Operating and maintaining a facility is a job in and of itself, regardless of your business. If you rely on any number of functional facilities, you could benefit from free facility management software. However, finding affordable facility management software is no menial task, especially for SMBs.

We’ll break down the five best free options available on the market to help you jumpstart your selection.

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Article Roadmap

• Best Facility Management Software
  • Limble
  • MaintainX
  • Q Ware
  • FMX
  • Fracttal One
• FAQs
• Next Steps

Best Free Facility Management Software

Let’s get down to the brass tacks before we answer some of the other burning questions you may have. What is the best free facility management software?

There’s no single answer to that question, given that every company has different needs. But we have our picks for the overall best of the best.

Our analysts curated this list of five of the top free facility solutions after exploring the available options. And we’re not just talking about free trials — these are forever-free platforms you can use indefinitely, provided you don’t outgrow their capabilities.

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Limble

Limble is a CMMS solution that provides the tools necessary to manage facilities effectively. The cloud-based platform caters to the needs of organizations of any size.

The top features in the system’s free version that support facility management include work order and procedure management, work requests, asset management, reporting, and data storage.

While it offers unlimited work orders, the free version doesn’t allow you to import orders, track time and costs, set custom labor categories or approval processes, or verify assets’ physical location. It also lacks any inventory management or purchasing capabilities.

Get a personalized free price quote to see how Limble’s paid tiers compare their free package.

Build work orders with asset details like TCO and total downtime using Limble. Source

Top Benefits

• Streamline Preventive Maintenance: Set up to four active, recurring preventive maintenance tasks to automatically receive notifications at the time interval you choose. Create unlimited procedure templates documenting maintenance duties.
• Automate Work Order Creation: Establish reading thresholds for temperatures, mileage, hours, cycles and more to trigger work orders automatically.
• Attach Photo Evidence: Capture photos with mobile devices and add them to work orders as completion evidence.
• Foster Accountability: Use signature capture with procedures to create audit records for completed tasks and foster workplace accountability.
• Sample Advanced Reporting: Access real-time, advanced reports free for the first month to sample options for deeper business insights.

Primary Features

• Work Order & Procedure Management: Create unlimited work orders and communicate with teams in real time. Attach up to two procedure documents, with inspection checks and conditional logic instructions, per month to work orders. Export in PDF or CSV.
• Work Requests: Manage a work request portal with unlimited users. Keep up to 10 submitted or open work request tickets at any given time. Use QR codes to streamline ticket submission, view request histories, and capture photos and markups alongside requests.
• Asset Management: Record and manage unlimited assets, hierarchies and custom fields. Attach warranties to asset records and use QR codes to pull up asset information on-site quickly.
• Reporting: Access prebuilt, basic reports and export them to share with stakeholders.
• Data Storage: Store everything with unlimited cloud storage and historical data retention. Speed up information logging with bulk importing capabilities.

Limitations

• No multi-location support.
• No option to reject work order requests.
• No capital depreciation tracking.

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MaintainX

MaintainX is another CMMS solution that supports facility management needs. It’s suited for any company size and is cloud-based.

The free solution offers work order and procedure management, work requests, preventive maintenance, asset management, and reporting.

While it does offer work request capabilities, it doesn’t provide a portal for external and occupant submissions. It doesn’t include any integration options at the free level.

Get a personalized free price quote to see how MaintainX’s paid tiers compare their free package.

Create recurring preventive maintenance tasks or work orders with SOP information in MaintainX. Source

Top Benefits

• Manage Unlimited Vendors: Use part and inventory management modules to create unlimited profiles for the vendors you regularly work with.
• Generate Procedures With AI: Automatically create SOPs for tasks with beta access to AI tools.
• Monitor Performance: Generate procedure performance scorecards based on logged metrics and customizable work order targets.
• Foster Accountability: Require signatures alongside completed work orders and procedures to create audit traceability and cultivate maintenance accountability.
• Sample Advanced Reports: As with Limble, sample advanced, real-time reports for free for the first month to see how paid tiers can provide more robust business insights.

Primary Features

• Work Order & Procedure Management: Create unlimited work orders and communicate expectations in real time via built-in messaging. Attach procedure lists to up to two work orders per month, complete with inspection checks and conditional logic fields. Attach photos and videos to up to five work orders per month.
• Work Requests: Allow an unlimited number of users to create and submit work requests.
• Preventive Maintenance: Create up to two repeating work orders per month to facilitate automatic preventive maintenance tasks.
• Asset Management: Log and modify unlimited asset records, including their locations. Automatically generate unique QR codes and barcodes for assets to access information with built-in scanning capabilities.
• Reporting: Generate prebuilt, basic reports. Export unlimited reports in PDF format.

Limitations

• No external work request portal for occupants or third-party teams.
• No asset and location hierarchy capabilities.
• No real-time reporting for the free version after the first month.

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Q Ware

Q Ware is a cloud-based facility management application catering to businesses of any size.

