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IBM Maximo vs IFS Cloud Platform 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
Ranking in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Billing Software (4th)
IFS Cloud Platform
Ranking in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
CRM (20th), Customer Experience Management (7th), Field Service Management (1st), Help Desk Software (12th), ERP (13th), Activity Based Costing Software (7th), Local Government CRM (8th), IT Asset Management (10th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (11th), License Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) category, the mindshare of IBM Maximo is 25.7%, down from 27.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IFS Cloud Platform is 8.6%, up from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
 

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.
Brendan Fisher - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust, customizable, and modern
IFS is a very large and complex software, and implementation of IFS can be challenging and may lead to a difficult lengthy project. It can take between 12 and 24 months in some cases to deploy. I have found that not all clients are fully aware of how big the task is that they're undertaking when they make a decision to move to software like this. Companies need to be more aware of the complexity of an ERP implementation project and while I fully recommend moving to IFS, it is not easy and does require business change when adopting an ERP solution. New features are a difficult ask - I work across multiple industries and everyone would probably choose a different feature. Maybe BIM in Construction or Customs link-ups for importers/exporters.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is configurable, where you can add extra fields to screens and to the database."
"We can manage, organize, and track incidents, claims, jobs, tasks, preventive and corrective maintenance, locations, and assets."
"The Preventive Maintenance feature, especially in its inspection routines and KPI abilities, is valuable."
"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"The most powerful features are the database and integration with CMDB."
"The ability to configure and integrate it with other solutions for ERP."
"The most valuable features are the ability to create work orders and preventative maintenance."
"The incident management feature is good because it allows you to keep track of and classify issues."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users."
"The platform is reliable and stable."
"The best feature is the maintenance module, which is essentially an industry-specific workflow designed with a manufacturing module as per industry standards. It's very precise and specific without having complex functionalities. It's straightforward. Field Service Management is definitely a wonderful product that IFS has developed because it caters to field services. The energy and utility sectors can answer their business needs using the software."
"The most valuable features of IFS Applications in the latest version are the new user Arena interface. It's from Apps 9, but it brings more flexibility in usage, especially around different devices, such as mobile usage, which doesn't restrict you from using a computer. We are it for the HR side, and it's proving quite good. It has a new modern feel to it similar to a standard cloud application which enhances the user experience."
"The product is quite flexible."
"The workflow of the solution is very good."
"IFS has been completely rebuilt, modernized, and cloud-based so we don't need bulky software installations."
"Feature-wise, I like the way it provides inventory details...It is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"Could use some alignment regarding some standards and the tracking of the IT assets. Even though they have all of the information (i.e. where are the assets, who owns the asset, etc.), they were not mapping it to different cyber standards."
"Initial setup is a longer process because Maximo is bigger and has more processes."
"Areas for improvement include: an enhanced Service Catalog on Mobile; Agent intelligence; better dashboards for KPIs."
"It's not user-friendly. It could use shortcuts for frequently requested services."
"The interface is not very easy or user-friendly and is in need of improvement."
"The pricing model of the solution has room for improvement as well as the after-sales support."
"You can get lost using the application"
"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."
"The CRM was shaky and although this improves in Apps 10, there is room for improvement."
"There are some stability issues."
"The solution's initial setup process was complex...The technical support my company receives from the implementation partners of the solution is not that great."
"I'm a business analyst, so I do a lot of customer-facing work. I take calls from businesses I have to troubleshoot. One thing that bugs me is the error messages you get from IFS. If I get an error message, I have to dig to find the cause because, often, the error message doesn't precisely describe the problem. It'll hint about where the problem lies, but you have to work to find the root cause. It doesn't help in my situation. You expect an error message to point to the field or what is causing the issue."
"Sometimes from the sales perspective, clients don't always fully understand how large a task or a project they're getting involved in when they decide, "We're going to switch across to IFS." They could probably do a little bit more, maybe around preparing people for these projects."
"There are certain digital features that need to be incorporated, such as IOP."
"I have seen that one of the areas that my company has identified for improvement might be the rental management capabilities within the solution."
"The support provided by IFS Applications has room for improvement. I'm based in Poland, and when my company had an issue, finding people from IFS to give my company the support it needed was difficult."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"I do not know about the price of the solution. However, this has been an expensive project overall."
"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."
"​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.​"
"$USD700 per agent user."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"IFS Applications is expensive software, but it's on par with SAP and Oracle. It's for large enterprises and government entities and not for small and medium-sized enterprises. They have one licensing model, but if you want to have a module-specific license, they provide component-based licenses. Unlike SAP and Oracle, it doesn't have different levels of licensing. It's one level of licensing."
"Compared to SAP, the pricing for IFS Applications was very affordable. People using the solution would find that it's worth the money."
"There's an additional yearly cost for support."
"IFS Applications are competitive in terms of pricing compared to other vendors, such as SAP, Oracle, and Epicor. They are generally cheaper, especially for licensing costs."
"We pay for a license to use the solution, which is not very expensive."
"Licensing is on an annual basis, with no additional costs."
"The pricing of the solution may appear to be expensive for smaller companies with only tens of users; however, for larger and mid-size industrial companies, IFS is able to win deals and the pricing is competitive in the market."
"Ask for all-inclusive pricing, as they are pretty flexible if you ask for custom models."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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What do you like most about IFS Applications?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IFS Applications?
The product is reasonably priced. The costs are justified by the value provided, considering the comprehensive features and minimal need for customization. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with IFS Applications?
I am not able to recall much about batch. Documentation-wise, they need more. There is not much available online, and the documentation availability is on the lower side compared to other products,...
 

Also Known As

Maximo
IFS Applications, Assyst, IFS Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., DTE Energy, Swedish Match, Projetech, Fingrid, East Coast
China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia. 
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Maximo vs. IFS Cloud Platform and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,390 professionals have used our research since 2012.