Chalk

Comparison

Chalk vs Reftab

A well-designed asset tracker with a real free-forever tier, self-serve signup, and no sales call — and, like the rest of its class, no help desk, no roster, and no student.

Pricing: Subscription metered per asset, with unlimited platform users on every tier and an annual-billing discount. There is a genuine free-forever tier capped at a small asset count that still includes unlimited custom fields and locations, reservations, mobile apps, barcodes, and check-in/check-out. Paid tiers add capability in layers: SSO and two-factor at the entry paid tier, signature capture and consumables above it, and the MDM, vendor, and identity-provisioning integrations only at the top tier. Software management is priced separately per tracked user. Signup is self-serve with no demo gate. The pricing FAQ raises the question of education and nonprofit discounts; we could not read the answer, so ask them directly.

What both do well

  • Both have a genuinely free path in with no trial clock — Reftab's free-forever tier, and Chalk's AGPL self-hosted build.
  • Both ingest ChromeOS from Google Workspace, and both connect to Intune and Jamf, into a single inventory.
  • Both offer SSO and two-factor without requiring an enterprise contract.
  • Reftab's native mobile apps, self-service booking portal, and connector breadth at the top tier are real advantages; Chalk has no native app and no reservation calendar.

Where Reftab is strong

  • The only genuinely free-forever tier in this comparison, and a generous one — unlimited custom fields and locations, reservations with calendars, advanced reports with export, mobile apps, and barcode check-in/check-out at no cost.
  • SSO and two-factor authentication at the lowest paid tier rather than gated to enterprise, which is unusual and district-friendly.
  • Unlimited platform users on every tier, so the bill never grows because you added staff.
  • Native iOS and Android apps with barcode scanning, plus a barcode designer and custom email templates.
  • Strong MDM breadth at the top tier — Intune, Jamf Pro and Jamf School, Kandji, Mosyle, NinjaOne, FleetDM, and Apple Business Manager — plus vendor warranty sync from Dell, CDW, Lenovo, and Apple.
  • A Google Workspace integration that imports Chromebooks and mobile devices daily, with configurable field mapping and optional auto-assignment to the Google-assigned user.

What to check before you buy Reftab

  • No native help desk or ticketing with SLAs. Jira Cloud and Zendesk connectors exist to surface assets on someone else's ticket, and they are top-tier features — so a district buys a service desk separately either way.

    Basis: Reftab's integration listing offers Jira and Zendesk plugins rather than native ticketing; no SLA capability appears in any tier.

  • No SIS or rostering integration — no OneRoster, Clever, ClassLink, or PowerSchool — and no student, guardian, or family concepts. Nothing reacts to a transfer, a withdrawal, or grade rollover.

    Basis: None appear in Reftab's integration catalog or documentation; the identity integrations are corporate directories.

  • Signature capture is staff-side custody acknowledgement, not a parent or guardian e-signature on a device agreement, and it sits behind a mid-tier upgrade.

    Basis: Reftab lists signature capture as a Pro-tier feature; no guardian entity or agreement workflow exists in the data model.

  • No student fee assessment and no family balances, so damage recovered at collection time is tracked outside the system.

    Basis: Absent from Reftab's documented feature set across all tiers.

  • No funding-source or grant tracking for ESSER, Title, or E-Rate attribution.

    Basis: No funding-source dimension appears in Reftab's documentation.

  • ChromeOS support is import only and syncs once daily. Nothing writes back, so OU moves and disabling a stolen Chromebook remain manual work in Google Admin.

    Basis: Reftab's Google Workspace integration guide documents a daily one-way import with field mapping; no write-back is described.

  • The MDM connectors that make the inventory self-maintaining — Intune, Jamf, Kandji, Mosyle, Apple Business Manager — are all top-tier features, which is a meaningful jump from the tier where SSO lives.

    Basis: Reftab's pricing page places all MDM, vendor, and IdP integrations at the Business tier.

