offer.
We run our books on Sage Intacct. Can you connect?: No. We connect Xero for invoices and Stripe for payments, and that is the extent of it. Sage Intacct and Microsoft Dynamics 365 are both on Flexnet's list and neither is on ours, so if your accounting sits on one of them, Flexnet is the better fit today.
Can we keep Flexnet and use Pilot for the roasting?: Yes, and for some roasteries that is the sensible answer. Pilot is free, runs standalone on a Mac and needs nothing else from us. You would still be entering batches twice, which is the thing we would rather solve, but it costs nothing to find out whether the roasting side is where your problem actually is.

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