Its free version’s standout features include asset management, vendor management, labor time and cost tracking, document management, and custom reporting and interfaces.

The free package doesn’t support automation, repetitive scheduling or inventory tracking.

Get a personalized free price quote to see how Q Ware’s paid tiers compare their free package.

Use custom categories and fields to organize assets and document critical information in Q Ware. Source

Top Benefits

• Manage Multiple Locations: Set up unlimited locations and manage multiple sites simultaneously.
• Customize Fields & Categories: Create unlimited categories and custom fields to build any combination of records for individual assets. Automatically assign custom fields and capture asset information based on their category assignments.
• Tailor Work Order Views: Customize table and calendar displays to view work orders in the format that best suits your needs.
• Build a Documentation Library: Store digital documents and images, such as asset photos, maintenance procedures, warranties and more, to create a comprehensive resource library.
• Facilitate Work Requests: Manage a work request portal and enable users to create and submit requests directly from mobile devices.

Primary Features

• Asset Management: Import asset profiles and information via CSV files. Automatically track work orders assigned to assets. View changes made, when they happened and who made them using audit logs. Create and save custom views using filters and search features. Update and print information for multiple assets using bulk actions.
• Vendor Management: Store unlimited vendors’ contact information. Upload purchase orders to specific vendors. Access vendor references for ordering and service calls. Assign vendors to assets to generate reports by specific suppliers.
• Labor Time & Cost Tracking: Enable maintenance employees to log hours worked directly on work orders. Assign hourly and overtime rates to individual employees to track labor costs.
• Document Management: Upload supporting asset documents and photos. Assign files to specific asset profiles, work orders and more.
• Custom Reporting & Interfaces: Build and generate custom reports by selecting data sets and filters. Include data from standard and custom fields. Export reports to Excel or as PDF files.

Limitations

• No automated work order schedules for inspections or maintenance tasks.
• No native mobile apps.
• No recurring work order scheduling feature.

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FMX

FMX is a cloud-based facility management tool. It’s best suited for smaller and medium-sized organizations.

The vendor offers work order management, asset records, QR codes, mobile work orders, and location, building and resource management.

It doesn’t include customization, security, bulk action or single sign-on capabilities at the free tier.

Get a personalized free price quote to see how FMX’s paid tiers compare their free package.

Log asset and equipment records with images and details like installation date, manufacturer, serial number and more with FMX. Source

Top Benefits

• Track Maintenance Requests: Use a grid format to track maintenance requests submitted for your assets.
• Create Contact Profiles: Create and store contact profiles for team members, vendors and third-party contractors. Assign access permissions to profiles based on user type.
• Filter Reports: Create and save custom filters for reports to quickly access the insights you rely on most.
• Improve Task Visibility: View daily and weekly maintenance tasks in a calendar view to improve visibility and easily plan schedules.
• Filter Requests by Status: Manage work requests by current status, including overdue, pending assignment or resolution, finalized, on hold, and more.

Primary Features

• Work Order Management: Create unlimited work orders for your assets. Access assets’ work order histories to view changes made, who made them and when they occurred.
• Asset Records: Create unlimited asset and equipment profiles to record details and maintain a comprehensive library.
• QR Codes: Generate unique QR codes for individual assets. Use built-in scanning to access maintenance histories and asset details on-site.
• Mobile Work Orders: Access, respond to and close on-site using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
• Location, Building & Resource Management: Set up profiles for various locations, buildings and resources. Enable requesters to choose from the predefined locations, buildings and resources while submitting work requests.

Limitations

• No report and dashboard creation/management.
• No security and compliance documentation, support, management or tracking.
• No bulk importing.

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Fracttal One

Fracttal One is a cloud-based maintenance management platform suitable for all company sizes.

Its most notable free features include location and equipment catalog, QR codes and NFC tags, work orders, data export, and preventive maintenance.

While the free solution offers work orders, it’s limited to 100 orders per month and doesn’t include offline management, team scheduling, work requests, nested work orders, attachment capabilities or task resources. It also lacks any inventory management, information analysis, automation and integration options.

Get a personalized free price quote to see how Fracttal One’s paid tiers compare their free package.

Manage work orders with a calendar, task details and steps using Fracttal One. Source

Top Benefits

• Track Financial Depreciation: Use a financial depreciation module to spread and view costs over the useful life of an asset.
• Determine When To Replace vs. Maintain: Monitor asset health statuses to manage asset life cycles and assess time to act. Monitor value and determine when it’s no longer financially viable to continue with repairs over replacement.
• Minimize Repeat Data Entry: Clone assets to create multiple profiles and minimize the time spent logging duplicate information. Edit clone profiles with slight variations, such as serial numbers, to create unique identifiers for each asset in a set. Select multiple asset profiles to make bulk edits.
• Synchronize in Real Time: Store all maintenance activities — e.g., work orders, preventive maintenance plans, task procedures and more — in the cloud to provide up-to-date information to all team members in real time.
• Improve Security: Set up two-factor authentication (2FA) to keep records secure.

