How realistic is Studio 5K Lgx Emulate for comms and how much does it set you back?

Hello.
I have a customer developing a customized OPCUA client that needs to gather data from ControlLogix PLCs, but this is not a PLC integrator company and do not have the physical PLC at hand for their development. There are so many inefficiencies for them to arrange going to the lab with the PLCs and so on.

I do not know in detail about this Studio 5000 Logix Emulate and FactoryTalk Linx Gateway, but from the point of view of testing an OPCUA client it does seem it may be good enough.

Does anybody know if this combination would work for the purpose of testing an OPCUA client's reading of tags from the PLC application, and roughly how much these two licenses would cost?

These are weird times with the whole chip shortage, but the 5069-L306 PLC is 700-ish GBP. That will be cheaper than the Emulate license and it won't have the known shortcomings of it.

FT Logix Echo is on a license only model and costs around 1600GBP per year. Not Emulate and won't work on small PLCs I believe, but could give an indication of what the pricing may be.

Thanks. The customer would also need a Logix 5000 license in both options.