Honest Fleetio Review: Is Fleetio a Good CMMS?

Fleetio is a fleet maintenance software that offers a tailored feature set to manage and maintain vehicles and related assets. But is Fleetio the right choice for you? Does it have the features you need, and does the pricing fit your budget? In this Fleetio review, we look at several key aspects of the software to help you decide.

We tested Fleetio per our software review methodology. We accessed Fleetio’s trial version, which offers almost all features, and our experience with it was excellent. We like the interface, the feature set and the level of detail it can offer fleet managers.

That said, it’s important to note that Fleetio is a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) designed specifically for companies that want to track fleets, not other heavy equipment. This alone could determine whether or not the software will fit your needs.

Another key area where Fleetio could improve is its level of customizability. If you’re looking for a platform that fits perfectly into your current workflows or have maintenance needs beyond your fleet, Fleetio might not be your best option.

Why Trust Coast?

At Coast, we take our software reviews seriously. Our review methodology evaluates software across seven critical categories that help differentiate the solutions from one another. Each category receives a score from one to five, with five being the highest, and a maximum possible score of 35 points.

Fleetio Ease of Use

Fleetio’s onboarding is frictionless. You’ll be asked to fill in basic details like business name and company size when you sign up. It even allows you to defer adding assets to post-setup since that aspect can take a bit of time, requiring you to input model, vehicle identification number (VIN), engine and warranty info, among other data.

After logging in, there’s a walkthrough on the home screen. You can use it to get a basic idea of where everything sits in the interface. Then, head over to the onboarding tasks checklist on the dashboard, which will help you get up to speed with the interface.

Overall, we like the interface — it’s modern, fluid and well-organized.

Fleetio lets you set up an extensive, customized dashboard. Some widgets are preloaded, but you can also add custom widgets.

The left sidebar houses all sections divided into intuitive categories. Work orders are accessible within the “Service” section. Alternatively, you can view asset-wise work orders by navigating to that specific asset in the “Assets” section. You can easily create, update or delete work orders from either section.

Fleetio Mobile Experience

Fleetio’s mobile app (Fleetio Go) uses a similar green-white color scheme. It’s reminiscent of the desktop version by virtue of the color scheme, but the interface itself is quite different. The app has a “Browse” section where you can navigate between sections — similar to the sidebar on the desktop version.

Fleetio Go has a separate notifications section. We like that you can filter notifications by type, such as comments and mentions. The app also lets you choose the type of alert you want (email, push notification or both) based on the section that notification belongs to (such as Assets, Parts or Inspections).

The app doesn’t include the dashboard or the ability to manage vendors. This shouldn’t be a problem if you plan to use the app just to enable your team to perform basic tasks, such as updating work orders or communicating with supervisors.

Fleetio Core Features & Functionality

We evaluated Fleetio’s features and functionality firsthand. Here’s what we found.

Work Order Management

Fleetio has multiple work order management sections, including “Inspections,” “Service,” “Contacts” and “Documents.” The “Contacts” and “Documents” sections are as you’d expect them to be: clean, easy to navigate and with just the right number of options to manage them.

The “Inspection” and “Service” sections are more extensive. We like how the sub-menu is organized based on usage frequency.

Your maintenance inspection templates are in the “Forms” section. Here, you can create new forms and workflows (such as auto-initiating repairs if an item fails during inspection).

Once you’ve configured these, you’ll likely not return here unless you want to change something. The same goes for schedules. Once they’re set up, you only need to return when you want to change something.

The first two options (“Inspection History” and “Item Failures”) are the most commonly used. You’ll want to monitor inspections as they happen based on your defined schedule. If a technician flags an issue, you’ll see it in the “Item Failures” section. We like how this section is split into “Needs Action,” “Open Issue,” “Acknowledged” and “Resolved” tabs instead of just adding filters.

The “Service” menu uses the same logic. “Service Programs” are last on the list. This is where you configure your maintenance program. Then there’s a “Service Tasks” section where you can define actions and other details for each maintenance task.

The first two options are where you’re likely to spend more time — “Service History” helps you track previous maintenance tasks, while “Work Orders” is where you can track and manage your preventive maintenance schedule and tasks. Every work order contains a comments, documents and photos section. Unfortunately, there’s no real-time chat at this time.

Issues found during inspections also appear in the “Issues” list under the “Issues” section, along with other issues such as a flat tire or oil leak. There’s also a “Faults” and “Recalls” section where you find a list of faults in assets or assets recalled by manufacturers, respectively.

Asset Management

Fleetio is a fleet management system, so its asset management section primarily focuses on mobile assets.

One feature we really appreciate is the Location History. It’s essentially a map where you can see historical records of your vehicle’s location based on fuel stops, inspections, service work and GPS tracking data.

