Award-Winning IT Asset Management Software for 1,000+ Companies
Reftab vs. BlueTally
BlueTally alternative: IT asset management that just works. Trusted by 1,000+ teams since 2013, Reftab tracks hardware and software assets, equipment, maintenance management, and IT spend in one platform.
Note: Comparison reviewed August 2026
Powering smarter IT asset management for teams worldwide
Which asset management tool is right for your team?
BlueTally is a strong choice for teams primarily looking for structured IT hardware inventory with unlimited asset pricing. Reftab is better suited for teams that need hardware and software asset management together with workflows, maintenance, audits, requests, reservations, and native mobile tools.
Choose Reftab if:
You need asset management to support more than just inventory.
- Onboarding and offboarding tasks and alerts
- Physical audits with reconciliation
- Maintenance and preventive maintenance
- Software discovery, usage, and access reviews
- Workflow automation and native mobile tools
- Requests, reservations, and booking workflows
Choose BlueTally if:
You primarily need a structured IT hardware inventory.
- Dedicated suppliers and departments
- Employee-to-location relationships
- More built-in fields for standard IT asset data
- Product-level defaults and EOL rules
- Granular permissions across inventory types
- Flat-rate pricing with unlimited assets and users
Reftab vs. BlueTally: Detailed Feature Comparison
The table below reflects verified features from each vendor's own documentation and current product listings.
How we compared: This comparison is published by Reftab. We tested BlueTally hands-on and verified feature and pricing information against BlueTally's public documentation. Last reviewed August 2026.
| Capability |
RECOMMENDED 
|
| What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware asset tracking | yes | yes | Core capability of both |
| Check-in / checkout | yes | yes | Both maintain custody history |
| Checkout to people | yes | yes | Both maintain custody history |
| Checkout to locations | Location tracking only | yes | BlueTally advantage. Reftab can track and report that an asset is stored at a location, but it does not treat the location as the asset's custodian. BlueTally can formally check out an asset to a location. |
| Digital checkout signatures | yes | yes | Both support confirmation/signature workflows |
| Native employee location | Workflow/custom field | yes | BlueTally advantage out of the box |
| Departments | Customizable | Built-in | BlueTally advantage for conventional IT structures |
| Suppliers | Supported | Dedicated supplier records | BlueTally has stronger dedicated supplier organization |
| Products/models | Categories + fields | Dedicated Product layer | BlueTally provides more model-level configuration; Reftab has a simpler data model |
| Asset lifecycle management | yes - stronger overall | yes | Reftab advantage. Both platforms track purchase dates, warranty data, depreciation, and end-of-life information. Reftab goes further by supporting onboarding and offboarding tasks, workflow automation, email alerts, maintenance processes, and other operational steps across the full asset lifecycle. BlueTally provides a more built-in and opinionated setup for standard lifecycle fields and policies. |
| Warranty tracking | yes | yes | Both include Dell/Lenovo warranty automation |
| Depreciation | yes | yes | Both support depreciation |
| Custom fields | yes | yes | Both highly customizable |
| Calculated/expression fields | yes | No equivalent found | Reftab can derive values automatically |
| Geolocation field | yes | No equivalent found | Useful for field equipment |
| Barcode / QR tags | yes | yes | Both support customizable tags |
| Native iOS/Android app | yes | No; responsive web app | Reftab advantage for field workflows (with Reftab's offline mode coming Fall 2026) |
| Custom dashboards | yes | yes | BlueTally has multiple customizable dashboards and widgets |
| Custom reports | yes | yes | Both offer filtering/export |
| Scheduled reports | yes | yes | Both offer scheduled reports |
| Asset audit scheduling | yes | yes | Both support recurring verification |
| Onboarding & offboarding | Custom tasks, workflows, asset actions & email alerts | Asset-focused onboarding & offboarding | Both help manage employee equipment transitions. Reftab goes further with customizable onboarding/offboarding tasks, assignments, automated actions and email alerts, while BlueTally focuses primarily on issuing equipment to new hires and recovering assigned equipment from departing employees. |
