Firstbase Review
Ship full remote workstations - laptops, monitors, chairs, peripherals - to employees worldwide.
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Overview
What is Firstbase?
Firstbase is a New York-headquartered platform founded in 2019 that pioneered the 'remote workstation as a service' category. Where Workwize, Deel IT, and allwhere focus on laptops, Firstbase ships entire home-office setups - laptop, monitor, ergonomic chair, desk, keyboard, mouse, lamp - 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, ready to use.
Global shipping in 60+ countries
Coverage in major markets across NA, EU, UK, Australia, parts of APAC and LATAM.
MDM enrollment
Laptops enroll into your MDM (Jamf, Intune, Kandji) before dispatch - less deep than IT-first platforms but sufficient for most teams.
Retrieval & refurbishment
Offboarded equipment returns to regional warehouses for refurbishment and redeployment - turns expensive ergonomic gear into reusable fleet.
Self-serve employee catalog
Branded employee portal where new hires pick from curated options within an admin-set budget - removes IT from the gear-request flow.
HRIS integrations
Connects to Rippling, Workday, BambooHR, and others so equipment orders fire automatically when a new hire is created.
Sustainability and refurbishment
Refurbished options across the catalog and detailed ESG reporting on circularity for B Corp and tender requirements.
Pricing
How Firstbase pricing works
Firstbase is quote-only with two pricing components: a per-employee platform fee plus the cost of the equipment selected from the catalog. Here's the typical 2026 structure.
Laptop + basic peripherals program
- Laptop catalog (Apple, Lenovo, Dell, HP)
- Standard peripherals (keyboard, mouse, headset)
- MDM enrollment
- Email support
- Self-serve employee portal
Complete home-office equipment with white-glove delivery
- Everything in Essentials
- Monitors, chairs, desks, ergonomics
- White-glove delivery in major markets
- Retrieval & refurbishment
- HRIS integration
- Priority support and CSM
Custom catalogs, SLAs, ESG reporting
- Everything in Workstation
- Custom catalog and budget tiers
- Detailed ESG reporting
- Dedicated CSM and QBRs
- SSO, SCIM, custom RBAC
- Custom delivery SLAs
What you'll actually pay: Most buyers see fully-loaded costs of $50 - $120 per employee per month for a complete home-office program (laptop + chair + monitor + peripherals + lifecycle), with the high end driven by premium ergonomic furniture. For laptop-only programs, Workwize and Fleet are typically cheaper.
The trade-offs
Pros & cons
What we like
- Broadest non-laptop catalog in the category - chairs, desks, ergonomic gear
- White-glove delivery is genuine premium experience for new hires
- Strong remote-first brand resonates with talent in employee-experience-driven cultures
- Refurbishment and redeployment turn expensive ergonomic gear into reusable fleet
- Self-serve employee portal with admin-set budgets prevents gear sprawl
- Strong ESG reporting for B Corp and sustainability-conscious organizations
What to watch out for
- Premium pricing - laptop-only programs are cheaper on Workwize or Fleet
- IT/MDM capabilities less deep than Workwize, Deel IT, or allwhere
- Geographic coverage (60+ countries) narrower than Deel IT's 130+
- Some peripherals catalog gaps in non-major markets - country-by-country variability
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 a real per-employee home-office budget ($2K-$5K).
Employee-experience-driven companies
Talent-focused organizations where new-hire experience and ergonomic quality are competitive differentiators.
Sustainability-conscious buyers
B Corps and ESG-reporting companies needing circular-economy and refurbishment data.
Companies with home-office stipends
Already spend $1,500-$3,000 per employee on home-office gear and want a curated, retrievable program instead of expense reimbursements.
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 equipment catalog. Pick for laptop-focused programs.
Read review →Deel IT (Hofy)
Wider country coverage and HR integration. Better for global laptop programs tied to Deel HR/EOR.
Read review →allwhere
US-led laptop platform with integrated ITAM. Cheaper for laptop-only programs without furniture.
Read review →Fleet
Transparent subscription pricing focused on laptops + accessories. Lower total cost if you don't need furniture.
Read review →Common questions
Firstbase FAQ
Only if you actually fund home-office gear beyond the laptop. For a laptop + accessories program, 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 the unified curation/retrieval workflow vs reimbursement chaos.
Quote-only. Most buyers see fully-loaded costs of $50-$120 per employee per month for a complete home-office program - laptop + chair + monitor + peripherals + lifecycle services. The high end is premium ergonomic furniture. Laptop-only programs are typically $25-$50/month, but you can get that cheaper from Workwize or Fleet.
Yes - Firstbase covers 60+ countries with strong presence in NA, UK, EU, Australia, and select APAC and LATAM markets. Country-by-country, the peripherals and furniture catalog varies; laptops are widely available, ergonomic furniture is fully stocked in major markets and less in smaller ones. For emerging-markets-heavy teams, GroWrk or Deel IT are usually a better fit.
Firstbase coordinates white-glove pickup of furniture-class items in major markets, refurbishes them, and re-deploys to the next new hire. Smaller peripherals follow the laptop retrieval flow - prepaid return label, regional warehouse, refurbishment, and redeployment. This is the main argument against expense-reimbursing home-office gear: you actually get the chairs back.
A $2,000 home-office stipend typically yields uneven gear, no retrievable inventory, and chaos at offboarding. Firstbase replaces that with curated quality, retrieval at exit, and per-employee unit economics IT and finance can actually report on. The break-even vs stipends is usually around 50 employees - below that, stipends are simpler; above that, Firstbase pays for itself in retrieved gear and consistent experience.
Yes for the basics - laptops enroll into Jamf, Intune, Kandji, or Mosyle before shipment for zero-touch onboarding. For deep MDM customization, security integrations, or compliance-evidence workflows, IT-first platforms (Workwize, Deel IT) go further. Many large customers actually use Firstbase for the furniture component and a separate platform for laptops + MDM.
Bottom line
Our verdict on Firstbase
The category leader for full home-office programs - pricier than alternatives, but worth it if you fund the chair too
Firstbase is the 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 per-employee unit economics.