Learn the basics and set up your first maintenance system
Overview of FreeMaint CMMS and its capabilities
FreeMaint is a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) with a Core that's free forever — built to help organizations of all sizes manage their maintenance operations efficiently. Whether you run a factory, manage properties, or oversee facility services, FreeMaint provides the tools you need. Advanced modules (HSE, Purchase Orders, Workflows) are available on optional paid tiers from $29/mo.
Ready to get started? Follow the Quick Setup guide to have your system running in under 5 minutes.
A CMMS is software that centralizes maintenance information and facilitates maintenance operations. It helps teams schedule work, track equipment history, manage inventory, and analyze performance metrics.
Key terms and concepts used throughout FreeMaint
Understanding the core concepts and terminology helps you navigate FreeMaint effectively. This glossary covers the most important terms.
Work orders, requests, assets, PM plans and most other records get an automatic reference (WO-1, ASS-1, PM-1… by default) for easy identification and search. On the Enterprise plan, an admin can change the format under Company Settings → Numbering.
Get your FreeMaint workspace ready in 5 simple steps
Follow these five steps to have your maintenance system up and running in minutes. You can always add more detail later.
The onboarding wizard guides you through industry selection, module configuration, and optional sample data loading.
Set up your facility structure with locations
Locations represent physical spaces — buildings, floors, rooms, or zones where maintenance happens. Setting up locations first makes organizing everything else easier.
Use consistent naming with identifiers like building codes: 'BLD-A / FL-1 / RM-101'.
Add equipment to your asset registry
Assets are the equipment your team maintains. Registering them enables maintenance history tracking, PM scheduling, and cost analysis.
For equipment with sub-components, use parent-child hierarchy. Set main equipment as parent.
Learn to create and manage a work order
Work orders describe what needs to be done, who does it, what parts are needed, and track time and costs.
Include symptoms, error codes, and safety precautions in the description.
Add team members and assign roles
Invite your maintenance team, managers, and requesters. Each person gets a role controlling their access.
Create teams (e.g., 'Electrical Team') and assign work orders to entire teams instead of individuals.
Overview of the core roles and the role templates
FreeMaint starts every new workspace with six core roles — Admin, Manager, Supervisor, Technician, Requester and Viewer. The specialized roles listed below, plus Vendor Technician and Service partner for people outside your company, are templates: in Organization > Roles, click New Role and pick one under “Start from a template” to fill in its name, description and permissions, which you can still change before saving. You can also build fully custom roles. Any role you delete stays deleted — the system never recreates it.
Create custom roles in Organization > Roles > New Role, with any combination of permissions.
Free maintenance courses with practice questions, a final exam and a Certificate of Achievement you can verify and share.
FreeMaint Academy is a free learning site on maintenance management. Its lessons are public: anyone can read them, with or without a FreeMaint account. The first course, “Implementing a CMMS”, has 10 short lessons and is available in English, French and Spanish.
When you pass, you receive a Certificate of Achievement as a PDF, by e-mail and in your account. It shows your name, the course, its version, the date and an identifier — not your score. Anyone can check it on its public verification page, and you can add it to your LinkedIn profile. It does not expire.
Important:
You must be at least 16 years old to create a FreeMaint account.
Lessons 5, 7 and 8 include exercises you do in your own FreeMaint workspace. Choose “Check my exercise” on the lesson: FreeMaint looks for records you created yourself — example data never counts. Complete all four and your certificate says “With hands-on practice”; if you have already passed, it is replaced by a new one and the old link keeps working.
Profile › Qualifications & Certificates › My certificates lists your certificates with the PDF, the verification page and LinkedIn. “Add to my qualifications” records one in your company's qualifications register, where the people who manage qualifications can see it (Starter plan and above).
Courses are available in English, French and Spanish. In other languages, the academy opens in English.
FreeMaint CMMS
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