Maritime fleet maintenance software centralises, for each vessel, planned maintenance, running-hour counters, spare parts, certificates and crew, with an app that works on board without a signal and syncs to the office. The industry calls it a PMS (planned maintenance system), a marine CMMS or a fleet management system, and the terms overlap almost entirely. Around thirty vendors compete, from onboard apps costing a few dozen euros a month to enterprise suites with six-figure budgets, and most shipowners lose months comparing tools that are not in the same category. This comparison sorts the market into three families, gives a criterion-by-criterion table and says plainly which family fits which fleet size.
What a shipowner actually needs from fleet software
Before looking at feature lists, set out the seven requirements that separate maritime software from ordinary maintenance software. They rule out three quarters of the market on their own.
- Offline operation on board. A chief engineer logs a job in the engine room with no signal, and the office sees it when connectivity returns. An app that needs a permanent connection will not be used at sea.
- Ship-to-shore synchronisation. The same history must exist on board and at head office, with no double entry and no “latest version” travelling by email.
- An audit trail. An ISM auditor, a Port State Control officer or an insurer will ask who did what, when, and on what basis. Entries must be time-stamped and locked after validation.
- Certificates and crew documents in the same tool as maintenance, with alerts before expiry: an expired document immobilises a vessel as surely as a breakdown.
- Spares and purchasing linked to work orders, so that onboard stock reflects what was actually used.
- A published price per vessel. A six-vessel fleet must be able to work out its budget without a three-month sales cycle.
- Roll-out in days, not quarters. Technical teams have no time for an IT project.
Three families of solutions that do not compare
Enterprise suites
AMOS (SpecTec), BASSnet, Sertica, ShipManager (DNV) and Cloud Fleet Manager address companies operating dozens or hundreds of merchant vessels. They offer the deepest functional coverage: maintenance plans, purchasing and tendering, dry-dockings, condition monitoring, integration with the ERP and onboard systems. In return, roll-out takes months, with a project manager and data-migration services, and pricing is negotiated on quotation. For a company running ten trawlers or three ferries, these suites are oversized, and their total cost often exceeds the maintenance they are meant to optimise.
Per-vessel SaaS platforms
This is the family that has moved most in the past five years: a base fee per vessel, modules, a mobile app, a public price and a start with no project phase. Smart Sailors, Marad and BoatOn Book are its most visible representatives on the European market. They now cover most of what a mid-sized operator needs, including ISM compliance and certificates, and differ less by feature list than by target segment, quality of the onboard app and pricing transparency.
General-purpose CMMS adapted to ships
IBM Maximo, industrial CMMS packages and the maintenance modules of manufacturing ERPs are excellent ashore. They almost always miss the three properly maritime requirements: offline on board, ship-to-shore sync and an ISM-grade audit trail. Owners who choose them end up running a second system on board, usually a spreadsheet, which cancels the benefit.
2026 comparison table
The information below comes from the vendors' websites at the time of publication. Prices are excluding VAT, per vessel and per month where published.
| Solution | Target | Onboard and offline | Scope | Pricing | Roll-out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smart Sailors (France) | Operators of 1 to 200 vessels: fishing, ferries, offshore support, yachting, pilotage and port services | Mobile app fully offline, sync when the signal returns | 14 modules: maintenance, equipment, counters, evidential logbook, stock, purchasing, certificates, crew, IMO FAL passengers, tanks, forecasts | Published: €10, €100 or €150 per vessel depending on the plan, 30-day trial, no credit card | 24 hours, data migration included |
| Marad (Netherlands) | Merchant, dredging, offshore and government fleets, over 4,000 vessels according to the vendor | Onboard software working offline | Maintenance, stock, purchasing, certificates, QHSE, crewing; DNV type-approved | Per-vessel licence, unlimited users, price on request | A few weeks, maintenance templates supplied |
| BoatOn Book (France) | Charter companies, professional yachting, small passenger and workboat fleets | Web and mobile app | Maintenance, crew, automatic logbook, documents, carbon report | Published: €39 to €299 per vessel depending on the professional plan, monthly without commitment | Self-service, minutes according to the vendor |
| Mister Maint FIMS (Docsea, France) | Merchant and service fleets | Depends on deployment | Three maintenance-centred modules | On quotation | Supported project |
| Enterprise suites (AMOS, BASSnet, Sertica, ShipManager, Cloud Fleet Manager) | Companies with dozens to hundreds of vessels | Onboard server or synchronised client | Maintenance, purchasing, QHSE, dry-dockings, ERP and sensor integration | On quotation, annual licence plus deployment services | Several months with a project manager |
| General-purpose CMMS (Maximo and industrial packages) | Industry, buildings, land transport | No maritime onboard mode | Full industrial maintenance, no vessel certificates or crew | Per user, on quotation | Integration project |
Which family for which fleet
One to five vessels
The need is to get off paper and spreadsheets without creating administrative load. A per-vessel platform with a public price is the obvious choice: the cost is worked out in a minute, the trial runs on a real vessel, and the crew adopts the mobile app within a voyage. The decisive criterion is offline on board; the second is having certificates and crew documents in the same tool, because that is where avoidable detentions happen.
