This guide compares eight CAFM systems used across UK estates: Concerto, MRI Evolution, Planon, SINGU, Joblogic, Access Maintain Evo, QFM and Tabs FM. All eight run helpdesk requests, planned maintenance and an asset register. They differ most in who they are built for: in-house estates teams, FM contractors or global property portfolios.
The choice matters more now because UK estates teams have to show their evidence. NHS PAM asks trusts for straight yes or no answers. The Regulator of Social Housing inspects councils, grades them and publishes the result. Your CAFM system holds that evidence, so it decides how quickly your team can answer an inspector.
On this pageCAFM stands for computer-aided facilities management. A CAFM system is the software an estates or facilities team uses to run its buildings. It records the sites, buildings and assets you look after. It plans the maintenance they need and tracks the jobs your engineers and contractors do.
Most CAFM systems share a core: a helpdesk for reported faults, planned preventive maintenance (PPM) schedules, an asset register and a mobile app for engineers. The differences sit around that core. Some systems also hold property and lease records, capital projects, health and safety, room booking and compliance reporting.
Buyers meet three labels for this kind of software. They overlap, and many vendors use more than one.
| Label | What it usually covers | Typical buyer |
|---|---|---|
| CMMS | Computerised maintenance management: maintenance jobs and the assets they relate to | Maintenance and engineering teams |
| CAFM | Maintenance plus the building side: sites, compliance, space and requests from building users | Estates and facilities teams |
| IWMS | Integrated workplace management: CAFM plus property, leases, capital projects, space planning and sustainability | Organisations with a large or mixed property portfolio |
So check which modules a system runs today, and which of them your team would use. The label on the website tells you less.
We asked five questions of each system. They are the questions UK estates teams ask on a first call.
Facts about each system come from the vendor's own website, read in November 2026. Most of the eight quote on request, so this guide compares scope and fit. We review it every three months. If something has changed, tell us and we will correct it.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| System | Best for | Built for | Scope beyond maintenance | UK compliance built in | Named UK customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concerto | UK estates that have to evidence compliance across many sites | NHS, councils, universities, blue light, retail and hospitality | Property and leases, capital projects, health and safety, permit to work, room and desk booking | SFG20 link through Facilities-iQ where you use SFG20, NHS PAM module, statutory PPM tracking | Manchester University NHS FT, London Fire Brigade, University of Warwick, Wagamama |
| MRI Evolution | NHS trusts and estates that want CAFM inside MRI's property software | NHS and healthcare, public sector, FM service providers | Energy and workplace. Lease is a separate MRI product | PPM aligned to SFG20, ERIC and PAM reporting | Eurostar, Compass Group, Royal Brompton & Harefield, Yorkshire Ambulance Service |
| Planon | Large organisations and universities that want one IWMS | Higher education, corporate real estate, FM service providers | Real estate and leases, space, room booking, energy, projects | SFG20 through Facilities-iQ, statutory compliance monitoring | LSE, King's College London, Queen's University Belfast, University of Leeds |
| SINGU | NHS trusts that want hard FM, soft FM and space from one group | Healthcare, education, offices, retail, logistics | Space and leases, soft FM, compliance, ESG, capital planning | SFG20 integration, ERIC and PAM reporting | Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS FT |
| Joblogic | Contractors that schedule engineers and bill clients | Service contractors and FM providers | Quotes and invoices, stock, customer portal | SFG20 schedules sync into jobs | E.ON, Lorne Stewart, Barlows UK, Linaker |
| Access Maintain Evo | Hospitality groups managing reactive jobs and contractors | Hotels, restaurants, bars, leisure | Contractor and supplier management, projects add-on | Contractor certificates and statutory servicing records | Lifeways |
| QFM | FM service providers and PPP contracts | Service providers, healthcare, higher education, stadia, transport | SLA and contract management, health and safety, permits, property and lease, space | SFG20 integration, ERIC reporting | Mitie, Kettering General Hospital, Southern Health NHS FT, Cardiff University |
| Tabs FM | Education and NHS teams that want published prices | Education, healthcare, government, commercial, manufacturing | Room, catering and visitor booking, health and safety, purchasing | SFG20 integration with HTM schedules, CQC and HTM support | NHS Blood and Transplant, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS FT, Babcock |
Read on each vendor's website in November 2026. "Not stated" means we could not find it there.
