ShopVOX vs. Corebridge vs. Cyrious Control vs. a custom workflow: what each one is for

Two different jobs

Sign shops get these mixed up because both touch the quote. Shop management software runs the business: a job comes in as a lead, gets priced from your formulas, becomes a work order, moves across a production board, gets proofed, purchased for, invoiced and synced to accounting. A custom workflow produces the documents the job needs along the way: the takeoff from the plan set, the approval drawings and the priced proposal, the permit set, the shop drawings and the production files.

ShopVOX

ShopVOX describes itself as "everything you need to manage your sign, print or apparel shop in one place." Both of its plans include quoting, a pricing engine, a job board, online proofing, sales orders and invoices, payment processing, dashboards and accounting integration with QuickBooks Online, Xero or Sage. PRO adds customizable pricing templates, sales leads, install and steps boards, task scheduling and a customer portal. Inventory management is an add-on.

Its AI piece is VOX AI: through its API and MCP server, you can connect AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude to your shopVOX data. We found nothing on its site about reading plan sets or drawing sign documents.

Corebridge

Corebridge is "business management software built for print, sign, graphics, and apparel businesses." Its plans list pricing forms and product templates, CRM with lead pipelines, custom job boards and scheduling, approvals and proofs, vendor POs, inventory on its higher tiers, online payments, QuickBooks and Xero syncs, a customer portal and dozens of reports. Approved estimates become invoices, and it schedules installs and crews.

Its AI assistant, Cora, "helps you navigate CoreBridge, complete tasks, and surface insights in plain language": creating and updating records, running estimating and pricing tasks, and pulling reports. No page says it reads documents or plans.

Cyrious Control

Cyrious Control is "a system to run your entire business," built for sign, graphics and print providers. It lists estimating with a bill of materials on every quote, square foot, cost plus and table pricing, work orders created from the estimate, job tracking, crew and service scheduling, inventory and POs, invoicing with card processing, a full CRM, export to accounting systems including QuickBooks, and over 200 built-in reports. Its documentation describes a portal for customers to approve artwork.

Cyrious doesn't publish prices: it says pricing varies with the size of your operation, and you can purchase or subscribe. Its ADA sign page mentions keeping up with surveys and permits; we found nothing about takeoffs or drawing permit sets.

A custom workflow

This is what we set up, so weigh it accordingly. A custom workflow is set up on your past jobs and drafts the documents: it reads the plan set and takes off every sign, draws the approval set and prices the proposal from your vendor pricing, shop wages, production times and the material takeoff, researches the sign code and draws the permit set, and draws the shop drawings and production files. Your team checks each one.

What it isn't: a CRM, a job board, a purchasing system or an invoicing system. It won't track a job through production or take a payment. That's the shop system's job, and we don't claim to replace it.

What they cost

Which do you need?

• No shop system yet? Start there. Quotes, orders, production and invoicing need one system of record, and a workflow isn't one.
• Choosing between the three? All three are built for sign and print shops. ShopVOX publishes its prices and offers a trial; Corebridge publishes tiers with user counts; Cyrious prices to your operation. Ask each for a demo on one of your own jobs.
• Have a shop system, and your people still spend the week producing drawings? That's the work a workflow takes on: takeoffs from plan sets, approval sets with priced quotes, permit sets, shop drawings and production files. It sits beside the shop system, not in place of it.

The one place they overlap is the price. A shop system prices from its formulas and price lists; the proposal workflow prices from your vendor pricing, wages, production times and the takeoff, and puts the price beside the approval drawings. Which one holds your prices is a decision to make at setup, not after.