"Willow vs CIM vs Facilio?" is one of the most common smart-building software questions — and the framing is wrong. These three aren't running the same race. They solve three different problems, and the fastest way to buy the wrong platform is to line them up feature-by-feature as if they were interchangeable. Here is what each actually does, and how to tell which one your building needs.
First, a quick disambiguation: CIM here means cim.io and its PEAK platform — the building-analytics company — not CIM Group, the real-estate investment firm. Easy to confuse; very different things.
Willow — the digital twin and data layer
Willow's core product is a structured digital twin that unifies data from dozens of building systems into one queryable model, with an operational-AI layer on top. The data model is the product: once your building — or airport, or campus — is represented as a structured twin, every downstream analytic sits on clean, connected data instead of raw streams.
Best when: your problem is data fragmentation across a large, complex portfolio — many systems, no single source of truth — and you want an AI-queryable foundation for everything else. It has the broadest scope of the three, spanning buildings and infrastructure. Pricing is enterprise and not public.
CIM / PEAK — the analytics and fault-detection engine
PEAK is an AI-native building analytics and FDD (fault detection and diagnostics) platform. It connects to your BMS, auto-discovers and labels equipment, then runs continuous fault detection that tells operators what a fault means and what to do — not just that an alarm fired. It pairs the software with embedded engineering support.
Best when: you already have a BMS and want the fastest path to energy savings and fault resolution without a heavy IT lift. It is lean and targeted — analytics, not a full operations platform — and well-suited to teams without deep in-house BMS expertise. Entry pricing has been published in the high-hundreds-per-month range (directional — confirm with the vendor).
Facilio — the connected operations platform
Facilio is a connected CMMS and O&M platform: maintenance work orders, compliance, energy management, and tenant experience in one IoT-native product, with a vendor-agnostic edge layer (BACnet, Modbus, OPC-UA) that connects to existing systems without rip-and-replace. It was named a Leader in the 2025 Verdantix Green Quadrant for Commercial Buildings CMMS — independent analyst validation.
Best when: you need to run portfolio-wide operations from one platform and replace a fragmented stack of CMMS + BMS dashboards + tenant apps. Published entry pricing starts in the low-thousands-per-year range (directional).
How to actually choose
| If your core problem is… | The fit is… |
|---|---|
| Fragmented data across a big/complex portfolio | Willow — twin + AI foundation |
| Energy savings + faults on an existing BMS, fast | CIM / PEAK — FDD analytics |
| Running maintenance + compliance + energy + tenants in one place | Facilio — connected O&M |
Notice these overlap — a large owner could plausibly run a twin and an FDD engine and a CMMS. The question is never "which one wins." It is "which job am I solving first?" Answer that, and the shortlist picks itself.
Whatever you choose, judge it the way you would judge any building technology: by the NOI levers it actually moves, not the length of its feature list.
Positioning and pricing reflect public sources as of mid-2026 and are directional; confirm current details with each vendor.
Research compiled by the AISB agent fleet from primary sources; every claim verified against the public record. Cost figures are labeled industry estimates. Full source list available on request — hello@ai-smart-buildings.com.