Asset Tracking Software Pricing Models Explained

Asset tracking software is priced on one of a few units: item or asset counts, licensed users, admins, service desk agents, asset units, or a flat plan. The unit matters more than the list price, because it decides which costs grow as your register and team grow, and what you will be tempted to leave untracked.

The most important thing on an asset tracking software pricing page is the unit, the thing the vendor counts to work out your bill. Items, assets, users, admins, agents, asset units. Pick the wrong unit for your organisation and a reasonable first-year price turns into an awkward renewal, or worse, a register you have quietly stopped completing to stay inside a tier.

Below are the models in use in this category, with examples taken from vendors' own public pricing pages as listed on 5 October 2026. Where a price is clearly published I give it with that date, because these pages change often. Then I run a hypothetical 50-person organisation with 400 assets through each model, and list the costs that don't appear on any of the pages. For the broader question of budget, see how much asset management software costs.

The pricing models at a glance

Model	Billing unit	Example (as listed on 5 October 2026)	What makes the bill grow
Item tiers with user licences	Items tracked, plus user licences per tier	Sortly	Crossing an item tier or needing more users
Item slider, unlimited users	Number of items tracked	EZOfficeInventory	Every item you add
Per asset per month	Each asset	AssetSonar	Every asset you add
Licensed asset bands	Bands of discovered IT assets	Lansweeper	Crossing a band
Per administrator	Admin seats, with a minimum	Cheqroom	Adding people who manage the system
Per agent plus asset units	Service desk agents, plus asset units for ITAM	Freshservice	More agents or more units consumed
Flat module price	A plan or module, users unlimited	Reftab	Moving to a bigger plan or adding modules
Open source or hosting tier	Free licence, or a hosting plan	Snipe-IT	Hosting tier, support and your own staff time
Quote only	Whatever the quote covers	Asset Panda	Not published

How each model works

Item tiers with user licences

Sortly's pricing page fixes both an item count and a number of user licences in each tier. The free plan allows 100 unique items and one user licence; paid tiers step up through 500, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000+ items, with 2, 5, 8 and 12+ user licences attached. API and webhooks are listed under the Enterprise tier. As listed on 5 October 2026, yearly plans carried a 50% first-year discount for new customers, with a 20% discount on yearly plans after that, so the second-year price is higher than the first.

With two meters running, you can outgrow a tier in two ways. A team with 400 items and six people who need to record check-outs has outgrown its tier on users while still well inside the item limit. Sortly is primarily inventory software; we compare it on custody and lifecycle in Stackroom vs Sortly.

Item slider with unlimited users

EZOfficeInventory prices on the number of items you want to track, set on a slider, with the price following the count. Its FAQ says the Essentials, Advanced and Premium plans include unlimited users, subject to a fair usage policy, and that its CMMS add-on is charged on admin users only. Features step up by tier: custom fields, audits and purchase orders sit in Advanced; automations, integrations and AI features in Premium; offline mode in Enterprise.

Per asset per month

AssetSonar is the clearest example of pure per-asset pricing. As listed on 5 October 2026, its ITAM plan was $0.75 per asset per month and its ITSM plan, which includes ITAM, $1.08 per asset per month, with an Advanced Software Asset Management module at a further $0.42 per asset per month. Agents are unlimited. Packages start from 100 assets, and volume discounts are offered from 1,000 assets.

Per-asset pricing is easy to forecast. The trouble is what it does to behaviour. Every item you register has a visible monthly cost, so the cheap, numerous things that go missing most often (chargers, adaptors, testers, hand tools) are the first to be left off.

Licensed asset bands

Lansweeper licenses discovered IT assets in bands, billed annually. As listed on 5 October 2026: a free tier continues up to 100 assets after a 14-day trial; Starter includes 2,000 assets; Pro includes 2,000 and can expand to 9,000; Enterprise starts at 10,000. User seats are unlimited on every plan, and full API access is an Enterprise feature. This is network discovery software rather than custody tracking, so the asset count is something the scanner finds, not something you choose to register.

Per administrator

Cheqroom bills per admin per month, billed annually, with unlimited users and unlimited items. Its page notes that minimum administrator counts apply, and its FAQ defines an admin as anyone with elevated permissions to manage and configure the system; people who only check equipment in and out are not charged. Locations step up by tier, and RFID, maintenance and room management appear as add-ons.

Per-admin pricing rewards a large register and a small management team. Spread the responsibility, as a school does when each department head approves and issues their own equipment, and it gets expensive.

