tldr: If you are comparing Tekla PowerFab, STRUMIS, and FabSuite, you are choosing between two systems, not three, because FabSuite became PowerFab after Trimble bought it in 2018. Both are serious steel MIS platforms, neither publishes pricing, and the right choice mostly comes down to where your detailing work already lives.

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Your shop has outgrown the whiteboard and the spreadsheet that runs production. Material is getting bought twice, nobody can say what stage a sequence is in without walking the floor, and someone in the Monday meeting said the words PowerFab and STRUMIS. So you opened both websites, and where the price should be, both of them said request a demo.

Disclosure before anything else: we build Ferra, and Ferra is not a fabrication management system. We do takeoff and bid intelligence, the work that happens before the PO. Plenty of shops run Ferra alongside PowerFab or STRUMIS. I have no horse in this race, which is exactly why I can write the comparison their sales teams cannot.

One more thing worth saying up front. Both of these are good systems run by serious companies. A shop that picks either one and implements it ends up better off than a shop that spends another year deciding. The differences are real, but they are differences of fit, and fit is knowable before you sit through a single demo.

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First, the FabSuite question

FabSuite no longer exists as a standalone product. Trimble acquired FabSuite in April 2018 and relaunched it in March 2019 as the core of Tekla PowerFab, with the old FabSuite MIS renamed Tekla EPM. In 2023 Trimble retired the EPM name too, so the desktop product is now simply called Tekla PowerFab. Two renames in five years, and half the trade still says FabSuite, which is why you can find shops comparing "PowerFab vs FabSuite" as if they were rivals. They are the same lineage. One is just the version that stopped getting new features.

So if you are running legacy FabSuite today, the decision in front of you is narrower than it looks. Take the upgrade path inside Trimble, or use the disruption of a migration as your one cheap chance to look at STRUMIS. Moving systems hurts once either way. Price both paths before assuming the upgrade is the cheap one.

What a steel MIS covers

Fabrication management software, or MIS, runs the shop from purchase order to shipped steel. The core modules are the same across vendors: estimating, drawing and revision control, purchasing and inventory, production tracking by station, and shipping out to the field. The pitch, in one sentence, is that the whiteboard stops being the system of record.

The brochures gloss over something that matters later in this article. The estimating module is usually the shallowest part of an MIS. These systems were built to control material and shop hours, and they are genuinely good at that. Estimating rides along. Keep that in mind, because it changes what you are buying.

Tekla PowerFab, straight

PowerFab is one of the most widely used steel fabrication management systems in North America, and its FabSuite history is a big part of why. FabSuite was already the name in US fab shops when Trimble bought it, and Trimble has spent seven years maturing it, first under the Tekla EPM name and since 2023 as Tekla PowerFab outright. Ask around the floor at NASCC and PowerFab comes up constantly. That well-established user base matters, because your next hire has probably already used it.

The fit is strongest if your shop already details in Tekla Structures. Model, MIS, and viewer come from one company, statuses flow both directions, and PowerFab Go puts tracking on a tablet at the station instead of on a clipboard. For a Tekla Structures shop, choosing anything else needs a reason.

The friction is the mirror image of the strength. Buying PowerFab is a step into the Trimble product family, and each renewal makes the next Trimble product the easy default. That is not sinister, but you should walk in knowing it. The other pattern we hear from estimators and shop managers is that parts of the interface show their FabSuite age. Neither complaint stops shops from renewing.

Shortlist PowerFab first if: you detail in Tekla Structures, you want a deep North American user base and hiring pool, or you are on legacy FabSuite and dreading a migration.

STRUMIS, straight

STRUMIS is the other real contender, and it has been running steel fab shops for decades. Where PowerFab is a North American story, STRUMIS is a global one, with a footprint across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia alongside its North American shops. It is the strongest option that does not tie your MIS to your modeling vendor.

Fabricators who run it point at material management first. Nesting, stock control, and traceability are where STRUMIS has real depth, and shops that live or die on material yield notice the difference. Because it is not tied to any modeling vendor, it takes model data from whichever detailing package your subcontracted detailers happen to use, and multi-package shops feel that freedom every time a job shows up in a different format.

The friction runs the other way from PowerFab. In North America the user base is thinner, so fewer of your peers and fewer of your potential hires already know it. And if your whole world is Tekla Structures end to end, you are giving up the single-vendor tightness to gain an independence you may never use.

Shortlist STRUMIS first if: your detailing comes from multiple packages or outside detailers, material yield is where your margin lives, or you want your MIS decision kept separate from your modeling decision.

PowerFab vs STRUMIS at a glance

Everything above, compressed to one table you can hand to whoever signs the check.

What Tekla PowerFab and STRUMIS actually cost

Neither vendor publishes list prices, and I am not going to pretend to leak numbers I do not have. What I can tell you is how the quotes are built, because once you know the structure, you can force two comparable numbers out of two sales teams.

Every quote in this category has four parts. License seats, and whether they are named users or concurrent matters a lot in a shop with shift overlap. Modules, because estimating, purchasing, production, and shipping are often priced as separate pieces. Implementation and training, which is real money and real calendar time, not a rounding error. And the annual layer, either maintenance on top of a perpetual license or a subscription that folds everything in.

What moves the number: how many people touch the system, how many stations you track, how many sites you run, and how many modules you switch on in year one. A four-person shop and a forty-person shop are not buying the same product at different prices. They are buying different products.

One adjacent number to watch. If the PowerFab conversation pulls in Tekla Structures for detailing, that is its own license with its own annual cost, quoted separately. Shops comparing a PowerFab bundle against STRUMIS plus their existing detailing setup should make sure both totals cover the same scope.