Fleetio lets you assign operators to an asset. This gives you complete visibility over who used which asset and when to help improve accountability.

We like that there’s a separate section called “Meter History.” All meter readings, whether entered manually or recorded during activities like refueling, appear here. There’s also an “Expense History” section where you can record asset-related expenses (not capital expenditures), such as depreciation and inspection fees.

The highlight here is the “Replacement Analysis” section. This section helps you decide whether a vehicle is worth repairing or whether replacing it will make more sense based on factors like useful life, fuel efficiency and service costs.

Reporting & Analytics

Fleetio goes above and beyond to help users visualize and analyze data. In addition to a data-rich dashboard, the “Reports” section allows you to create custom reports.

The section is split into two parts. The “Standard Reports” section is a collection of general reports, such as cost/meter trend, service history by asset and fuel entries by asset. These reports aren’t customizable. While you can’t tweak these reports to your needs, the list of available standard reports is quite extensive, so you’ll likely find the data you need.

If you want more customization, you’ll need the “Advanced Analytics” add-on. This feature allows building custom dashboards to track metrics that matter to you, setting alerts to notify your team when fleet data breaches a defined threshold and visualizing fleet performance through interactive charts and graphs.

A quote for this add-on is only available on request, so you’ll need to contact sales and book a demo first if you’re interested in purchasing the add-on.

Fleetio Adaptability & Customization

Fleetio offers several configuration options, but it doesn’t let you add or remove fields in forms.

For instance, the work order form is extensive but doesn’t accommodate additional fields. That said, you can customize how some of the data is presented or added:

You can create automation logic for all forms through the “Workflow” tab. For example, you can create a workflow for when an item fails an inspection:

You can automatically create an issue, email it or assign the issue to a specific user and change the asset status.

Fleetio Customer Support

Fleetio offers customer support through four channels:

• Help Center (for customers who want to self-serve): We like the Help Center. It’s clean, organized and well-designed.
• Chat, email and phone: Reps are well-trained. We tried to reach out via chat, and the response was pretty quick. However, support through all three channels is only Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Eastern Time).

This screen appears when you click “Help and Support” on the Fleetio interface, but their phone number is available on several other pages on the Fleetio website.

Fleetio Pricing

Fleetio is reasonably priced, depending on how many vehicles you want to track. The basic plan is great for smaller companies with a smaller fleet. It comes with a 100-vehicle ceiling. The real problem? It excludes many key features, such as automated inspection workflows and customizable reporting dashboards.

The Professional plan includes most features excluded in the basic plan. It costs $7 per vehicle per month (billed annually). If you want the entire gamut of features, go for the Premium plan, which costs $10 per vehicle per month (billed annually).

The pricing is lower than other asset management or maintenance tools because Fleetio charges per vehicle, but remember, it’s strictly for vehicles. If you also have other assets in your portfolio, such as HVAC systems, conveyor belts and manufacturing equipment, you need a more comprehensive maintenance and asset management solution.

Coast: The Better Fleetio Alternative

Fleetio is a great platform, but it’s primarily useful for fleet management and maintenance. On the other hand, Coast is an extensive CMMS platform that includes fleet management and maintenance capabilities. If you want more customizable work orders for fleet maintenance or are planning to automate management and maintenance workflows, Coast is your best bet.

Here’s an overview of how both platforms differ:

Ease of Use	Clean and intuitive design with an extensive interface for fleet management and maintenance.	Modern and fluid interface that focuses on simplicity to help users focus on maintenance without overcomplicating things.
Mobile Experience	The mobile app is a miniature version of the desktop app, primarily designed to provide technicians and operators a simple interface with a gentle learning curve.	The mobile app is a reflection of the web interface and is focused on simplicity and efficiency.
Core Features & Functionality	Fleetio’s feature set is built around fleet management and maintenance, where it does a great job, but lacks features to support broader asset management or maintenance activities.	Coast offers a more extensive feature set since it’s a CMMS — you can use it to manage and maintain all types of assets, components, inventory and systems.
Adaptability & Customization	Fleetio offers limited customization options.	Coast offers highly customizable workflows, forms and work orders.
Customer Support	Fleetio offers quick support via phone, chat and email and also has a Help Center for customers who prefer to self-serve.	Coast’s support is easy to access and the team is committed to assisting during and post-implementation.
Pricing	Fleetio may seem expensive to startups given that it requires a minimum of five users to begin with, but overall, the value Fleetio delivers justifies the price.	Offers greater value through its free plan and the attractive pricing for paid plans, combined with an extensive feature set.
Current Reviews	Most Fleetio reviews are positive, with the exception of a few that say it's not as intuitive as they'd like.	Coast reviews are highly favorable.