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Epicor Kinetic

Epicor Kinetic at a glance
VendorEpicor Software Corporation
HeadquartersAustin, Texas, USA
OwnershipPrivate equity — Clayton, Dubilier & Rice; CVC joining as co-investor (announced December 2025)
DeploymentCloud/SaaS (preferred), on-premises and hybrid available
Target marketMidsize to lower-enterprise discrete manufacturers (make-to-order and mixed-mode)
IndustriesAerospace and defense suppliers, metal fabrication, industrial machinery, medical devices, automotive suppliers, electronics, rubber and plastics
PricingPricing on request (not published)
Websiteepicor.com/en-us/products/enterprise-resource-planning-erp/kinetic

What Epicor Kinetic is

Kinetic is Epicor's flagship manufacturing ERP for discrete manufacturers that build to order, engineer to order, or mix both with repetitive production. It continues the Epicor ERP (E10) line, relaunched under the Kinetic name in 2021 with a browser-based user interface. Home turf is the upper mid-market of North American manufacturing, where this product family has been a fixture for decades.

The company behind it

Epicor traces its roots to 1972 and took its present name in 1999, when Platinum Software and DataWorks merged. A long run through private equity followed: Apax Partners combined the company with Activant in 2011, KKR bought it in 2016, and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) acquired it in 2020 in a deal reported at $4.7 billion. In December 2025, CVC agreed to take a significant ownership position, with CD&R and CVC set to hold equal board representation and the existing management team, including CEO Steve Murphy, continuing. Headquarters are in Austin, Texas; the distribution ERPs Prophet 21 and Eclipse come from the same house.

Core functionality

The suite follows a manufacturer's quote-to-cash cycle: estimating and quoting, engineering and BOM management, material planning, production scheduling with advanced planning and scheduling, shop-floor execution with MES capabilities, quality management, supply chain and inventory, and full financials. Screens and workflows can be adapted in a low-code Application Studio without touching the core. On top of the suite, Epicor layers AI-driven analytics under the names Epicor Prism and Epicor Grow.

Typical customers

Midsize discrete manufacturers and suppliers, roughly 50 to 1,000 employees. Aerospace and defense supply chains, metal fabrication, industrial machinery, medical devices, automotive suppliers, electronics, and rubber and plastics processing recur throughout the customer base. Lower-enterprise deals do close, but the center of gravity stays in the upper mid-market, and global multi-country corporate rollouts more often go to SAP, Oracle, or Microsoft.

Deployment and pricing

Cloud on Microsoft Azure is the preferred model and receives new capabilities first. On-premises and hybrid installations remain available, which matters for shops under strict data-control obligations such as ITAR programs. Prices are not published; licenses and subscriptions run through Epicor and its partner channel, so comparable quotes from more than one partner are worth collecting.

The case for and against

The case for Kinetic is depth where manufacturers feel it daily. Job costing, scheduling, and shop-floor execution live in the core product, while horizontal suites typically reach for add-ons or partner tools to cover the same ground; for a US discrete manufacturer between roughly 50 and 1,000 employees, that alone justifies a shortlist seat. The case against is mostly circumstantial. Ownership has cycled through private equity repeatedly, most recently with CVC joining CD&R in late 2025, so continuity signals deserve to be converted into written roadmap commitments during negotiation. A large installed base is still working through the move from on-premises E10 to the cloud, and partner track records on those migrations differ widely, which makes the partner decision as weighty as the product decision. Multinational corporates evaluating a single global instance will find SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft winning most of those deals; a structured ERP selection should put multi-site and international coverage to the test early.

What the Epicor Kinetic website looks like

Current view of the vendor homepage, captured by our editorial team.

Screenshot of the Epicor Kinetic vendor homepage

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Frequently asked questions

Who is the typical Epicor Kinetic customer?

Picture a machine builder or fab shop with a few hundred employees quoting custom work every week: that is the center of the customer base, which spans roughly 50 to 1,000 employees across aerospace and defense supply chains, metal fabrication, machinery, medical devices, automotive supply, electronics, and plastics. Deals at the lower enterprise level happen too, though truly global corporate rollouts tend to go to the biggest platform vendors.

Can Epicor Kinetic run on-premises, or is it cloud only?

Both. Azure-hosted cloud is where Epicor puts new capabilities first, but on-premises and hybrid remain fully supported options, which matters to ITAR-bound suppliers and other shops that cannot hand off data control.

What is the relationship between Epicor Kinetic and the old Epicor ERP?

Same product line, new name and interface: Kinetic is what Epicor ERP (E10) became in 2021, now browser-based. For buyers the more useful fact is that a large installed base is still somewhere on the path from on-premises E10 to the cloud edition, so the question to put to any implementation partner is simple: how many of these moves have you completed, and can we call two of those customers?

How is Epicor Kinetic priced?

By quote only, through Epicor or its partners, with deployment model, seats, and modules setting the price. Since partners quote independently, collecting more than one proposal pays off; our ERP TCO Calculator and the ERP TCO glossary entry help turn those quotes into a comparable multi-year figure.

Can we adapt Kinetic without modifying the core?

Yes. Screen and workflow changes go through the low-code Application Studio instead of source-level customization, so upgrades stay cleaner than in classic modified-core ERP estates.

What AI capabilities does Epicor offer with Kinetic?

Two branded layers, Epicor Prism and Epicor Grow, add AI-driven analytics on top of the ERP. They extend the suite rather than replace any module, so evaluate them as optional analytics, not as core selection criteria.

What should buyers know about Epicor's private equity ownership?

Four ownership changes in fifteen years is the track record: Apax merged Epicor with Activant in 2011, KKR bought in 2016, CD&R followed in 2020 at a reported $4.7 billion, and CVC agreed in December 2025 to take a significant stake with equal board representation. Management, including CEO Steve Murphy, stays on, which points to continuity. A buyer's insurance policy is still the contract: get roadmap and support commitments in writing rather than relying on announcements.