Asset management software free of charge exists in three forms: a free tier of a paid product capped by asset count or by user, an open-source register the organisation hosts itself, and a spreadsheet template. Each is a real option for a small organisation, and each stops at the same place: the list. The history behind the list, the count against it, the depreciation run each period and the register printed under your own name are where the paid product starts, and on this site that is Depreo Pro at $49 a month for the whole organisation. This page sets out honestly what the free forms keep, what they do not, and how to decide from your own register rather than from a feature grid.
The free tier of a paid product: the list, capped
Most asset management products offer a free tier: a limited number of assets, one user, the basic fields, sometimes a barcode label. For an organisation with fifty items and one person keeping the register, the free tier can be the whole product for a year. What it usually withholds is what the register needs on the day it is checked: the history of holders, the count results, the depreciation schedule, the export under your own name and a second user. The cap is the vendor's bet that the register will grow; the decision is whether yours will.
Open-source registers: free to license, not free to run
An open-source IT asset register hosted by the organisation costs nothing to license and something to run: a server or a hosting plan, updates, backups and the person who does them. For an organisation with an IT manager who wants the register under their own control, that is a fair trade and the products are capable. For an office manager with no server, the running cost is the reason the spreadsheet comes back. CIS Control 1 asks for the inventory, not for any particular software; the question is which form the organisation will actually maintain.
The spreadsheet: free, and the reason this site exists
A spreadsheet template holds every field a register needs and none of the behaviour: no history when a cell is overwritten, no count that lists what was not scanned, no depreciation that runs each period without being rebuilt, no export that does not look like a spreadsheet. It is the free asset management software most small organisations already use, and the free worksheets on this site, the fixed asset register line, the IT inventory and the discovery coverage, are the arithmetic a spreadsheet keeper does by hand, worked on the page with no account.
Where the paid register starts, and how to decide
The paid register keeps what the free forms drop: every change with a date and a person, the count with what was not found, the depreciation run each period, the schedule and the inventory printed under your own name, and more than one person in the same register. Decide from your own register: if a spreadsheet has never lost a holder, missed a disposal or been rebuilt in January, the free form is enough. If it has, the $49 a month is the price of not doing that again, and the price is the same on the pricing page and at checkout.
Questions people ask about asset management software free
Is there genuinely free asset management software?
Yes: free tiers capped by asset count or user, open-source registers you host yourself, and spreadsheet templates. Each keeps the list; none keeps the history, the count and the depreciation the way a paid register does.
What does IT asset management software free tiers usually cap?
The number of assets, the number of users, and the reports. History, depreciation, custom fields and export are the features most often held back for the paid plan.
What do the free worksheets on this site do?
They work the arithmetic a register keeper needs without an account: one register line's depreciation and book value, the IT estate's replacement value and reserve, and a discovery pass's coverage. Keeping the results is the paid plan.
How much is Depreo Pro?
$49 a month for the whole organisation, billed monthly, cancel from your account page, and your register exports at any time. The same figure appears on the pricing page and before checkout.