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Business Intelligence · head to head

Phocas vs Tilt

Phocas logo

Phocas

Business Intelligence

Pre-built BI and FP&A for wholesale distributors and manufacturers running mid-market ERPs

From
On request
Free plan
No
Visit PhocasFull review
Tilt logo

Tilt

Developer Tools

Local Kubernetes development loop that rebuilds and live-updates containers on save

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit TiltFull review

The short version

  • Tilt is free; Phocas prices on request.
  • Only Phocas lists ERP connectors; only Tilt lists live update.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Phocas and Tilt actually diverge.

Attributes where Phocas and Tilt differ
AttributePhocasTilt
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelQuoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryBusiness IntelligenceDeveloper Tools

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 Phocas

  • ERP connectors
  • Pre-built distribution content
  • Grid-first analysis
  • Financial statements
  • Budgets and forecasts
  • Rebates module
  • Alerts and subscriptions
  • Mobile apps

Only in Tilt

  • Live update
  • Tiltfile as code
  • Unified web UI
  • Selective rebuilds
  • Local and remote clusters
  • Resource dependencies
  • Extensions registry
  • Custom buttons and triggers

What people use each for

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

Phocas

  • A wholesale distributor on Prophet 21 whose sales reps need per-customer margin and stock availability without waiting on a report writernot Tilt
  • A manufacturer that wants budgeting on the same data as its sales analysis rather than in a separate spreadsheetnot Tilt
  • A multi-branch retailer comparing branch and product performance daily without an internal BI teamnot Tilt
  • A private equity owner standardising reporting across several acquired distributors on different ERPsnot Tilt

Tilt

  • A team of ten or more engineers whose application is fifteen microservices on Kubernetes and who currently wait on CI to test a changenot Phocas
  • An organisation onboarding new developers who want a single command that stands up the whole stack from a committed Tiltfilenot Phocas
  • A platform team giving product engineers a consistent local environment against a shared remote development clusternot Phocas
  • A codebase where one repository contains several services and rebuilding all of them on every edit is the main source of lost timenot Phocas

Where each one falls short

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

Phocas

  • The value is the pre-built vertical content, so a company outside distribution, manufacturing or retail pays premium prices for dashboards it must build itself anyway
  • If your ERP is not on the maintained connector list you fall back to generic database extraction and lose the fast time to value that justifies the price
  • The visualisation library is thin next to Power BI or Tableau, and analysts who want fine control over chart design will find it constraining
  • Pricing is quoted per user and never published, and buyers routinely report large gaps between initial and renewal quotes with limited comparison leverage
  • Modules are licensed separately, so a customer who bought Analytics and later wants Financial Statements or Rebates faces a new negotiation rather than an upgrade

Tilt

  • Docker acquired Tilt in 2022 and the team now splits its time across Compose and Docker Desktop, so feature velocity is modest and the product's long-term priority inside Docker is not guaranteed; treat it as a stable utility, not a growing platform
  • The Tiltfile is Starlark, a Python dialect, so non-trivial setups become real programs that need reviewing and maintaining, and the person who wrote yours becomes a single point of failure
  • Live update only works when the running container can accept synced files and restart the process; compiled languages, distroless images and read-only filesystems often force you back to a full image rebuild, which removes the main benefit
  • It assumes Kubernetes. If your development target is plain Docker Compose or serverless functions, Tilt adds a cluster you did not need and a layer of abstraction with no payoff
  • There is no commercial support contract, no SLA and no paid tier, so when a Kubernetes version upgrade breaks something you are dependent on GitHub issues and a Slack channel rather than a vendor you can escalate to

Pricing, plan by plan

Phocas

On request
  • PhocasOn request
    • Annual subscription quoted by user count and modules
    • Analytics, Financial Statements, Budgets and Rebates licensed separately
    • One-off implementation and ERP connector setup fee

Tilt

Free
  • TiltFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed
    • All features, no paid tier
    • Community support via the Kubernetes Slack #tilt channel

Which should you pick?

Choose Phocas if

  • You need erp connectors.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want pre-built distribution content.
Phocas review

Choose Tilt if

  • You need live update.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want tiltfile as code.
Tilt review

Questions people ask

Is Phocas or Tilt better?
Neither clearly leads. Phocas starts at On request and Tilt at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Phocas or Tilt?
Tilt has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Phocas and Free for Tilt.
Does Phocas or Tilt run on more platforms?
Phocas runs on Web, iOS, Android. Tilt runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Tilt for free?
Yes. Tilt has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Phocas starts at On request.
What is Phocas best used for?
Phocas is most often used for a wholesale distributor on prophet 21 whose sales reps need per-customer margin and stock availability without waiting on a report writer, a manufacturer that wants budgeting on the same data as its sales analysis rather than in a separate spreadsheet, a multi-branch retailer comparing branch and product performance daily without an internal bi team, a private equity owner standardising reporting across several acquired distributors on different erps. Of those, a wholesale distributor on prophet 21 whose sales reps need per-customer margin and stock availability without waiting on a report writer and a manufacturer that wants budgeting on the same data as its sales analysis rather than in a separate spreadsheet are not what Tilt is typically brought in for.
What can Phocas do that Tilt cannot?
Phocas covers ERP connectors, Pre-built distribution content, Grid-first analysis, Financial statements. Tilt covers Live update, Tiltfile as code, Unified web UI, Selective rebuilds.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Phocas: What does Phocas cost?

Nothing is published. It is quoted annually by user count and module, with a separate implementation fee, and varies by region.

Tilt: Is Tilt free?

Yes, entirely. It is Apache 2.0 open source with no paid tier and no licence fee.

Phocas: Is it worth it over Power BI?

Only if you are in its target verticals on a supported ERP. Power BI is far cheaper per seat but you supply the data model.

Tilt: Who owns Tilt now?

Docker, which acquired it in May 2022. It remains open source and the repository is still actively maintained.

Phocas: Does it replace my ERP reporting?

It replaces day-to-day analysis and sales reporting. Transactional and statutory reporting stays in the ERP.

Tilt: Do I need a remote cluster?

No. It works against a local cluster such as kind, minikube or Docker Desktop, and also against a shared remote development cluster if your services are too heavy to run locally.

Phocas: Can it do budgeting?

Yes, through a separately licensed Financial Statements and Budgets module on the same warehouse.

Tilt: How is it different from Skaffold?

Both automate the build-deploy loop. Tilt puts more weight on the live-update path and a multi-service dashboard; Skaffold is more configuration-driven and closer to Google's tooling.

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