Sortly alternatives
Sortly alternatives, sorted by what you actually track
Most people leaving Sortly have hit one of two walls: a tier that fixes both an item count and a number of user licences, or the discovery that a photo catalogue cannot say who is holding something. Which wall you hit decides where to go next.
What is the best alternative to Sortly?
If Sortly's item-and-licence ladder is the problem and your kit is issued to people, look at Stackroom for signed custody, audits and service cover with unlimited users, or Cheqroom for polished checkout billed per administrator. For a plain asset register, AssetTiger or itemit. If you mainly count consumable stock, stay with an inventory tool.
Last reviewed
Why teams start looking
Where Sortly usually stops fitting
The tier boundary arrived before the work did
Sortly's tiers fix two numbers at once: how many unique items you can hold and how many user licences come with them. Outgrow either and you move up, even if the other still has room.
The effect on a register is predictable. The cheap, numerous items get left off to stay under the line, and people who ought to be updating records share a login or ask someone else to do it. Both make the record less true than it looks.
Someone asked who had it
A photo catalogue answers what you own and roughly where it lives. It has no idea that a projector went out with a site team on Monday and has not come back. Sortly has no signed handover and no custody chain, so that answer comes from memory or a message thread.
The integration request landed
Sortly keeps its API and webhooks for the Enterprise tier. When finance or a helpdesk wants asset data, the choice becomes a large jump in plan or copying records out by hand, and teams in the middle tiers often start looking at exactly that point.
Service dates outgrew a reminder
Sortly's maintenance is light and its cover tracking amounts to date alerts. Once equipment carries AMC contracts, claim contacts and a running repair bill, a date alert records none of the things you need on the day something breaks.
When staying on Sortly is the right call
- People on your team find things by looking at them, and Sortly's photo-led browsing is the reason the register actually gets used.
- Most of what you track is consumable stock with units and pack sizes, counted rather than handed out. That is inventory work, and Sortly does it properly.
- Items have a shelf rather than a holder, so custody, signatures and returns would be features nobody touches.
- You are one person keeping one list, and the smallest possible tool is the right one.
The shortlist
Alternatives to Sortly worth evaluating
Ordered by how well each fits someone leaving Sortly. Not all of these are us, and the one that is is labelled.
- 1.
Stackroom
That is usSortly records where an item lives; Stackroom records who signed for it, when it is due back, what condition it came back in and what it has cost in repairs. It prices on the team rather than on an item-and-licence ladder, with unlimited users on every plan, so registering the cheap items stops being a tier decision.
- Pick it if
- Your Sortly folders are really lists of equipment that people borrow, take to site or keep at home, and you need proof of who has it.
- Watch out for
- Stackroom is not a stock tool. If a real share of your Sortly account is consumables counted in units and pack sizes, that part needs to go somewhere else, not here.
- 2.
Cheqroom
Equipment tracking & checkoutCheqroom bills on administrators rather than items: items and non-admin users are unlimited, which removes the exact pressure Sortly's ladder creates. It is built for checkout and reservations, with the signed handover and return that Sortly lacks (electronic signatures start on its Business plan).
- Pick it if
- People borrow and book your equipment, and you want the most polished checkout-and-reservation experience available.
- Watch out for
- There is a three-admin minimum, and the booking portal is a paid add-on below Enterprise. Depreciation and book value start on its Business plan and maintenance work orders are a separately priced add-on, so price the plan you would actually need.
- 3.
itemit
Equipment tracking & checkoutitemit is closest to Sortly in spirit — quick to start and easy in the first hour — but it is an asset tracker rather than a catalogue, with QR, barcode and RFID tagging and assignment to people.
- Pick it if
- You liked Sortly's simplicity and mostly need to tag and locate equipment, possibly with RFID.
- Watch out for
- Its entry tier caps asset count and user count together, so you may be swapping one ladder for a similar one. Custody is assignment rather than a signed handover, and there is no request-and-approve checkout.
- 4.
AssetTiger
Inventory & stockroomAssetTiger meters on asset count alone, with users, sites and locations unlimited on every paid tier, so the licence half of Sortly's problem disappears. It also records depreciation, which a stock catalogue has no reason to.
- Pick it if
- You want a straightforward register with purchase values and book value, and more people need access than Sortly's licences allowed.