Best for: UK organisations with complex, multi-site estates that have to evidence compliance.
Concerto is a CAFM and IWMS platform built in the UK for estates with many sites. It is one of the UK's fastest-growing CAFM and IWMS platforms, and it manages over 450 customer estates. Its team includes former customers and former CAFM administrators.
Teams start with the modules they need and add more as the estate grows. Helpdesk, planned maintenance, assets, leases, projects and compliance share one platform. So a statutory check, the asset it covers and the certificate behind it sit in one record.
Modules. Concerto has twelve modules: CAFM, estates management, asset management, project management, intelligent workspace, health and safety, permit to work, premises assurance, mobile surveys and capture, Key Manager, reporting and analytics, and room and desk bookings.
Compliance evidence. Where you use SFG20, planned maintenance links to it through Facilities-iQ, so schedules follow the standard. Engineers close jobs on the mobile app with photos, online or offline. Dashboards show statutory and non-statutory PPM compliance for each site.
NHS premises assurance. The PAM module was co-designed with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, the UK's largest trust. The partnership won Partners in Technology at the 2025 PFM Partnership Awards.
Implementation by estates people. A UK team leads each implementation, and several of its consultants used Concerto as customers first. Data stays in UK data centres on Microsoft Azure.
Customers. Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust runs nine hospital sites on Concerto. Perth & Kinross Council runs more than 1,000 sites and a £600m capital programme in it. Wagamama keeps the leases and key dates for 130+ UK restaurants in one place.
Concerto is developed, hosted and supported in the UK. Its customers include councils, NHS trusts, universities and fire services.
What it does well.
What to weigh.
A 20-minute call with an estates specialist, then a demo built around your sites.
Best for: NHS trusts and multi-site estates that want CAFM inside MRI's wider property software.
MRI Evolution is the CAFM product of MRI Software, a property software group based in Ohio. It was called Concept Evolution until 2022, when its maker, FSI, became MRI Software. MRI says more than 60,000 people use Evolution.
Its healthcare page covers ERIC and PAM reporting, HTM monitoring and maintenance aligned to SFG20. It is on the G-Cloud 15 framework and runs in a UK data centre.
What it does well.
What to weigh.
Best for: large organisations and universities that want one IWMS for FM, space, property and sustainability.
Planon is a Dutch software company founded in 1982. It sells an integrated workplace management system (IWMS), and its CAFM offer runs on the same platform. Schneider Electric owns 80% of Planon, which says it has around 3,750 clients worldwide.
In the UK, Planon is strongest in higher education. LSE has worked with Planon since 1999, and King's College London and Queen's University Belfast use it too.
What it does well.
What to weigh.
Best for: NHS trusts and multi-site estates that want hard FM, soft FM and space from one group.
SINGU is a CAFM and CMMS platform founded in Poland in 2009. In 2025 and 2026 it bought Micad, a UK estates software company founded in 1987, and Synbiotix, which makes soft FM software for hospitals. The brands still trade under their own names, now "by SINGU".
Together they cover space, hard FM, soft FM and compliance. Most of the UK healthcare record comes from Micad.
What it does well.
What to weigh.
Best for: maintenance and FM contractors that schedule engineers and bill clients for the work.
Joblogic is field service software from Birmingham, first sold in 1998. More than 7,000 UK service contractors run on it. It holds ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus.
Joblogic says it builds software for contractors and service providers. Its CAFM page points in-house facilities teams to Invida, another product in the Joblogic Group.
