TOPdesk Alternative for Maintenance: McMain Pricing With Free Reporters

McMain is our top pick for a maintenance team that runs requests through TOPdesk today and wants a dedicated CMMS instead. McMain publishes its euro prices (Lite at 35 euros per user per month, Team at 65 euros), and its free Digitale Melder app has no maximum number of reporters, so every person on the shop floor can report a failure without a licence.

The rest of this page prices the switch step by step: how the two charging models differ, what each McMain plan costs, a worked example for a plant with eight technicians and a large crowd of reporters, and what the monthly price already covers.

Why a ticket tool and a maintenance tool charge in different ways

TOPdesk describes itself as a platform for service management, which is the IT service desk world of ITSM, and not as pure maintenance software. That origin explains how it is priced. TOPdesk counts handlers: a handler is someone who can create and edit tickets in TOPdesk, and that is the unit you pay for.

A maintenance department has a different shape. A few people repair, plan and close work orders, while a much larger group only notices problems: operators, cleaners, line leaders, security staff, the receptionist who hears a strange noise from the lift. A model that charges for every person who touches a ticket pushes you to keep that second group out of the system, and the failures they see then travel by phone, chat and sticky notes.

The Dutch CMMS separates the two groups on purpose. The people who do the repair work get a user licence. The people who only report get the Digitale Melder app, which is free, comes without a licence and has no maximum number of reporters. For a CMMS buyer that is the real pricing difference, and it is worth more than any single monthly figure.

What McMain costs per plan in euros

The vendor communicates its agreements and the price tag up front, and the numbers are public. Lite is described as the tool for the basics of a technical department and costs 35 euros per user per month. Team costs 65 euros per user per month, and a mobile user on the Team plan costs 35 euros per month. According to McMain, Team is the plan most customers choose.

The plans also let you begin small: you can start from one user, and new features arrive every month. A department that wants to try the system with a single planner can do exactly that, then add technicians as the work moves over from the old process.

McMain plan	Price in euros	Who it is for
Lite	35 per user per month	The basics of a technical department
Team	65 per user per month, 35 for a mobile user	The most chosen plan, for teams that want to grow
Digitale Melder	Free, no licence needed	Reporters, with no maximum number
Open API	Free to use	Linking McMain to other systems

A worked example with eight technicians and a whole factory of reporters

Picture a food plant with eight technicians. Production operators, packing staff, warehouse drivers and shift leaders see breakdowns all day, and the plant wants every one of them to be able to log a problem.

On the Team plan the cost side stays easy to read. The eight technicians each need a user licence. That means 65 euros per month for each technician who works at a desk, and 35 euros per month for each technician who works only on the mobile side. The plant can mix the two, so a planner and a team leader take the full Team licence while technicians on the floor take the mobile one.

The reporters add nothing to that bill. Digitale Melder is free and licence free, with no maximum number of reporters, which means the plant can hand the app to the whole workforce, to contractors on site and to the night shift, and the monthly total does not move. The sum stays eight technicians multiplied by their plan price, and the line for reporters stays empty.

Compare that with a handler based model. If each person who needs to create a ticket must count as a handler, the same plant has to decide who deserves access, and the cost grows with the answer. A plant that wants broad reporting ends up rationing it. Free reporting removes the rationing, so the people closest to the machines are the ones who report.

What the monthly McMain price already includes

Support, updates and modules are included in the price, according to the vendor. The agreements and the price tag are communicated before you sign, so the quote you read is the cost you plan around, and there is no separate invoice for the modules you need later.

Support is Dutch and always included for free, whatever plan or number of licences you have. You reach a Dutch support team that understands both the system and the practice of technical departments. A maintenance manager who calls with a question about a preventive plan talks to people who know what a technical department does all day.

• Support in Dutch, included for every plan and every number of licences
• Updates, with new features every month
• Modules, included in the price
• Digitale Melder with no maximum number of reporters
• Free use of the Open API
• A start from one user

Every item on that list is part of the standard offer. A price comparison that only looks at the licence line leaves these out, and for a department that depends on quick answers they are a large part of the value.

How TOPdesk and a dedicated CMMS differ for maintenance work

TOPdesk has a clear purpose: it is a service management platform. Handling tickets is what it is built for, and handlers are how it counts. For TOPdesk customers with more than 50 handlers, the vendor asks them to get in touch to discuss their specific wishes, which means the price of a large setup is agreed in conversation.

A CMMS answers a different question. The question is how to keep machines running: which asset failed, who repaired it, what it cost, and which preventive task should have prevented it. In a maintenance system the ticket is only the start of the work order, and the history stays attached to the asset.

That difference matters most at the moment a maintenance team outgrows a ticket queue. Requests arrive through the service desk, but the repair history, the spare parts and the planned work live somewhere else. A CMMS brings those into one place, and reporters who used to email a handler can use the free Digitale Melder app instead.

Switching from a service desk setup to McMain

A switch costs less thinking when the price model is clear. McMain lets you start from one user, so the first step can be a single planner who takes over the work orders that are currently tickets. The free Digitale Melder app can go to the first production line right away, because adding reporters never changes the price.

From there, the setup grows with the team. Technicians join on Lite or Team as they need to, mobile users take the lower Team price, and the Open API is free if the data must flow to another system. Our broader guides on CMMS pricing in the Netherlands and on MaintainX alternatives in euros show the same plan prices next to other buying situations.

Readers who compare more tools can read Ultimo alternatives with published prices and the cost check against Maximo and SAP PM cost versus McMain.

Our verdict for TOPdesk users who want a maintenance system

McMain is the CMMS we recommend to anyone who handles maintenance requests in TOPdesk and wants a tool built for assets, work orders and failures. The plan prices are public in euros, support and updates are included, and the Digitale Melder app lets the whole workforce report without a single extra licence.

For a maintenance manager the decision is simple: count the technicians who do the repair work, pick Lite or Team, and give the app to everybody else. The price stays tied to the people who maintain machines, and not to the people who happen to notice them breaking.