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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
32
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (1st), Billing Software (5th)
ServiceNow
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
231
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 11.9%, down 28.2% compared to last year.
ServiceNow, on the other hand, focuses on IT Service Management (ITSM), holds 13.9% mindshare, down 22.8% since last year.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Maximo11.9%
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management6.7%
IFS Cloud Platform6.5%
Other74.9%
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow13.9%
JIRA Service Management6.8%
BMC Helix ITSM5.3%
Other74.0%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

Antony Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Java Software Engineer at GPA
Asset management has become streamlined and decision-making is now driven by lifecycle data
The best features IBM Maximo offers are that it is very simple to deploy on OpenShift using Ansible playbooks. It also has excellent support for integration, is simple to configure, and the asset register is very straightforward. Work management and managing inventory are seamless. In terms of integration support, I have used preventive maintenance, work generation, accurate work execution planning, tracking actuals, and I can easily integrate with other tools and systems. IBM Maximo Suite gives me a single place where service cycles are standardized and tied to compliance. IBM Maximo has positively impacted my organization as it has been a very useful tool. It reduced human error by moving away from pen and paper-based scheduling. It saved cost by minimizing unexpected downtime of assets, with approximately 50% of time being saved. We have also reduced overwork among staff by removing redundant information and smoothing task flows. It helps us scale our team without micromanaging small issues.
Hemanthreddy Vakiti - PeerSpot reviewer
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Structured workflows have improved SLA compliance and now support prioritized incident handling
I think the licensing and pricing of ServiceNow is quite expensive compared to other tools. For large organizations, it is acceptable, but specifically for small and medium organizations to track incidents or change requests, ServiceNow is quite expensive. Sometimes performance can be slow when workflows and integrations are configured for complex tasks. For advanced customizations or advanced features which we rarely use, the documentation is not up to standard. The documentation needs to be improved for advanced customization features. However, the platform is stable overall and the features are quite good. The user experience and performance concerns I mentioned are areas I want to be improved. When many workflows and interactions are configured, performance is slow. For the features it is providing, it is quite expensive. If these performance features are improved, we can easily pay that price and get the return on investment.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Maximo is a very strong and powerful tool in the market…Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"We have fully used Maximo for maintenance and inventory and purchasing management to manage cement factory operations and maintenance for more than 11 years."
"IBM Maximo has positively impacted my organization as it has been a very useful tool, reducing human error by moving away from pen and paper-based scheduling, saving cost by minimizing unexpected downtime of assets with approximately 50% of time being saved, and reducing overwork among staff by removing redundant information and smoothing task flows."
"Its capabilities let us organize our work."
"​Maximo is very stable. We really do not have problem with stability.​"
"This is the Cadillac of asset management applications."
"IBM Maximo is the best tool for the asset management solution."
"There are not many enterprise asset management systems on the market and not many that have the categories that IBM Maximo has."
"Great that it's knowledge-based and you can use the flows in ServiceNow."
"ServiceNow is an industry leader in multiple areas and provides an excellent ROI."
"One feature of ServiceNow that is important is the workflow engine. From my perspective [as a consultant] the power to be able to structure processes, represent workforce management for organizations, and the visibility provided by the reporting are additional top features."
"In my experience, ServiceNow's most valuable feature is its flexibility. If you have a DevOps or development team, you can customize it to meet your specific needs. The tool's dashboard categorizes incidents, making managing it much easier."
"It helps with how well our applications are compliant with our policies, and that helps with the overall security of our applications."
"It helped me save time—it would be more than 30% in time savings, with fewer man-hours and improved service delivery through automation capabilities."
"The flexibility of the product in regards to configuring and customizing it to meet the company needs within a few clicks."
"Now we have invested the time in the CMDB, we've invested the time in a portal and catalog items and now we're moving towards automation and things, and we're able to stay a lot more current a lot faster because ServiceNow is doing the work to keep the platform updated, whereas we can just continue to provide value that is specific to us and what we're trying to do."
 

Cons

"This solution could improve by integrating or embedding finances, charts of accounts, and invoicing."
"Revision management of file attachments."
"The standard reports that shipped with the package need to be enriched with more advanced reports, especially for the Inventory Management sections."
"It's not user-friendly. It could use shortcuts for frequently requested services."
"Although you can create notifications with Maximo, the configuration and options could be improved."
"The initial setup was complex, because it is a complex product."
"Areas for improvement would be the user interface and support for Arabic. They could also be more customer-oriented."
"Initial setup is a longer process because Maximo is bigger and has more processes."
"The solution could be made cheaper. Machine learning and artificial intelligence should be introduced in the next release."
"I have found the solution very expensive."
"Our current challenge, because it's a little bit of a rub right now is we're going through re-negotiations on contract because absolutely you're going through the big sales pitch, it can do everything at a cost."
"While ServiceNow has many options, the number of options can sometimes be confusing regarding where to click or how things work, as it is based on configuration provided by the administrator."
"I am interested to see the firm's strategic plans for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), and how the particular areas it will expand on from its existing investments (that feature, for example, in its ITSM Pro and CSM Pro modules)."
"We had ServiceNow’s in-house team for “Quick-Start Implementation”, but it was very basic, and the custom things we asked him to do from scratch were not engineered very thoroughly or using best coding practices."
"I do not have particular details, but what I heard from my boss is that it's not a cheap solution, especially when you want to roll out to more people or more colleagues in an organization."
"Calendar views - there are no nice calendar views and I think I'm just starting to learn about resource management but it would be nice for them to have the roadmaps so you can see an actual calendar view to see where, from a project, you are."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"$USD700 per agent user."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"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."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"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 setup cost is high compared to others, especially when the scope is not fixed."
"It's sold as a less expensive solution, but it has to be highly modified. That's where you get into the cost."
"The solution is priced for medium to enterprises sized businesses. However, it is expensive compared to competitors."
"There are licensing fees."
"It has a higher cost compared to local/regional solutions."
"Isn't pricing always too much? We really do chafe at the ITIL licensing. ITOM is also pretty expensive."
"It is very expensive because it is a big organization. You have to pay for additional things."
"The product cost is higher than that of other vendors."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise22
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business57
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise179
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
The only thing that I need from IBM Maximo is more simplicity. The application has been designed in a way that it is serving the enterprises. It needs to be simpler for the SMEs, or for the compani...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
There are different use cases for IBM Maximo that I work with mostly. We use it for complete asset management. Anything that comes into the asset repository, asset management, asset evaluation, any...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Maximo?
AWS is more recommended for IBM Maximo. You can go into Microsoft as well, but AWS is preferred. IBM also has their own cloud as well.
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow?
ServiceNow operates on a subscription-based pricing model with custom pricing based on modules, users, and business requirements. Pricing varies depending on modules such as ITSM and ITOM, and lice...
 

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, Infor, IFS and others in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM). Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.