Softwr

Manufacturing · head to head

Guidewheel vs TrendMiner

Guidewheel logo

Guidewheel

Manufacturing

Machine monitoring from a clamp on the power cord, so equipment age and protocol stop mattering

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
TrendMiner logo

TrendMiner

Manufacturing

Search-driven time series analytics for process engineers, now owned by Proemion rather than Software AG

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Guidewheel current draw shows that a machine is consuming power, not that it is producing good parts, so scrap, rework and quality still require operator entry or additional sensors and the OEE quality factor is not measured automatically.; TrendMiner ownership moved from Software AG to Proemion in a 47 million euro sale during the Silver Lake break-up, so the integration roadmap tied to webMethods and Cumulocity is gone and the new owner is far smaller.
  • They diverge on capability: Guidewheel covers Clamp on current sensing, TrendMiner covers Pattern search.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Guidewheel and TrendMiner actually diverge.

Attributes where Guidewheel and TrendMiner differ
AttributeGuidewheelTrendMiner
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, Windows, Linux

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Manufacturing).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Guidewheel

  • Clamp on current sensing
  • Automatic uptime and downtime
  • Downtime categorisation
  • Real time alerting
  • Shift and OEE reporting
  • Energy visibility

Only in TrendMiner

  • Pattern search
  • Value-based search
  • Monitors
  • Soft sensors
  • Context items
  • Dashboards
  • Machine learning models
  • ContextHub

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Guidewheel

  • A plant running equipment built in the 1980s and 1990s that no controller based monitoring product can readnot TrendMiner
  • A mixed floor of presses, ovens, compressors and fabrication equipment from many manufacturers with no common protocolnot TrendMiner
  • A manufacturer that needs evidence of real capacity before agreeing to buy another machinenot TrendMiner
  • A plant wanting immediate notification when an unattended overnight process stopsnot TrendMiner

TrendMiner

  • Finding every prior occurrence of a heat exchanger fouling signature to estimate cleaning frequency from history rather than from a rule of thumbnot Guidewheel
  • Comparing golden batches against off-spec ones in a pharmaceutical process without exporting to a data science teamnot Guidewheel
  • Building a monitor that flags the early temperature signature that preceded the last three compressor tripsnot Guidewheel
  • Giving a process engineer a way to answer a question in an afternoon that previously required a historian export and a spreadsheet weeknot Guidewheel

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Guidewheel

  • Current draw shows that a machine is consuming power, not that it is producing good parts, so scrap, rework and quality still require operator entry or additional sensors and the OEE quality factor is not measured automatically.
  • Cycle counting depends on a distinct load signature for each cycle, so machines with flat continuous draw such as ovens, some extruders and continuous mixers give poor or unusable part counts.
  • Installation involves fitting a clamp around a live power conductor inside or near an electrical panel, which in many plants requires a qualified electrician and a scheduled shutdown rather than a plug in setup.
  • It is monitoring, not execution, so there is no routing, scheduling, work order or traceability capability and it must sit alongside an ERP or MES rather than replacing either.
  • Pricing is per monitored machine, so a plant with two hundred small machines faces a bill proportional to machine count rather than to plant size, and the economics work better on fewer larger assets.

TrendMiner

  • Ownership moved from Software AG to Proemion in a 47 million euro sale during the Silver Lake break-up, so the integration roadmap tied to webMethods and Cumulocity is gone and the new owner is far smaller.
  • It is built for continuous time series and handles discrete manufacturing, relational quality data and event-driven production poorly, so plants that are not continuous process get limited value.
  • Value depends entirely on historian data quality and tag naming; sites with inconsistent tag descriptions and missing asset context spend months on data preparation before the search features are usable.
  • Licensing is by named analyst user, and the population who genuinely use pattern search is small, so organisations that buy broadly pay for seats that log in occasionally.
  • It reads history but does not fix it: there is no data collection layer, so an existing historian is mandatory and TrendMiner is always an additional cost on top of it.

Pricing, plan by plan

Guidewheel

On request
  • Guidewheel$undefined/year
    • Per machine monitoring hardware and platform access
    • Downtime and OEE reporting
    • Alerting and energy visibility

TrendMiner

On request
  • TrendMiner$undefined/year
    • Annual subscription sized by named users and connected historian tag volume
    • Separate licence tiers for full analyst users and view-only dashboard consumers
    • Historian connectors quoted per source system

Which should you pick?

Choose Guidewheel if

  • You need clamp on current sensing.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want automatic uptime and downtime.
Guidewheel review

Choose TrendMiner if

  • You need pattern search.
  • You work on Web, Windows, Linux.
  • You also want value-based search.
TrendMiner review

Questions people ask

Is Guidewheel or TrendMiner better?
Neither clearly leads. Guidewheel starts at On request and TrendMiner at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Guidewheel or TrendMiner?
Guidewheel starts at On request and TrendMiner at On request.
Does Guidewheel or TrendMiner run on more platforms?
Guidewheel runs on Web, iOS, Android. TrendMiner runs on Web, Windows, Linux.
What is Guidewheel best used for?
Guidewheel is most often used for a plant running equipment built in the 1980s and 1990s that no controller based monitoring product can read, a mixed floor of presses, ovens, compressors and fabrication equipment from many manufacturers with no common protocol, a manufacturer that needs evidence of real capacity before agreeing to buy another machine, a plant wanting immediate notification when an unattended overnight process stops. Of those, a plant running equipment built in the 1980s and 1990s that no controller based monitoring product can read and a mixed floor of presses, ovens, compressors and fabrication equipment from many manufacturers with no common protocol are not what TrendMiner is typically brought in for.
What can Guidewheel do that TrendMiner cannot?
Guidewheel covers Clamp on current sensing, Automatic uptime and downtime, Downtime categorisation, Real time alerting. TrendMiner covers Pattern search, Value-based search, Monitors, Soft sensors.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Guidewheel: Does it work on machines with no controller or network port?

Yes. That is the reason it exists. It measures the power cable, so machine age and protocol are irrelevant.

TrendMiner: Who owns TrendMiner now?

Proemion, a German industrial analytics company backed by Battery Ventures, which bought it from Software AG for 47 million euros in 2024.

Guidewheel: Will it count parts?

Sometimes. It works where each cycle produces a distinct electrical signature and does not work on continuous draw equipment.

TrendMiner: Does it replace my historian?

No. It connects to PI, IP.21, PHD, Exaquantum and others and reads from them. The historian remains the system of record.

Guidewheel: Do I need IT involvement?

Less than with controller based monitoring, but you do need electrical work to fit the sensors and a path for the gateway to reach the internet.

TrendMiner: Do I need a data scientist to use it?

No, and that is the point. The pattern search and soft sensor tooling are aimed at process engineers with no coding background.

Guidewheel: Is it an MES?

No. It monitors equipment. Work orders, routings and traceability need a separate system.

TrendMiner: Is pricing per user?

Yes, largely, with tiers for analyst and view-only access plus charges for historian connectors and data volume.

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