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IBM Maximo vs ServiceNow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Maximo
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (1st), Billing Software (5th)
ServiceNow
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
224
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (1st), IT Asset Management (1st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

IBM Maximo and ServiceNow aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. IBM Maximo is designed for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and holds a mindshare of 15.4%, down 27.8% compared to last year.
ServiceNow, on the other hand, focuses on IT Service Management (ITSM), holds 15.9% mindshare, down 24.8% since last year.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Maximo15.4%
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management8.5%
IFS Cloud Platform7.0%
Other69.1%
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
IT Service Management (ITSM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ServiceNow15.9%
JIRA Service Management7.3%
BMC Helix ITSM5.7%
Other71.1%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

DM
Maximo Developer at Volvo Cars
Centralized asset tracking has reduced paperwork and now improves maintenance efficiency
The best features IBM Maximo offers are that it is a comprehensive tool where we can get the purchasing of assets or spare parts in the same application. The reports are also very good. Additionally, the barcodes are valuable. We can print barcodes for all things we need. The UI also has a very strong appearance. We use the reporting feature very often. We have multiple reports, not just one. For each module, there are multiple reports and we can customize the reports based on our needs. For example, for a work order, we can print a report which gives all the details so that it is easy to carry out the steps required to fix the issue. There are also barcodes for items which we can paste on a bin or the item so it can be scanned with a barcode scanner, which is very easy. IBM Maximo has positively impacted my organization because it reduced a lot of time and has saved a lot of cost. For example, prior to IBM Maximo, we were doing only paperwork. Now that we have IBM Maximo in place, it is useful for tracking all assets and everything in a single solution with no data loss. Previously, multiple people handled this work, but now very few people do. This has helped us significantly.
MT
Manager of Security Engineering & Architecture at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Seamless data integration and advanced automation improve service delivery efficiency
I think that nothing needs to be improved with the product; you just need the user to commit and spend appropriate time to overcome that learning curve. Once that is done, the product itself is pretty wonderful. I've seen a very nicely built interface with ServiceNow, and I've also seen the ugliest version that feels outdated. ServiceNow does allow that team to exist. They should modernize their fonts and their layout, the UI friendliness. They did introduce AI, chatbots, and AI on the back end, so that's wonderful and extremely useful if you train it. If you don't train it, it's pretty useless. Assessing the impact of ServiceNow's automation on service delivery times is complicated. The engineers who operate on ServiceNow find it isn't straightforward because the data set is accessible by everybody. The problem is that understanding how to manage that data set requires an enormous amount of engineering skill set to run the product. I would not hand the key to the customer; I would highly recommend that ServiceNow take control of that. Instead of offering support for the software, they should offer administrative support for the software. They should provide professional service or some kind of support system that allows us to use their product at a faster pace. I'm sure they offer something, but it's often outrageously expensive, or they rely on another company to resell their product and offer professional service. It makes no sense in my opinion, and they should offer the team at the front to help customize the product to fit each company's needs, as every company has different demands and forms of submitting a request that need adjustment over time.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"The large range of configurability of the product is great, since everyone has a different way of doing things."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to correct maintenance."
"The most valuable features are the ability to create work orders and preventative maintenance."
"It is configurable, where you can add extra fields to screens and to the database."
"Its capabilities let us organize our work."
"The Preventive Maintenance feature, especially in its inspection routines and KPI abilities, is valuable."
"There are not many enterprise asset management systems on the market and not many that have the categories that IBM Maximo has."
"ServiceNow helps to improve IT incident handling in a more comprehensive way, and the latest version provides extensive information, including AI that allows us to program it in such a way that our L1 support can be eliminated."
"Will give us better control over asset management and technical debt once we can centralize all contract information."
"The product's integration functionality in the change management module has significantly improved efficiency in our organization."
"The most valuable features of ServiceNow for me are its ticketing and reporting capabilities."
"Very easy to implement and to respond to my clients' needs."
"ServiceNow gives us a lot for free: workflows, organizational structures, service portal, forms, reporting, disaster recovery, and so on."
"Identifies better ways to license software or eliminate unused software to save money."
"I have seen ROI from ServiceNow, as the client I mentioned earlier is achieving ROI for adopting this cloud-based technology."
 

Cons

"The latest version is slow due to the power it requires."
"This solution could improve by integrating or embedding finances, charts of accounts, and invoicing."
"Areas for improvement include: an enhanced Service Catalog on Mobile; Agent intelligence; better dashboards for KPIs."
"The pricing model of the solution has room for improvement as well as the after-sales support."
"It needs full-service visibility. There are a lot of things that are hard for users to find out. For example, the Service Catalog is not too friendly. You really have to know what you're looking for."
"Initial setup is a longer process because Maximo is bigger and has more processes."
"The standard reports that shipped with the package need to be enriched with more advanced reports, especially for the Inventory Management sections."
"The mobile solution has a lot of room for improvement, especially in geopositioning capabilities, tracking capabilities, and configuration capabilities, in order to let the tech operate online and offline.​"
"There is inherent complexity with this tool because of the number of things that it can do."
"I have enjoyed all the features. There is not any feature that I have missed or didn't have."
"When we are using the solution on mobile phones on their networks the performance is reduced with a delay of approximately 8 seconds. There is less delay using the desktop computers connected to the WiFi or to the network directly."
"There are things that I would like to see improved in ServiceNow, such as the pricing, as it is a very costly solution compared to other tools."
"We would like to have an Asset Management and/or Project Management feature enabled in this version and in the IT Service Management edition."
"To make ServiceNow better, they should reduce their pricing, especially because there's a lot of competition. Many customers have moved to ManageEngine because they cannot afford the license cost."
"From an HR standpoint, if users can have a very integrated onboarding or offboarding process between ServiceNow and Workday, then it can give a very good employee experience."
"It's a little expensive compared to other tools."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"​Explore internal processes in order to evaluate the correct number of users in each Maximo module, then evaluate the different offers of pricing and licensing.​"
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is low and ten is high, I rate the pricing a nine. The price is very high."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"The price of IBM Maximo could reduce, it is expensive."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"IBM has changed the licensing policy. As I understand now, they are going from a complex way of licensing to a more simple way of licensing."
"The price could be a little lower for the solution. Many of my customers have issues with the licensing process, they have to make it easier and straightforward."
"There are licensing fees."
"Certainly, from a product-platform perspective, the price is not too bad."
"The price of this solution is expensive."
"It's sold as a less expensive solution, but it has to be highly modified. That's where you get into the cost."
"The product cost is higher than that of other vendors."
"ServiceNow tends to be a little bit more expensive as compared to BMC Helix ITSM."
"This is a pretty expensive product, so the licensing could be better."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business55
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise166
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
IBM Maximo can be improved by providing developers with more documentation. I think IBM lacks a lot of documentation and hopefully the community who uses IBM Maximo can help if other developers hav...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
My main use case for IBM Maximo is as a technical consultant, so I help companies to use IBM Maximo. A quick, specific example of how I've helped a company use IBM Maximo is that it is quite generi...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Maximo?
IBM Maximo in their last version includes mobility functionalities which can use the offline mode for technicians that do not have internet connection, and that is really helpful for them. Addition...
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Also Known As

Maximo
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., DTE Energy, Swedish Match, Projetech, Fingrid, East Coast
AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Prometheus Group, Infor and others in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM). Updated: January 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.