— Honest comparison
$200 ROMAC. $15K SigmaNEST.
$499 Indolent.
Three honest ways to nest steel in 2026. Here is what each one actually costs over the next three years, and what you get for the money.
| Feature | Indolent Forge $499 one-time One app | ROMAC Nesting $100 + $100 one-time Length + Plate apps, separate | SigmaNEST $12K–$15K + $2K/yr Enterprise license | ProNest (Hypertherm) $10K–$12K Plus optional subscription | Spreadsheets Free (your time) No software |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (up-front) | $499 | $200 (both nesters) | $12K–$15K | $10K–$12K | Free |
| Annual cost going forward | $0 | $0 (or $750/yr with PC8) | ~$2,000/yr | Optional sub | $0 |
| 3-year total (with KISS support) | $499 | $2,450 (with PC8) | $18K–$21K | $10K–$15K | Free |
| One unified app | |||||
| KISS file import (Tekla / SDS2 / Advance) | requires PC8 ($750/yr) | ||||
| 1D linear nesting (beams, angle, channel) | |||||
| 2D plate / sheet nesting | |||||
| Polygon / DXF irregular-shape nesting | |||||
| Shear sequence printed on cut sheets | |||||
| Cut sheet PDFs designed for the shop floor | |||||
| Excel BOM export (multi-sheet workbook) | |||||
| Multi-machine routing (Beamline / Dragon) | |||||
| AI-powered chat (steel-domain) | |||||
| Free trial | 14 days, full app | Demo on request | Demo on request | — | |
| License model | Perpetual, owned | Perpetual (each app) | Perpetual + maintenance | Perpetual or subscription | — |
| Time to first nest | Minutes | Hours (2–3 separate apps to learn) | Days (training) | Days (training) | Hours per job, forever |
Indolent Forge
$499 one-time
One app
- Price (up-front)
- $499
- Annual cost going forward
- $0
- 3-year total (with KISS support)
- $499
- One unified app
- KISS file import (Tekla / SDS2 / Advance)
- 1D linear nesting (beams, angle, channel)
- 2D plate / sheet nesting
- Polygon / DXF irregular-shape nesting
- Shear sequence printed on cut sheets
- Cut sheet PDFs designed for the shop floor
- Excel BOM export (multi-sheet workbook)
- Multi-machine routing (Beamline / Dragon)
- AI-powered chat (steel-domain)
- Free trial
- 14 days, full app
- License model
- Perpetual, owned
- Time to first nest
- Minutes
ROMAC Nesting
$100 + $100 one-time
Length + Plate apps, separate
- Price (up-front)
- $200 (both nesters)
- Annual cost going forward
- $0 (or $750/yr with PC8)
- 3-year total (with KISS support)
- $2,450 (with PC8)
- One unified app
- KISS file import (Tekla / SDS2 / Advance)
- requires PC8 ($750/yr)
- 1D linear nesting (beams, angle, channel)
- 2D plate / sheet nesting
- Polygon / DXF irregular-shape nesting
- Shear sequence printed on cut sheets
- Cut sheet PDFs designed for the shop floor
- Excel BOM export (multi-sheet workbook)
- Multi-machine routing (Beamline / Dragon)
- AI-powered chat (steel-domain)
- Free trial
- License model
- Perpetual (each app)
- Time to first nest
- Hours (2–3 separate apps to learn)
SigmaNEST
$12K–$15K + $2K/yr
Enterprise license
- Price (up-front)
- $12K–$15K
- Annual cost going forward
- ~$2,000/yr
- 3-year total (with KISS support)
- $18K–$21K
- One unified app
- KISS file import (Tekla / SDS2 / Advance)
- 1D linear nesting (beams, angle, channel)
- 2D plate / sheet nesting
- Polygon / DXF irregular-shape nesting
- Shear sequence printed on cut sheets
- Cut sheet PDFs designed for the shop floor
- Excel BOM export (multi-sheet workbook)
- Multi-machine routing (Beamline / Dragon)
- AI-powered chat (steel-domain)
- Free trial
- Demo on request
- License model
- Perpetual + maintenance
- Time to first nest
- Days (training)
ProNest (Hypertherm)
$10K–$12K
Plus optional subscription
- Price (up-front)
- $10K–$12K
- Annual cost going forward
- Optional sub
- 3-year total (with KISS support)
- $10K–$15K
- One unified app
- KISS file import (Tekla / SDS2 / Advance)
