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IBM Maximo vs Zendesk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Maximo
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (1st), Billing Software (5th)
Zendesk
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (4th), CRM (8th), Help Desk Software (5th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (6th), Sales Force Automation (4th), Reporting (10th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), Community Platforms (1st), AI Customer Support (21st), AI IT Support (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

IBM Maximo and Zendesk aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. IBM Maximo is designed for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and holds a mindshare of 15.4%, down 27.8% compared to last year.
Zendesk, on the other hand, focuses on CRM Customer Engagement Centers, holds 7.4% mindshare, up 6.1% since last year.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Maximo15.4%
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management8.5%
IFS Cloud Platform7.0%
Other69.1%
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
CRM Customer Engagement Centers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Zendesk7.4%
Microsoft Dynamics CRM13.2%
Salesforce Service Cloud10.8%
Other68.6%
CRM Customer Engagement Centers
 

Featured Reviews

DM
Maximo Developer at Volvo Cars
Centralized asset tracking has reduced paperwork and now improves maintenance efficiency
The best features IBM Maximo offers are that it is a comprehensive tool where we can get the purchasing of assets or spare parts in the same application. The reports are also very good. Additionally, the barcodes are valuable. We can print barcodes for all things we need. The UI also has a very strong appearance. We use the reporting feature very often. We have multiple reports, not just one. For each module, there are multiple reports and we can customize the reports based on our needs. For example, for a work order, we can print a report which gives all the details so that it is easy to carry out the steps required to fix the issue. There are also barcodes for items which we can paste on a bin or the item so it can be scanned with a barcode scanner, which is very easy. IBM Maximo has positively impacted my organization because it reduced a lot of time and has saved a lot of cost. For example, prior to IBM Maximo, we were doing only paperwork. Now that we have IBM Maximo in place, it is useful for tracking all assets and everything in a single solution with no data loss. Previously, multiple people handled this work, but now very few people do. This has helped us significantly.
AmandaSanchez - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
Macros and automation have streamlined workflows and reduced manual effort across support teams
The ability to communicate on the Zendesk ticket through the actual user software, so TOPs, would have been helpful. Somehow seeing a user's ticket history within our app would have been beneficial. That is the only thing that I do not think existed at the time that might have been helpful. Some people struggled with Zendesk, but it was always easy enough to show them how to use it and what they were missing. The only times we really had people report concerns about it was when they did not understand that it could do that or how to use it in that way.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Provides great flexibility."
"Has a powerful audit combination that helps achieve high accuracy."
"We were able to scale perfectly.​"
"IBM Maximo is the best software for assets management."
"There are not many enterprise asset management systems on the market and not many that have the categories that IBM Maximo has."
"Work order management and scalability enables the businesses' needs to be met."
"We can manage, organize, and track incidents, claims, jobs, tasks, preventive and corrective maintenance, locations, and assets."
"We were doing all kinds of paperwork for every type of order and to maintain our assets but with the use of the IBM Maximo application, we can automate a lot of the processes."
"The most valuable feature is the trackability of incoming requests. The system keeps a comprehensive history of work requests, making it a useful tool for our internal processes."
"Zendesk has helped us to increase productivity and has reduced the time between when a ticket is opened and when it is completed."
"I love how the tickets would auto-populate very quickly in Zendesk, especially when a call comes in."
"The collaboration between agents is impressive, and I also use Zendesk Workspace, which provides a seamless experience when communicating through chat and email."
"I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to use, and I haven't encountered any issues with delays or communication gaps in ticket resolutions."
"What is cool about Zendesk Guide is how it works together with others Zendesk products. Especially with support and with the analytics. Put those together for a small or medium-sized company and it's a really powerful tool."
"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."
"My advice to others looking into using Zendesk is that if you are looking for a tool that is cheaper than others but provides a good solution, I would let them know that Zendesk is the best option."
 

