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IBM Maximo Application Suite 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 Application Suite
Ranking in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Billing Software (5th)
IFS Cloud Platform
Ranking in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
CRM (29th), Customer Experience Management (11th), Field Service Management (2nd), Help Desk Software (16th), ERP (20th), Activity Based Costing Software (10th), Local Government CRM (9th), IT Asset Management (13th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (14th), License Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) category, the mindshare of IBM Maximo Application Suite is 12.1%, down from 25.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IFS Cloud Platform is 6.6%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Maximo Application Suite12.1%
IFS Cloud Platform6.6%
Other81.3%
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
 

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.
reviewer2268153 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Operations Engineer
Integrated planning has improved production scheduling and now reduces downtime and costs
The biggest friction point I have run into with IFS Cloud Platform is user adoption, which has been the biggest challenge, as different users in the organization need to get accustomed to the new processes after years of using spreadsheets and legacy systems, requiring training and a mindset shift, along with challenging data migration and process standardization. My advice to someone considering IFS Cloud Platform with a similar workflow is to spend sufficient time understanding and standardizing their business processes before implementing it, as the technology is very powerful, but the real value comes when processes, data, and teams are all aligned. I would rate my overall experience with IFS Cloud Platform as a 9 out of 10.

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 the best tool for the asset management solution."
"If it's not the best EAM product, it is one of the best out there."
"IBM Maximo has increased our efficiency by 65%."
"Its capabilities let us organize our work."
"The most powerful features are the database and integration with CMDB."
"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."
"When it comes to their reporting and analytics capabilities, I find them to be superb."
"We were able to scale perfectly.​"
"Having a young talented programmer, during the six years of use, we were able to save around 75 000 EUR preparing simple modifications using customization rather than ordering them in IFS / Partner."
"There tends not to be a massive weakness in the product itself, as weaknesses can quickly be resolved in the next patch or the next release."
"The most valuable feature is the distribution module."
"When it comes to financing, the solution has helped us to concentrate finance functions like accounting processes in one system. This includes about 70 internal entities around the world."
"IFS Applications is very user-friendly and easy to deploy, and it's suitable for small and medium enterprises."
"The product is quite flexible."
"Field Service Management is definitely a wonderful product that IFS has developed because it caters to field services."
"We applied the ISO 20000 standard using Assyst."
 

Cons

"IBM Maximo can be improved by providing developers with more documentation."
"This solution could improve by integrating or embedding finances, charts of accounts, and invoicing."
"From that perspective, the UI is quite old-fashioned, and that would be one of my main concerns."
"It was very slow due to the lagging issues. So that was kind of frustrating, considering how slow it was while functioning."
"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."
"Licensing costs for IBM Maximo are now more expensive relative to some of the cloud-based platforms that offer cheaper solutions and are more flexible in terms of fees."
"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."
"The pricing model of the solution has room for improvement as well as the after-sales support."
"The integration is a bit complex, and post-implementation support services need to be improved."
"IFS uses Crystal Report mostly, which isn't too user-friendly. Developing reports isn't easy and requires a lot of dev time. Since SAP bought it, Crystal Report has become more complicated to use on IFS. You have a dashboard for reporting that is good, but it's incomplete. Most of our clients use Power BI or some additional tooling for BI."
"An area for improvement would be transactions, which can be tedious to complete as the process is very complex."
"The solution's reporting tools still require improvement."
"The pricing could be a bit better. It's a little high."
"Some kind of bot assistance, some kind of artificial intelligence to help people solve the problems, would be interesting."
"The customer service is not good as expected but we can say its fair."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of IBM Maximo could reduce, it is expensive."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"​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."
"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."
"I do not know about the price of the solution. However, this has been an expensive project overall."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"The additional cost that comes with the solution includes the overhead of the people who are trying to fix the tool issues. These people are trying to reproduce the issue and report it to the technical support and testing with them which is huge. It is the cost of quality in the end."
"It is better to buy implementation services from IFS than from partners"
"We pay for a license to use the solution, which is not very expensive."
"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."
"Ask for all-inclusive pricing, as they are pretty flexible if you ask for custom models."
"Licensing is on an annual basis, with no additional costs."
"Compared to SAP, the pricing for IFS Applications was very affordable. People using the solution would find that it's worth the money."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise22
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
There are a couple of places, but I cannot name one at this moment because I still need to go through more of the things because there is a lot which I need to learn. Something related to the custo...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
I generally develop IBM Maximo reports and then some automation scripts, and the major thing which I have customized is an application called Archival solution that we created from scratch. For the...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Maximo?
AI Watson, I have not used it so far. I was trying to use it, but there are some challenges for me to use it. I will definitely try to give a review once I use it. I have not used it so far. I will...
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?
There are features that came up during implementation that we are not actually using today, such as field service management (FSM), because we do not have any field technicians visiting customer si...
What is your primary use case for IFS Applications?
My main use case for IFS Cloud Platform is for production planning, where I typically use it for production scheduling and for inventory management. When I open IFS Cloud Platform, the first thing ...
 

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 Application Suite vs. IFS Cloud Platform and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
910,479 professionals have used our research since 2012.