- Maintenance · CMMS
- Operations Manager, CFO / Finance, IT Director / CTO, Plant / Operations Director
- Manufacturing, Services and offices, Public sector
Free CMMS software: what you get, what you give up and when to pay
In short
Free CMMS software is maintenance software offered at no license cost, usually with limits on users, assets, history or support. It can work for a small team with a few machines and a simple routine. The real costs appear later: manual data entry, missing features and the effort of moving data to a paid system. Remanently CMMS does not offer a free plan; it starts with a small paid package built around report, work order, repair and history.
What "free" usually means
A free CMMS comes in several forms, and they are not the same thing.
- A free tier of a paid product. A limited version with a cap on users, assets or work orders, meant to lead you to a paid plan.
- A time-limited trial. Full features for a few weeks, then payment or loss of access.
- Open-source software. No license fee, but you host, configure, secure and update it yourself.
- A spreadsheet template. Not software at all, but often what "free" ends up meaning in practice.
Before comparing, ask which of these you are being offered. A trial is a way to test. A tier is a way to start small. Open source is a project that someone in your company owns.
When free is enough
A free tool is a reasonable choice in a narrow set of situations.
- One site, one or two technicians, fewer than about twenty machines that matter.
- Maintenance is mostly reactive and you just want a place to write down what was repaired.
- You want to learn what a work order and a machine history look like before committing budget.
- Nobody outside maintenance needs to see the data.
In that case a free tool, or even a printed work order template and an equipment maintenance log, gets you most of the benefit. The most valuable habit is writing things down against a named machine. The tool matters less than the habit.
What you usually give up
| Area | Typical limit in a free offer | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Users | One to a few seats | Operators and team leaders cannot report faults |
| Assets and history | Capped number or short retention | History is the main value; losing it removes the reason to use the system |
| Scheduled work | Basic or missing | Planned inspections with reminders are what prevents failures |
| Mobile and QR | Limited or paid add-on | Data gets entered later from memory |
| Reporting | Minimal | A manager cannot see overdue work or repeat failures |
| Support and data export | Community or none | Moving out later may be hard |
The costs that are not on the price tag
Your time. Someone has to set up assets, fix the structure and train people. If that takes a technician away from repairs for weeks, it has a cost, even if no invoice arrives.
Data entry twice. If the tool does not talk to your asset list, you retype names and serial numbers. Two lists drift apart.
Migration. Once a year of history is in a free tool with limits, moving it is work. Ask early whether you can export everything in a usable format.
IT and security. A tool installed by one person without review becomes a question for the IT manager later: where does the data live, who has access, who updates it.
Finance. A free tool has no price today and no budget line tomorrow. When it needs to grow, the first paid quote arrives as a surprise rather than a plan.
Signs you have outgrown it
- People report faults by phone or message because they have no seat.
- Planned inspections are tracked outside the tool.
- You cannot answer which machine breaks most often without a manual count.
- Spare parts are linked to repairs in a separate sheet.
- A second site or a second maintenance team needs access.
Two or three of these means it is time to compare paid systems. CMMS pricing explains how to read a quote and which questions to ask about users.
A short test before you commit to any tool
Whatever you pick, run the same four checks. First, enter ten of your own machines and see how long it takes. Second, have an operator report a fault without help and time it. Third, close a work order the way a technician would, with a part and a photo. Fourth, ask how you would get your data out. If the answers are slow, unclear or missing, the price does not matter. A cheap tool that people avoid is the most expensive option, because the history it should hold never gets written.
Also decide who owns the tool inside your company. A free system with no owner decays: machines are renamed, users leave and settings drift. One named person with a few hours a month keeps it useful.
How Remanently approaches a small start
Remanently CMMS has no free plan, so this page will not pretend otherwise. What it offers is a low entry point built around the essentials: the FIRST plan costs 999 EUR per year for up to 3 CMMS users and includes the machine and equipment register, location structure, failure reports, work orders, assignment to technicians, priorities, statuses, comments, photos and attachments, machine history and basic reporting. People who only report a failure do not count against the user limit, so operators can still submit reports.
QUICK START at 1,999 EUR per year adds planned inspections, schedules, checklists, deadlines, reminders, QR and barcode identification and mobile handling for up to 10 users. TIME IS MONEY at 3,999 EUR per year supports up to 25 users and adds costs, response times, escalations and dashboards. For the product, see Remanently CMMS, and for the category, the CMMS software hub. If a template is enough for now, start with the maintenance request form.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a truly free CMMS?
Some products offer a free tier with limits, some are open source, and some give a trial period. Each comes with trade-offs in users, history, features or the effort of running it yourself.
Does Remanently CMMS have a free plan?
No. The smallest plan, FIRST, costs 999 EUR per year and covers up to 3 CMMS users.
What is the biggest risk of a free tool?
Losing the history or finding it hard to export when you need to move. The machine history is the main value of the system.
Can I start with templates instead of software?
Yes, for a small team. A work order template, a request form and a machine log build the habit of recording against named machines, and the records can later be loaded into a system.
When should I move to a paid system?
When people who should report faults have no access, when planned inspections live outside the tool, or when management cannot see overdue work and repeat failures.
Check whether a small paid start fits
Book a short demo and we will go through your machines, your users and the smallest setup that would work, using your own data.