- 1D linear nesting (beams, angle, channel)
- 2D plate / sheet nesting
- Polygon / DXF irregular-shape nesting
- Shear sequence printed on cut sheets
- Cut sheet PDFs designed for the shop floor
- Excel BOM export (multi-sheet workbook)
- Multi-machine routing (Beamline / Dragon)
- AI-powered chat (steel-domain)
- Free trial
- Demo on request
- License model
- Perpetual or subscription
- Time to first nest
- Days (training)
Spreadsheets
Free (your time)
No software
- Price (up-front)
- Free
- Annual cost going forward
- $0
- 3-year total (with KISS support)
- Free
- One unified app
- KISS file import (Tekla / SDS2 / Advance)
- 1D linear nesting (beams, angle, channel)
- 2D plate / sheet nesting
- Polygon / DXF irregular-shape nesting
- Shear sequence printed on cut sheets
- Cut sheet PDFs designed for the shop floor
- Excel BOM export (multi-sheet workbook)
- Multi-machine routing (Beamline / Dragon)
- AI-powered chat (steel-domain)
- Free trial
- —
- License model
- —
- Time to first nest
- Hours per job, forever
— Three-year total cost
For a shop that needs KISS file import.
ROMAC’s nesters are genuinely cheaper at $100 each. The catch is KISS import — their Production Control 8 (PC8) add-on costs $750 per year, every year. Indolent bundles KISS into the one-time $499.
— For ROMAC users
Running ROMAC Length and Plate Nesting today?
ROMAC’s $100 nesters are an honest deal if all you need is the cutting math and you key your takeoffs in by hand. They have been doing that math reliably for decades.
Where it starts to hurt: you are running two separate apps (one for length, one for plate), keying your takeoffs in twice, and either paying $750 a year for PC8 to automate KISS import or skipping it and re-typing every job by hand. The PDFs aren’t quotable, the Excel exports are limited, and there is no DXF / polygon nesting.
Indolent Forge is $499 once for the unified replacement: KISS in, plate + length + polygon out, real shop-floor PDFs and Excel BOMs, AI assistant included. Run the free 14-day trial alongside your current ROMAC setup and compare the cut plans on a job you’ve already estimated.
Read the full migration guide →— Built different
One app. No subscription. No add-ons.
We did not start in an enterprise software conference room. We started in front of a shear queue.
Owned, not rented
Pay $499 once. The license keeps working forever, on the version you bought, on the machine you bought it for. No yearly invoice. No vendor pulling your tools if a subscription lapses. No seat-count games.
Steel-shop pragmatic
Built by people who actually estimate steel jobs — not a generalist nesting platform re-skinned for fab. The cut sheets look like the cut sheets your foreman already trusts. The shear-sequence table is on every plate.
Reads the files you already have
KISS straight from Tekla, SDS/2, and Advance Steel — included in the $499, no PC8 required. DXF for plates from CAD. CSV/Excel for the takeoffs your estimator already keeps. No double-entry. No bridge add-on.
— Straight talk
When NOT to buy Indolent Forge Nesting
We would rather you skip this purchase than buy something that does not fit. A short list of situations where another tool is the right call:
- You already have SigmaNEST or ProNest and it is working — there is no reason to switch.
- You need 5-axis plasma path optimization or true HVAC ductwork unfolding — ProNest is built for that.
- You need network-licensed, multi-seat enterprise rollout with floor-license servers — talk to SigmaNEST.
- You only nest two or three jobs a year and key takeoffs in by hand anyway — ROMAC at $200 is fine.
- You only run a spreadsheet and have never wanted anything more — keep the spreadsheet.
One license. One price. Forever.
Try it for 14 days, full functionality, no credit card. Keep the proposals it generates either way.