The equipment platform your team will actually use.
Track equipment, book it, and know who has it, from the web or your phone. Free to start, and running in production for 3,000+ teams in 50+ countries.
Trusted by 20k+ active users tracking around 750k assets5.0 on G2
“If you're still relying on spreadsheets or memory, you're making things harder than they need to be. A system like Shelf keeps everything organized, visible, and easy to manage.”
“Shelf is a powerful Asset Manager that is both easy to use and powerful in functionality. The ease of use allows our entire team to help manage and maintain our assets, but the powerful functionality allows us to create a specific system to meet our needs.”
“I've been using Shelf for our filming equipment management, and it has been a game-changer. The personal support is exceptional. Shelf has made our operations smoother and more efficient.”
“We primarily use Shelf for keeping track of roughly 400 assets in the field and 120 within our office. The system for assigning devices to team members is easy to learn.”
Why teams switch
Sign-out sheets don't scale. Spreadsheets don't scan.
Most teams arrive from a shared spreadsheet, a clipboard, or one person's memory. This is what changes.
Spreadsheets and sign-out sheets
- “Who has the camera?” asked in the group chat, again
- A double booking discovered on the morning of the shoot
- A sheet that is out of date by Friday
- No record of who returned what, or when
- Per-user pricing that punishes a growing team
Shelf
- Scan a label and see who has it and where it is
- Availability checked before a booking is confirmed
- Every asset updated from the field, on a phone
- A full history on every asset page
- One flat price per workspace, unlimited users on Team
Built for real-world scale
Shelf runs in production for teams managing thousands of assets.
High booking volume and large user bases — without performance or data integrity tradeoffs.
"When Shelf scales, your workflows stay the same."
The platform
Everything your gear needs, in one place.
Shelf started as a tracker. Today it runs your equipment inventory, bookings, custody, kits and labels, plus a mobile app for the field, all on one asset record.
Bookings
See what's free, book it, and never double-book again.
Equipment scheduling on one availability timeline, for every asset and kit. Reserve a camera body for a shoot, a lecture hall's AV for a semester, or a truck's tool set for a week, and Shelf prevents double-bookings before they happen.
- Availability view across every asset and kit
- Kits book as one unit, partial check-ins when they come back in pieces
- PDF pull lists and calendar invites for every booking
Shelf Companion
Scan, hand over, and audit. From the phone in your pocket.
The Companion app is where the field meets the record. Point the camera at a label and the asset opens; check it out to a person, log its location, or run through a room to confirm what's there.
- Scans Shelf QR labels, plus Code 128 and DataMatrix with the barcodes add-on
- Check in, check out and assign custody on the spot
- Free with every account, on iPhone and Android
Check-in & custody
Hand gear over with a scan and know who has it, since when.
Custody
Kits
Bundle a body, lenses and batteries into one bookable unit.
Kits
Labels & barcodes
Order QR sheets, print your own, or keep the labels and scanners you already have.
Labels
One page per asset
A searchable asset database with a page for every item: history, custodian, location and a QR code.
Asset pagesFrequently asked questions
Questions we get every week.
Straight answers, fine print included.
Didn't find yours? Ask the team in chat, or search the knowledge base.
Is there a limit to how many users I can add?
Our Team and Enterprise plans allow for unlimited users. We believe asset management works best when everyone is accountable, so we don't penalize you for growing your team. The Free plan is for one person.
Compare plansCan people check gear out themselves?
Yes, and you decide who. Self-service users book equipment for themselves and check it out and back in on their own. Base users, often students or occasional borrowers, send a booking request that an admin approves and hands over. Bookings are part of the Team plan.
User roles and permissionsCan we keep the barcodes already on our equipment?
Yes. The Alternative Barcodes add-on works with Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13, DataMatrix and QR codes, so you can move over from another system without re-tagging a single item. It is a paid add-on. Shelf's own QR codes come with every asset, on every plan.
How alternative barcodes workWhat happens when a booking runs late?
It is marked overdue and turns red on the calendar, and the people on the booking get an overdue notice by email. Overdue items also show on the dashboard and in the Overdue Items report, so a late return is caught before it hits the next reservation. If the gear is simply needed longer, extend the booking's end date.
Extending a bookingCan I import my existing data?
Yes. We offer a simple CSV importer that lets you bring in thousands of assets, contacts, and locations in minutes. We provide templates to make the process seamless.
CSV import guideDo I need special hardware?
