Poka vs Zaptic (2026): plant skills, Factory Feed and huddles, or shop-floor work tied to plant systems and QMS

I ask the same twelve questions on every comparison. For Poka I went back to their public product, pricing, legal and Industrial AI pages. For Zaptic I went back to Intellect Connected Frontline Worker pages, live PDFs and store listings. I read those public docs on 16 September 2026. Where they stay quiet, I stay quiet.

I am Liam Jones. I founded Pilla after more than ten years running hospitality operations, food safety and frontline teams. On 16 September 2026 I sat with Poka's connected worker platform, digital work instructions, digital forms, issues, Factory Feed, huddle boards, skills, Industrial AI, AI agents, integrations, pricing and the Master SaaS Agreement, then with Intellect's CFW work instructions, Instant AI Chat Help, instant messaging, issue and action tracking, the product overview PDF, the integrations PDF, and the Intellect IQ and Zaptic 2.0 store listings. Poka's Help Center sits behind a login, so I did not use it. Zaptic's Zendesk help centre is closed. I have not lived in a paid Poka or Intellect CFW account for this write-up. I am telling you what their public docs say.

Poka sells an Industrial AI connected worker platform for plants. Zaptic sells a connected frontline worker platform for manufacturing, now as Intellect Connected Frontline Worker. They overlap on digital work instructions, forms and plant issues. They split on Factory Feed, skills and huddles versus SAP, Maximo, MES and a QMS loop. I built Pilla for a different job: AI acting inside the run.

Poka holds work instructions, troubleshoots and skills in one plant library. You run checklists, audits and CIL on the floor. You log issues to a Kanban and escalate them through tiers. Shifts stay aligned on Factory Feed and huddle boards. Industrial AI writes content, answers questions and acts on issues under approval. Poka is an IFS company. You still log into Poka at poka.io.

I would keep Poka if I needed plant work instructions, skills, Factory Feed and huddle boards from one vendor. That connected-worker suite is a fair reason to stay.

Zaptic holds CIL, quality checks, changeovers and EHS observations on the line. You prove the work with photos, video, audio, signatures and timestamps. You escalate a failed check into CAPA. You can pipe SAP PM, Maximo and MES onto the same to-do list, and you can add Intellect QMS. Intellect bought Zaptic on 17 November 2025. In September 2026, zaptic.com sends you to Intellect Connected Frontline Worker.

I would keep Zaptic if I needed shop-floor work instructions plus plant systems and QMS. That factory stack is a fair reason to stay.

If the job is plant work instructions, skills, Factory Feed and huddle boards, keep Poka. If the job is shop-floor work plus SAP, Maximo, MES and a QMS loop, keep Zaptic. I built Pilla for a different job. You draw the process on a canvas. The team runs it on a phone, tablet or the web app. Pilla checks the work as it comes in and follows up when something needs you. I did not build shift scheduling, payroll, HR, a plant skills matrix, Factory Feed, huddle boards or Maximo and SAP work orders. If you need those, keep them on Poka, Zaptic or another vendor. You can open Pilla the same day. Starter is £49 a month with 500 processed workflows. Pro is £99 with 1,000, and adds AI automations inside Pilla. Every new account gets a 14-day trial of every Pro feature, with no card. People are unlimited.

I would keep Poka if I needed plant work instructions, skills, Factory Feed and huddle boards from one vendor. I would keep Zaptic if I needed shop-floor work instructions plus plant systems and QMS. If I wanted the work drawn on a canvas and AI acting inside the run, with DMs, I would use Pilla, and I would keep plant skills, the feed, huddles, SAP, Maximo and QMS somewhere else.