Maintaining facilities is harder than ever. Energy costs are rising, skilled labor is tight, and broken equipment is costing more. The right building maintenance software helps maintenance leaders prevent downtime, cut waste, and keep people happy and safe.
Yet picking the best system isn’t simple. There are dozens of tools that look alike on paper but differ widely in their core capabilities, like work order management and mobile usability, as well as features like reporting and integrations.
This guide is a practical playbook to help industrial teams sort through this noise and find the best building maintenance software for them. It goes beyond feature checklists to cover:
- How building maintenance software differs from facilities management systems and BAS
- A simple scorecard to compare vendors against your goals
- An overview of the total cost of ownership , including setup, training, and integrations
By the end, you’ll have an answer to one question: Which maintenance software will help my team reduce downtime and maintenance costs in 2026 without adding busywork?
Key takeaways
- Focus on outcomes, not features when evaluating software. Connect your choice to measurable goals, like reducing maintenance costs or improving response times.
- Use a weighted scorecard for your evaluation. Prioritize the areas of your operation, and corresponding capabilities, that matter most to you, whether that’s preventive maintenance, work requests, inventory management, or something else.
- Pilot before you buy. Run a 30-day pilot on critical assets or areas of your facility. Make sure it’s having an impact on your operation and focus on technician adoption.
What is building maintenance software and how is it different from other facility maintenance tools?
Building maintenance software is used to plan, schedule, and track all maintenance work across buildings and equipment. This includes work requests, preventive maintenance, inspections, inventory management, and compliance. These platforms help you reduce equipment downtime, document maintenance history, and improve response times without adding administrative burden.
Because the market includes overlapping categories, it’s useful to distinguish maintenance software from other facilities management software and business automation systems (BAS). Here’s a quick overview of each type of software:
Related systems explained
Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS)
A computerized maintenance management system centralizes work orders, preventive maintenance, asset records, and parts. Teams use it to prioritize maintenance requests, track repairs, and analyze KPIs, like mean time to repair (MTTR). Most modern CMMS platforms are cloud-based and mobile, making it easier to schedule routine maintenance and keep maintenance data clean for reporting.
Computer aided facility management software (CAFM)
CAFM software focuses on facility management tasks such as space and occupancy planning, room reservations, visitor/access control, and soft services, often alongside asset and maintenance modules. It’s ideal when facility managers need a single view of rooms, people, and services in addition to maintenance.
BMS/BAS
A building automation system automates and monitors building controls, like HVAC units, lighting, alarm systems, fire safety, and access control, to improve comfort, safety, and energy costs. BAS generates alarms and trends. When connected to a CMMS, those alarms can automatically create work requests so technicians can investigate and fix issues.
In short:
- BAS controls your equipment
- CAFM software manages your spaces, and
- CMMS software runs your maintenance operations.
Many organizations use all three so facilities professionals can use real-time monitoring to document work order, parts, labor, and compliance in one system.
Building maintenance software scorecard: 10 capabilities to evaluate when choosing a system
Use this checklist to compare vendors and prioritize capabilities that map to your goals when choosing building maintenance software
1. Preventive maintenance
Set calendar-, meter-, and condition-based preventive maintenance to prevent breakdowns and cut asset downtime.
2. Work requests and alerts
Capture work requests via a work request portal and auto-route them to the right technicians with mobile alerts so you speed response times.
3. Inventory and spare parts
Set minimum thresholds and automatic reorders for parts, as well as barcodes and parts kits. Complete multi-site transfers so inventory management stays accurate and techs don’t waste time hunting parts.
4. Mobile accessibility
Give technicians a fast, mobile-first, and accessible app (even offline) to find asset history, complete work orders, see procedures, log photos, and add e-signatures so they stay as productive as possible.
5. Integrations
Connect your other business systems to your software, including ERPs, building automation systems, and other software, so you collect, connect, and act on data in one platform.
6. Analytics and AI
Track work completion, compliance, asset performance, maintenance costs, and other maintenance KPIs in a single dashboard and custom reports. Look for native AI capabilities, like AI-powered reporting, procedure generation, or repair assistance.
7. Compliance and safety
Standardize SOPs, LOTO, audit trails, and exports to reduce risk, meet regulatory compliance, and protect people and equipment.
8. Scalability
Use multi-site hierarchies, role controls, and templates so operations teams can scale consistently across facilities and sites.
9. Security
Require SOC 2/ISO controls, RBAC, real time monitoring, and data residency to safeguard systems and building occupants.