No. Shelf works with any smartphone or tablet. Our Shelf Companion app for iPhone and Android lets you scan QR codes using your phone camera, and the web app also works in any modern phone browser. You can also use standard USB scanners if you prefer.
Using external barcode scannersDo you support single sign-on (SSO)?
Yes. Single sign-on over SAML 2.0 works with Microsoft Entra, Google Workspace, Okta and other providers that support the protocol. It is a paid add-on for the Team plan, priced per person who signs in with SSO, and we set it up together with you.
See add-on pricingCan we self-host Shelf?
Yes, if your organization requires it. Self-hosting needs Docker, PostgreSQL and Supabase, and the open-source software is free under the AGPL license. Setup documentation is in the GitHub repository. One thing is licensed separately: connecting the Shelf Companion mobile app to your own server. Most teams choose Shelf Cloud and are running within the hour.
Companion app on your own serverHow does the open source part work?
Shelf is open source, meaning our code is publicly available for audit and contribution. We host the managed version (SaaS) so you don't have to worry about servers, updates, or security, but you never lose control of your data.
Open source asset managementWho uses Shelf
Built for the gear you actually manage.
A media cage, a campus, an IT closet and a job site do not run the same way. Each one has its own setup guide, and its own customers already on Shelf.
Camera & production gear
Cameras, lenses and accessories as complete kits, from the cage to the set and back.
Universities & schools
Built for higher education: cameras, laptops, AV and lab gear across departments. SSO and procurement docs for campus IT.
Equipment check-in & check-out
Replace sign-out sheets with a QR scan. Custody logs, bookings and real-time availability.
Community outreach eventsTools & job sites
Tools across trucks, crews and sites, with custody chains that hold up in the field.
$70K of equipment recoveredIT & laptops
Laptops, tablets and chargers with a custody history, for offices and hybrid teams.
Equipment reservations
Let people book gear ahead, with an availability view that stops double bookings before they happen. Bookings are on the Team plan.
Customer stories
Real teams, real numbers.
From an antique mall in Illinois to a flight program in Indiana, the teams tell it better than we can.
Video courtesy of Industrial Artifacts
Industrial ArtifactsAntique mall and auction house, DeKalb, IllinoisIf I were starting again, I'd find a dedicated IMS much sooner.
Al Ferris, Chief Growth Officer
- one-of-a-kind items tracked
- 10,000+
- one-of-a-kind items tracked
- lots pulled per auction close
- 360–400
- lots pulled per auction close
- items migrated in under two weeks
- 8,860
- items migrated in under two weeks
Purdue UniversitySchool of Aviation and Transportation TechnologyWe use Shelf as a teaching tool as much as a tracking tool. Our students are heading into an industry built on compliance, so my colleagues and I lecture on the importance of asset tracking while using Shelf to give live demonstrations of immutable asset records — where it flew, when it flew, who it was flown by, and all maintenance requests and records.
Nathan Rose, Clinical Assistant Professor
Read the story
CES Utility SolutionsUtility infrastructure$70K of equipment recovered
A lost $70,000 drone kit was recovered because someone scanned its Shelf QR label, preventing project delays.
Read storyFabel FilmVideo productionZero double bookings after moving to Shelf
“Double bookings is the reason I wanted to use Shelf. The moment I had to arrange a last-minute extra camera.”
Johannes van Beeck, Technical Director
Read storyEastern Michigan UniversityTheatre and media departmentsTheatre and media equipment, streamlined
“Shelf's platform checked all the boxes when it came to our needs.”
Dustin D. Miller, Technical Director & Production Manager
Read storyA note from our founder
Built for teams that
manage real assets.
Already trusted to track hundreds of thousands of assets — and counting.
Shelf didn't start as a grand vision.
It started as a practical solution to a very practical problem: asset management shouldn't be this hard.
Today, teams use Shelf to track hundreds of thousands of assets across studios, universities, production teams, and operations groups worldwide.
Why? Because Shelf stays focused.
It does the core job well: tracking, availability, bookings, accountability. And it avoids the bloat that slows teams down over time.
If you're done fighting your tools and ready to trust them again, Shelf is ready for you.
Ready to organize your assets?
Join thousands of teams who trust Shelf to manage their physical assets. Free forever, or try the Team plan free for 7 days.
Prefer a walkthrough first? Book a demo
Shelf Companion
Out in the field? Take Shelf with you.
Scan labels, check gear in and out, and update assets from your phone. Free with every Shelf account, on iPhone and Android.
