Firstbase vs Workwize: Which IT Asset Platform Is Better?

Firstbase vs Workwize is a genuine choice rather than a formality, because the two platforms are built around different bets. Firstbase bets on leasing hardware and running it from its own warehouses. Workwize bets on wiring itself into your HR stack so provisioning happens automatically. This comparison puts them side by side on price, usability, support, integrations and global coverage, then says plainly which buyer each one fits.

Who Is Firstbase Best For?

Firstbase was founded in late 2019 and acquired by AppDirect in December 2024. It reports more than 200,000 devices deployed across the 150+ countries it markets, and it runs its own warehouses in the US, UK, EU and Canada.

It fits three buyers well:

• Enterprises that want hardware off the balance sheet. Leases run 24 to 36 months with shipping, duties and wiping bundled into the arrangement. This is the platform's centre of gravity and the main reason enterprises pick it.
• Companies concentrated in its four core regions. Those are the regions where Firstbase accepts customer-shipped equipment, repairs any device and takes back the full hardware range.
• Teams large enough for the commitment. The one itemised public contract on record comes from a company of 501 to 1,000 employees.

The inverse also holds. A buyer comparing vendors in a March 2024 r/ITManagers comment reports being rejected "because our footprint is too small for them", so a small company may never receive a quote.

For Whom Is Workwize Useful?

Workwize is an Amsterdam-based lifecycle platform that competes on how deeply it wires into the rest of your stack. Its catalogue runs past 100 integrations, an HR event can trigger provisioning without a ticket, and its security page confirms SOC 2 Type II, which shortens a security review.

It fits teams that already clear the entry requirement. Workwize's pricing page puts a 150-user minimum on the Basic tier and scopes tiers by how many regions you cover, at three, five or unlimited. A company under 150 seats cannot sign, whatever the fit, and there is no single-order pilot to test the service first.

One buyer reported a 30% hardware markup on top of the per-seat fee, so the total lands well above the subscription line.

Tequipy: An Alternative

The team that built Tequipy ran IT at Revolut while it grew from 100 employees in 2 offices to 5,000 across 17, without losing a laptop. Tequipy handles global IT procurement and the rest of the lifecycle for globally distributed teams, buying every device locally through 600+ authorized resellers in 180+ countries.

Against both platforms here, three differences matter. There is no seat minimum, so a 40-person company and a 4,000-person company buy on identical terms. Every rate is published, so the comparison needs no sales call. And every service works on hardware you bought elsewhere, so you can test one country without moving anything.

Price

Firstbase Pricing

Firstbase publishes nothing. Its pricing page promises a customised quote and carries no numbers at all. The only itemised figure in public is the verified buyer report of $170,000 a year, from a company of 501 to 1,000 employees, with the commitment made before delivery. An IT systems administrator on G2 describes the platform as "extremely expensive" while still praising the service.

Workwize Pricing

Workwize also publishes no rates. What its pricing page does publish is the shape of the deal: a 150-user minimum on the entry tier and tiers sorted by region count. A buyer quoted €19.50 per seat per month, which at 150 seats is €35,100 a year in platform fees alone, before the reported 30% hardware markup.

Verdict on Price

Neither vendor lets you price the decision from the outside, which is the real finding. Both put a sales conversation between you and a number, and Firstbase adds an annual commitment on top.

Tequipy takes the opposite route. Hardware sells at recommended retail price, services bill per use, and the platform costs $99 a month flat at any fleet size and nothing under 100 devices. The pricing page carries the full rate card and a calculator that prices your own countries and volumes in about 30 seconds.

Pro tip: send all three vendors the same request before you compare anything else. Name one laptop configuration, five countries where you actually hire, and ask for the all-in cost per device including shipping, enrollment and any platform fee. Then ask what happens to the price at 40 seats and at 400. The gap between the answers tells you more than any feature grid, and it takes twenty minutes of email.

Ease of Use

Firstbase Ease of Use

Self-service onboarding is the feature reviewers mention most after support. An admin defines equipment packages per role or department, the HR system triggers them, and the new hire picks from the package. IT services manager Mark G. calls the flow an "excellent user experience for admins and end users" in a January 2024 Capterra review.

Workwize Ease of Use

Workwize's usability story is about what happens without a human. Automation is the engine: an employment event fires provisioning, and reviewers describe the result as an integrated stack that behaves itself. The trade is that setup depth needs configuring, which is work you do once and benefit from afterwards.

Verdict on Ease of Use

Firstbase wins on the admin and employee experience of a single order. Workwize wins once the volume of orders makes automation worth configuring. A team placing a handful of orders a month will find Firstbase easier; a team onboarding weekly will get more from Workwize.

Customer Support

Firstbase Support

Support is the most repeated praise in the Firstbase review base. Buyers get named account contacts, and an enterprise service desk specialist reports Firstbase has "cut my workload by 30-40%" in a December 2025 G2 review.

Workwize Support

Workwize reviewers praise account representatives, and the complaints cluster elsewhere: delivery timing and billing. A 2 out of 5 G2 review describes weeks of delay on deliveries outside the US, which is a logistics problem rather than a service-desk one.

Verdict on Support

Firstbase has the stronger evidence, both in volume and in specificity. Read Workwize's support praise as genuine and its delivery complaints as separate, because they describe different parts of the same company.

Tequipy runs support through a dedicated Slack channel per customer rather than a ticket queue. Gigs calls the team "hands-down one of the most responsive and solution-oriented teams I've worked with" in its case study.

Integrations

Firstbase Integrations

Firstbase lists 20+ HRIS, ITSM and MDM connections, including Workday, Okta and ServiceNow, so equipment follows hiring events. That covers the systems most enterprises already run.

