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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
8.0
Number of Reviews
27
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

reviewer2796087 - PeerSpot reviewer
Développement Fullstack at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Asset workflows have become highly customizable and have delivered significant downtime savings
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 have questions, but we really need official documentation because what is available on the internet is not official and we don't have strong documentation from IBM. I would also note that around usability, we see some lack of real custom needs in the applications of IBM Maximo Mobile. For example, in applications such as inspections, we cannot really sort by specific field and the search or filtering methods are not very clear, making it difficult to easily find what we are looking for.
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

"The large range of configurability of the product is great, since everyone has a different way of doing things."
"We were able to scale perfectly.​"
"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to correct maintenance."
"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."
"There are not many enterprise asset management systems on the market and not many that have the categories that IBM Maximo has."
"Provides great flexibility."
"Preventive maintenance management."
"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."
"My advice to others looking into using Zendesk is that if you need an alternative to GitHub Actions or GitHub issues, this is worth looking at."
"It's very convenient to use."
"We rarely had issues with Zendesk."
"We loved the notifications and the way to build custom views for a specific user's open tickets and to see how long they have been open, how long it was since the last request."
"It's a very stable tool, very powerful."
"The product offers very good management. It has a great ability to assign tickets based on content."
"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."
 

Cons

"This solution could improve by integrating or embedding finances, charts of accounts, and invoicing."
"The initial setup was complex, because it is a complex product."
"Revision management of file attachments."
"Could use some alignment regarding some standards and the tracking of the IT assets. Even though they have all of the information (i.e. where are the assets, who owns the asset, etc.), they were not mapping it to different cyber standards."
"​Maximo is a big system, so the initial setup is complex."
"IBM is a big company and they have a lot of products. Level One, the first level of tech support, is the one that is used to stop the tsunami. For everyone, it's always work to get past that."
"Although you can create notifications with Maximo, the configuration and options could be improved."
"Areas for improvement include: an enhanced Service Catalog on Mobile; Agent intelligence; better dashboards for KPIs."
"There is always a network issue with Zendesk. But we don’t know whether it is managed. The network issue is that when I call, it does not let us."
"The data you get when logged in to Zendesk Support differs from the data you get when you programmatically query Zendesk Support through its API because of a sync time delay."
"It wasn't easy to set up so we're only using a third of all of the features,"
"Zendesk's stability on inbound calls could be improved as compared to Talkdesk."
"I'm going to piggyback on what I said regarding Freshdesk concerning what could be better in Zendesk: incorporate more AI."
"They have something called Zendesk Explore, which isn't as good as what they had in place previously."
"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 of its capabilities."
"The solution could integrate better with QR codes from some websites such as Facebook."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of IBM Maximo could reduce, it is expensive."
"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."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"$USD700 per agent user."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"IBM has changed the licensing policy. As I understand now, they are going from a complex way of licensing to a more simple way of licensing."
"​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.​"
"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The price is very competitive."
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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
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
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 could be improved if they added a comprehensive finance module, as that would make it a more complete standalone application. Currently, if you need specific finance software, you need t...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
My main use case for IBM Maximo is managing maintenance. I used it first as an end user, and later joined the implementation team. Now I'm administrating and implementing IBM Maximo. The transition...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Maximo?
There are many good implemented functions in IBM Maximo, but I see these two functions as the most valuable ones from my point of view. My advice to others considering IBM Maximo is that top manage...
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.
881,360 professionals have used our research since 2012.