Buyer's guide · decision stage
Ship management software buyer's guide
Written for the person who has to sign the purchase order and then live with the consequences at the next audit. Six short guides covering what the software costs, what to demand in the RFP, how the rollout actually runs, how to leave a legacy system, and what a five-ship owner should refuse to pay for.
What ship management software really costs
Every line item in a maritime software quote — licence, per-vessel fees, implementation, training, support uplift — and where the money quietly leaks. Full Ahead's EUR prices in full, no quote request.
Read RequirementsPMS requirements & RFP checklist
A 60-point requirement list you can send to any vendor, written by a Chief Engineer who has lived with bad ones. Tick, print, attach to the RFP.
Read OnboardingPMS implementation & onboarding plan
The 30-day rollout Full Ahead runs: data import, equipment coding, crew training at sea, first audit dry run — with the failure points named.
Read MigrationSwitching from a legacy PMS
How to leave DNV Navigator, Sertica, BASSnet or ABS NS without losing history, running hours or your certificate trail — and how to run both in parallel safely.
Read Small fleetsPMS for one to five ships
What a small owner or single-ship manager actually needs, what enterprise systems overcharge for, and the free-for-life single-ship offer.
Read Business caseBuild the savings case
Model the off-hire, overtime and PSC-detention cost you avoid, so the subscription is approved on numbers rather than enthusiasm.
ReadWhere most evaluations go wrong
A ship management system is bought once and lived with for a decade. The decision is rarely lost on features — every serious vendor has a work-order screen and a certificate register. It is lost on three quieter things: the true cost after implementation and support uplift, whether the crew will actually use it on a rolling deck with no bandwidth, and whether the evidence it produces survives an ISM audit without a manual scramble.
Full Ahead was specified from the engine room outward: it works offline as a first principle, it prices by ship volume in EUR with no quote gate, and the maintenance record and the compliance record are the same record — so the auditor's question and the chief engineer's answer come from one place.
Shortcut the evaluation
Start a 30-day trial with a demo fleet already loaded, or see the full EUR price list before you speak to anyone.
Common questions
How long does it take to choose a ship management system?
For a fleet under twenty-five ships, a disciplined evaluation takes four to six weeks: one week to write requirements, two weeks of demos against your own data, one week of reference calls and commercial review, then a pilot on one vessel. Anything longer usually means the requirements were never written down.
Should we buy per vessel or per user?
Per vessel. Crew turnover and superintendent cover mean user counts move constantly, and per-user pricing quietly punishes you for involving more of the crew — exactly the behaviour you want. Full Ahead prices by ship volume in EUR, with unlimited users on every plan.
What is the single most common procurement mistake?
Scoring the demo instead of the migration. Every system looks good on the vendor's clean demo fleet. Insist that the shortlist loads your own equipment register, your own overdue jobs and your own certificate dates before you sign anything.
Do we need a separate compliance system as well as a PMS?
No, and splitting them is what creates audit gaps. Maintenance evidence and ISM/ISPS/SOLAS/MARPOL evidence describe the same work; when they live in two systems the auditor finds the seam. Buy one record that covers both.
Ask a specific question about your fleet
Tell us the ship count and the system you run today; you get a straight answer, not a brochure.
Talk to us
Tell us about your fleet — we'll reply with a straight answer.
Ask about migrating an existing PMS, offline operation at sea, class and flag audits, or what your fleet would actually cost. No sales sequence, no discovery call gate.
- Answer from a person, usually same working day
- Data migration from spreadsheets or legacy PMS
- Pricing in EUR, published — nothing hidden