| Onboarding/offboarding task workflows | yes | No equivalent task workflow found | Reftab advantage. Reftab can create and assign custom tasks, trigger actions and send email notifications as part of an onboarding or offboarding process—not just track which assets need to be issued or returned. |
| Employee self-audits | Custody verification | yes | Comparable concept |
| Physical audit reconciliation | yes | Pass/fail model | Reftab advantage for inventory audits |
| Maintenance records | yes | yes | Both store maintenance history |
| Custom maintenance work orders | yes | Basic maintenance records | Reftab advantage |
| Preventive maintenance schedules | yes | Limited/basic | Reftab advantage |
| Maintenance task forms | yes | No equivalent found | Reftab supports structured technician work |
| Maintenance email reminders | yes | No maintenance notification type found | Reftab advantage |
| Tool rental rates | yes | No native rental-rate feature found | Reftab advantage |
| Accessories | yes | yes | Both quantity-track accessories |
| Components | Via accessories | Dedicated Components type | BlueTally gives components their own classification |
| Consumables | yes | yes | Both track quantities |
| Custom consumable transactions | yes | Basic quantity movement | Reftab preserves why inventory changed |
| Transfer accessory stock between locations | yes | No equivalent true stock-transfer workflow found | Reftab advantage |
| Kits/templates | yes | yes | Both bundle equipment |
| Persistent/locked kits | yes | No equivalent | Reftab can treat items as a persistent kit |
| Licenses in kits | No | Yes | BlueTally advantage |
| SaaS discovery | yes | No equivalent found | Reftab advantage |
| Installed software discovery | yes | No equivalent found | Reftab advantage |
| Software usage analytics | yes | No equivalent found | Reftab advantage |
| Software surveys | yes | No equivalent found | Reftab advantage |
| Software access reviews | yes | No equivalent found | Reftab advantage |
| CVE/software vulnerability visibility | yes | No equivalent found | Reftab advantage |
| Reservations | yes | No dedicated reservation system found | Reftab advantage |
| Booking portal | yes | No equivalent found | Reftab advantage |
| Workflow automation | yes | Limited event automation/API/webhooks | Reftab has user-configurable operational workflows |
| MDM integrations | Broad | Intune, Autopilot, Jamf, Iru | Both strong; Reftab has broader coverage |
| Identity/SCIM | yes | yes | Comparable |
| Slack / Teams | yes | yes | Comparable |
| Jira | yes | yes | Comparable |
| REST API | yes | yes | Comparable |
| Webhooks | yes | yes | Comparable |
| Fine-grained permissions | yes | yes | BlueTally is currently more granular for some non-asset inventory types |
| Multi-tenancy | yes | yes | Both support multi-tenancy |
| SOC 2 Type II | yes | yes | Comparable |
| Free tier | 50 assets | 50 assets | Comparable |
| Paid pricing model | Asset-based | Unlimited assets/users | BlueTally can be attractive for very large, simple inventories |
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Asset organization and setup
BlueTally provides a Product layer beneath Categories, which can be useful for grouping specific models of equipment. However, during our testing, the relationship between Categories, Products, custom fields, and individual assets could become difficult to follow, particularly when reorganizing existing inventory.
Reftab takes a more straightforward approach. Categories define the fields used by assets, while locations can be organized independently into nested hierarchies. This makes the overall structure easier to visualize, configure, and change over time.
Bottom line: BlueTally offers more built-in structure, while Reftab prioritizes simpler setup and administration.
Asset lifecycle management comparison
Both Reftab and BlueTally can track the core stages of an asset’s lifecycle, including purchase information, warranty expiration, depreciation, and end-of-life dates.
During our testing, BlueTally’s built-in end-of-life settings stood out. You can define fixed dates or calculate EOL from purchase or warranty expiration dates, which makes standard hardware refresh schedules straightforward to configure.
Reftab supports the same type of lifecycle tracking, but adds more automation around what happens next. Teams can trigger workflows, send email alerts, create onboarding and offboarding tasks, schedule maintenance, and automate actions as assets move through different lifecycle stages.
Bottom line: BlueTally makes standard EOL planning easy to set up, while Reftab provides more ways to automate and manage the full asset lifecycle.
Software asset management and license tracking
Both Reftab and BlueTally can track software licenses, including seat counts, assigned users or devices, purchase information, expiration dates, and renewals.
