The term 'world-class maintenance (WCMt)' is being used frequently nowadays and refers to the collection of best practices in maintenance. Different researchers and consultants have proposed several frameworks of WCMt representing these best practices. If an organization or a maintenance manager wants to implement a framework, it may not be easy for him or her to identify a single framework from a variety of frameworks that are reported in the literature. Thus the task of choosing a particular framework has become a major issue for the managers. Hence in this paper, an attempt has been made to perform an analysis for comparing different WCMt frameworks based on their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). In addition to this, a comparative study of WCMt with other maintenance systems has been carried out to understand the similarities and differences. The SWOT analysis of frameworks revealed a list of best practices in maintenance to be considered by an organization, when it attempts to achieve a world-class status in maintenance apart from the weaknesses and threats associated with each framework. Such an analysis can prove valuable as a decision aid for the operations or maintenance manager while making a decision of choosing a suitable framework of WCMt. © IMechE 2007.