What it does well.
What to weigh.
Best for: multi-site hospitality operators that manage reactive jobs and contractors across many venues.
Access Maintain Evo is the facility management software of The Access Group, a software company based in Loughborough. It began as ProNett, which Access bought in 2017. Access says it is designed for busy multi-site hospitality venues.
Its strength is reactive work and contractors. It tracks contractor certificates and insurance, and an AI assistant guides staff through fixes on site.
What it does well.
What to weigh.
Best for: FM service providers and PPP operators that run contracts with SLAs across many sites.
QFM is the CAFM system from Service Works Global, a London company with over 30 years in FM software. SWG presents QFM as the software of choice for service providers. Mitie uses it for 32 healthcare and school PPP contracts across the UK.
QFM's strength is contract control: SLAs, payment mechanisms and PPP reporting. SWG also resells Archibus, an IWMS owned by Eptura, for organisations that want space and real estate planning.
What it does well.
What to weigh.
Best for: education and NHS teams that want modular CAFM with published starting prices.
Tabs FM is a CMMS and CAFM system from a Kent company founded in 1992. Buyers pick from more than 40 modules, from planned maintenance to catering and car park booking. It runs in a UK data centre or on the customer's own servers.
Tabs FM publishes per-user starting prices. The Introductory tier has three modules and no SFG20 link, so most estates will need a higher tier.
What it does well.
What to weigh.
Most CAFM demos look alike. These eight checks show the differences that matter after go-live.
Every system here can run a helpdesk and a maintenance plan. The real choice is how much of the estate you want in one place, and who the software was built for.
For UK organisations with complex, multi-site estates that have to evidence compliance, Concerto is a strong place to start. It runs maintenance, property, projects and compliance on one platform, with an SFG20 link, where you use SFG20, and NHS PAM built in.
Other needs point elsewhere. FM contractors that bill clients should look at Joblogic, and service providers with PPP contracts at QFM. Large organisations and universities that want one global IWMS may prefer Planon. Hospitality groups that mainly need reactive maintenance can compare Access Maintain Evo.
Teams already on Micad, or on MRI's property software, may look at SINGU or MRI Evolution first. Teams that want a published starting price can compare Tabs FM.
Concerto's business case guide helps estates teams win approval. Or book a demo built around your own sites.
It depends on who runs your maintenance and what you have to prove. For in-house estates teams with many sites and strict compliance duties, Concerto is a strong option. FM contractors often compare Joblogic and QFM, and global portfolios often look at Planon.
CAFM stands for computer-aided facilities management. It is software for running buildings: assets, planned and reactive maintenance, helpdesk requests and compliance checks. Many CAFM systems also hold space and property records.
A CMMS (computerised maintenance management system) manages maintenance jobs and the assets they relate to. A CAFM system adds the building side: sites, compliance, space and requests from building users. Many products now cover both.
They overlap. An IWMS (integrated workplace management system) usually adds property and lease management, capital projects, space planning and sustainability to the CAFM core. Several systems in this guide, including Concerto and Planon, describe themselves as both.
UK vendors usually quote for each organisation. The price depends on the modules, the number of users and sites, the data migration and the integrations. Of the eight systems here, Joblogic, Access Maintain Evo and Tabs FM publish starting prices.
Ask each vendor for a quote that splits licence, implementation and support, so you can compare like with like.
No. SFG20 sells its own software, Facilities-iQ, which you can use on its own. Many estates connect it to their CAFM system, so SFG20 schedules turn into planned jobs with evidence attached. SFG20 lists the systems it works with on its integrations page.
Yes, if it has a premises assurance module. A PAM module lets a trust answer the self-assessment questions with evidence from its own estate data. Concerto's PAM module was co-designed with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
It depends mostly on your data. Asset registers, PPM schedules and certificates need to be cleaned and mapped before go-live. Many teams start with one module and one group of sites, then add more. Ask each vendor for a dated plan with named people.