Research reviewed October 2026. This is a research-based review — we analyzed published specs, pricing, and user feedback.

Quick verdict

✓ Best for:Maintenance teams drowning in admin who want Nova AI to audit, draft and clean up work orders in the background.

✕ Skip it if:Skip if you need PM scheduling on the cheap tier — that requires Premium at $55 per user per month, plus implementation.

UpKeep Review 2026: An AI-Native CMMS With Nova Doing the Admin in the Background

Updated October 18, 2026 – Tested Intelligence

Quick verdict: UpKeep is a mobile-first CMMS built around Nova, an AI agent that audits data, drafts work orders and builds PM checklists in the background, while Smart Scheduler and Voice Fill cut field tapping. Pricing starts at a published $24 per user per month — but scheduling and inventory tools sit on the $55 Premium tier.

What it is

UpKeep is an asset operations platform for maintenance teams: work orders, preventive maintenance, assets, parts and inventory in one mobile-first system. Separate products add safety (EHS), fleet, learning, and Edge — IoT sensors that monitor temperature, vibration and runtime and open a work order when a reading drifts.

The AI is the differentiator. Nova is not a question-answer chatbot: it runs scheduled Pulse tasks — reviewing on-hold work orders, catching parts data issues, auditing asset naming, flagging stale work orders — and surfaces findings for human approval. It also turns messy notes into structured work orders, extracts parts lists from PDF manuals, and builds PM checklists. SoftwareConnect’s 2026 review describes the same Nova layer generating work orders and recommending maintenance actions.

Key features

Nova AI agent: background audits, bulk fixes, AI work orders and PM checklists, on every plan with monthly credits
Smart Scheduler: recommends the best technician by availability, due dates and priority
Voice Fill: dictate notes and create or close work orders hands-free
Photo-to-Part: snap a part photo, AI suggests name, type and quantity
Smart Checklist Builder and summaries: auto-generated checklists and closeout notes
Core CMMS: unlimited work orders and locations, asset history, barcode scanning
Edge IoT sensors (separate product): condition monitoring that auto-creates work orders

Pricing

Pricing is published on the vendor’s pricing page. Essential is $24 per user per month, with unlimited work orders and locations, Nova AI and 250 Nova credits per month. Premium is $55 per user per month and adds PM scheduling, custom checklists, parts and inventory management with costing, time and labour tracking, 30-day analytics and 500 credits. Professional and Enterprise are request-a-quote, adding offline mode, full analytics, asset lifecycle tracking, then multi-site support, workflow automation, API access and SSO. View-only, requester and vendor users are free — only admins and technicians need paid licences. There is a free trial, no credit card required, and implementation is sold separately, from $500 training-only to $5,000 expanded training.

Who it’s for

Maintenance teams still running on paper, spreadsheets or a desktop-bound CMMS they avoid in the field. If your pain is admin — retyping notes, cleaning parts data, chasing stale work orders, building checklists — Nova attacks exactly that, and voice-first mobile suits techs whose hands are dirty or gloved.

Who should skip it

Teams whose main need is deep sensor-driven predictive analytics should compare specialists such as Augury first: UpKeep’s condition monitoring lives in its separate Edge product, and its strength is work management, not failure prediction. Small teams should also note PM scheduling is not on Essential — budget for Premium, plus implementation.

Pros

Nova does background admin — audits, bulk fixes, drafted work orders — unprompted
Voice Fill genuinely fits field work, where typing is the bottleneck
Published $24 entry pricing, with free view-only, requester and vendor users
Photo-to-Part and checklist building remove tedious setup chores
Human approval stays in the loop on Nova’s recommendations

Cons

PM scheduling and inventory require Premium ($55), not the $24 tier
Nova credits are capped by tier — 250 a month on Essential
Professional and Enterprise are quote-only; implementation adds $500–$5,000+
Edge, EHS, fleet and learning are separate products, adding to the CMMS price

FAQ

What does Nova AI actually do in UpKeep?

Nova runs scheduled Pulse audits of parts, assets and work orders, flags stale records, and can draft work orders, extract parts from manuals, generate closeout notes and build PM checklists. Technicians can also talk to it on mobile to create work orders, check inventory and pull asset history.

How much does UpKeep cost?

Essential is $24 and Premium $55 per user per month, published on the vendor’s pricing page. Professional and Enterprise are quote-only. View-only, requester and vendor users are free, with a free trial, no credit card required.

Does UpKeep do preventive maintenance scheduling?

Yes, but not on the entry tier. PM scheduling, custom checklists and inventory are Premium and above. Essential covers unlimited work orders and locations with Nova included.

Bottom line

UpKeep is the CMMS pick for teams whose real enemy is paperwork: Nova audits, drafts and cleans up in the background while technicians talk to the app instead of tapping. Trial it on Premium — where PM scheduling, inventory and the AI workflow tools live — and judge Nova on whether its audit feed saves your planner real time.