8 best free work order software tools for small teams in 2026

The best free work order software in 2026 is Fiix Free if you need preventive maintenance, photos and offline use, and MaintainX’s free Basic plan for a phone-first team that mostly needs a shared queue. If you already log work orders in a spreadsheet, Google Forms with Google Sheets costs nothing. Every free plan has a cap.

This guide is for small teams in facilities, maintenance, field service or property management that want to stop losing requests in texts and email. We compare eight options and show how to track work orders for free in a spreadsheet. We make GoodTaco, so its entry is labeled.

Reviewed October 2026. Free plan limits and prices come from each vendor’s own pricing page, and they change often.

The 8 best free work order software options compared

“Paid from” is the lowest paid plan on each vendor’s pricing page, billed yearly where the vendor offers a discount for it.

Tool	Free plan limits	Photos on work orders	Phone app	Paid from
MaintainX	Unlimited work orders and free requester accounts; 2 repeating work orders	Yes, on up to 5 work orders a month	iPhone and Android	$20/user/month
Fiix	“Limited users”; unlimited work orders and assets; 25 active PMs	Yes	iPhone and Android, works offline	$45/user/month
Coast	Unlimited work orders; 5 repeating work orders; 7 days of history	Yes, uploads up to 3 MB	iPhone and Android	$25/user/month
Maintenance Care	2 users, 3 PMs, 5 assets, 3 vendors	Document management not on Free	Mobile App Lite	$250/month, unlimited users
Google Forms + Google Sheets	Free with a Google account; up to 20 million cells per spreadsheet	Yes, if the requester signs in to Google	Sheets app; forms open in any browser	Free; Workspace from $7/user/month
Jotform	5 forms, 100 submissions a month, 500 stored, 1 user	Yes, 100 MB of uploads	iPhone and Android	$34/month
GoodTaco (our product)	1 app, 100 app runs a month; records in your Google Sheet, or up to 100 in a built-in database	Not yet	Works in a phone’s browser	Free plan; paid from $9/month
Softr	3 builders, 5 app users, 5,000 records	Yes, uploads on request forms	Phone browser; installable app on Business	$19/month

PM stands for preventive maintenance: jobs that repeat on a schedule, such as a filter change every quarter.

Which free work order app works best on a phone?

If technicians update jobs from the floor or the road, the phone app matters more than anything else.

App	iPhone and Android	Works offline	Photos on the free plan
Fiix	Yes	Yes, syncs when back online	Yes
MaintainX	Yes	From the Premium plan	On up to 5 work orders a month
Coast	Yes	Not listed on its pricing page	Uploads up to 3 MB
Jotform Mobile Forms	Yes	Yes, for collecting data	Within 100 MB of uploads
GoodTaco (our product)	Works in a phone’s browser	No	Not yet

Fiix is the only free plan here with photos, offline use and preventive maintenance together. Field-service crews that also need scheduling and invoicing should look at field-service apps instead.

What is work order software?

Work order software records each job your team needs to do, such as a leaking tap, a broken freezer or a quarterly inspection, and tracks it from request to done. Each work order has a location, a description, a priority, the person assigned, a due date and a status.

A work request is someone reporting a problem. A work order is the job you approve, assign and track. Most work order tracking software lets anyone submit a request and turns it into a work order after review.

Free options come in two kinds. A CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) such as MaintainX or Fiix adds asset records, preventive maintenance and phone apps for technicians. Forms, spreadsheets and app builders let you build a simpler system around your own work order log.

Which free maintenance apps have the best free plans?

These four CMMS apps have free plans that don’t expire, for teams that want photos, phone apps and some preventive maintenance without building anything.

1. MaintainX

MaintainX is a maintenance app built around technicians’ phones, with work orders, checklists and team messaging. Its app runs on iPhone and Android, and technicians can attach photos to work orders from it (MaintainX help).

• Best for: small teams that mostly need a shared work order queue on their phones, with unlimited requesters at no cost.
• Free plan: Basic is free forever, with unlimited work orders, unlimited requester users, real-time messaging and 2 active repeating work orders. Work orders with attached images are capped at 5 a month, and offline mode starts on Premium (MaintainX pricing).
• Paid plans: Essential is $20 per user per month billed annually and removes the image cap.
• Limitation: 5 work orders with photos a month goes fast, and 2 repeating work orders won’t cover much preventive maintenance.
• Verdict: a good free start for a phone-first team that doesn’t need offline use.

