When comparing Maxima vs SageMath, the Slant community recommends Maxima for most people. In the question“What are the best computer algebra systems?” Maxima is ranked 1st while SageMath is ranked 2nd.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Very good open source sorftware for general mathematical work with a nice frontend (wxmaxima)
Pro Cross platform
While the desktop experience is good, it runs pretty well on Android phones too.
Pro Free open-source software. Compares favorably to Mathematica. INCLUDES Maxima in distro. Web-based CoCalc is excellent app based on Sagemath.
Jupyter Notebook supports Sagemath Kernel.
Pro Versatile
Though SageMath depends on other software packages for the heavy lifting, SageMath offers a centralized interface for working with many subfields of mathematics.
Cons
Con Only basic computer algebra.
Con Incoherent design
Con Poor documentation
Con Bloated
SageMath does not do much mathematics by itself. Instead, it depends on many CAS and non-CAS software packages, which it calls based on the desired operations. Installing SageMath pulls in all those packages as mandatory prerequisites. There is no lightweight GUI either.