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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
8.0
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (1st), Billing Software (4th)
ServiceNow
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
222
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 25.7%, down 27.0% compared to last year.
ServiceNow, on the other hand, focuses on IT Service Management (ITSM), holds 21.8% mindshare, down 27.0% since last year.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

Jose Pedro Muñoz - PeerSpot reviewer
A very strong and powerful tool in the market preferred by a variety of industries
I rate the technical support a seven out of ten. Three levels of support in IBM. The first one is a fixed level, while levels two and three are very good. Here, level one is not very good, as it takes time to go from level one to level two and from level two to level three. So, level one is of low capacity.
Nikhil Gohil - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables effective incident management and seamless workflow automation with valuable mobile accessibility
I haven't thought deeply about improvements for ServiceNow or what might be missing right now. There are so many modules and features in ServiceNow that I haven't explored them all, so it's hard to say what might be missing or should be improved. I suggest making the cost more affordable for smaller companies.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We were doing all kinds of paperwork for every type of order and to maintain our assets but with the use of the IBM Maximo application, we can automate a lot of the processes."
"The ability to configure and integrate it with other solutions for ERP."
"IBM Maximo is a very strong and powerful tool in the market…Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"IBM Maximo is the best software for assets management."
"We are very thankful to have IBM integrated with our own Legacy cloud-based system"
"The most powerful features are the database and integration with CMDB."
"Work order management and scalability enables the businesses' needs to be met."
"There are not many enterprise asset management systems on the market and not many that have the categories that IBM Maximo has."
"In financial management, this platform has the infrastructure allowing us to expand the way we want to. For example, it gives you many business rules and budget models that you can use to optimize your workflow. It does not put you in a box. Additionally, integrating this solution with other platforms is extremely easy to do."
"Good stable and scalable solution."
"Straightforward tool."
"I like that in ServiceNow creating workflows is simpler than that in HP Service Manager. Also, I really like the customization feature. It allows us to customize the service portal and permits us to do a lot of customization per business needs."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of development for customization."
"The product's integration functionality in the change management module has significantly improved efficiency in our organization."
"I really like ServiceNow and all of the features. The way incident management is built is very helpful. You have a lot of options to optimize it, customize it, and automate it. You also have a lot of options for reporting. There are plenty of possibilities to do preference management within your customer CMDB file. These are very useful features, which I missed in BMC Remedy ITSM. ServiceNow is the best ticketing tool I have used so far."
"Very easy to implement and to respond to my clients' needs."
 

Cons

"Initial setup is a longer process because Maximo is bigger and has more processes."
"IBM Maximo can improve the financial support and financial application, to make it more similar to an ERP as opposed to an EAM. Overall they can improve the financial processes."
"There are always ways to improve and make things better."
"​Maximo is a big system, so the initial setup is complex."
"It's not user-friendly. It could use shortcuts for frequently requested services."
"On a scale of one to ten, where ten is easy and one is difficult, I rate the setup process a two since it is very complicated."
"It's quite reliable, but new versions often are not too stable. They bring in enhancements but they break other stuff."
"Coding can be complex when customization is required."
"Creating service catalog forms could be made easier."
"Most people are discussing UIs, but I'm a developer. I would say 80-90% of the people would appreciate that, that's easy for them, but from a developer perspective, it's hard for me, because for me it's clunky"
"Data access is a bit difficult, where you sometimes wish you had a relational database for some queries. The flexibility of data access in general is a bit on the low end. Of course, there is flexibility in some ways, but when I need a certain combination of data for some report, it can become a challenge."
"The major area for improvement for our needs would be monitoring the metrics of the times to acknowledge and resolve issues and escalations."
"Before implementing this solution, you should have the ITSM model in place for chain management requests. That is a prerequisite because you cannot perform tasks without it."
"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."
"Where it could be improved is Discovery. This may sound odd since I just praised the value of ServiceNow Discovery, but improvements to its automatic detection, the breadth of devices, and the depth of devices covered, as well as keeping up with new technologies, are all essential."
"There's always a room for improvement in terms of the ServiceNow UI. For customers, the UI is something that is a continuous improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"$USD700 per agent user."
"​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.​"
"The price of IBM Maximo could reduce, it is expensive."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"The platform offers a free trial, by providing a free developer instance once you sign up."
"The pricing is on the high side, but if you look at the stability and option to work, it's kind of justified."
"The price of the solution is comparable to industry standards. For the features that we received, it is reasonable."
"This is a pretty expensive product, so the licensing could be better."
"ServiceNow is an expensive solution."
"It is very expensive because it is a big organization. You have to pay for additional things."
"The CapEx version is great."
"We are happy with the pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
11%
Government
10%
Educational Organization
9%
Educational Organization
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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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, IFS, Infor and others in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM). Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.