  • It consumes SSO but is not an identity provider. Okta, Entra ID, SAML 2.0, SCIM, and LDAP are identity it reads, not identity it issues — and the IdP user-provisioning integrations are top-tier only.

    Basis: Reftab is configured as a service provider against an external IdP; provisioning integrations are listed at the Business tier.

Where Chalk pulls ahead

  • The help desk with SLAs, routing, knowledge base, CSAT, and analytics is included in Chalk at every tier, on a ticket that already knows the student, their building, and every device assigned to them — rather than a plugin that shows assets inside a service desk you bought separately.
  • Chalk syncs your SIS — PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Skyward, OneRoster 1.1, plus Clever and ClassLink import — and serves a OneRoster 1.1 API outward, so devices point at real students with a school, a grade, and an enrollment.
  • Chalk writes back to Google — OU moves, disable, deprovision, annotated fields — as a diff you preview and approve, with typed confirmation on destructive actions. Reftab's Google sync is a daily one-way import.
  • Guardian-facing e-signature on the device agreement at check-out, kept on the device record, with attestation campaigns later in the year — not staff-side signature capture as a mid-tier upgrade.
  • The rest of the 1:1 loop: due dates and overdues, loaners, lost and stolen with police report, repairs consuming parts out of stock with low-stock alerts, and fee assessment with family balances and insurance handling.
  • Purchase orders, warranty on the device, on the ticket, and in the refresh runway, and funding sources as a managed list built for ESSER and Title reporting.
  • Chalk is itself a SAML 2.0 and OIDC identity provider with a student portal and QR badges, and provisions outward to Google, AD, and Entra.

Common questions

Reftab has a free tier and imports Chromebooks. Isn't that enough for a small district?

For inventory alone, it might be, and the free tier is genuinely generous rather than a crippled demo. Two things to check against your actual job. The free tier's asset cap is small enough that a 1:1 fleet will pass it immediately, and the Google Workspace import — along with every other MDM connector — sits at the top paid tier. So the configuration that keeps a district's Chromebook inventory accurate is the most expensive one, not the free one.

Does Reftab do device agreements with parent signatures?

It has signature capture at its mid tier, which is staff-side custody acknowledgement — someone signs that they received the device. There is no guardian in the data model, so there is no parent signing a device agreement, and no way to run an attestation campaign in February asking families to confirm they still have it. Chalk captures the e-signature as part of check-out and keeps it on the device record.

Can Reftab replace our help desk?

No, and it does not claim to. There is no native ticketing and no SLA capability at any tier — the Jira and Zendesk plugins surface asset information inside a service desk you already pay for, and those plugins are top-tier features. That is a fine architecture if you are happy with your service desk. It does mean the ticket cannot know that this student has three devices and one of them is overdue, because the two systems only exchange asset records.

What does the Google integration actually do?

It imports Chromebooks and mobile devices from Google Workspace once a day, maps fields such as serial to asset ID, and can auto-assign a device to the Google-assigned user. That is genuinely useful and better than a CSV. What it does not do is push anything back, so moving a device between OUs or disabling a stolen Chromebook stays manual work in Google Admin. Chalk plans those as change sets, shows the exact diff, and commits only after you approve.

How does Reftab's pricing behave as our fleet grows?

It meters per asset with unlimited users, so a 1:1 program is priced on the number that grows with your enrollment. The tier structure matters as much as the rate: SSO and two-factor arrive at the entry paid tier, which is district-friendly, but the MDM integrations, depreciation, audit logs, and work orders are all at the top. Model the tier you would actually need rather than the one you would start on. Chalk's self-hosted build has no meter and no tiers.

Sources

Claims about Reftab above are drawn from these pages, checked when this comparison was written. If something has changed, tell us and we will correct it.

Trying Chalk beside Reftab?

Chalk installs to a populated inventory from your SIS and Google Admin in about 30 minutes. Self-host it free forever under AGPL-3.0, or let us run it — priced by fleet size, never per seat or per student.

See pricing Self-host on GitHub