Shelf is built for fast check-out and booking. Cheqroom goes further, reservations, checkout, and maintenance, connected in one system, from the day equipment goes out to the day it needs service.
TL;DR: The Quick Answer
Cheqroom is the Asset Operations Platform: reservations, checkout, and maintenance in one connected system, with digital signatures and deep integrations built in. Shelf is fast and open source, strong on quick check out and custody, but has no maintenance scheduling and no digital signatures today. If your equipment needs service tracking, not just circulation, Cheqroom is built for that.
Shelf is built for the circulation loop: scan, check out, book, return. Cheqroom covers what happens next too, native Work Orders track service history and repairs on the same asset record, so nothing needs a second system.
Cheqroom's pricing depends on the workflows and features your team needs, not on how many people are using them. There's no limit on regular users, ever, so your whole team can use the equipment they need without extra cost as you grow.
Asset Operations brings order to equipment powered work. It coordinates physical assets, people, spaces, and maintenance in real time, so teams always know what's available, what's ready, who has it, what's next, and what needs attention. This is how Cheqroom works for you from day one: everything connected, so you always know what you need to know, exactly when you need to know it.
Cheqroom isn't a tool. It's infrastructure. We help teams:
Whether you're running a TV studio, a film school, a sports team, or the entire organization, Cheqroom gives you full visibility and zero surprises.
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Work Orders live right alongside your reservations, so maintenance never falls through the cracks between one checkout and the next.
Every checkout leaves a signed, dated record, attached to the item. Nothing leaves, returns, or goes out for service without accountability built in.
Self-service reservations put booking directly in your team's hands. Redirect the time spent on manual tracking to the work that actually matters.
"Having a system like Cheqroom, it really gives me the confidence that all of our assets are safe. I can't even count the hours that I've saved using Cheqroom."
Shelf is a lightweight tool built on open source code with basic asset tracking capabilities. Cheqroom is a professional grade SaaS platform designed for equipment availability, reservations, and operational control in complex environments.
Yes. Shelf relies heavily on an open-source foundation, which can introduce risk around stability, support, and security. You may be responsible for troubleshooting or even maintaining parts of the stack. Cheqroom, by contrast, is fully managed, secure, and built for enterprise use.
Shelf’s interface borrows heavily from Cheqroom’s UX, even how we call our features, but lacks the underlying availability logic, booking workflows, and scalability that make Cheqroom powerful. Design similarity doesn’t mean feature parity.
Absolutely. Cheqroom is built for multi-location, multi-team operations, with location-based asset control, access rights, and centralized reporting.
Not hard at all. We’ll help you import your data, set up your rooms and users, and train your team. Most customers are fully operational within weeks.
Yes. You get onboarding, dedicated support, and access to experts who understand AV, broadcast, education, and live events, not just general asset tracking.
No, you can have as many regular users as you need. This model is designed to empower your entire team to use the equipment they need without extra costs.
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