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Manufacturing · head to head

Samotics vs TrendMiner

Samotics logo

Samotics

Manufacturing

Condition monitoring of motor-driven assets using electrical signature analysis from the motor control cabinet

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: Samotics sAM4 only sees what reaches the motor electrically, so it covers the driven train and misses un-driven equipment, structures, process conditions and anything downstream of a mechanical decoupling.; 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: Samotics covers Electrical signature analysis, TrendMiner covers Pattern search.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Samotics and TrendMiner actually diverge.

Attributes where Samotics and TrendMiner differ
AttributeSamoticsTrendMiner
PlatformsWeb, 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 Samotics

  • Electrical signature analysis
  • Switchroom installation
  • Energy and efficiency measurement
  • Submersible and hazardous area coverage
  • Fault classification
  • Fleet view

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.

Samotics

  • A water utility monitoring submersible and borehole pumps that no vibration sensor can be fitted to without lifting the pumpnot TrendMiner
  • A chemical plant with assets in ATEX zones where certifying and maintaining in-field sensors is more expensive than the monitoring itselfnot TrendMiner
  • A food plant that wants pump and mixer condition data without opening guarding or taking a hygiene-critical line down to fit sensorsnot TrendMiner
  • A site building an energy reduction case, where measured motor efficiency and waste give the business case a payback that reliability alone would notnot 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 Samotics
  • Comparing golden batches against off-spec ones in a pharmaceutical process without exporting to a data science teamnot Samotics
  • Building a monitor that flags the early temperature signature that preceded the last three compressor tripsnot Samotics
  • Giving a process engineer a way to answer a question in an afternoon that previously required a historian export and a spreadsheet weeknot Samotics

Where each one falls short

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

Samotics

  • SAM4 only sees what reaches the motor electrically, so it covers the driven train and misses un-driven equipment, structures, process conditions and anything downstream of a mechanical decoupling.
  • Each monitored motor needs hardware installed in the motor control centre by a qualified electrician, and in older switchrooms that installation, including any required outage, can cost more than a year of the subscription.
  • Per-asset subscription pricing means the cost scales linearly with the number of motors, so a plant with a thousand small motors faces a bill that a fixed-price plant-wide vibration system would not impose.
  • Electrical signature analysis on variable-speed drives is harder than on direct-on-line motors, and results vary with drive type, so a heavily VSD estate should insist on a pilot on its own drives before committing.
  • Nothing is published on price, contract length or minimum deployment size, and the vendor sells multi-year subscriptions, so early exit terms are a negotiation you have to raise yourself.

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

Samotics

On request
  • SAM4$undefined/year
    • Subscription priced per monitored asset
    • SAM4 sensor hardware required in each motor control centre
    • Electrical installation by a qualified electrician, quoted separately

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 Samotics if

  • You need electrical signature analysis.
  • You work on Web, Cloud.
  • You also want switchroom installation.
Samotics 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 Samotics or TrendMiner better?
Neither clearly leads. Samotics 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, Samotics or TrendMiner?
Samotics starts at On request and TrendMiner at On request.
Does Samotics or TrendMiner run on more platforms?
Samotics runs on Web, Cloud. TrendMiner runs on Web, Windows, Linux.
What is Samotics best used for?
Samotics is most often used for a water utility monitoring submersible and borehole pumps that no vibration sensor can be fitted to without lifting the pump, a chemical plant with assets in atex zones where certifying and maintaining in-field sensors is more expensive than the monitoring itself, a food plant that wants pump and mixer condition data without opening guarding or taking a hygiene-critical line down to fit sensors, a site building an energy reduction case, where measured motor efficiency and waste give the business case a payback that reliability alone would not. Of those, a water utility monitoring submersible and borehole pumps that no vibration sensor can be fitted to without lifting the pump and a chemical plant with assets in atex zones where certifying and maintaining in-field sensors is more expensive than the monitoring itself are not what TrendMiner is typically brought in for.
What can Samotics do that TrendMiner cannot?
Samotics covers Electrical signature analysis, Switchroom installation, Energy and efficiency measurement, Submersible and hazardous area coverage. TrendMiner covers Pattern search, Value-based search, Monitors, Soft sensors.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Samotics: Does Samotics replace vibration monitoring?

For motor-driven assets it often does, and it reaches assets vibration cannot. For un-driven equipment and structures it does not apply at all.

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.

Samotics: Do I have to buy Samotics hardware?

Yes. SAM4 requires the vendor's sensors fitted in the motor control centre; there is no software-only option.

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.

Samotics: Does it work on variable-speed drives?

It can, but performance depends on the drive and the operating profile. Pilot it on your own VSD assets rather than accepting a reference from a direct-on-line site.

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.

Samotics: How is it priced?

Subscription per monitored asset, quoted, typically on a multi-year term, with hardware and electrical installation on top.

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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