2. Fiix

Fiix, a Rockwell Automation company, is a CMMS with work orders, asset records, parts inventory and preventive maintenance.

• Best for: maintenance teams that need photos, offline use and scheduled maintenance on a free plan.
• Free plan: Fiix Free includes unlimited work orders, work requests and assets, the mobile app, email and push notifications, and 25 active preventive maintenance schedules (Fiix pricing). Fiix says Free never expires, and that technicians can attach photos and log work offline, with updates syncing when they’re back online (Fiix Free).
• Paid plans: Basic is $45 per user per month with unlimited PMs and reports.
• Limitation: the free plan covers “limited users” without saying how many, it leaves out standard reports, and Fiix lists database export only on its Enterprise plan, so plan how you’d get your records out later.
• Verdict: the free plan to start with if photos, offline use or preventive maintenance matter.

3. Coast

Coast is a maintenance app with work orders, checklists and team chat, with apps for iPhone and Android (Coast pricing).

• Best for: teams that coordinate jobs by messaging.
• Free plan: unlimited work orders, 5 repeating work orders, real-time messaging, 7 days of history and file uploads up to 3 MB. New accounts start on a 7-day trial of Pro, then move to Free.
• Paid plans: Starter is $25 per user per month billed yearly (choose the maintenance work orders option on Coast’s pricing page to see this price). An upgrade covers everyone in your account.
• Limitation: history on the free plan is limited to 7 days; Coast says you get all of it back when you upgrade.
• Verdict: easy to adopt, though the 7-day history makes Free better for trying Coast than for keeping records.

4. Maintenance Care

Maintenance Care is a CMMS for facilities, with a free plan sized for very small teams (Maintenance Care pricing).

• Best for: one or two people looking after a single building.
• Free plan: 2 users, work orders, 3 preventive maintenance schedules, 5 assets, 3 vendors and a lite version of the mobile app, plus an online work order page, task assignment and task notifications.
• Paid plans: $250 a month with unlimited users, based on yearly pricing.
• Limitation: 2 users and 5 assets is tight, and the free plan leaves out document management, a customizable request page and customer support.
• Verdict: a fair free start for a tiny facilities team, with a flat price instead of per-user pricing when you grow.

What about UpKeep and Limble?

Both are popular work order apps, but neither has a free plan. UpKeep’s Essential plan is $24 per user per month with a free trial, and view-only and requester users don’t need a paid license (UpKeep pricing). Limble doesn’t list prices; its pricing page sends you to a price calculator (Limble pricing).

Which free tools let you build your own work order system?

If your team already keeps a work order log in a spreadsheet, these four let you choose the form, the columns and the statuses yourself.

5. Google Forms and Google Sheets

The free do-it-yourself setup: a Google Form for requests saves every response to a Google Sheet, where your team tracks status (Google help).

• Best for: small teams with a handful of requests a week that already use Google.
• Free plan: free with a Google account. A spreadsheet holds up to 20 million cells (Google Drive limits).
• Paid plans: Google Workspace business plans start at $7 per user per month (Workspace pricing).
• Limitation: requesters don’t hear back unless someone writes to them, and everyone who works the queue edits the same sheet.
• Verdict: the cheapest way to start. We walk through the setup step by step below.

6. Jotform

Jotform is an online form builder with free work order templates, such as a maintenance work order form, and Jotform Tables for tracking the status of each submission.

• Best for: teams that want a ready-made request form with photo uploads.
• Free plan: the Starter plan includes 5 forms, 100 submissions a month, 500 stored submissions, 100 MB of uploads and 1 user (Jotform pricing). The Jotform Mobile Forms app runs on iPhone and Android and can collect data offline (Jotform).
• Paid plans: Bronze is $34 a month billed yearly.
• Limitation: once you pass 500 stored submissions, Jotform deletes the oldest entry to make room for each new one (Jotform help), so download old work orders before you reach the cap.
• Verdict: a good pick for the work order request form itself.

7. GoodTaco (our product)

GoodTaco is an AI app builder for business apps. You describe the work order app you want in plain language, and GoodTaco builds a working web app with a request form, a queue, search and sign-in in minutes. It works on the Google Sheet you already keep, so the sheet stays the source of truth, or on a built-in database.

