Compare
Sedna and Tidal solve different parts of maritime procurement. Here is how they compare, on the facts.
Sedna is an email and communication intelligence platform for shipping and commodity trading. It centralises shared team inboxes, adds structure and automation to high-volume email, and helps teams act on messages faster. Tidal overlaps on one word, email, but does a different job: it reads procurement email RFQs specifically and turns them into accurate, margin-protected quotes, matching each line to your own catalogue.
Put simply, Sedna helps a team manage and route all of its email; Tidal takes a procurement RFQ out of the inbox and produces the quote. They are complementary. A supplier can run Sedna for communications and Tidal for the RFQ-to-quote workflow.
| Tidal | Sedna | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI software that turns email RFQs into margin-protected quotes | Email and communication intelligence platform for shipping and trading |
| AI email-RFQ to quote | Yes, reads email RFQs and generates quotes automatically | Organises and automates email workflows; not publicly disclosed as an RFQ-to-quote quoting engine |
| Item code matching | item-code matching to your own catalogue, 90%+ first-pass | Not publicly disclosed |
| Automated margin-protected quoting | Yes, margin rules enforced automatically on every quote | Not publicly disclosed |
| Pricing | Pricing is scoped to your volume and the modules you need, so contact us for a quote. | Not publicly disclosed |
| Time to go live | About 1 week, no ERP project required | Not publicly disclosed |
| Maturity | Newer, focused platform | Established communications platform used across shipping and commodities |
| Best for | Chandlers and operators automating inbound RFQs into quotes | Teams centralising and automating high-volume shared email |
Competitor details reflect publicly available information at the time of writing; "Not publicly disclosed" means the vendor does not publish that detail. Nothing here is a guess.
Choose Sedna when the problem is email itself at scale: shared inboxes, routing, tagging and automating a high volume of messages across chartering, operations and trading. That is what it is built for.
Choose Tidal when the specific job is procurement RFQs: turning an email enquiry of hundreds of line items into a catalogue-matched, margin-protected quote in under 30 minutes. Tidal is purpose-built for that one step and goes live in about a week.
Being honest: Sedna is a mature communications platform that handles far more of a team's email than Tidal, which only touches procurement RFQs. Tidal is a newer, smaller company with SOC 2 Type II in progress. If you need to run all of your shipping email through one intelligent layer, Sedna is the relevant tool, and Tidal can sit alongside it for quoting.
Explore Tidal maritime procurement software
More: Tidal as a Sedna alternative · all comparisons · book a demo.
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Leave your work email and the port or company you buy for. We will set up a live demo on your own RFQs, no slideware. Live in about a week.
Tidal is sold as separate modules, so you only add the part that removes typing. Approved quotes and supplier invoices go into your ERP through its API or an import file.
RFQs read in any buyer layout, every line priced from your catalogue, approved quotes sent to your ERP as sales orders.
See Quote Desk →Supplier invoices sent as a photo or PDF, read line by line, checked and approved, then created in your ERP as bills.
See Invoice Capture →
Screenshots from the live system at a Trinidad marine supplier, details blurred. See which ERPs Tidal connects to.
See Tidal on your own RFQs
Send us one RFQ you received this week. On a 30 minute call we turn it into a priced quote on your own catalogue, so you can judge Tidal on real work, not a slide deck.
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