A CMMS software list found online is one of two things: a directory that lists everything, or a ranking that lists whoever paid. Neither is useless and neither is a shortlist, because a shortlist is specific to your category, your size and the three things you cannot do today. This page is how to build one in an afternoon: decide the category, write down the three problems, filter to products serving teams your size, and then test four behaviours. The result is four or five names you can actually evaluate rather than forty you cannot.
First decide the category, or the list is the wrong list
Do you need spare-parts inventory and reservation? Do you consolidate across several sites with separate teams? Are you in an industry with its own validation regime? Yes to any and you are shopping for EAM or a vertical product, and a small-team CMMS list is the wrong shelf entirely.
Write down the three things you cannot do today
Not a feature list, three problems in your own words: 'nobody can say what is overdue when Dave is off', 'we do not know our reactive share', 'PM slips every time there is a breakdown'. These are what you will test against, and they stop a demo becoming a tour.
Filter hard on team size
A product built for fifty technicians carries configuration a team of three cannot absorb, and reviews from large sites tell you nothing about that. Company size is the most predictive filter on any directory and the one people skip.
Then four tests, and four names is enough
Time a raise on a phone. Try to enter bad data. Ask for the schedule as hours per technician. Ask a two-year history question about one asset. Four candidates is plenty; ten is a project that will not finish.
Questions people ask about cmms software list
Are directory sites biased?
Directories are broadly complete and their rankings are usually commercial. Use them to find candidates and ignore the ordering.
Should open source be on the list?
It can be, if somebody will own hosting, backups and upgrades. That is a real job and it should be costed at your own hourly rate rather than treated as zero.
How many products should we demo?
Three or four, seriously, with the same four tests each. More than that and the comparisons blur into each other and the decision gets made on rapport.