During our testing, BlueTally worked well for traditional license tracking. Administrators can maintain software records, assign seats, and track renewals, but the process is largely manual.
Reftab goes further by connecting directly with software and identity platforms to automatically discover applications and keep assignments up to date. Integrations with Microsoft 365, Adobe, Okta, and Microsoft Entra can help identify who has access to which applications, while Claude and OpenAI integrations can provide visibility into AI software usage.
Reftab also tracks installed software, usage, spend, renewals, access reviews, software surveys, and vulnerability data.
Bottom line: BlueTally is strong for maintaining a software license inventory, while Reftab is better suited for continuously discovering, syncing, and managing software usage and access across the organization.
One ITAM platform for hardware and software
Reftab is built to manage assets across both hardware and software, with core license tracking included alongside traditional ITAM. As your needs grow, you can use the same platform for software discovery, usage tracking, access reviews, spend management, and other capabilities typically found in dedicated SAM tools.
Requests, approvals, and procurement workflows
BlueTally is primarily focused on managing inventory once it exists. It does not provide a comparable system for employees to submit equipment requests and route them through customizable approval workflows.
Reftab can manage the process before an asset is ever assigned. Users can request hardware or software through custom request portals, route requests to the appropriate approvers, track fulfillment and procurement, and automate emails and other actions throughout the process.
Bottom line: Reftab is better suited for teams that need to manage not just what they own, but also how equipment and software are requested, approved, purchased, and ultimately issued.
Built and refined since 2013
Reftab has been building asset management software since 2013. More than a decade of real-world use has helped us work through the less obvious edge cases that come with managing assets at scale, while we continue adding new integrations, automations, and functionality.
Reftab vs. BlueTally pricing
More functionality doesn’t have to mean a higher price.
BlueTally’s unlimited asset and user pricing can be appealing, especially for organizations with large inventories. However, asset count is only one part of scalability. Larger organizations often need deeper permissions, workflows, integrations, maintenance processes, software management, audits, and automation as their environment becomes more complex.
Reftab scales pricing with the number of assets you manage while providing the broader ITAM functionality needed to support both smaller teams and large, complex deployments.
BlueTally Business is currently $499/month when billed annually, or $5,988 per year, to access features such as MDM integrations, SCIM, and SSO. Reftab lets organizations start at a lower asset tier and scale the same platform as their inventory grows.
Pricing example: 250 assets
| Reftab Business | BlueTally Business | |
|---|---|---|
| 250 assets | Included | Unlimited |
| Platform users | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Annual price | $1,500/year | $5,988/year |
| SSO | yes | yes |
| MDM Integrations | yes | yes |
| Jira | yes | yes |
| Zendesk | yes | no |
| Maintenance management | Advanced | Basic |
| Requests & reservations | yes | no |
| Workflow automation | yes | no |
| Native mobile apps | yes | no |
| Basic software/license tracking | yes | yes |
BlueTally Business is currently $499/month billed annually, which works out to $5,988/year. Its major advantage is that this includes unlimited assets and users.
Reftab Business starts at $125/month billed annually, or $1,500/year, for organizations managing up to 250 assets. Pricing scales with the number of assets you manage, so the same platform can support inventories ranging from a few hundred assets to very large deployments.
Recognized by industry leaders
Built for IT asset management
Get started the same day
Connect your MDM platforms. Import existing asset data via CSV. Sync your directory through SCIM. Start tracking hardware and software immediately.
A mobile app built for how IT actually works
IT doesn't always happen at a desk. Reftab's native iOS and Android app lets your team scan barcodes, pull up asset records, and update assignments on the spot.
Shadow IT: catching what your IdP misses
See what you're paying for, who's using it, and when it renews. Reftab tracks SaaS subscriptions and installed applications so you're not surprised by auto-renewals or paying for seats nobody uses.
Plan replacements before hardware fails
See which assets are nearing end-of-life. Forecast what needs replacing next quarter. Stay ahead of warranty expirations. Budget reviews won’t catch you off guard because you know exactly what's aging out and when it needs replacement.
Know who has what without asking around
Assign laptops and equipment to specific people. Set expected return dates. Reftab sends automated reminders when gear is overdue. Run periodic ownership checks to confirm everyone still has their assigned assets and they're functional.
