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Manufacturing · head to head

Rockwell FactoryTalk vs TrendMiner

Rockwell FactoryTalk logo

Rockwell FactoryTalk

Manufacturing

Rockwell Automation software portfolio for HMI, historian, analytics and industrial data

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: Rockwell FactoryTalk factoryTalk is a brand, not a product, so a quote that says FactoryTalk may cover any of six separately licensed things; buyers repeatedly find that the demo they saw needed View plus Historian plus a Hub subscription.; 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: Rockwell FactoryTalk covers FactoryTalk View SE and ME, TrendMiner covers Pattern search.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Rockwell FactoryTalk and TrendMiner actually diverge.

Attributes where Rockwell FactoryTalk and TrendMiner differ
AttributeRockwell FactoryTalkTrendMiner
PlatformsWindows, Linux, Web, CloudWeb, 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 Rockwell FactoryTalk

  • FactoryTalk View SE and ME
  • FactoryTalk Historian
  • FactoryTalk Optix
  • FactoryTalk Batch
  • FactoryTalk Hub
  • Native Logix tags

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.

Rockwell FactoryTalk

  • A plant standardised on ControlLogix that needs supervisory HMI without building and maintaining an OPC layer between controller and screennot TrendMiner
  • A hybrid manufacturer needing ISA-88 batch execution audited against recipes, where FactoryTalk Batch is already validated in the industrynot TrendMiner
  • Consolidating machine-level HMI screens across many Allen-Bradley lines under one tag model and one alarm schemenot TrendMiner
  • Adding a plant historian quickly where the site has Rockwell distribution support but no PI administrator on staffnot 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 Rockwell FactoryTalk
  • Comparing golden batches against off-spec ones in a pharmaceutical process without exporting to a data science teamnot Rockwell FactoryTalk
  • Building a monitor that flags the early temperature signature that preceded the last three compressor tripsnot Rockwell FactoryTalk
  • Giving a process engineer a way to answer a question in an afternoon that previously required a historian export and a spreadsheet weeknot Rockwell FactoryTalk

Where each one falls short

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

Rockwell FactoryTalk

  • FactoryTalk is a brand, not a product, so a quote that says FactoryTalk may cover any of six separately licensed things; buyers repeatedly find that the demo they saw needed View plus Historian plus a Hub subscription.
  • Licensing units differ per product, tags for Historian, display tags and clients for View, another scheme for Optix, which makes forecasting the cost of a plant expansion genuinely hard.
  • The migration of products onto FactoryTalk Hub subscriptions converts what used to be a perpetual licence into an annual payment where lapsing stops the software, changing a capital purchase into an operating one you cannot exit.
  • Value drops sharply outside an Allen-Bradley estate; against a Siemens or Mitsubishi PLC you are back to OPC UA and lose the main reason to buy FactoryTalk at all.
  • There is no public price list and buying is through distribution, so two plants of identical size in the same company can pay materially different amounts depending on when and how they negotiated.

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

Rockwell FactoryTalk

On request
  • FactoryTalk$undefined/year
    • Sold through Rockwell distribution, not direct or self-service
    • View licensed by display tag count and client seats
    • Historian licensed by tag count

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 Rockwell FactoryTalk if

  • You need factorytalk view se and me.
  • You work on Windows, Linux, Web, Cloud.
  • You also want factorytalk historian.
Rockwell FactoryTalk 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 Rockwell FactoryTalk or TrendMiner better?
Neither clearly leads. Rockwell FactoryTalk 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, Rockwell FactoryTalk or TrendMiner?
Rockwell FactoryTalk starts at On request and TrendMiner at On request.
Does Rockwell FactoryTalk or TrendMiner run on more platforms?
Rockwell FactoryTalk runs on Windows, Linux, Web, Cloud. TrendMiner runs on Web, Windows, Linux.
What is Rockwell FactoryTalk best used for?
Rockwell FactoryTalk is most often used for a plant standardised on controllogix that needs supervisory hmi without building and maintaining an opc layer between controller and screen, a hybrid manufacturer needing isa-88 batch execution audited against recipes, where factorytalk batch is already validated in the industry, consolidating machine-level hmi screens across many allen-bradley lines under one tag model and one alarm scheme, adding a plant historian quickly where the site has rockwell distribution support but no pi administrator on staff. Of those, a plant standardised on controllogix that needs supervisory hmi without building and maintaining an opc layer between controller and screen and a hybrid manufacturer needing isa-88 batch execution audited against recipes, where factorytalk batch is already validated in the industry are not what TrendMiner is typically brought in for.
What can Rockwell FactoryTalk do that TrendMiner cannot?
Rockwell FactoryTalk covers FactoryTalk View SE and ME, FactoryTalk Historian, FactoryTalk Optix, FactoryTalk Batch. TrendMiner covers Pattern search, Value-based search, Monitors, Soft sensors.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Rockwell FactoryTalk: Is FactoryTalk Historian the same as AVEVA PI?

It is built on the PI engine under an OEM arrangement, tuned for Rockwell integration. If you already run PI enterprise-wide, buying Historian too usually duplicates a system you have.

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.

Rockwell FactoryTalk: Can I still buy FactoryTalk perpetually?

Some products yes, but the direction is toward FactoryTalk Hub subscriptions. Confirm per product before assuming a capital purchase is available.

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.

Rockwell FactoryTalk: Does FactoryTalk work with non-Rockwell PLCs?

Yes, through OPC UA and drivers, but the native tag browse advantage disappears and the case for FactoryTalk over a cheaper independent SCADA weakens.

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.

Rockwell FactoryTalk: Where do I find pricing?

You cannot without a distributor. Rockwell publishes no list pricing for the FactoryTalk portfolio.

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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