Cons

"The solution is not stable. We can have one day when it is stable and another day it is not. Sometimes it crashes or becomes very slow, and there are times we are not even able to download all the databases. Without the database, we cannot work on that application. These are the small glitches, and stability issues we are facing."
"Areas for improvement would be the user interface and support for Arabic. They could also be more customer-oriented."
"It's not user-friendly. It could use shortcuts for frequently requested services."
"On a scale of one to ten, where ten is easy and one is difficult, I rate the setup process a two since it is very complicated."
"The initial setup was complex, because it is a complex product."
"Vendor management needs enhancement."
"Although you can create notifications with Maximo, the configuration and options could be improved."
"It needs full-service visibility. There are a lot of things that are hard for users to find out. For example, the Service Catalog is not too friendly. You really have to know what you're looking for."
"Zendesk Guide's customization could be improved. I would like it to be easier and maybe open-sourced, so that if you have a developer in your company, you can do it yourself. Right now, that isn't allowed, so you need to have it done via the integrator. Another improvement—this is nit-picking—is that it could be less easy to make changes. Some things are so easy that they sometimes look a little amateur-ish. Most of the templates are built-in so they can be used directly, so they are very simple."
"It wasn't easy to set up so we're only using a third of all of the features,"
"My experience with Zendesk's customer support has not been positive. When I open a ticket for a bug, it often does not expedite the resolution process."
"Report generation is still slightly tricky and not very customizable as per my inquiries."
"They have something called Zendesk Explore, which isn't as good as what they had in place previously."
"Zendesk could actually support HTML on the tickets so we could format our text better than the current options such as size, bold, italic, or underscored, because the text processing is too simple."
"The solution could integrate better with QR codes from some websites such as Facebook."
"One of the drawbacks of Zendesk is that it doesn't provide a secure way for us to send data. So, we usually use a secure SharePoint folder link. We put that in the Zendesk ticket so that the requester has a secure way of getting to their data."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is low and ten is high, I rate the pricing a nine. The price is very high."
"The price of IBM Maximo could reduce, it is expensive."
"​Explore internal processes in order to evaluate the correct number of users in each Maximo module, then evaluate the different offers of pricing and licensing.​"
"$USD700 per agent user."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"I do not know about the price of the solution. However, this has been an expensive project overall."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"Zendesk's licensing is not cheap. For Enterprise, we are paying $200 per agent. It's a per-month cost, so it's pretty steep. There are some services you need to pay extra for. For example, with Zendesk Guide, we had to buy the most expensive offering in order to get Multibrand and everything. We also had to pay a lot of money for themes."
"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."
"We pay for the solution on a yearly basis and my understanding is that the cost is about $30,000. That's the cost for 24 to 25 agents."
"The price is very competitive."
"There are different plans that are offered. We are using the entry-level plan. The overall price of the solution should be reduced. The price is too high."
"You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Performing Arts
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business36
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
IBM Maximo can be improved by providing developers with more documentation. I think IBM lacks a lot of documentation and hopefully the community who uses IBM Maximo can help if other developers hav...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
My main use case for IBM Maximo is as a technical consultant, so I help companies to use IBM Maximo. A quick, specific example of how I've helped a company use IBM Maximo is that it is quite generi...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Maximo?
IBM Maximo in their last version includes mobility functionalities which can use the offline mode for technicians that do not have internet connection, and that is really helpful for them. Addition...
What do you like most about Zendesk Support?
I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?
From what I recall, the experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk was quite expensive and that is what prohibited us from expanding usage of it into more users and using more o...
What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?
I wish there was a more easily dynamic tool. Currently, it is quite difficult because not all the tools are labeled. A feature that would be beneficial is if hovering over an icon would tell you wh...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Maximo
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., DTE Energy, Swedish Match, Projetech, Fingrid, East Coast
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Prometheus Group, Infor and others in Enterprise Asset Management (EAM). Updated: January 2026.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.