See where your IT budget goes
Every purchase gets logged with cost, location, and department. Pull spend reports by team, office, or asset category. When finance asks how much was spent on monitors last year or audit season arrives, you have the data ready.
Real teams. Real results.
Reach out to our support team whenever you need help. Reftab handles updates, troubleshooting, and guidance whenever you need it.
“I really believe that this service should be as well known as the most popular solutions, and it really deserves to be.”
“Reftab is just what I needed to help us track our equipment as we regularly check things in and out to students. Each of the different instructors can know exactly where the equipment is as well.”
“Reftab is a plug and play option for companies wanting more control over their asset management. It was simple to understand and onboard our team. I highly recommend the trial option for anyone who wants to try out this option. It's very intuitive.”
“My overall experience with Reftab has been outstanding. It is simple to use and offers a mobile app, which makes asset management even more convenient. The barcode scanning feature is a game-changer, allowing for quick and accurate tracking of equipment.”
“Excellent customer service. Queries are answered very quickly.”
“Reftab was simple to configure and even easier to manage. Our business enjoys the peace of mind knowing we are in control of the cost as we grow in users.”
“Great software that does what we need a service. The support is great. Things are sorted very quickly when there has been issues.”
“My overall experience has been great. We have used other systems in the past and they clashed with our systems or became over complicated to update. I feel confident that Reftab have got this covered. Recently I had an issue that was resolved very quickly and professionally.”
“Every time I have had a question, or issue trying to do accomplish something with the software, the help has been very prompt, and helpful.”
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STEP 1
Enter Email
STEP 2
Get Quote & Demo
STEP 3
Start Tracking Assets
Get all your IT Assets tracked in under an hour.
Connect once, track everything automatically
Unlike other asset management tools, Reftab offers direct integrations with the platforms you already use. Connect to Jamf, Intune, Iru, Apple, and more and within a couple hours, Reftab automatically shows you who's using what across your entire organization.
Direct Integrations
Not just API access, Reftab offers built-in, native connections.
1-Day Setup Guarantee
Reftab can be fully operational within a single day.
Smart Automation
Automatically shows who's using what across your organization.
Start tracking your assets in minutes. Free forever
Security you can trust
We understand the importance of keeping your company’s data secure.
Frequently asked questions
Most teams comparing Reftab and BlueTally ask the same questions.
Import a CSV of your existing data, or connect your MDM and let Reftab pull everything in. Most teams are live within a day.
Reftab is built to work with the tools your team already uses. IT connects their MDM. Facilities sets up maintenance schedules. Warehouse managers configure stock alerts. Operations books equipment reservations. Each department uses what they need. Admins see everything in one place.
Yes. Both Reftab and BlueTally state that they are SOC 2 Type II certified. Security certification is therefore unlikely to be a major differentiator between the two platforms.
Move to a paid plan when you're ready. Transparent pricing. No sales pressure. Flexible options to fit your needs and scale with your organization.
BlueTally is primarily focused on structured IT inventory and traditional asset tracking. Reftab goes further by combining hardware and software asset management with workflows for requests, approvals, reservations, maintenance, audits, onboarding and offboarding, and broader automation—all in one platform.
BlueTally does not currently offer a dedicated native iOS or Android app; its web application is mobile-friendly and can be used from a phone or tablet. Reftab offers dedicated mobile apps designed for asset scanning, audits, check-in/check-out, maintenance, requests, and other field workflows.
BlueTally does not currently list a native Zendesk integration. Reftab offers a native Zendesk integration, making it easier to connect asset data directly with help desk and support workflows.
BlueTally is well suited for basic software license tracking, including seats, assignments, renewals, and product keys. Reftab is the stronger choice for broader software asset management, with automated application discovery, installed software, usage tracking, spend management, access reviews, surveys, and software integrations—all alongside hardware asset management.
BlueTally uses flat-rate pricing with unlimited assets and users, which can be attractive for very large inventories. Reftab pricing scales with the number of assets you manage, so smaller and mid-sized teams can often access a broader set of ITAM features at a significantly lower annual cost.
Start tracking your assets in minutes. Free forever.
50 assets free forever with unlimited inventory & software tracking. Includes email alerts, mobile apps, reports, custom asset tags and more.
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