Festo alternatives

Festo is a German family-owned engineering group founded in Esslingen in 1925, supplying pneumatic and electric drive technology, process automation and technical education, with 20,600 employees worldwide in FY2025 and services in 176 countries. Buyers compare component suppliers because motion, guidance, control and drive needs each point to a different specialist. igus, founded in Cologne in 1964 and still family-owned, makes motion plastics and low-cost automation including cobots and linear robots, with subsidiaries and distributors in more than 80 countries. THK, founded in Tokyo in 1971, commercialised the world's first LM Guide in 1972 and supplies LM Guides, ball screws, electric actuators and robot solutions used in machine tools, semiconductor equipment and industrial robots. Beckhoff, founded in Verl, Germany in 1980, is known for PC-based control: its TwinCAT software turns standard PCs into real-time machine controllers, and it records 5,300 employees. Bonfiglioli, founded in Italy in 1956, supplies precision gearboxes and AGV and AMR drive platforms through its Motion & Robotics division, across about 80 countries and 18 production sites. Choose Festo for pneumatic and electric drive technology, igus for motion plastics and low-cost automation, THK for linear motion components, Beckhoff for PC-based control, and Bonfiglioli for gearboxes and mobile robot drives.

Alternatives to Festo

igus

igus is a family-owned German manufacturer of motion plastics, founded in Cologne in 1964 and still wholly owned by its founding family.

THK

THK Co., Ltd. is the Japanese company that invented the linear motion guide: in 1972 it became the first in the world to commercialise rolling-contact linear motion, and its LM Guide remains a standard component inside machine tools, semiconductor equipment and industrial robots.

Beckhoff

Beckhoff Automation is a family-owned German automation company, founded in 1980 and headquartered in Verl, best known for PC-based control: its TwinCAT software turns standard PCs into real-time machine controllers, and its EtherCAT fieldbus is a de-facto standard in high-performance automation.

Bonfiglioli

Bonfiglioli is a privately held Italian power-transmission group, founded in 1956 and headquartered at Calderara di Reno near Bologna, whose Motion & Robotics business supplies the drive components robots and automated vehicles run on.

Full profile, with every fact and its source: Festo. Profile facts last verified 6 November 2026.