Ekos: Craft Beverage Management Software
| Vendor | Ekos (part of Next Glass) |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Charlotte, North Carolina, USA |
| Ownership | Next Glass (acquired October 2025; Untappd/Ollie group) |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Target market | Small and midsize craft beverage producers |
| Industries | Craft breweries, wineries, cideries, distilleries, hard seltzer and cannabis-beverage producers |
| Pricing | Quote-based; three tiers (Essentials, Plus, Professional); no published rates |
| Website | goekos.com |
The short version
Ekos runs the operational side of a craft beverage business from the cloud. Inventory, production, costing, sales, and federal compliance sit in one system, and the vendor sells it as beverage ERP. More than 1,200 breweries, wineries, cideries, and distilleries use it. That places the product a tier below general-purpose mid-market suites such as NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: narrower in scope, closer to the tank and the taproom.
The company behind it
Founded in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2014, Ekos set out to replace the spreadsheets and whiteboards small producers used to run their operations. Ownership changed in October 2025, when Next Glass acquired the company. Next Glass is the North Carolina beverage-technology group behind Untappd, Untappd for Business, Ollie, Oznr, and BeerAdvocate.
The brand survived the deal. Next Glass announced a two-year price freeze for existing customers and stated plans to connect the Ekos Order Hub with Ollie Order and Untappd for Business, so producers and retailers can handle business-to-business ordering inside one group ecosystem.
What it covers
Inventory management with reorder points and barcode scanning, production batch records that allow in-process adjustments, and product costing form the core. On the commercial side there is a sales dashboard reporting performance by product and by salesperson, plus the Order Hub, a portal where distributors and wholesale buyers place orders against live inventory. Keg tracking follows containers across customers and locations. Batch traceability supports recalls and quality investigations. US producers get pre-filled TTB operational reports and a federal excise tax calculation.
One omission is deliberate: there is no general ledger. Financial data moves to QuickBooks Online or Xero through integrations.
Who buys it
Small and midsize producers, across beer, cider, wine, spirits, hard seltzer, and cannabis-infused beverages. The recognizable profile is a taproom brewery, a regional winery, or a craft distillery that has outgrown spreadsheets and has no appetite for the cost and implementation weight of a full ERP suite. Compliance features are built for the US; the vendor also serves producers in other countries.
How it is sold
Cloud only, with no on-premises option. Pricing is quote-based and never published in dollar terms. Three tiers exist, named Essentials, Plus, and Professional, packaged separately for beer and cider, wine, and spirits. The tier determines feature depth, reporting options, and how many production facilities are included; Professional covers two.
Our take
For a producer below the size at which a NetSuite or Business Central build pays for itself, Ekos is the sensible default. It is one of the longest-standing platforms in the craft beverage segment, and the Next Glass backing removes the funding question that hangs over smaller vertical vendors.
Skip it if you need one audited system of record. The missing general ledger means accounting permanently lives somewhere else, and multi-entity producers will feel that seam at every close. Expect the roadmap to tilt toward the Next Glass ordering and retail ecosystem, which is good news for anyone selling into that channel and neutral at best for everyone else. Producers on a steep growth curve should map the eventual move into a broader suite as part of their selection process, not after it.
What the Ekos website looks like
Current view of the vendor homepage, captured by our editorial team.

Comparable products
- Aptean Beverage ERP, Drink-IT Edition
- Breww: Brewery and Distillery Management Software
- Crafted ERP: NetSuite-Native ERP for Beverage Alcohol
- InnoVint: Winery Management Software from Napa
- vintrace: Cloud Winery Production Software