- Watch out for
- The asset bands are still a ladder, and there is no permanent free plan: the trial drops to view-only unless you upgrade. Assignment is basic and nothing is signed.
- 5.
EZOfficeInventory
Equipment tracking & checkoutEZOfficeInventory is the broadest option here — purchase orders and procurement, a deep report set, audits, contracts and depreciation, with unlimited users. If Sortly felt too shallow, this is the other end of the scale.
- Pick it if
- You have someone with time to configure a system properly and want procurement in the same place as the register.
- Watch out for
- Its price follows the item count you set on a slider, which is the meter you are leaving Sortly to escape. Expect a configuration project, not an afternoon.
How to choose
Three questions that separate this shortlist
Is your Sortly account mostly stock, or mostly equipment with a holder?
Sort a sample of fifty items. Anything counted in units and topped up is stock, and none of these tools counts stock better than Sortly. Anything with a serial number that goes out and comes back is equipment, and that is where the shortlist earns its place.
Which of Sortly's meters actually hurt: items or licences?
If it was licences, AssetTiger, Cheqroom and Stackroom each remove the per-person ceiling in a different way. If it was items, avoid EZOfficeInventory's slider and itemit's asset caps, and compare Cheqroom's per-admin billing with Stackroom's team pricing.
Do you need evidence, or just a record?
A name in an assignment field is a record. A signature at handover and return, with a condition note, is evidence. Cheqroom and Stackroom both capture signatures and both run audits, Cheqroom from its Business plan. Stackroom also issues an asset clearance certificate when someone leaves, which Cheqroom's pages do not describe.
Migration
Moving your data out of Sortly
Sortly organises everything into nested folders with photos and custom fields, and that structure deserves a look before you export rather than after. Stackroom has folders too, but location is its own hierarchy (site, building, room) and category is its own field. A Sortly folder called "Van 3 / Power tools" is usually a location and a category fused together, and splitting it into two spreadsheet columns is the most useful ten minutes of the move.
Export to a spreadsheet with one row per physical item. Stackroom imports assets and people from CSV; bring people in first so the named holders exist before you start issuing. Create your custom fields in Stackroom before the asset import so each column has somewhere to land, then spot-check a sample of records against Sortly.
Some things do not come across. Consumable quantities have no real home here, because Stackroom tracks identified items rather than stock levels. Photos usually need re-uploading, since spreadsheet exports tend to carry links rather than image files — check what yours contains. And Sortly never held signatures or custody history, so that record starts with your first checkout.
If your Sortly labels carry a QR code or barcode you still scan, import that code into the asset tag or barcode field and keep the labels. Stackroom reads both with a phone camera, so relabelling can happen gradually as items pass through a checkout.
See the Migration CenterFAQ
Sortly alternatives — common questions
Is there a Sortly alternative that does not charge by item count?
Several meter something else. Cheqroom bills per administrator with unlimited items; AssetTiger meters on assets but leaves users unlimited; Stackroom prices on the team, with unlimited users on every plan including free. EZOfficeInventory and itemit both still scale with the number of items, so read the meter before the feature list.
Can Stackroom do what Sortly does with stock?
No, and it is not trying to. Stackroom tracks individually identified equipment with a holder, a service history and a book value. If you rely on Sortly to count consumables in units and pack sizes, keep an inventory tool for that and use Stackroom for the equipment people borrow.
Which Sortly alternative suits equipment that goes out to site?
Stackroom, if you need to know who took it and prove they signed for it. The mobile app is offline-first, queuing work on the device and syncing later, and each scan records a geo position where one is available, so the last-seen location is a pin on a map rather than a guess.
Sortly keeps its API for Enterprise. Which alternatives have one?
Stackroom has a documented REST API and 41 webhook events. itemit puts API access in its higher tiers, and EZOfficeInventory includes API access from its second tier, with most packaged integrations at its third. Cheqroom lists API access, webhooks, Slack and Zapier on every plan. If an integration is the reason you are moving, read the documentation before you commit.
Will our Sortly folders and custom fields survive the move?
Folders survive once you decide whether each is a location, a category or a folder in Stackroom, because Sortly's nesting often mixes all three. Custom field values should come across as columns in the CSV import, provided the fields exist in Stackroom first. Photos are the part most teams re-upload by hand.
Trying an alternative to Sortly?
Import your data, print a sheet of labels, and run a real checkout the same day. The free tier has unlimited users.