Maintenance software
CAFM vs CMMS: what is the difference?
CAFM and CMMS overlap but start from different places. How they differ, where they overlap and how to decide which one your team needs.
· 5 min read
Both terms describe software for managing maintenance work, and many products today do some of both. The difference is mainly where each one starts.
CMMS: built around equipment
A CMMS (computerised maintenance management system) comes from industrial maintenance. It is organised around assets: machines, vehicles, pumps, production lines. Its core jobs are work orders for breakdowns, preventive maintenance schedules, spare parts inventory and the maintenance history of each asset.
Typical users are maintenance departments in factories and plants, fleet operators, utilities and equipment service companies.
CAFM: built around buildings and the people in them
A CAFM system (computer-aided facility management) comes from facility management. It is organised around buildings, sites and the services delivered in them. Besides maintenance it often includes a helpdesk for occupants or clients, soft services such as cleaning, contract and supplier management, and sometimes space management.
Typical users are in-house facility teams, FM service providers and property managers.
Side by side
| CMMS | CAFM | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | Assets and equipment | Buildings, sites and services |
| Who raises work | Operators, supervisors, maintenance planners | Occupants, tenants, clients, facility staff |
| Core features | Work orders, preventive maintenance, spare parts, asset history | Helpdesk, work orders, PPM, client reporting, contracts, sometimes space |
| Typical output | Equipment uptime and maintenance cost per asset | Response and completion against service levels, client reports |
Where they overlap
Work orders, preventive maintenance, asset registers, technician assignment and spare parts appear in both. For an FM service provider maintaining chillers and pumps, or a factory maintenance team handling requests from many departments, the line is thin.
How to decide
Instead of choosing by label, list the workflows your team runs every week and check each product against them:
- Who raises requests, and do they need their own access to follow them?
- Do you maintain your own assets, or other people’s buildings under contract?
- Do clients need reports, quotations or approvals from you?
- How are preventive maintenance visits scheduled and evidenced today?
- Where do parts, purchases and job costs end up: in a separate finance system, or nowhere?
If most answers involve clients, sites and service reports, you are looking for CAFM-style workflows. If most involve machines, downtime and parts, CMMS-style workflows matter more. If you need both, look for a platform that covers the shared core well and test it on one job of each kind.