Ekos vs. Breww: Which Brewery Management Platform Actually Fits Your Operation?
Ekos and Breww both promise to replace the spreadsheet batch log. The $100/mo gap between them matters less than what happens the day your distributor list outgrows phone orders.
Ekos $500/mo vs. Breww $400/mo — the deciding factor is usually distributor-ordering integration, not the $100/mo gap
Pricing based on standard plans for breweries.
Ekos and Breww solve the same core problem — turning batch logs, keg tracking, and distributor orders from spreadsheets into one system — but they stop being interchangeable the moment wholesale distribution becomes a real part of the business. That's a more useful lens than "which has more features," because on paper they look nearly identical.
Monthly cost comparison
Ekos: $500/mo — built for 5-150 employees
Ekos covers batch and production tracking, raw-material inventory, keg management, and distributor order management, and it's the only one of the two that integrates directly with Ollie's self-serve wholesale ordering portal — relevant the moment distributor accounts want to place their own reorders instead of calling a sales rep. The failure mode is buying Ekos at 6 employees with one SKU lineup because it's the market-leading name, then paying $500/mo for keg-tracking depth a brewery that size doesn't need yet.
Breww: $400/mo — built for 3-80 employees
Breww covers production, stock control, and sales/distribution for $100/mo less, and it's a genuinely better fit for a smaller brewery that hasn't built out a self-serve wholesale channel yet. What it doesn't do: keg-level tracking, and it has no listed integration with Ollie — so if self-serve distributor ordering is on the near-term roadmap, that's a gap you'd be building around rather than growing into.
Platform capability comparison
| Capability | Ekos | Breww |
|---|---|---|
| Batch/production tracking | ||
| Keg-level tracking | ||
| Distributor order management | ||
| Integrates with Ollie (self-serve wholesale ordering) | ||
| Employee range | 5-150 | 3-80 |
| Monthly cost | $500 | $400 |
The real tradeoff isn't cost vs. features — it's cost vs. whether your distribution model needs Ollie's integration.
Running both simultaneously — common after a new operations hire brings their old employer's platform preference — is $900/mo for one job. The batch-tracking and distribution features overlap almost entirely.
The actual decision rule
- Under ~40 employees and no self-serve distributor ordering planned: Breww wins on fit-for-cost — you're not yet running the distribution complexity Ekos is built to manage.
- 40-80 employees, or any point you're evaluating Ollie for distributor self-ordering: this is the real decision point, and it turns on the Ollie integration more than headcount alone.
- Above ~80 employees, or once wholesale accounts are placing their own orders: Ekos's keg-level tracking and native Ollie integration usually justify the $100/mo difference outright.
Under ~40 employees with no distributor portal → Breww saves roughly $1,200/yr. The moment Ollie enters the plan → Ekos's integration is the deciding factor, not the price gap.
Worth naming directly: a lot of "best brewery management software" content online is written by, or paid by, the vendor with the bigger affiliate budget — which tends to be the pricier platform. That's exactly the incentive our engine is built to be blind to; it ranks purely on your production and distribution fit, not on which vendor pays the biggest bounty.
Run the free audit with your real headcount and current spend to see which one — plus the rest of your stack — actually fits.