CMMS vs. maintenance software for trades: what is the difference?
Answer
A CMMS (computerised maintenance management system) and maintenance software for trades solve two different jobs. A CMMS manages the upkeep of your own plant and equipment — work orders, spare parts, in-house inspection compliance — and is common in industry, production and facility management. Maintenance software for trades manages the maintenance contracts you hold for many external customers, with their assets, due dates and reports. If you service other people’s buildings, you need the second kind; if you maintain your own equipment, the first.
What is a CMMS?
A CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) manages the maintenance of an organisation’s own assets and equipment. Its core objects are work orders, an asset register, spare-parts inventory and inspection compliance for plant the organisation owns and runs itself — the natural fit for industry, production and facility management. A well-known German-language example is “Der Wartungsplaner” (HOPPE), which documents the inspection deadlines and maintenance of your own equipment. The search terms “Instandhaltungssoftware” and “CMMS software” come from this world.
What is maintenance software for trades?
Maintenance software for trades manages the maintenance contracts a trade business holds for many external customers. An SHK or building-services firm services its customers’ assets — heating, ventilation, drinking-water systems — and keeps the contract, the interval and the next due date per maintenance customer. The assets sit at the customer’s site, not in your own workshop. What you manage is a recurring external workload across many sites, not your own plant.
How do the two differ?
Both handle maintenance, but they split on a single question: whose assets are managed? A CMMS is built around your own equipment; trades maintenance software is built around your customers’ contracts. From that one difference follow different users, different core objects and different ways of working.
| Criterion | CMMS / industrial maintenance | Maintenance software for trades |
|---|---|---|
| Whose assets | Your own plant and equipment | Your customers’ assets |
| Typical user | Industry, production, facility management | SHK and building-services trades |
| Core object | Work order on your own asset | Maintenance contract per customer |
| Spare parts / inventory | Usually built in | Out of scope |
| Access | Often Windows desktop | Browser, from the job site |
| Job to be done | In-house upkeep and compliance | Recurring maintenance for many customers |
When does each one fit?
Choose by whose assets you are responsible for. If you run your own machines, a production line or a facility’s plant and need spare-parts control and a work-order history, a CMMS fits. If you hold maintenance contracts for customers and must never let a due date slip, maintenance software for trades fits. A small SHK or building-services business almost always needs the second — an industrial CMMS is built for a job it does not have.
Why a quote-to-invoice trades suite often misses the maintenance core
Broad trades suites — HERO, plancraft, openHandwerk, ToolTime, smarthandwerk — are built around the quote → job → invoice chain. Recurring maintenance there is at best a secondary or paid add-on module, not the core process. The chain that actually carries a maintenance business — customer → asset → maintenance contract → next due date, repeating for years — is not what a quoting suite is organised around. An industrial CMMS aimed at your own plant is the mirror image of the problem: the right discipline, but the wrong owner of the assets.
What a small trades business should watch for
A few concrete checks before you commit:
- Whose assets does it model? If the software thinks in your own equipment, forcing customer contracts into it is awkward from day one.
- Is maintenance the core or an add-on? In a quoting suite, recurring maintenance is often a paid extra bolted onto job handling.
- Does it work from the job site? Der Wartungsplaner, for example, is Windows desktop software: the one-off licence is around €195 (single seat), while the mobile app and automatic reminders are roughly €1,950 each on top (wartungsplaner.de). For a trade on the move, mobile access and reminders belong in the core, not in paid add-ons.
- Does it remind you on its own? A spreadsheet reminds you of nothing by itself. The point of the software is the due date that surfaces before it lapses, without you going to look for it.
How Gewerkly helps
Gewerkly is built only for the recurring maintenance of external customers, and it runs in the browser on a phone or tablet — mobile-web, with no desktop install and no bolted-on module. Customer, asset, maintenance contract and next due date are the core: it tracks maintenance intervals and legal inspection deadlines per asset, auto-calculates the next due date, reminds you in good time (a 30-day lead by default), and lets you document each visit as a maintenance report (checklist, readings, signature, photos) with a report PDF. It does not do invoicing or spare-parts inventory, because that is a different job. See the features, compare plans under Pricing, or go Back to the guide.
FAQ
Is Gewerkly a CMMS?
No. Gewerkly is maintenance software for trades: it manages the maintenance contracts of external customers, whose assets sit at their own sites. A CMMS instead manages an organisation’s own equipment. Both are legitimate, but they solve different jobs — Gewerkly is built for the external maintenance workload of an SHK or building-services business, not for your own plant.
Can I run customer maintenance in a CMMS?
You can force it in part, but it works against the design. A CMMS thinks in your own equipment, not in maintenance contracts for many external customers. The chain that carries the trade day to day — customer → asset → maintenance contract → next due date — is not a CMMS’s core, so it ends up modelled awkwardly.
Why isn’t a quote-to-invoice trades suite enough?
Broad trades suites cover quote, job and invoice, and there recurring maintenance is at best a secondary or paid add-on module. If you keep many maintenance contracts, each with its own due date per asset, you need maintenance as the core of the software, not as trimming beside job and invoice handling.
Does Gewerkly manage spare-parts inventory?
No. Gewerkly focuses on customers, assets, maintenance contracts, due dates and reports. Spare-parts and inventory management is a classic CMMS job for your own plant and is out of Gewerkly’s scope, so if that is your main need, a CMMS is the better fit.
Sources
- Der Wartungsplaner (HOPPE) — product and price overview (Windows desktop; one-off licence, paid mobile and reminder add-ons): wartungsplaner.de — as of 2026-07-15
- Broad trades suites with a quote → job → invoice focus (maintenance as a secondary/add-on module): HERO, plancraft, openHandwerk, ToolTime, smarthandwerk — vendor websites — as of 2026-07-15
Boilerplate
Gewerkly is the maintenance software for small SHK and building-services trades that keeps any of their customers’ maintenance contracts from slipping through. Built for the maintenance core process, mobile-web, with a 14-day trial, no credit card and cancellation each month. See the features.