Per agent plus asset units

Freshservice is service desk software, and its core plans are priced per agent per month, billed annually. Asset management is metered separately in asset units. Its ITAM pricing page sells asset units in packs of 500, listed at $125 a month per pack on 5 October 2026.

Different assets consume different numbers of units. Freshservice's support article on asset unit pricing lists a server, VM or network device at 4 units, a desktop, end-user computing device or mobile at 1 unit, and a physical non-IP asset at 1/25 of a unit. So 400 end-user devices consume 400 units, while 400 non-IP items such as chairs or projectors consume 16. Before comparing per-asset prices across vendors, check what each one counts as an asset.

Flat module pricing

Reftab lists its hardware asset management plan at $125 a month with unlimited users included, as of 5 October 2026. A free plan tracks up to 50 assets. Software asset management is a separate meter at $9 per tracked software user per year, and the combined plan is custom-priced on assets plus software users. Flat pricing is the easiest to budget for, as long as you know what the plan caps and what sits in a separate module.

Open source and hosted open source

Snipe-IT is open source and free to self-host. Its hosted plans, as listed on 5 October 2026, start at $39.99 a month or $399.99 a year, with unlimited assets and users on every tier; the tiers differ in support, automated upgrades, API rate limits (120 calls a minute on the entry plan, 240 on the next, unlimited on dedicated hosting) and dedicated-server features. Self-hosting moves the cost from licence to staff time: someone has to run the server, the backups and the upgrades.

Quote only

Asset Panda's pricing page publishes no prices. It offers a seven-day trial and a custom quote based on what you need. I don't treat quote-only pricing as a red flag in itself. It does mean you can't compare like for like without a sales call, so make the billing unit your first question.

Worked example: 50 people, 400 assets

This example is hypothetical. The unit prices are round numbers I have chosen to show how each model behaves; they are not any vendor's prices. The organisation has 50 staff and 400 tracked assets in year one, growing to 60 staff and 500 assets in year two and 70 staff and 600 assets in year three. Five people manage the system day to day.

Assumed unit prices: per asset $0.80 a month; item tiers at $100 a month for up to 500 items and $250 a month for up to 2,000, each with five user licences; per user $15 a month; per admin $150 a month with a three-admin minimum; per agent $60 a month for three agents, plus asset units at $100 a month per 500; flat plan $200 a month; self-hosted open source at $20 a month for a server plus four hours a month of staff time at $60 an hour.

Model (hypothetical prices)	Year 1: 400 assets, 50 staff	Year 3: 600 assets, 70 staff	Three-year total
Per asset, $0.80/month	$3,840	$5,760	$14,400
Item tiers with 5 licences included	$1,200	$3,000 (tier jump)	$5,400
Per user, 5 operators only	$900	$900	$2,700
Per user, every employee	$9,000	$12,600	$32,400
Per admin, 3-admin minimum	$5,400	$5,400	$16,200
Per agent (3) plus asset unit packs	$3,360	$4,560	$11,280
Flat plan within its limits	$2,400	$2,400	$7,200
Self-hosted open source (server plus staff time)	$3,120	$3,120	$9,360

The cheapest line, per user with five operators, is cheap precisely because it restricts who can record anything. The other 45 people hand equipment around without leaving a trace, and records get made second-hand.

The per-asset line grows by half over three years with no change in how well you are managing equipment. And the item-tier line looks cheapest of the full-access options until year three, when 600 items crosses the 500-item tier and the bill jumps by 150%.

Since the prices are invented, look at the shape of each line rather than the totals. Then put your own counts and your vendors' real prices into the same table and run it for three years.

Costs that don't appear on the pricing page

Implementation and onboarding. Cheqroom's plan comparison lists onboarding, implementation, health checks and data clean-up as fees on some tiers. Ask what setup costs and whether it is optional.
Add-on modules. RFID, maintenance, room booking, software asset management and CMMS are sold as add-ons by several vendors above. A plan that looks complete may be missing the one module you need.
API access tiers. Sortly lists API and webhooks under Enterprise, Lansweeper keeps full API access for Enterprise, and Snipe-IT's hosted tiers set different API rate limits. If you plan to connect an HR or finance system, price the tier that includes the API.
Tier jumps and overage. Item tiers, asset bands and packs of 500 units all move in steps. Ask what happens the month you cross a line: automatic upgrade, a pro-rated charge or a blocked import.
Introductory pricing. First-year discounts make renewals dearer. Sortly's page states the 50% first-year discount drops to 20% afterwards.
Minimums. Cheqroom applies minimum admin counts; AssetSonar packages start at 100 assets. Small teams can pay for capacity they don't use.
Labels and hardware. Asset labels, and dedicated scanners or RFID readers if you go that route. Phone cameras cost nothing extra.
Staff time. For self-hosted tools, the server, backups and upgrades. For configurable platforms, the person who owns the configuration.