Five to fifty vessels
The fleet has a technical manager ashore, several profiles on board and an obligation to produce records: ISM audits, inspections, insurers, charterers. It needs a solid audit trail, roles managed vessel by vessel, purchasing tied to stock, and fleet dashboards. Second-generation SaaS platforms cover this scope; it is Smart Sailors' core market, with dedicated pages for fishing companies, ferries and passenger vessels, offshore support vessels and yachting.
Beyond fifty vessels
The question is no longer maintenance but integration: ERP, sensors, class systems, centralised purchasing. Enterprise suites are justified if the company can carry a project lasting several months. A SaaS platform remains an option when the fleet is heterogeneous and crews rotate: adoption time on board is often worth more than functional depth at head office.
The five mistakes we see most often
- Choosing on the office demo. The software will be used by an engineer, wearing gloves, on a wet phone. Test logging a job on board with the signal off.
- Paying per user. On a vessel, the whole crew must be able to report a defect. Per-vessel pricing is the only model that does not push you to restrict access.
- Separating maintenance from certificates. Two tools, two calendars, and a certificate that expires on sailing day.
- Underestimating the history migration. A maintenance plan taken over from notebooks and spreadsheets is what makes the system valuable on day one. Check that the vendor does it.
- Forgetting the exit. Your data must remain exportable at any time, in a readable format, free of charge.
How to test in thirty days
Take one vessel, preferably the one that causes the most trouble, and set one goal: by the end of the month every job and every counter reading must have been entered on board, and the office must be able to pull the history without calling anyone. If the crew kept the rhythm without being chased, the tool is adopted. If the office had to re-enter data, it is the wrong tool, however rich its brochure. Smart Sailors offers this test for 30 days with no credit card, with the offline mobile app and migration of your maintenance plans.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a marine CMMS and a PMS?
None in substance. PMS, planned maintenance system, is the term used by classification societies and merchant operators; marine CMMS is the broader term, usually extended to stock, purchasing and certificates. A class-approved PMS additionally allows some surveys to be replaced by continuous monitoring, which only concerns classed vessels.
How much does maritime fleet maintenance software cost?
From a few dozen euros per vessel per month for a SaaS platform to a five- or six-figure annual budget for an enterprise suite, services included. A sound benchmark for a mid-sized operator is a software cost below a single day of downtime avoided per vessel per year.
Can industrial maintenance software do the job for a fleet?
Rarely. Without offline on board, ship-to-shore sync, and certificate and crew-document management, the tool stays in the office and the crew goes back to paper.
Do I need class-approved software?
Only if you operate classed vessels and want your planned maintenance system recognised. For fishing, professional yachting, pilotage or most service vessels, the requirement is an audit trail and ISM compliance, not type approval.
In short
The best maritime fleet maintenance software is the one the crew is still using in month three. For fleets of one to fifty vessels, a per-vessel platform, offline on board and at a published price, answers the essentials; enterprise suites keep their place beyond that, when head-office integration becomes the real subject. Smart Sailors equips more than 700 vessels in this space, in France, West Africa and the Maghreb: discover the platform or test it on your first vessel.
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