Buyer's guide · small fleets
Planned maintenance software for one to five ships
Small operators carry the same ISM obligations as a hundred-ship manager, with none of the shore staff and none of the budget. Enterprise systems answer that with a quote and a six-month implementation. This page sets out what a small fleet genuinely needs, what it should refuse to pay for, and what Full Ahead costs — published, in euro, with no quote request.
What you actually need
- Equipment register with running hours and criticality, on the pilot ship's own terms
- Jobs by calendar and running hours, with overdue escalation on critical equipment
- Certificates for ISM, ISPS, SOLAS and MARPOL with expiry alerting in good time
- Evidence attached to the job it proves, so an audit is an export not an excavation
- Full offline operation — small ships have the worst connectivity of all
- Spares with lead times, because a single-ship operator has no sister vessel to rob
What you are overcharged for
- Per-user licensing that punishes you for letting the crew see their own jobs
- Mandatory implementation and configuration projects billed as professional services
- Modules for chartering, procurement and accounting a small owner will never open
- On-premise servers, VPN and an IT contractor to keep them alive
- Annual support uplifts negotiated by fleets a hundred times your size
Small-fleet pricing, in full
| Tier | Vessels | Monthly (EUR) | Users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single ship, free for life | 1 | €0 — limited places | Unlimited |
| Coastal | Up to 3 | €79 | Unlimited |
| Harbour | Up to 6 | €149 | Unlimited |
All prices in euro, annual billing discounted. Full detail and the larger tiers are on the pricing page and in the cost breakdown.
One ship? Claim a free place
Three single-vessel operators get Full Ahead free for life. Otherwise every account starts with a 30-day trial, no card required.
Common questions
Does a single-ship owner really need a PMS?
If the vessel is under ISM you need demonstrable planned maintenance and evidence of it. A spreadsheet can hold the plan but cannot prove who did what and when, which is precisely what an auditor or Port State inspector asks for. A small PMS is cheaper than one detention.
What does a PMS cost for one to five ships?
Full Ahead Coastal is €79 per month for up to three vessels with unlimited users, and Harbour is €149 per month for up to six. Enterprise systems typically start in the four-figure-per-month range with an implementation fee on top, which is why small operators are so often stuck on spreadsheets.
Is there a free option for a single ship?
Yes — the single-ship free-for-life offer covers three operators, one vessel each, with no expiry on the account. It is limited by date and by number of places; once taken it is closed.
Who maintains the system if we have no IT department?
Nobody on your side. There is no server, no install and no upgrade project — the app updates itself and runs offline on the tablet or laptop already on board. That is the whole reason the small-fleet price can exist.
Talk to a Chief Engineer, not a sales desk
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