10. Services and support
Look for a clear implementation plan, training, a community, continuing education on the system, and a dedicated account manager. Ask for regular business reviews to accelerate adoption and drive cost savings.
How to calculate the total cost of ownership for building maintenance software
Use a three-year view to compare vendors and prioritize the line items that map to your goals.
Licenses
Account for everyone who will be regularly using the software, including technicians and managers. Inquire about requesters, contractors, and viewers, and if these team members will need a paid license. This is often a recurring cost that grows with adoption.
Services
Include implementation, data migration, and training costs. These accelerate time-to-value and reduce rollout risk for your maintenance operations.
Integrations
Budget for any integrations you’re planning, like connecting your CMMS to your ERP or BAS.
Hardware
Plan for tablets, barcodes/scanners, and IoT gateways. This ensures your team has the right gear to enable mobile work and real-time monitoring.
Change management
Account for backfill and ‘train-the-trainer’ time. A dedicated approach to implementation drives technician adoption and sustained process improvements.
10 questions to ask when evaluating building maintenance software
- Preventive maintenance: Can we trigger PMs by meter, condition, and calendar?
- Work requests: Can external users submit via a requester portal with SLA routing?
- Inventory: Do you support barcode scanning, min/max, kitting, and cross-site transfers?
- Mobile/offline: What parts of the mobile app work offline?
- Connecting to BAS, meters, and CAFM: How do alarms create work orders? Provide examples.
- Analytics: What custom reporting does the software support?
- Security/compliance: What audit and compliance capabilities does the software have?
- Support: What are the support hours, SLAs, and implementation services offered?
- Scalability: Does the system support multi-site management and reporting?
- References: Are there two customers in our industry with a similar asset mix?
Seven top building maintenance software vendors for 2026
Below are seven building maintenance vendors that you’ll likely encounter when making your choice.
MaintainX
A modern, mobile-first CMMS solution built to digitize maintenance operations end to end, from work requests to PMs, inventory management, procedures, audits, and analytics in one platform.
Why it stands out: Technicians actually use it. It’s loved for its fast, offline-capable mobile app, QR-enabled work intake, clean templates, and powerful but approachable reporting. MaintainX Scales across sites with role controls, SSO, and open APIs, including connections to other business software to auto-trigger work from alarms. Implementation is straightforward and has helped building maintenance teams see value within weeks.
Fiix
A well-known maintenance software platform with solid work order management, PM scheduling, and integrations.
Considerations: Governance and multi-site standardization often requires more admin work.
Limble CMMS
A streamlined CMMS with approachable checklists and PM flows.
Considerations: Teams have mentioned complications with complex multi-site hierarchies, advanced analytics, and deep integration into BAS and ERP systems.
eMaint
A mature CMMS with a long history in maintenance management.
Considerations: Setup and ongoing configuration can be heavier; mobile experience and usability typically require more coaching compared with other options.
UpKeep
Mobile-forward CMMS known for quick work order capture and tracking basic repairs.
Considerations: As you scale to multi-site operations, detailed inventory tracking and advanced reporting often become a limiter.
FMX
Facilities-focused platform with strong request portals and calendar views. Popular in school districts and property-heavy environments.
Considerations: For manufacturing environments with critical assets, parts, BOMs, and BAS/SCADA tie-ins, a CMMS typically offers deeper asset and parts control.
IBM Maximo (MAS)
Enterprise EAM with extensive modules and configurability.
Considerations: Implementation cost and time are significant. Many operations teams prefer a faster time-to-value, easier mobile adoption, and lower ongoing admin.
The best building maintenance software is the one that matches your team’s goals, workflows, and needs
Choosing building maintenance software in 2026 should start and end with results. Translate your goals into measurable outcomes: fewer surprises on the floor, faster repairs, safer operations, and a clear view of total cost over time. Then work backward.
Use the 10-factor scorecard to align the product with what matters most to your operation. Prioritize the capabilities that move your metrics, whether that’s PM compliance, technician adoption, or time to close maintenance requests. Next, run a focused pilot on critical assets. Set simple acceptance criteria, track the numbers, and let the data decide.
Finally, look beyond licensing to the full TCO: services, integrations, hardware, and the savings that come from fewer emergency call-outs and less downtime. When your maintenance team spends less time chasing tickets and more time improving asset performance, you’ve found the right system.
Marc Cousineau is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at MaintainX. Marc has over a decade of experience telling stories for technology brands, including more than five years writing about the maintenance and asset management industry.
