To meet the urgent demand of maintenance and lifting equipment for wind turbine, combined with designation demand, two kinds of primary structure of the maintenance and lifting equipment has been proposed, analyzed and compared. By means of the Solid Works software the initial design on the two kind of the machine, the self-climbing crane and the trailed hoisting platform, have been conducted, the static analysis has been performed based on the mechanics model, and the advantages and disadvantages of these methods have been pointed out and compared in the paper. Compared with the self-climbing crane, the mechanical structure of the trailed hoisting platform is simpler, the control system presented more reliable, simple, easier realized etc, and the cost is lower. The self-climbing crane is high-automatic, but the design of crane high in the free degree and high in difficulty, and the climbing force focused on the wind turbine tower is too large. Conclusion The trailed hoisting platform is determined as the main design method to design the maintenance and lifting equipment for wind turbine.