• Best for: teams that track work orders in a spreadsheet and want an app on top of it.
• Free plan: 1 app, 1,000 one-time AI credits and 100 app runs a month, with no credit card. Records stay in your Google Sheet, or the built-in database holds up to 100.
• Paid plans: from $9 a month. Pricing is per workspace, not per app user.
• Limitation: no photos or files, no offline mode and no preventive maintenance schedules yet (details below).
• Verdict: the best fit here when your work order log already lives in a sheet and you want an app, not a new system.

8. Softr

Softr builds apps and portals on top of Softr Databases or sources such as Google Sheets and Airtable. Its work order page describes request forms with file uploads for photos, role-based portals and approvals (Softr).

• Best for: teams that want to design a branded request portal visually.
• Free plan: up to 3 builders, 5 app users, 5,000 database records and 500 workflow actions a month (Softr pricing).
• Paid plans: Basic is $19 a month billed yearly, with 5 team and 5 client users; anyone who signs in with a Gmail or other free email address counts as a client user.
• Limitation: 5 app users is small for a request portal, since every requester who signs in counts.
• Verdict: a visual builder with years of portal features. Our Softr comparison shows how it differs from GoodTaco.

What does work order software cost a five-person team?

CMMS apps charge per user once you upgrade. List prices for 5 paid users a month:

Tool and plan	5 users a month	People who only send requests
MaintainX Essential	$100 billed yearly ($125 monthly)	Free requester accounts
Coast Starter (maintenance option)	$125 billed yearly ($140 monthly)	External request forms on Pro
Fiix Basic	$225	Request portal for users and non-users
Maintenance Care	$250 flat, unlimited users	Included in unlimited users

Spreadsheet setups and app builders price differently: Google Sheets is free, Jotform and Softr charge per plan, and GoodTaco prices per workspace, from $9 a month.

How to choose free work order software for a small business

Check each option against these questions:

• Who sends requests? If tenants, staff or customers report problems, make sure they don’t need a paid seat. MaintainX requester accounts are free, Fiix’s portal takes requests from people without an account, and a Google Form or Jotform form takes requests from anyone with the link.
• Do technicians need photos? If every job needs a before-and-after photo, check the cap: MaintainX’s free plan allows 5 work orders with images a month, Coast limits uploads to 3 MB, and GoodTaco can’t store photos yet.
• Do they work without signal? Basements, plant rooms and remote sites need offline use. Fiix Free logs work offline and syncs later; MaintainX’s offline mode starts on Premium.
• Do you need preventive maintenance? Recurring jobs are where a CMMS earns its keep. Fiix Free allows 25 active PMs, Coast 5 repeating work orders, Maintenance Care 3 and MaintainX 2.
• Can you get your data out? A Google Sheet downloads as Excel or CSV whenever you like. Fiix lists database export only on Enterprise, and Coast’s free history stops at 7 days.
• What happens when you grow? Per-user pricing scales with your headcount, so price the plan you’ll need in a year.

If you get a few requests a week and one person runs the queue, a form and a sheet are enough.

How to track work orders for free, step by step

This setup uses Google Forms and Google Sheets and costs nothing.

1. List what each work order needs

Decide the columns before you build anything. A practical set:

Column	Example
Work order number	WO-0142
Date requested	Oct 14, 2026
Requested by	Dana, front desk
Location	Building B, room 204
Equipment	Rooftop unit 2
Description	No heat since Monday
Priority	Urgent, High, Normal, Low
Status	New, Assigned, In progress, Waiting on parts, Done
Assigned to	Luis
Due date	Oct 16, 2026
Notes	Ordered a new igniter
Date completed	Oct 17, 2026

2. Build the work order request form

Create a Google Form that asks for the requester’s name, email, location, equipment, description and urgency. Your team fills in the rest. Submit one test response, then go to Responses > Summary > More > “Select destination for responses” and create a new spreadsheet; the Summary tab appears only after the first response (Google help). To accept photos, add a file upload question: requesters then must sign in to a Google Account, and files go to the form owner’s Drive (Google help). Share the link by email or as a QR code on a poster.

