MasterControl Quality Excellence vs Arena QMS

Qualio

Greenlight Guru

ETQ Reliance

AssurX

TrackWise

Grand Avenue Software

Compare MasterControl Quality Excellence and Arena QMS based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

KAWAK

kawak is a business management and document control solution that helps businesses manage audits, equipment, risks, human talent, and more from a centralized platform. It allows staff members to utilize the built-in customer service module to set up PQRS

Qualio provides cloud-based quality management software designed specifically for life science companies. The platform offers comprehensive eQMS functionality including document control, training management, risk assessment, audit preparation, and CAPA handling. Designed with user experience in mind, Qualio helps organizations maintain FDA, ISO, and GxP compliance while connecting quality systems to broader business operations.

Isolocity

Isolocity is a quality management software designed to help businesses in all industries maintain compliance, drive quality management and administrative operations. Key features include internal audits, document management, quality events, training, equipment, risk management, etc. 

The MasterControl Quality Management System (QMS), called "MasterControl Quality Excellence", enables companies to eliminate their paper-based quality processes, while increasing their efficiency in compliance.

Access Controls/Permissions

Activity Dashboard

Activity Tracking

Alerts/Escalation

Alerts/Notifications

Approval Process Control

Archiving & Retention

Audit Management

Audit Planning

Audit Trail

Automated Scheduling

Bills of Material

Business Process Control

Change Management

Collaboration Tools

Commenting/Notes

Communications Management

Complaint Management

Compliance Management

Compliance Tracking

Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA)

Cost Tracking

Customer Complaint Tracking

Customizable Forms

Customizable Reports

Customizable Templates

Dashboard

Data Import/Export

Data Security

Data Visualization

Defect Tracking

Design Management

Digital Signature

Document Automation

Document Capture

Document Check-in/Check-out

Document Coding & Control

Document Generation

Document Management

Document Review

Document Storage

Document Templates

Electronic Signature

Email Alerts

Environmental Compliance

Equipment Management

FDA Compliance

Feedback Management

File Sharing

For Engineering Documents

Forms Management

Full Text Search

Incident Management

Internal Controls Management

Inventory Management

ISO Compliance

ISO Standards Management

Issue Management

Issue Tracking

Maintenance Management

Mobile Access

Monitoring

Multi-Location

Nonconformance Tracking

Operational Risk Management

Order Management

Predictive Analytics

Prioritization

Product Data Management

Production Scheduling

Project Management

Quality Assurance

Quality Control

Quality Management

Real-Time Data

Real-Time Reporting

Real-Time Updates

Reminders

Reporting/Analytics

Reporting & Statistics

Response Management

Revision History

Risk Analysis

Risk Assessment

Risk Management

Risk Reporting

Risk Scoring

Root Cause Analysis

Routing

Safety Management

Scheduling

Search/Filter

Secure Data Storage

Status Tracking

Supplier Management

Supplier Quality Control

Task Management

Third-Party Integrations

Traceability

By industry, MasterControl Quality Excellence reviewers are most commonly professionals in pharmaceuticals (34%). The most frequent use case cited by reviewers is document management (70%).

Users and use cases

MasterControl Quality Excellence is a document management tool with key features that include document storage, electronic signature, version control, access controls, and corrective and preventive actions (CAPA), and more.

MasterControl Quality Excellence

Web-based

Android

iPhone

iPad

Basic

Standard

Complete

Senior Manager of Quality Systems

Overall, the system has many bells and whistles: Enhanced Search, which includes a full text search, linking to related documents, custom approval workflows, and control of which users can view, create, revise and approve documents.

Qa specialist

This gives our company the ability to keep track of documents, training, investigations, and other forms and records to ensure quality at our organization.

Sr QA Specialist

Example, customization of task list, adding a star to favorite your documents from the document list instead of the infocard, not having a prefiltered supplier list, or even favoriting the most recent version of the document and making that a dynamic link not static with the version favorited.

Sr Document Control Specialist

MasterControl offers a perfect range of modules that focus on the quality compliance needs for our company including document management, learning management, change control and supplier management.

QA Specialist

MasterControl Qx excels at digitalizing quality processes, reducing reliance on paper, and helping organizations remain in compliance with regulatory standards

Associate Quality Manager

Implementing AQEM had its bumps in terms of figuring out roles and rights, but the support team does an incredible job helping with getting all actions completely correctly for a successful build in test/prod sites.

eQMS Coordinator

Document management - being able to configure Qx workflows so that the documents can automatically be routed to correct departments for approval

Sr. Manager, SQA

The Process module is highly powerful for organizations with the expertise to build and maintain custom business processes with web technology (HTML, JS, CSS); otherwise, support or pre-built templates are typically required to get the most out of it.

