The honest answer: there is no single price, but there is a repeatable way to build one. The cost has four parts — licences, per-machine hardware, implementation days and annual support — and it is their proportions, not the headline total, that tell you whether an offer is cheap. Below: what vendors actually publish, what that implies for 5, 20 and 50 machines, which costs only surface mid-project, and how grants fit in.
What the price is made of
- Software licence. A subscription per machine or per station per month, or a perpetual licence with a one-off fee. A subscription lowers the entry cost and raises the five-year total; a perpetual licence does the opposite, but usually carries annual support priced as a percentage of its value — find that percentage in the offer, because comparisons routinely omit it.
- Per-machine hardware. A concentrator or gateway, an input module, sometimes retrofitted sensors and an operator panel for confirming downtime reasons. A machine with a Simatic controller is cheap to connect; a 1990s press without a controller can cost more than its licence.
- Implementation work. Pre-implementation analysis, the definitions workshop, configuration, signal mapping, comparison tests against machine counters, training and documentation. This is normally the largest and most variable line, because it depends on the state of the machine park rather than on a price list.
- ERP integration. A separate project. Orders one way, output and scrap the other — the scope is usually priced only after analysis, and the ERP vendor may charge for their side as well.
What vendors publish, and what they do not
Published price lists are rare in this market; most vendors quote per project. A few reference points do exist, and they are worth knowing before the conversation starts:
| Published reference point | Value | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription per station | PLN 89–179 / station / month | the public price table of one production-monitoring vendor |
| Data-collection hardware | about PLN 850 per concentrator | a device price published by another vendor |
| On-premise MES rollout | from about PLN 150k to over PLN 1m | published range for on-premise installations |
These are other companies' list prices, not our offer — we quote them because they set the realistic order of magnitude and let you challenge a proposal that sits ten times above or below them. The spread between PLN 150k and over a million is not random: it is the difference between monitoring a dozen machines and a full MES with scheduling, product genealogy and ERP integration.
Three scenarios: 5, 20 and 50 machines
The figures below are indicative and come from arithmetic on the published price lists above, not from quotations. Use them to start a conversation, not as a price.
| Scope | Subscription per month | Hardware, one-off | Implementation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot, 5 machines | about PLN 450–900 | single thousands of PLN | quoted per project; no published rates |
| One hall, 20 machines | about PLN 1.8–3.6k | tens of thousands of PLN | quoted per project; grows with machines lacking controllers |
| Plant, 50 machines | about PLN 4.5–9k | several tens of thousands of PLN | quoted per project; usually staged |
What the table deliberately omits is the implementation cost in złoty. We know of no published day rates for this work on the Polish market and we are not going to invent them. It is also the line that most often decides the difference between two offers — and the first one worth asking to see broken into days rather than as a lump sum.
A second caveat: a per-station subscription is not the same as a per-machine one. One machine may need two operator stations, and one station may serve a cell of several machines. Convert everything to a single unit before you add anything up.
Costs that are not in the offer
- Shop-floor network. Getting the industrial network to machines away from the backbone is often a separate job for electricians, not covered by the software vendor's quotation.
- Old machines. Every machine without a controller needs sensors or an input module and measurement on the asset. Count them separately — they are what breaks budgets, not the licences.
- Your own people's time. The definitions workshop, counter verification, agreeing the downtime-reason list and the training take days from supervisors, maintenance and process engineering. That is a real cost; it just never gets invoiced.
- Local-language interface and documentation. With a non-Polish vendor this can be a separate line. Ask directly whether the operator panel, the reports and the manual are in Polish, and whether that is included.
- Scope changes. Adding a line, a second shift or a quality module after signature is normally priced outside the original lump sum. Have a rate for additional work in the contract.
- Annual support. Updates, support, backups and response times — with a perpetual licence this is a recurring item that belongs in any five-year comparison.
When it pays back
We will not give you a universal payback period, because every such number is invented. Do the arithmetic on your own figures, in three steps:
- Work out the contribution margin per hour of the bottleneck: the profit left after variable costs from one hour of production.
- Estimate how many hours a month you will realistically recover. Be conservative: the first months usually deliver knowledge rather than hours — the system shows where they go, but only maintenance and process engineering get them back.
- Compare that against subscription, hardware depreciation and support combined. If the gap is smaller than twice the cost, treat the project as uncertain and start with a pilot on the bottleneck.
Two situations where payback tends to be fast regardless of the arithmetic: when you are considering buying another machine without knowing how long the current one stands idle, and when you pay penalties for delivery dates you cannot predict. In both cases the value is not a recovered hour but an avoided decision.
Grants
Production software is an eligible cost in several programmes. The closest fit is Dig.IT, run by ARP: a grant in the range of PLN 150–850k, up to 50% of costs under de minimis, a requirement of at least five closed financial years, ready-made software as a mandatory component, a separate cap on the hardware and training share, and a Digital Maturity Test at entry. A second call was signalled for the turn of Q3/Q4 2026 and the criteria may change — status as of September 2026.
The second route is the implementation module of FENG Ścieżka SMART, where the aid intensity depends on company size and region. Current calls, deadlines and limits are on our grants for automation and digitalisation page. We are not a licensed grant adviser: we check whether the scope fits the programme and work with the adviser on your side.
What to ask for in the offer
- Price per machine or per station — and how many stations does my layout actually need?
- What exactly does implementation contain, in days: analysis, configuration, tests, training, documentation?
- What does it cost to connect a machine without a controller, and who supplies the sensors?
- Are the operator interface, the reports and the documentation in Polish?
- What is the annual fee after go-live and what does it cover?
- Who owns the data, where is it stored, and in what format can I export it if I change vendor?
- What is the rate for additional work after signature?
Before you calculate anything, make sure you and the vendor mean the same system — the boundary between production monitoring, an MES and the production module of an ERP causes half the misunderstandings in these conversations. We take it apart in MES vs SCADA vs ERP. The scope we quote ourselves is described on the production monitoring and OEE page, and how to calculate the indicator itself is in the OEE guide.