Who we are
BlueGrey is an independent software venture run by two founders in Yorkshire. We make apps, plugins and tools for people who make things: sign makers first, then CNC and laser users, then anyone who cuts, prints or lays out material for a living.
The name reads as a colour, but it is not really one. The blue has Lu hiding in it, and the grey is Grey: one word, no space, the two founders inseparable in the name.
Built on a working shop floor
The team behind BlueGrey also runs a manufacturing business. BlueGrey and that business are two separate companies, with their own owners and their own books, that share a workshop and some of the same people, and that is exactly the arrangement we wanted. It is the thing that makes our tools different, and it is not a slogan. Every BlueGrey tool is built for our own production first, run on live jobs on our own shop floor, and only put up for sale once it has held up there.
Nester came out of the day job. The nesting tools on the market were slow, fragile, or designed for designers instead of shops. So we built our own, ran it on real production work, and only then put it up for sale. Setout came the same way, from the drawings that have to say the real size. Fellside™, our business dashboards, came from wanting our own numbers on one screen. We use what we ship. That is the whole pitch.
The same workshop built signapps.ai for that business's customers. Different shopfront, same bench.
How we sell
One tool per job, no suites, no filler. The two plugins are a subscription, monthly or yearly, tiered by seats and machines, and every update is included for as long as you subscribe. Pay yearly and pay half. Both tools together cost less than the two apart. Stop whenever you like: Nester drops back to the free version, Setout shades over until you come back.
You try before you pay. Each plugin is one free download, the same file whether you have paid or not, and the activation code you buy is what opens it. Nester nests and prices your artwork but will not place the result on your artboard. Setout runs in full for 7 days from install; when Illustrator opens, the panel says how many days are left and carries a Buy now button. Fellside™ is set up around your business and priced once we've met, so it has no price list: it starts with a 20-minute call. How pricing works The pricing page says the rest.
Talk to us
Email hello@bluegrey.ai. The person who wrote the software answers. There is no phone line, no chat widget and no ticket system, because a two-person company that answers its email does not need them. More on the contact page.