You found MaintainX while searching for something to track maintenance on your machines, and it looks polished. It is. The problem shows up when you read the pricing page and the onboarding flow: MaintainX is a CMMS built for maintenance departments, and you are not running a maintenance department. You are running two to fifteen machines with a crew that mostly drives them.
This page is the honest version of that comparison. MaintainX is a good product. It is just built for a different shape of business than yours.
What MaintainX actually is
MaintainX is a work-order and CMMS platform for maintenance and frontline teams. Pricing changes, so check their site for current numbers, but the model is per-user, and it is aimed at facilities, manufacturing plants, and operations with a dedicated maintenance staff. Someone opens a work order, someone gets assigned, parts get pulled from inventory, the order gets closed out, and a manager looks at the reporting. That whole loop is the point of the software.
If you have a maintenance manager, technicians who close tickets all day, and a parts room, MaintainX earns its price. That is a real way to run a shop.
Why a 2–15 machine crew is different
A landscaper or a small grading outfit does not run a ticket loop. The operator who runs the skid steer is the same person who greases it. There is no parts room — there is a shelf with oil and filters and a receipt in the glovebox. Nobody is "assigned" a work order; the guy who notices the hydraulics are slow is the guy who writes it down so it gets fixed.
You do not need a work-order system. You need a maintenance log that an operator can fill out in the cab in under thirty seconds with greasy hands, and an alert when a machine is coming due on hours.
That gap is where per-user pricing turns into a tax. Per-user billing makes sense when every user is a paid technician closing work orders. It makes no sense when your "users" are a seasonal operator who runs a mower for ten weeks, a part-time guy who shows up on big jobs, and your brother-in-law who borrows the Bobcat on weekends. You want all of them recording hours and noting problems. Per-seat pricing punishes exactly the behavior you want, so you end up sharing one login, and shared logins kill accountability.
The pricing math, plainly
EquipHours prices by machine count, not by head. Free is $0 for 2 machines, Crew is $14.99/mo for 15 machines, Fleet is $39.99/mo for unlimited machines, with annual options. No per-user fee, ever. Invite the whole crew — seasonal hands, the part-timer, your brother-in-law — and everyone logs under their own name at no extra cost.
Run the comparison in your head. A six-person crew on a per-user CMMS is six seats whether those people log once a week or once a season. On EquipHours, six people on twelve machines is one Crew subscription. The number that moves your bill is the number of machines you own, which is the number that actually correlates to how much maintenance work exists.
Side by side
| EquipHours | MaintainX | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Small equipment crews (2–15 machines) | Maintenance teams, facilities, manufacturing |
| Pricing model | By machine count, no per-user fee | Per-user (check their site for current numbers) |
| Offline logging in the field | Yes, offline-first, syncs later | Designed around connected work-order flows |
| Work orders | No — it's a log, not a ticket system | Yes, core feature |
| Parts inventory | No | Yes |
| Learning curve | Minutes — tap machine, enter hours, save | Real onboarding for the full CMMS |
| Best fit | Operator-is-the-mechanic crews | Dedicated maintenance departments |
What you give up, honestly
Switching to EquipHours from a real CMMS means giving things up. Be clear-eyed about it:
- No work orders. There is no ticket to assign, route, or close. You log what happened and what is due.
- No parts inventory. EquipHours does not track stock levels or reorder points. If you carry real parts inventory, that is a gap.
- No purchase orders, no integrations. It does not connect to your accounting or a parts supplier.
If those are dealbreakers, MaintainX is the right call and you should stop reading.
What you gain
- Thirty-second logging. Quick Log is built for the cab: tap the machine, punch the meter into a big numpad, pick the service, save. No desk, no laptop.
- Hour-based intervals with status. Service intervals run on engine hours with green/yellow/red status, plus email alerts when an interval goes newly overdue and push notifications.
- Real offline. Log a service in a field with no signal; it syncs later with duplicate protection.
- Everyone under their own name. Crew invites by email or QR, owner/crew roles, no shared login.
- Proof on the machine. Attach receipt photos to the service so the record holds up when you sell the machine or settle a warranty argument.
You also get per-machine maintenance schedules for 40 popular machines, including skid steers and mini-excavators, so you are not guessing at intervals.
A day in the field, two ways
Picture the operator finishing a day on the skid steer. Hour meter reads 612. He greased the machine and topped the hydraulic fluid.
On a per-user CMMS, that is a small project: open the app, find the asset, create a work order or close one, log the parts used, set the status, maybe attach it to a request. If he is a casual user he probably does not bother, and the record never gets made.
With EquipHours, it is three taps before he climbs down: tap the skid steer, type 612 on the numpad, tap Greasing and Hydraulic Fluid, save. The entry exists. The greasing interval resets, the hydraulic interval updates its status, and if either was close to due, the next overdue alert reflects reality instead of a guess. The difference is not features — it is whether the log actually gets filled out by a guy with gloves on who wants to go home.
Switching off a CMMS
If you are coming off MaintainX, you do not migrate work orders, because there are none to migrate. You add your machines, set their hour intervals (or start from a maintenance schedule page), invite the crew by email or QR, and start logging. Past service history can go in as notes on each machine if you want it, but most crews just start fresh from the current hour reading and let the log build from there. There is no implementation project and no admin to assign seats.
When MaintainX is the better choice
Pick MaintainX, not EquipHours, if any of these are true:
- You have a dedicated maintenance staff closing work orders as their job.
- You track parts inventory and need stock and reorder management.
- You need purchase orders or integrations with ERP/accounting systems.
- Your assets are plant and facilities equipment, not field machines an operator runs.
Those are real needs, and a maintenance log will not cover them. EquipHours is for the crew where the operator is the mechanic and the bill should track machines, not seats. If your problem is more like a road fleet than a CMMS, the Fleetio alternative comparison covers that case.
Try it on your own machines
Start free with 2 machines, no credit card. Log a few services, watch an interval turn yellow, and see whether a maintenance log is actually all your crew needs. Check pricing and the full features list, grab the free equipment maintenance log template to see the fields, and sign up at /app/register when you are ready.