Questions to ask before you sign

What exactly is the billing unit, and what counts as one? (An archived laptop, a chair, a software user?)
Who needs a paid seat: everyone who logs in, only admins, or only service desk agents?
What happens when we cross the next tier or band, and is the change automatic?
Which features we need sit in a higher tier or a paid add-on, especially API access, audits and signatures?
Is the price we are quoted introductory, and what is the renewal price?
Are there setup, onboarding or migration fees?
Can we export all our data, including history, if we leave?

For shortlists by category, see the best asset management software and best equipment tracking software roundups. Our comparison pages, such as Stackroom vs Cheqroom, Stackroom vs AssetSonar and Stackroom vs Snipe-IT, show each vendor's published caps and gating beside ours.

How Stackroom prices

Stackroom prices plans on capability and capacity, with unlimited users on every plan, including the free one. Nobody pays for a seat to check equipment in or out, sign for a handover or report a fault, so there is no reason to ration who records custody. Plan limits and prices are served live on the pricing page rather than written into articles, so they can't go stale here.

Pick the model whose growth line matches the thing you actually want more of. If you want a complete register, avoid pricing that charges you for completeness. If you want everyone who handles equipment to record it, avoid pricing that charges per person.

Sources

Key takeaways

The billing unit (items, assets, users, admins, agents or asset units) matters more than the headline price.
Per-asset and item-tier pricing put a visible cost on every item, which discourages registering cheap, easily lost equipment.
Per-user pricing looks cheapest when only a few people log in, which is the arrangement that produces second-hand records.
Vendors count assets differently; Freshservice charges 1 unit for a laptop and 1/25 of a unit for a non-IP physical asset.
Price API access, add-on modules, setup fees, minimums and renewal rates, not just the entry tier.
Model at least three years of growth in assets and people before comparing quotes.

Frequently asked questions

How is asset tracking software usually priced?

Most tools bill on one unit: the number of items or assets tracked, the number of users or admins who log in, the number of service desk agents, or a flat plan price. Some combine two, such as Sortly's item tiers with user licences or Freshservice's per-agent plans plus asset units. Open-source tools such as Snipe-IT are free to self-host and charge for hosted plans instead.

Is per-asset or per-user pricing cheaper?

It depends on your ratio of assets to people. Per-asset pricing suits a small register handled by many people; per-user pricing suits a large register managed by a few. The catch is behavioural: per-asset pricing tempts you to leave cheap items off, and per-user pricing tempts you to limit who can record check-outs. Model three years of growth in both before deciding.

What is an asset unit in Freshservice?

An asset unit is Freshservice's licensing measure for IT asset management. Different asset types consume different amounts: a server, VM or network device uses 4 units, a desktop or mobile device 1 unit, and a physical non-IP asset 1/25 of a unit, according to its support documentation. Units are sold in packs of 500 on top of the per-agent service desk subscription.

What hidden costs come with asset management software?

The common ones are implementation or onboarding fees, add-on modules such as RFID or maintenance, API access restricted to higher tiers, jumps when you cross an item or asset band, renewals at a higher rate after an introductory discount, minimum seat or asset counts, asset labels, and staff time to configure or host the system. Ask vendors about each before comparing quotes.

Is open-source asset tracking software really free?

The licence is free. Snipe-IT, for example, can be self-hosted at no charge with unlimited assets and users. The running costs are not: you supply the server, backups, security updates and upgrades, and someone's time to manage them. Snipe-IT's own hosted plans exist for teams that would rather pay a monthly fee than run the infrastructure themselves.

Why do some asset tracking tools charge per admin instead of per user?

Per-admin pricing, used by Cheqroom for example, charges only for people who configure and manage the system, while people who only check equipment in and out are free. It suits organisations with many borrowers and a small equipment team. It becomes expensive when management is spread across departments, and minimum admin counts can mean a small team pays for seats it doesn't need.

More from the blog

Asset Tracking ROI: How to Build the Business Case (With a Model)How Much Does Asset Management Software Cost? Total Cost in 2026 Fixed Asset Physical Verification: How to Run a Physical Count What Is a Fixed Asset Register? Required Fields, Format and Examples