3. Add the columns your team fills in

In the response sheet, add columns to the right of the form’s columns for work order number, status, assigned to, due date, notes and date completed. Turn status and priority into dropdowns with Insert > Dropdown so everyone uses the same values (Google help). Each form response becomes one record, so every work order lives in one place.

4. Make a queue view by status

Use filter views (Data > Create filter view) to give each person a queue without changing what others see: open work orders sorted by priority and due date, one view per technician, and one for “Waiting on parts”. Name and save each view so it’s one click away (Google help).

5. Assign and update each work order

Give each new request a number, an owner and a due date, and set the status to Assigned. Under Tools > Notification settings, set a rule so you get an email when someone submits the form; Sheets only notifies the person who sets the rule (Google help). Requesters won’t hear back on their own, so reply to them when the status changes.

6. Review the log every week

Once a week, look for work orders open past their due date and for locations or equipment that keep coming back. Repeat problems are your best candidates for preventive maintenance.

Build your own work order app on your sheet

A form and a sheet work until requesters keep asking for updates or technicians struggle with a wide sheet on a phone. If you need photos on every job, offline use or preventive maintenance schedules, start with Fiix Free. If the sheet works and what’s missing is a clean request form, a queue and updates for requesters, put an app on it.

Connect the Google Sheet you already use to GoodTaco, describe the app, and GoodTaco’s AI builds it in minutes. The app reads and writes the same sheet, so the sheet stays the source of truth. If your log is in Excel or a CSV file, upload the work order log you already keep instead: no account is needed to try it, each upload takes up to 10 MB and 2,000 records, and columns of repeated choices such as status and priority become dropdowns. Create a free account to keep the app.

A description like this is enough to start:

Build a work order app on this sheet. Anyone on our team can submit a request with location, equipment, description and priority. Show the maintenance team a queue grouped by status, let a manager assign a technician and a due date, and email the requester from my Gmail whenever the status changes.

What you get:

• A request form behind sign-in. Make the app private, and people sign in with Google or an emailed link before they see any data, with access limited to the users or roles you choose.
• A queue by status with search, plus a dashboard of open work orders, which technicians open in their phone’s browser.
• Assignments: a manager picks the technician and the due date.
• Email updates: the app emails the requester from your Gmail when someone changes the status.
• Each requester’s own requests: ask GoodTaco to show each signed-in person only the requests that match their email, then sign in as a test requester to check.

You change the app by asking for changes, every change is saved so you can roll back, and hosting is included.

The same approach works for equipment maintenance logs in manufacturing and for operations requests across departments. To compare other ways to turn a sheet into an app, see our roundup of spreadsheet app builders.

Keep your work order sheet, and give your team an app. Start free, no credit card needed.

Frequently asked questions

Is there free work order software?

Yes. MaintainX, Fiix, Coast and Maintenance Care all have free plans that don't expire, and Google Forms with Google Sheets costs nothing with a Google account. Each free plan has a catch, such as caps on photos, users, history or preventive maintenance.

What is the best work order software for a small business?

For a maintenance team that needs photos, offline use and scheduled maintenance, start with Fiix Free. MaintainX's free Basic plan suits teams that mostly need a shared queue on their phones. For a team that already tracks work orders in a spreadsheet, a Google Form with a Google Sheet, or an app built on that sheet with GoodTaco, keeps things simple.

Can I track work orders in Google Sheets or Excel?

Yes. Use a form for requests, keep one record per work order with status, priority, location, assignee, due date and notes, and make a filtered view of open work orders. It works well for a small team and gets harder when many people edit at once or requesters want updates.

What is the difference between a work request and a work order?

A work request is someone reporting a problem or asking for a job. A work order is the job you approve, assign to a person and track to completion, with a priority, a due date and a status.

What should a work order request form include?

The requester's name and email, the location, the equipment involved, a short description of the problem and how urgent it is. Add a photo upload if your tool supports it, and keep the form short so people actually fill it in.

Is work order software the same as a CMMS?

Not quite. A CMMS, or computerized maintenance management system, includes work orders plus asset records, preventive maintenance schedules and parts inventory. Simpler work order tools handle requests, assignments and status.

Do free work order apps work offline?

Some do. Fiix says technicians on its free plan can log work offline and it syncs when they reconnect. MaintainX's offline mode starts on its Premium plan. Browser-based apps, including GoodTaco apps, need a connection.