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Manufacturing · head to head

Kepware Server vs Sight Machine

Kepware Server logo

Kepware Server

Manufacturing

Industrial connectivity server translating 150-plus PLC protocols into OPC UA, formerly KEPServerEX

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sight Machine logo

Sight Machine

Manufacturing

Enterprise manufacturing data platform that builds a plant data model rather than a dashboard

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Kepware Server the base server is the small part of the bill; driver suites are priced by protocol family, and a mixed-vendor plant buys several, which is how a connectivity layer alone reaches tens of thousands of dollars.; Sight Machine onboarding is a data engineering project measured in months per plant, so value arrives long after the contract starts and the internal sponsor needs the patience and budget to survive that gap.
  • They diverge on capability: Kepware Server covers 150-plus device drivers, Sight Machine covers Unified plant data model.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kepware Server and Sight Machine actually diverge.

Attributes where Kepware Server and Sight Machine differ
AttributeKepware ServerSight Machine
PlatformsWindows, LinuxWeb, API

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 Kepware Server

  • 150-plus device drivers
  • OPC UA server
  • IoT Gateway
  • DataLogger
  • Redundancy Master
  • Security Policies
  • Configuration API
  • Kepware Edge

Only in Sight Machine

  • Unified plant data model
  • Broad ingestion
  • Cross plant benchmarking
  • Root cause analysis
  • Natural language querying
  • Cloud data platform delivery

What people use each for

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

Kepware Server

  • Feeding a historian from a mixed plant of Allen-Bradley and Siemens PLCs without writing per-protocol driversnot Sight Machine
  • Publishing CNC machine state from FANUC and Haas controls to an OEE system over MQTTnot Sight Machine
  • Bridging legacy serial Modbus devices into an OPC UA architecture during a phased controller replacementnot Sight Machine
  • Running redundant collection servers so a cloud analytics pipeline does not lose data during Windows patchingnot Sight Machine

Sight Machine

  • A corporate operations team that cannot compare plant performance because every site defines a stoppage differentlynot Kepware Server
  • A manufacturer whose historian data is plentiful but has never been modelled into anything a business can querynot Kepware Server
  • A group standardising manufacturing reporting into a cloud data warehouse alongside finance and supply chain datanot Kepware Server
  • A quality organisation investigating a defect that appears at several plants with different equipmentnot Kepware Server

Where each one falls short

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

Kepware Server

  • The base server is the small part of the bill; driver suites are priced by protocol family, and a mixed-vendor plant buys several, which is how a connectivity layer alone reaches tens of thousands of dollars.
  • KEPServerEX to Kepware Server 7 is a migration rather than an in-place upgrade, and driver entitlements do not always transfer cleanly, so budget for revalidating every channel.
  • The full driver portfolio is Windows-only; the Linux product, Kepware Edge, supports a subset of drivers and is subscription-licensed by tag count, so an edge-first architecture cannot simply reuse the Windows configuration.
  • Three names have been in circulation for the same lineage, and quotes, forum answers and integrator experience still mix KEPServerEX, ThingWorx Kepware Server and Kepware Server, which produces mismatched proposals.
  • It is a translation layer with no storage, contextualisation or visualisation of its own, so it is always an addition to a historian or platform purchase rather than a substitute for one.

Sight Machine

  • Onboarding is a data engineering project measured in months per plant, so value arrives long after the contract starts and the internal sponsor needs the patience and budget to survive that gap.
  • It assumes the instrumentation already exists, so a plant whose machines produce no usable data gets nothing from a data platform and needs to solve connectivity first with a different class of product.
  • Pricing scales with plants and data volume and is never published, which puts it out of reach for single site manufacturers regardless of how relevant the capability sounds.
  • It is not an MES and does not control or execute anything, so it sits on top of the operational systems and adds a layer to maintain rather than replacing one.
  • Success depends on a central team that owns definitions and enforces them, and in groups where plants retain autonomy the standardisation the platform provides gets quietly ignored at site level.

Pricing, plan by plan

Kepware Server

On request
  • Kepware Server$undefined/year
    • Base server as a perpetual licence with annual maintenance, or subscription
    • Driver suites priced by protocol family and bought separately from the server
    • Advanced plug-ins such as IoT Gateway, DataLogger and Redundancy Master licensed individually

Sight Machine

On request
  • Sight Machine$undefined/year
    • Enterprise manufacturing data platform
    • Per plant onboarding and modelling services
    • Cross site analytics and benchmarking

Which should you pick?

Choose Kepware Server if

  • You need 150-plus device drivers.
  • You work on Windows, Linux.
  • You also want opc ua server.
Kepware Server review

Choose Sight Machine if

  • You need unified plant data model.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want broad ingestion.
Sight Machine review

Questions people ask

Is Kepware Server or Sight Machine better?
Neither clearly leads. Kepware Server starts at On request and Sight Machine at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kepware Server or Sight Machine?
Kepware Server starts at On request and Sight Machine at On request.
Does Kepware Server or Sight Machine run on more platforms?
Kepware Server runs on Windows, Linux. Sight Machine runs on Web, API.
What is Kepware Server best used for?
Kepware Server is most often used for feeding a historian from a mixed plant of allen-bradley and siemens plcs without writing per-protocol drivers, publishing cnc machine state from fanuc and haas controls to an oee system over mqtt, bridging legacy serial modbus devices into an opc ua architecture during a phased controller replacement, running redundant collection servers so a cloud analytics pipeline does not lose data during windows patching. Of those, feeding a historian from a mixed plant of allen-bradley and siemens plcs without writing per-protocol drivers and publishing cnc machine state from fanuc and haas controls to an oee system over mqtt are not what Sight Machine is typically brought in for.
What can Kepware Server do that Sight Machine cannot?
Kepware Server covers 150-plus device drivers, OPC UA server, IoT Gateway, DataLogger. Sight Machine covers Unified plant data model, Broad ingestion, Cross plant benchmarking, Root cause analysis.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Kepware Server: Is KEPServerEX discontinued?

The name is. KEPServerEX and ThingWorx Kepware Server have been unified into Kepware Server, currently version 7, and the older names are being retired.

Sight Machine: Is this an OEE product?

It can produce OEE, but buying it for OEE alone is expensive. The reason to buy it is cross plant data standardisation.

Kepware Server: Is a perpetual licence still available?

Yes for the Windows server, with annual maintenance. Kepware Edge on Linux is subscription-only.

Sight Machine: Does it need a historian?

It reads from historians, control systems and MES. Some source of machine data is a prerequisite.

Kepware Server: What drives the price?

The number and type of driver suites, not the number of tags on the Windows product. Kepware Edge is priced by tag count.

Sight Machine: How long does a plant take to onboard?

Plan in months per plant, depending on how many sources and how inconsistent the existing definitions are.

Kepware Server: Can I evaluate it before buying?

Yes. The runtime works for two hours at a time without a licence, indefinitely, which is enough to prove connectivity but not to run production.

Sight Machine: Who is the buyer?

A corporate manufacturing, quality or digital function. It is rarely a plant level purchase.

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