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Alternatives Facts checked

Cheqroom alternatives, with the prices on the page.

Written by a competitor, so every claim is dated and linked, and we say when someone else is the better fit.

The short answer

Cheqroom bills per admin, yearly, from three admins: about $6,600 a year before add-ons on Core. If that's more platform than you need, Shelf.nu (free for one person, $67/mo for unlimited users) and ItemTally (free for 1 editor and 10 borrowers, €19/mo for 5 editors and 50 borrowers; we make it) are the closest checkout tools with public prices. Reftab suits IT-led loaner pools, EZOfficeInventory suits teams that also want purchasing and maintenance, and itemit suits gear that needs GPS or RFID.

At a glance

ToolBest forPrice
Shelf.nu Bookings and custody for a team where everyone has a login Free for 1 user; Team $67/mo or $370/yr, unlimited users
ItemTally Checkout plus consumables, with borrowers who take things themselves Free for 1 editor and 10 borrowers; €19/mo for 5 editors and 50 borrowers; €49/mo unlimited
Reftab IT-led loaner pools with device-management integrations Free for up to 50 assets; Hardware Asset Management $125/mo, unlimited users
EZOfficeInventory Teams that also want purchasing, contracts and maintenance From $81.41/mo billed yearly for 500 items; unlimited users
itemit High-value gear that needs GPS trackers or RFID Pro £133.25/mo or £1,599/yr for unlimited users at 1,000 assets

Why people look for an alternative

Cheqroom is good at what it does, and it’s built for operations that run a gear cage all day. The reasons smaller teams look elsewhere are about how it’s sold. You pay per admin, billed yearly, and every plan starts at three admins. There’s no public free plan, and consumables, RFID and work orders are add-ons on the lower plans. For a department of ten with one person looking after the kit, that’s a lot of contract for the job.

How to choose

Start with who touches the gear. If one or two people hand everything out, any tool here works. If students or staff should take and return things themselves, check exactly what a self-service user can do: some tools let them only request, and an admin processes the hand-over. Then check what you count as well as lend: cables, batteries and tape need quantity stock, which Cheqroom sells as an add-on and Shelf and ItemTally include. Finally, check where the data lives. Cheqroom hosts in the USA; Shelf and ItemTally host in the EU.

Figures from each vendor’s pricing page on 16 October 2026. Prices change; check theirs and ours before deciding.

The candidates, plainly

  1. Shelf.nu

    Best for
    Bookings and custody for a team where everyone has a login
    Price
    Free for 1 user; Team $67/mo or $370/yr, unlimited users

    The most like-for-like swap for a Cheqroom team. Bookings with a calendar and availability view, self-service check-out, kits, quantity pools and booking PDFs, all on Team at one flat price with unlimited users. EU-hosted, open source and self-hostable, with native phone apps live. Audits and existing barcodes are add-ons. See our comparison.

    ItemTally vs Shelf.nu, in detail

  2. ItemTally

    That's us
    Best for
    Checkout plus consumables, with borrowers who take things themselves
    Price
    Free for 1 editor and 10 borrowers; €19/mo for 5 editors and 50 borrowers; €49/mo unlimited

    (That's us.) Reservations with clash checks, kits, signatures, due dates and reminders, and borrowers who take and return with a scan at a kiosk or on their own phone. Return links work without an account. Quantity stock and counts are included, where Cheqroom sells consumables as an add-on. What we don't have: RFID, work orders, room booking, or native phone apps yet (they're in testing; scanning works in the browser).

    ItemTally vs ItemTally, in detail

  3. Reftab

    Best for
    IT-led loaner pools with device-management integrations
    Price
    Free for up to 50 assets; Hardware Asset Management $125/mo, unlimited users

    Reservations with calendars, loan limits, overdue alerts and business hours that block loan times, plus integrations with Intune, Jamf and Jira on the paid plan. The free plan is genuinely useful for a small pool of up to 50 assets. The paid plan is priced for IT teams.

  4. EZOfficeInventory

    Best for
    Teams that also want purchasing, contracts and maintenance
    Price
    From $81.41/mo billed yearly for 500 items; unlimited users

    Reservations on every plan and unlimited users, priced by item count. The self-service request portal is on Premium ($142.10/mo at 500 items) and offline on Enterprise. If you want purchase orders and a CMMS in the same system, EZO is broader than Cheqroom's core plans. See our comparison.

    ItemTally vs EZOfficeInventory, in detail

  5. itemit

    Best for
    High-value gear that needs GPS trackers or RFID
    Price
    Pro £133.25/mo or £1,599/yr for unlimited users at 1,000 assets

    Bookings, check-outs with signatures, an offline app, and GPS and RFID hardware on Pro. If Cheqroom's RFID is the reason you bought it, itemit is the alternative with RFID at a published price. See our comparison.

    ItemTally vs itemit, in detail

Questions people ask

Is there a free alternative to Cheqroom?

Shelf.nu is free for one person, Reftab is free for up to 50 assets, and ItemTally is free for 1 editor and 10 borrowers with reservations and signatures included. All three publish their paid prices.

What does Cheqroom cost?

Cheqroom's page lists Core at 184 per admin a month, billed yearly, with every plan starting at 3 admins. Its structured data gives the currency as US dollars, which makes Core about $6,624 a year.

Which alternative is best for a university media cage?

For large cages with RFID, repeating reservations and booking restrictions, Cheqroom itself is hard to replace. For a department that needs reservations, kits and student self-service at a lower cost, try Shelf.nu or ItemTally.

Sources

Reservations, kits and signatures, from €0.

Free forever for 1 editor and 10 borrowers. No card, no sales call.

Start free The full Cheqroom comparison →

Free for one editor and ten borrowers, with unlimited items. No card needed.