IT QMS Software Administrator

The performance on "on prem" version, pdf publishing time and constant issues with pdf not beeing generated, issues with custom forms created by MC.

QA Compliance Specialist

You can assign custom fields to further organize the infocards, and find time to search for what you need.

IT Senior Application Specialist

What I liked most about MasterControl Quality Excellence is its strong focus on compliance and its ability to streamline collaboration across teams.

Quality Engineer

Features like interconnectivity between modules and a few extra navigation steps make the documents side a bit of a learning curve.

Sr. Director, Quality Assurance

AQEM is a huge step forward in a fit-for-purpose eQMS and having Insights as a real-time data analytics tool is a great addition.

Manager of Post Market Complaints

I know it has a lot of potentials but the way the complaint module is built limits a fast growing group like mine to properly manage our complaints.

Reliable system that keeps our company in a validated quality state and allows easily accessibility to data quickly

Associate director of quality

As a Quality Director in the medical devices industry, I’ve overseen the use of MasterControl’s Qx platform for document control over the past year.

Quality Compliance

MasterControl enables quality professionals the ability to do information technology initiatives with minimal support from information technology / systems

Manager, QA

The adapt platform has code updates quite often which seems to impact our systems with the introduction of bugs and defects on a regular basis.

Director, Quality Systems

In some areas, improvements are needed such as advanced QEM task list and mastercontrol task list combined into one.

Molecular Laboratory Technologist, Quality Specialist

The Qx Solution for MasterControl was very helpful by providing very extensive tips and tricks from a SysAdmin standpoint.

With the cloud and licensing model changes, we've seen a dramatic increase in licensing fees, while simultaneously losing the ability to implement custom solutions and assign user rights freely.

Sr Dir Quality Affairs

I love the integration/navigation of the tool and the connection between docs and training - auto creating courses!

Quality Lead, Corporate Quality

Risk module not publishing PDF to be shared with stakeholders, Audit module looks outdated where the similar products in the market have better interface.

The creating, collaborating and routing documents are very straight forward and when there are issues, it is very easy to submit tickets and get answers with a quick turn around.

Historically, with on-prem deployment and concurrent licensing, the system provided good value for money as it offered more flexibility in using the system and designing custom integrations.

Sr. Training Associate

Sometimes there are times where the form or QE is stuck and as the sys admin, we have to troubleshoot where or how to progress it forward.

Document Control.

As someone working in document control and compliance, I’m looking forward to seeing how MasterControl Quality Excellence can help establish a strong foundation for our quality system.

There are many modules we have yet to dive into deeper to really get a full value for what our package offers, but it is great to learn slowly what we are missing out on, since what we currently use is great!

Manufacturing Data Analyst

I am especially interested in our paper records in my work and master control helps keep them in one place.

Additionally, some modules still show occasional bugs or inconsistent behaviors that slow down daily operations and require follow‑up with support.

The move to cloud hosting reduces flexibility, eliminates some custom integration options, and forces design decisions around licensing rather than usability.

Global eQMS Administrator

The configuration options that are available make it easy for a sysadmin to customize based on company needs.

Jr MasterControl Sys Admin

Some of the pain points are the cost of licensing, not having the ability for multiple collaborators to edit the same document simultaneously, and search functionality being tough for users who aren't as familiar with document numbers/names.

Implementation can also be time‑consuming due to the complexity of the platform and the level of coordination needed across teams.

Quality Manager

It can sometimes be a lot of bureaucratic overhead to get through all of the form sign off and moving through each step.

Sr. Quality Engineer

AQEM is still rough around the edges, and there are multiple aspects that can be improved with regards to the UX and UI.

QMS Systems supervisor

It can feel unintuitive sometimes and somewhat rigid. If there’s a minor change or feature request, it is cumbersome to get a change implemented.

How training requirements are configured and managed along with the limitations of gating and prerequisites.

Document manager

Integration with other modules , I think integration with other modules coming soon but be fully integrated with other modules makes it amazing!

Supervisor Quality Systems

It’s a work in progress and can sometime have some glitches, this is normal in my opinion. When this does occur we escalate to support and they are helpful to find a resolution.

Director of IT

Once configured, MasterControl Qx runs smoothly and ensures we meet regulatory requirements with confidence.

EQMS Sysadmin

In many ways it’s not a true enterprise solution .. extra steps to segregate op cos and some modules you can’t

Project Manager

AQEM still is very limited in functionality and features, which is almost impossible to build the forms/workflows that work for my company.

MasterControl Quality Excellence vs Arena QMS Comparison (2026)

MasterControl Quality Excellence

Arena QMS

Overview

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Pricing

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Key features

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