Every CAFM software vendor will show you a dashboard, and every dashboard looks the same in a demo because it is populated with the vendor's data rather than yours. The way to compare products that all demo well is to arrive with your own figures and ask each of them to reproduce them. This page sets out what CAFM software has to hold for that to be possible, the four things worth testing in half an hour, and how to run a comparison that does not turn into a feature-checklist arms race. This site publishes no vendor ranking, because which product is best depends on what your estate looks like and no general answer survives that.
What CAFM facilities management software has to hold first
Assets with location, condition and expected life. Spaces with area and occupancy. Work orders attached to the asset they belong to, with a status and the date it changed. Those three lists, genuinely linked, are the whole foundation, and every chart in every demo is derived from them. A product that keeps assets and work orders but has no space record cannot tell you utilization. One that keeps condition as a free-text note cannot tell you what falls due in five years. Ask which fields exist and which are mandatory before you look at a single screen.
The CAFM software demo script that separates products
Bring a slice of your own estate and ask for four numbers out of the system: utilization against desks provided, total running cost per square foot and per person, backlog hours against technician capacity, and the replacement value falling due within five years. It takes half an hour and it is a fair request. On this site's worked figures those read 60% utilization on 180 desks, $30 a square foot and $3,500 a person, a backlog growing 22.5 hours a week against three technicians, and $800,000 of replacement due within five years on a $2.4m base. If a product cannot produce its own version of all four, you have learned more than a feature list would tell you.
A CAFM software comparison without a ranking
A CAFM software comparison that lists features ends in a tie, because every product in the category has every feature in some form. Compare on four things instead: which of the three records it keeps properly, whether the four figures come out of it without a services engagement, what the total looks like once implementation and the per-user license are both counted, and whether you can export the record if you leave. The last one is the cheapest question to ask and the most expensive to have skipped.
Where the money goes on CAFM software solutions
License is rarely the whole cost and often not the largest part. Implementation, the survey that populates the asset register, drawing preparation if the product wants floor plans, integration with whatever holds your finance data, and training all arrive as separate lines. Published prices exist at the small end: UpKeep lists Essential at $24 per user per month and Premium at $55. Prices at the CAFM end are usually quoted rather than published, which is itself information: ask for the implementation figure in the same conversation as the license, because the ratio between them is the thing that surprises small teams.
Questions people ask about cafm software
What should CAFM software cost?
Ask for the license and the implementation figure together, because the second is frequently the larger and is rarely volunteered. At the small end prices are published: UpKeep lists Essential at $24 per user per month and Premium at $55. CAFM products aimed at estates are usually quoted, so treat any figure you are given as the start of a total that includes the asset survey, drawing preparation, integration and training.
How do I compare CAFM software without a feature matrix?
Give each vendor the same slice of your own estate and ask for the same four numbers: utilization, cost per square foot, backlog against capacity, and replacement value due within five years. Products that all look identical on a feature list separate immediately on whether those come out of the system or out of a consultant.
Does this site rank CAFM facility management software?
No. The right product depends on how many sites you run, whether you have floor plans, what already holds your finance data and who will maintain the record, and a general ranking hides all of that. What travels between estates is the arithmetic, so this site publishes the sheets and leaves the choice to the person who has to live with it.
Is there a CAFM software download, or is everything hosted?
Almost everything current is hosted rather than installed, and a downloadable client is usually either a mobile app or a legacy on-premise product. If an on-premise install matters to you for data-residency reasons, ask about it early: it narrows the field sharply and it changes who is responsible for backups and upgrades.