Firstbase Review
Full home-office shipping - laptops, monitors, chairs, peripherals - to employees worldwide.
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Overview
What is Firstbase?
Firstbase pioneered the 'remote workstation as a service' category in 2019, shipping not just laptops but entire home-office setups - laptop, monitor, ergonomic chair, desk, peripherals - directly to employees with white-glove delivery in major markets.
Capabilities
Key features, in detail
What you actually get when you turn Firstbase on for a distributed team.
Full home-office catalog
Laptops, monitors, ergonomic chairs, sit-stand desks, keyboards, mice, lamps, headsets - broader than any laptop-only platform.
White-glove delivery
Furniture-class items get white-glove assembly delivery in major markets - chairs arrive built, monitors set up.
60+ country shipping
Coverage in major NA, EU, UK, Australia markets and parts of APAC and LATAM.
MDM enrollment
Laptops enroll into Jamf, Intune, Kandji before dispatch for zero-touch onboarding.
Retrieval & refurbishment
Offboarded equipment (including furniture) returns to regional warehouses for refurbishment and redeployment.
Self-serve employee catalog
Branded portal where new hires pick within admin-set budgets - removes IT from gear-request flow.
HRIS integrations
Rippling, Workday, BambooHR connectors fire equipment orders automatically.
Sustainability reporting
Refurbished options across catalog and detailed ESG reporting for B Corp and tender requirements.
Pricing
How Firstbase pricing works
Firstbase is quote-only with two pricing components: per-employee platform fee plus equipment cost from the catalog.
Laptop + basic peripherals
- Laptop catalog
- Standard peripherals
- MDM enrollment
- Email support
- Self-serve portal
Full home-office program
- Everything in Starter
- Monitors, chairs, desks added
- White-glove delivery
- Retrieval + refurbishment
- HRIS integration
- Priority support
Custom catalog with ESG reporting
- Everything above
- Custom catalog
- Detailed ESG reporting
- Dedicated CSM
- SSO/SCIM/RBAC
- Custom delivery SLAs
What you'll actually pay: Full home-office programs typically land $50-$120 per employee per month including laptop + chair + monitor + peripherals + lifecycle. Laptop-only programs cost $25-$50, but you can get that cheaper from Workwize or Fleet - Firstbase's premium is for the furniture and white-glove experience.
The trade-offs
Pros & cons
What we like
- Broadest non-laptop catalog in the category
- White-glove delivery is genuine premium experience for new hires
- Strong remote-first brand resonates with employee-experience-focused cultures
- Refurbishment turns expensive ergonomic gear into reusable fleet
- Self-serve portal with admin-set budgets prevents gear sprawl
- Strong ESG reporting for B Corp / sustainability requirements
What to watch out for
- Premium pricing - laptop-only programs cheaper on Workwize or Fleet
- IT/MDM capabilities less deep than Workwize, Deel IT, allwhere
- Country coverage (60+) narrower than incumbents
- Furniture catalog gaps in non-major markets
Ideal Customer Profile
Who is Firstbase best for?
The teams that get the most ROI from Firstbase tend to share these characteristics.
Remote-first scaleups
Series B-D companies with explicit remote-first culture and per-employee home-office budgets ($2K-$5K).
Employee-experience companies
Talent-focused organisations where new-hire experience is a competitive differentiator.
Sustainability-conscious buyers
B Corps and ESG-reporting companies needing circular-economy data.
Companies with home-office stipends
Already spend $1,500-$3,000 per employee on home-office gear and want a curated program.
If not Firstbase
Top alternatives to consider
Firstbase sits in a competitive category. These are the platforms most often evaluated alongside it.
Workwize
Better IT/MDM depth, less broad catalog. Pick for laptop-focused programs.
Read review →Deel IT Logistics
Wider country coverage. Better for global laptop programs tied to Deel HR.
Review coming soonallwhere
US-led with integrated ITAM. Cheaper for laptop-only programs without furniture.
Read review →GroWrk
Better emerging-markets depth. Pick for non-Western hiring concentration.
Read review →Common questions
Firstbase FAQ
Only if you actually fund home-office gear beyond the laptop. For laptop + accessories programs, Workwize, allwhere, or Fleet typically cost 30-50% less. Firstbase earns its premium when your equipment budget covers chairs, monitors, sit-stand desks, and you value unified curation/retrieval vs reimbursement chaos.
Quote-only. Most buyers see $50-$120 per employee per month for complete home-office programs - laptop + chair + monitor + peripherals + lifecycle. Laptop-only is $25-$50 but cheaper on dedicated laptop platforms.
Yes - 60+ countries with strong NA, UK, EU, Australia, select APAC and LATAM presence. Country-by-country, peripherals/furniture catalog varies; laptops widely available, ergonomic furniture fully stocked in major markets, less in smaller ones.
Firstbase coordinates white-glove pickup in major markets, refurbishes, and re-deploys to next hires. Smaller peripherals follow the laptop retrieval flow - prepaid return label, regional warehouse, refurbishment, redeployment.
A $2,000 stipend yields uneven gear, no retrievable inventory, chaos at offboarding. Firstbase replaces that with curated quality, retrieval at exit, and per-employee unit economics. Break-even vs stipends is usually 50 employees.
Yes for the basics - laptops enroll into Jamf, Intune, Kandji, Mosyle before shipment. For deep MDM customization, security integrations, or compliance-evidence workflows, IT-first platforms (Workwize, Deel IT) go further.
Bottom line
Our verdict on Firstbase
The category leader for full home-office programs
Firstbase is the logistics platform we recommend most often to remote-first scaleups whose equipment program covers laptops AND home-office furniture. The curated catalog, white-glove delivery, and retrieval workflow turn an expense-reimbursement mess into a managed program with real ergonomics and unit economics.