Empower PLM vs GitPLM

Empower PLM is a product content and lifecycle management system for centralizing and sharing product information. It manages item revisions, lifecycle status, attributes, costs, availability, CAD data, documents, supplier information, and where-used relationships. Teams can manage and compare bills of materials and variants, plus manufacturing, test, and assembly routings. Formal changes such as ECRs, ECOs, and ECNs support redlines, workflow approvals, and automatic updates after release. The Quality Management module provides a closed-loop CAPA process for product defects and issues. Document version control and an audit trail record changes and viewing history. Web services support custom ERP/MRP integrations and interfaces with CRM, MES, and CAD systems; BOMs can be imported from CAD or ERP. A REST API exchanges workspace data, but an API license is required. Authentication options include Empower credentials, LDAP, Salesforce login, and SSO. The product is FIPS-compliant and offered on-premises or hosted/SaaS. Pricing is on request.

GitPLM manages product manufacturing information alongside product designs in Git. It brings together bills of materials, part numbers and manufacturing release data, including combined BOMs across subassemblies and release information for custom components. Its terminal interface supports column searches, per-column parametric searches, editing and datasheet links. Partmaster and BOM records use CSV files, while release configuration uses YAML. GitPLM can provide a parts database to KiCad through its HTTP Libraries feature and reload data when CSV files change. Optional release hooks can run tools such as KiCad’s InteractiveHtmlBom generator, though those hooks are supported only on Linux and macOS. The KiCad HTTP server can use an authentication token. GitPLM is described as a self-contained Go binary with no dependencies, runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, and is deployed on-premise. It is free, released under the Apache 2.0 license, and designed for small teams building products.