The distinction between alimony and maintenance is that alimony is a court-enforced allotment awarded to a previous spouse by a divorced or legally separated person while maintenance is actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning in service.
Alimony is a legal obligation toward a person to supply financial support to their partner before or after marital separation or divorce. The responsibility arises from the divorce law or family law of each country. Maintenance is an official or unlawful intermeddling in a legal suit by assisting either party with means to carry it on. It is an expense that, unlike capital improvement, is not capitalized.
If you get divorced, you may be happy until you realize that there will be a connection between you and your ex. This is because you must make alimony payments to your ex because your income is much more than your ex at the time of your divorce.
However, there is another term called maintenance payments that are similar to alimony in that they both require the ex to make payments or give money so that the ex can live the same lifestyle as they did before the divorce. Both have the same limitations and may stop when the ex dies. However, the key difference is the region where it is used. Some regions in the world say alimony and other regions call it maintenance.