Ask both vendors these five questions and the quotes come back comparable:

1. Is this per named user or per concurrent user, and what does one more seat cost in year two?
2. Which modules are in this number, and what does each one cost to add later?
3. Is implementation and training included, and how many weeks does it realistically take a shop my size?
4. What is the annual maintenance or subscription after year one, and what has its increase looked like historically?
5. If we leave in three years, what do we get out, and in what format?

A vendor who answers all five plainly is telling you something about the next ten years of the relationship. So is a vendor who dodges.

The estimating module question

Here is the pattern we see over and over. A shop buys an MIS for production control, which is the right reason, and then assumes the estimating module means estimating is solved. Six months later the estimator is often still spending days reviewing drawings, building quantities by hand, and reworking the estimate as revisions land. PowerFab and STRUMIS both ship real estimating capability, covering material, labor, costing, and imported model data. Neither is, at its core, a structural steel takeoff system that reads an entire PDF drawing set and turns it into a reviewed count. Producing that count is the slow half of a steel estimate, and it is where the days go.

That is the boundary where takeoff tools live, ours included. Ferra reads the drawing set, detects and classifies the steel, and hands the estimator a reviewable takeoff, with revisions compared before fabrication ever starts. The MIS runs the shop. A takeoff tool helps you understand and price what you are bidding, and both PowerFab and STRUMIS accept imported quantities from there. If you are shopping that category, the tool-by-tool comparison is the article to read. The point for this one is simpler. Buy the MIS for the shop. Judge the takeoff gap separately.

How to choose between them

You do not need a weighted scorecard. Four routing rules cover most shops.

Already detailing in Tekla Structures? PowerFab is the path of least resistance, and resistance is what kills MIS implementations. Start there and make STRUMIS argue you out of it.

Multi-package detailing, outside detailers, or shops on more than one continent? Give STRUMIS the first call. Vendor independence and material depth are its home turf.

Still on legacy FabSuite? You are migrating either way, so this is the one moment a STRUMIS switch costs little more than the Trimble upgrade. Price both before the sales rep frames the upgrade as the only sane path.

Two-person shop with no production tracking pain yet? You may not need an MIS this year, and I would rather say that plainly than watch you buy one because a bigger shop did. The whiteboard is embarrassing and free. Buy the MIS when jobs start slipping through it, and put the money into fixing whatever is costing you bids today.

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FAQs

Is FabSuite still available, or is it Tekla PowerFab now?

FabSuite is not sold as a standalone product anymore. Trimble acquired FabSuite in April 2018 and relaunched it in 2019 as the core of Tekla PowerFab, first under the name Tekla EPM and since 2023 as Tekla PowerFab outright. Shops still running FabSuite are on the legacy version of what is now PowerFab, and the practical decision is whether to upgrade within Trimble or move to another MIS such as STRUMIS.

How much does Tekla PowerFab cost?

Trimble does not publish PowerFab pricing, and any specific figure you find online is somebody's old quote, not a list price. Quotes are built from seats, modules, implementation and training, and an annual maintenance or subscription layer, and they scale with shop size and station count. Ask whether seats are named or concurrent and what is included in year one, because those two answers move the total more than anything else.

How much does STRUMIS cost?

STRUMIS does not publish list prices either. Quotes are built the same way as PowerFab's: seats, modules, implementation and training, and an annual maintenance or subscription layer, scaled to shop size and sites. The difference worth checking in a comparison is scope. STRUMIS does not assume any particular detailing license alongside it, so make sure a PowerFab bundle and a STRUMIS quote cover the same total before you put them side by side.

What is the difference between Tekla EPM and Tekla PowerFab?

Tekla EPM was the name the renamed FabSuite MIS carried from 2019 to 2023. With the 2023 release Trimble retired it, so the desktop product is now called Tekla PowerFab and the mobile app Tekla EPM Go became PowerFab Go. If older documentation or a colleague says EPM, they mean the same product this article calls PowerFab.

What is the difference between Tekla Structures and Tekla PowerFab?

Tekla Structures is 3D detailing and modeling software, the tool a detailer uses to build the model and produce shop drawings. Tekla PowerFab is the management system that runs the fab shop. They are separate products with separate licenses, sold by the same company and often bought together, and PowerFab's tightest integrations assume Structures is in the picture.

Is STRUMIS better than PowerFab for shops that don't use Tekla Structures?

Often, yes. STRUMIS is independent of any modeling vendor and takes data from whichever detailing package a job arrives in, which suits shops using outside detailers or mixed software. PowerFab's strongest advantage assumes your detailing lives in Tekla Structures. Remove that assumption and the comparison tightens to material management depth, local support, and price, where STRUMIS competes well.

Do I still need takeoff software if my MIS has an estimating module?

Usually, yes. PowerFab and STRUMIS both include real estimating modules covering material, labor, costing, and imported model data. Neither is, at its core, built to read a full PDF drawing set and turn it into a reviewed takeoff, so the counting still happens somewhere, either manually in Bluebeam or with a takeoff tool that detects members from the drawings. For a structural steel shop, a tool like Ferra produces the reviewed count, and the MIS takes it from there. The two categories feed each other rather than compete.

What questions should I ask in a PowerFab or STRUMIS demo?

Bring a real job and make the demo run on it. Then ask the five pricing questions: named or concurrent seats, which modules are in the number, what implementation costs and how long it takes, what the annual layer looks like after year one, and what you can export if you ever leave. The demo shows you the software. The five answers show you the vendor.

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Whichever system ends up running your shop, the bid still has to be won before there is anything to fabricate. If the counting side is where your bottleneck lives, send us a real drawing set and we will run it with your estimating team, or sign up free and put a set through Ferra yourself.