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Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Web App

Carbon

An open source ERP, MES and QMS for complex manufacturing.

Visit Carbon4.5

  • Rating

    4.5 / 5

  • Pricing

    Free

  • Difficulty

    Advanced

  • Works on

    Web, Cross-Platform

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What is Carbon?

Carbon is an open source enterprise resource planning, manufacturing execution and quality management system designed for complex assembly, contract manufacturing, high-volume production and configure-to-order manufacturing. It gives manufacturers a modern, self-hostable alternative to expensive legacy systems.

Third-party open-source projects. We are not affiliated with their authors; repositories are provided as-is by their maintainers. Review each project's license, code and security before installing. See our Disclaimer.

Pros: what Carbon does well

  • Full ERP, MES and QMS in one open source system
  • Purpose-built for complex and contract manufacturing
  • Self-hostable, avoiding expensive per-seat licences

Cons: where it falls short

  • Implementation is a serious project, not a quick install
  • Aimed at manufacturers, irrelevant to most other businesses
  • Self-hosting requires operational expertise

Who Carbon is for

Manufacturers who want a modern, open source operations platform.

Who can skip it

Teams outside manufacturing looking for a generic business tool.

Carbon alternatives

Not sold on Carbon? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Project Management resources

Circle

Focus: linear clone, project management and nextjs. Shares open source with Carbon. A website, not a web app. Rated 4.7 (Carbon: 4.5).

WebsiteFreeWeb
4.7Visit

Dolibarr

Focus: crm, invoicing and self-hosted. Shares erp and open source with Carbon. Adds Windows and Linux. Rated 4.4 (Carbon: 4.5).

Web AppFreeWeb, Windows
4.4Visit

LinearFeatured, verified

Focus: issues, sprints and engineering. Also in Project Management and Team Productivity, like Carbon. Freemium (Carbon: Free). Adds macOS and Windows. Rated 4.8 (Carbon: 4.5).

Web AppFree planWeb, macOS
4.8Visit

Superside

Focus: design service, AI design and creative operations. Also in Project Management and Team Productivity, like Carbon. Expensive (Carbon: Free). Rated 4.7 (Carbon: 4.5).

Web AppExpensiveWeb
4.7Visit

Asana

Focus: projects, timeline and workload. Also in Project Management and Team Productivity, like Carbon. Freemium (Carbon: Free). Adds iOS, Android and macOS. Rated 4.4 (Carbon: 4.5).

Web AppFree planWeb, iOS
4.4Visit

First Tree

Focus: ai agents, orchestration and github. Shares open source and typescript with Carbon. An AI tool, not a web app. Rated 4.3 (Carbon: 4.5).

AI ToolFreeWeb
4.3Visit

Free alternatives to Carbon

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

Grafana

Focus: dashboards, monitoring and metrics. Shares open source with Carbon. Adds Linux. Rated 4.7 (Carbon: 4.5).

Web AppFreeWeb, Linux
4.7Visit

Uptime Kuma

Focus: monitoring, uptime and status page. Shares open source with Carbon. Rated 4.7 (Carbon: 4.5).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.7Visit

Beszel

Focus: server monitoring, docker and alerts. Shares open source with Carbon. Adds Linux. Rated 4.6 (Carbon: 4.5).

Web AppFreeWeb, Linux
4.6Visit

Gatus

Focus: monitoring, status page and uptime. Shares open source with Carbon. Rated 4.6 (Carbon: 4.5).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.6Visit

Gitea

Focus: git hosting, code review and issues. Shares open source with Carbon. Adds Linux, macOS and Windows. Rated 4.6 (Carbon: 4.5).

Web AppFreeWeb, Linux
4.6Visit
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