Primary Features

• Location & Equipment Catalog: Create up to 50 locations and equipment catalogs to manage maintenance across various sites.
• QR Codes & NFC Tags: Use QR codes and near-field communication (NFC) tags to retrieve, view and manage asset information on-site.
• Work Orders: Create up to 100 work orders per month, detailing location, tasks to accomplish and more.
• Data Export: Select and export data on work orders, assets, costs and more.
• Preventive Maintenance: Define preventive maintenance programs and schedule routine tasks. Automatically generate work order tickets for upcoming preventive maintenance.

Limitations

• No work request management.
• No work order attachments.
• No guest request portal.

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FAQs

What is facility management software?

Facility management software, or computer-aided facility management systems, are solutions for managing operations and maintenance at an organization’s buildings (commercial, warehouses, offices) and outdoor facilities.

They typically include capabilities that help facilitate asset management, work order management and other maintenance activities.

Some advanced systems may include features for building automation, allowing you to control and monitor systems like HVAC, lighting, security and more digitally.

How does facility management software differ from CMMS or EAM software?

These systems differ mainly in scope, with some functional differences sprinkled in to match their unique purposes.

Think of them like tiers with facility management on the lowest rung, CMMS a step up and EAM at the top. As you move up in tiers, you take capabilities from the previous tier and add more functionality to it.

For example:

• Facility management software will help you maintain your buildings and the equipment within them.
• CMMS will help you maintain your buildings, the equipment in them and other assets, such as vehicles and hardware.
• EAM will help you maintain your buildings and all assets while providing deeper insight into asset life cycles, valuation and more business-centric data — not just maintenance-centric information.

It’s a bit of an oversimplification — there may be some features in a facility management solution that you won’t find in a CMMS or EAM solution or that you would typically associate with the other two — but it helps paint a clear picture nonetheless.

Check out this link if you’re interested in learning more about the differences, particularly when it comes to EAM vs. CMMS.

Is free software worth it?

The answer to this question will depend entirely on your needs.

In general, free software is more viable for SMBs or slightly larger companies with limited maintenance needs.

As you can see from our list of the best free solutions, they come with significant limitations — ones that likely wouldn’t make them worth it for large enterprises that can afford a paid solution.

For example, limitations can include:

• Monthly restrictions on work orders, procedure attachments, repeating maintenance tasks and more.
• Limited reporting in terms of advanced capabilities, customization and/or exporting.
• Lack of automation, scheduling and hierarchical organization capabilities.
• No native mobile apps.

Free systems won’t have the same specific restrictions. These are just examples of some you might come across. So, if a system’s limitations don’t hinder your operations, then yes, free software can absolutely be worth it.

How do I choose a free facility management solution?

Choosing a free facility management solution is like choosing any business software. It takes requirements gathering and market exploration to find one that meets your needs.

If you weren’t turned off by the system restrictions in our list of solutions above and want to pursue free software, we can guide you through how to find your best fit.

We’ve created the Lean Selection methodology to help any business find software suited to their individual needs. ‘

The nine-step process consists of:

1. Establishing a need for software.
2. Collaborating with department leaders to put together a selection team.
3. Defining interdepartmental requirements to meet everyone’s needs.
4. Distributing and validating vendor and software qualifications with scores on how well they meet your needs.
5. Justifying your need for a new system (or add-ons to your existing stack) to executives.
6. Proving that your shortlisted vendors can meet your needs through use cases, demos and other proofs-of-concept.
7. Ranking your shortlist on the findings from step six, total cost of ownership and requirements scores from step four.
8. Negotiating with the vendor you choose to move forward with.
9. Signing the final contract!

What are the three main tasks of facility management, and can free software assist with them?

The three main facility management tasks are keeping your facilities clean, secure and maintained. Facility management tasks should fall under one or several of these categories.

For example, placing a work order to fix a faulty HVAC system falls under keeping your building properly maintained. Installing CCTV cameras would fall under securing your facility. Routine tasks around your facility could fall under any of the three categories, depending on the specific task.

So, can software assist with these categories? Absolutely!

Assisting with these core duties is what facility management software is all about. They help you schedule and carry out tasks while evaluating practices for potential improvement.

While they can’t perform a maintenance, cleaning or security task for you, they can help you schedule it, pick the best on-hand tools to accomplish it, assign an employee, track its progress, and evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of its completion.

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Next Steps

Free facility management software is a great place to start, especially if it’s your first system and you aren’t completely sure of your needs yet. You’ll be able to explore some basic facility management functionality and determine what you need more of.

If you’re ready to begin your purchase journey, take our free comparison report for a spin. It’s an interactive tool for side-by-side comparisons of products, including their offerings, user sentiments and our analysts’ ratings.

What do you want to resolve with a facility management solution? Will a free solution cover your needs, or do you need a paid package? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!