An ePS Pace alternative built for flexographic prepress trade shops
ePS Pace is calibrated for commercial print — offset, digital, wide-format. Flexoworks is purpose-built for flexo plate trade shops, where the unit of business is plate area, not impressions. Native plate-area billing, native gang allocation, and a customer model shaped around brands, converters, and designers.
Pace was built for offset. Flexoworks is built for plates.
ePS Pace is a strong print MIS for sheet-fed offset, digital, and wide-format commercial printers — the business it was originally built around. It was not built for flexographic prepress trade shops, and retrofitting it to plate-area billing, gang allocation, and converter delivery means custom workflow builds that drift from upgrades. Flexoworks ships the flexo trade shop data model out of the box — plate area, plate type, gauge, screening, gang allocation, and trade-shop AR as first-class entities. The right call for most plate trade shops.
A commercial print MIS isn't a flexo trade shop MIS.
ePS Pace is a competent system for commercial printers. The challenge is structural: a flexo prepress trade shop's economics, customer model, and gang flows look fundamentally different from a sheet-fed offset shop's — and Pace's data model isn't shaped to match.
Impressions, not plate area, drive the data model
Pace counts sheets and units — the math of an offset job. Flexo trade shops bill on imaged photopolymer area, with rate cards by plate type, gauge, and screening. In Pace, that becomes a custom workflow build.
Gang allocation across customer POs isn't native
When small flexo jobs share a plate for yield, allocation has to run automatically against the right customer POs. Pace requires a custom workflow build for this — and the build tends to drift with upgrades.
One customer per job, not three
Pace models a single customer per job — appropriate for commercial print. A flexo trade shop routinely bills the brand for plates, ships to the converter, and rebills the designer. The three-party flow doesn't fit cleanly.
Pricing calibrated for commercial print groups
ePS Pace is sold mid-five to six figures with annual maintenance, typically aimed at commercial printers running multiple presses. For an independent trade shop running 100–10,000 plates a month, the economics rarely justify a generic offset MIS.
Flexoworks ships flexo-native modeling out of the box. Plates, gauges, gangs, converters, designers, and rate cards are first-class entities — and the platform integrates with the prepress workflow tools (Esko, Kodak, Hybrid) trade shops already run on the imaging side.
Where each tool earns its keep — and where it doesn't.
| Dimension | Flexoworks | Esko Automation Engine | ePS Pace (Tharstern) | Generic ERP / QuickBooks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Flexo prepress trade shops | Prepress workflow (any technique) | Commercial print MIS | Generic accounting + ops |
| Plate-area billing | Native — reads from step-and-repeat | Not an MIS | Manual / custom config | Manual |
| Gang allocation across POs | Automatic | Limited | Custom workflow build | Spreadsheet |
| Plate type / gauge / screening | First-class entities | Native (workflow side) | Generic job specs | Free-text fields |
| Customer & AR records | Native — flexo-shaped | Not an MIS | Native (offset-shaped) | Native (generic) |
| Esko / Kodak / Hybrid integration | Yes | N/A — is Esko | Limited | None |
| Pricing model | SaaS, per-user + plate-area tier | Perpetual + maintenance, very high | Mid-five to six figures, custom | Low |
Native / strong fitPartial / requires workNot a fit
What flexo trade shops ask before switching off Pace.
What's the difference between ePS Pace and Flexoworks?
ePS Pace is a generic print MIS built for commercial printers running sheet-fed offset, digital, and wide-format jobs. Its data model is shaped around impressions, signatures, and sheets. Flexoworks is purpose-built for flexographic prepress trade shops, where the unit of business is a square inch of imaged photopolymer — plate-area billing, gang allocation across customer POs, and converter delivery are native to the model, not custom workflow builds.Is ePS Pace good for flexographic plate trade shops?
Pace can be configured to track flexo jobs, but the underlying model assumes commercial print economics. Trade shops typically end up with custom workflow builds for plate-area billing, gang allocation, and converter shipping flows. Those builds get expensive to maintain and tend to drift with each Pace upgrade. Flexoworks ships the flexo-native model on day one.Is Flexoworks cheaper than ePS Pace?
Generally yes, on total cost of ownership. ePS Pace is sold in the mid-five to six-figure range as a license plus annual maintenance, typically with custom integration and configuration services on top. Flexoworks is SaaS, priced per active user with usage tiers based on monthly plate area billed. For most independent trade shops, the gap is material — especially once Pace customization is included.ePS acquired Tharstern. Does that change the comparison?
ePS Pace and Tharstern are both now part of the eProductivity Software Midmarket Print Suite. Both are commercial print MIS systems with offset, digital, and wide-format heritage. Neither was originally built for flexographic plate trade shops. The same comparison applies — Flexoworks is purpose-built for the flexo trade shop business, Pace and Tharstern are calibrated for commercial printers.Can we keep our prepress workflow tool if we move from Pace to Flexoworks?
Yes — that's the design. Flexoworks is the MIS layer. It connects to Esko Automation Engine, Esko Flexo Front End, Hybrid CLOUDFLOW, and Kodak Prinergy. You keep your existing prepress workflow tool driving the imager and replace Pace on the business side.How long does it take to migrate from ePS Pace to Flexoworks?
Typical onboarding is 4–8 weeks. The longest part is importing your existing customer rate cards, plate-type catalogs, work-in-progress jobs, and open AR. The Flexoworks team handles the data migration and connects Flexoworks to your prepress workflow engine for ongoing job ticket exchange. Most shops stay live on Pace until cutover, then sunset it.Does Flexoworks integrate with QuickBooks Online and Sage like Pace does?
Yes. Flexoworks syncs invoices, payments, and customer ledgers to QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite — so plate-area billing line items, rush fees, and shipping all post to the right GL accounts without re-keying. Accounting integration was a core requirement, not a bolt-on.
A 30-minute walkthrough on your real plate workflow — Pace alongside Flexoworks, side by side.
Bring a quote, a job ticket, and a recent invoice from Pace. We'll show you the same job in Flexoworks end to end — quote, intake, plate area, gang allocation, ship, AR. No slideware.