Workwize Integrations

Workwize's catalogue is the deepest in this category, past 100 integrations, and reviewers single it out. This is the clearest functional gap between the two platforms.

Verdict on Integrations

Workwize, without much argument. If your requirement is that a specific HR or MDM tool triggers provisioning natively, Workwize is likelier to have it.

Tequipy takes a narrower approach on purpose. Native HRIS sync covers HiBob, BambooHR and Workday as a $199 a month add-on, everything else connects through the REST API, and MDM enrollment runs through Apple Business Manager or Windows Autopilot rather than through direct MDM integrations. That last choice means zero-touch deployment works with any ABM-compatible MDM, including Jamf, Intune, Kandji and JumpCloud.

Global Coverage and Offboarding

Firstbase Coverage

Firstbase markets 150+ countries and runs full service in four regions. Its own warehouse capability documentation sets out the two tiers, and reviewers report inconsistent shipping times. Retrievals in the core markets are described as dependable.

Workwize Coverage

Workwize claims 100+ countries from 14 warehouse locations, which means stock is shipped to the employee rather than bought near them. Where the item is pre-stocked, delivery is quick. Where it is not, the delay lands on the new hire.

Verdict on Coverage

Both are strong at home and thinner further out, and both work from warehouses rather than local purchase. That structural choice is what creates the delay pattern reviewers describe.

Local sourcing removes the border from the process. RemoFirst, a company of about 250 people hiring in 30 countries, uses Tequipy for deliveries, repairs and retrievals and recovered roughly $2,000 per employee doing so. Booksy, with more than 500 employees and 800+ assets, sees 99% of equipment arrive before the start date, having tested Latin America first.

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How to Choose an IT Asset Management Platform

Check the Minimum Before the Features

A seat minimum is a gate rather than a fit signal. Workwize's 150-user floor decides the question for a smaller company before any feature comparison starts, and Firstbase's annual commitment does the same at the other end. Ask for the minimum in writing first, then compare what is left.

Price the Whole Lifecycle, Not the Laptop

Procurement is the visible cost. Retrieval, storage, redeployment and resale decide the real total. Ask each vendor for a rate card covering all of them, and treat a meeting request as an answer in itself. TapTap Send consolidated three purchasing processes onto one platform and now saves $6,500 a month.

Ask Where Devices Are Bought, Not Where They Ship

A warehouse model and a local-purchase model behave differently in exactly the markets you find hardest. Ask which countries a vendor buys in, which it collects from, and what the delivery SLA is in your three most awkward locations. The laptop retrieval side of that question is the one most buyers forget until an employee leaves.

Alternative to Firstbase and Workwize: Tequipy

Key Features

Every order is filled by an authorized reseller in the employee's own country, so devices never cross a border, wait in customs or pick up duties. Delivery averages 3 business days worldwide with a 10-day maximum. Devices arrive enrolled in your MDM through Apple Business Manager or Autopilot, at no extra charge. Offboarding, storage, redeployment and sellback run from the same platform, and every service works on hardware bought elsewhere.

Pricing

Where Tequipy Shines

• No seat minimum and no contract: a 40-person company buys on the same terms as a 4,000-person one, which is the opposite of the 150-seat gate.
• Coverage that holds where the others thin out: MENA, Africa, Central Asia and most of Asia are inside the 180+ country footprint.
• Replaces a hire rather than a vendor: at Gigs' volume, 100 employees across 20 countries, the realistic alternative was a full-time IT logistics hire, and 100+ hours a month went back to the team instead.

Where Tequipy Falls Short

• No leasing or financing in any market. Firstbase leases on 24 to 36 month terms and Workwize offers buy, rent or lease. Tequipy sells outright at retail price, so a CFO who needs hardware as an operating expense will not get that here. The only flexibility is a $5,000 credit line with 7 days to pay.
• The public review base is small. Three reviews against Firstbase's fifty. Read the composition rather than the average, and ask for reference calls in your own region.
• Not a general-purpose ITAM tool. Tequipy tracks the fleet it manages and does not scan networks or run a CMDB. Where discovery is the requirement, run a register alongside it.

Customer Reviews

Three reviews sit on Tequipy's G2 profile in August 2026, averaging 4.8 out of 5. Two come from enterprises above 1,000 employees and one from a mid-market company. An IT lead at an enterprise over 1,000 employees writes that "it really stands out that I don't need to have a local IT department in every country we operate in", naming Colombia and the Philippines (July 2026).

Who Tequipy Is Best For

• Globally distributed teams at any fleet size: hiring into 3 countries or 15 draws the same pricing, SLA and process in each one.
• Teams that need a pilot before a commitment: one order in your hardest country settles the coverage question.
• Companies keeping their current vendor for now: services work on devices bought elsewhere, so nothing has to be switched off.

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Is Firstbase or Workwize cheaper?

Neither publishes rates, so the honest answer is that you cannot tell without two quotes. The public evidence points to Firstbase being the larger commitment, at $170,000 a year in the one itemised report, while Workwize's cost depends on seat count above its 150-user floor.

Does Workwize have a minimum number of users?

Yes. Its published pricing puts a 150-user minimum on the entry plan, so a company below that headcount cannot buy the platform regardless of fit.

Can you try either platform before signing?

No. Neither offers a self-serve pilot, and Firstbase bills its annual commitment upfront, so evaluation happens through sales conversations rather than a real order.

Which one is better for offboarding outside the US?

Both weaken outside their core regions, since each ships from warehouses rather than buying locally. Ask specifically which countries the vendor collects from, because collection coverage is usually narrower than delivery coverage.

What do buyers ask most often when comparing these platforms?

Two questions come up in nearly every call: what happens to the price when headcount grows, and who physically collects a laptop from a leaver in a country where the company has no office. Get both answered in writing before choosing.