United Kingdom · Comparison · Last reviewed 2026-05-25
YardGuild vs Rentman
Rentman is the AV/events workhorse — crew scheduling, transport routing, RFID kit tracking, the lot. We're the small plant/tool/party hire alternative: flat GBP, no per-user fee, no module-by-module quoting, no consultant required to install.
Who Rentman is
Dutch-built rental SaaS since 2014, AV / live-events / broadcast / theatre focus. Strong UK presence in event rental shops, AV production houses, and stage-equipment outfits. Pricing is per-user in EUR (Lite €99, Classic €159, Pro €249 per user/month) with extra-cost modules for crew, transport, finance integration.
When Rentman is the right pick
UK AV rental shops, event-production companies running crew + transport + equipment together, broadcast and stage-equipment specialists. Anyone who needs the crew scheduling depth (call sheets, day rates, role-based availability) and the transport routing module — Rentman is built for exactly that workflow and we're not.
When you'll probably prefer YardGuild
General plant or tool hire yards. Party/marquee hire operators who don't run crew. Anyone running 1-3 depots whose monthly bill will be wrecked by per-user pricing. Anyone billing in GBP who doesn't want a EUR FX line on the subscription. Anyone who wants to be live in days, not a 4-6 week consultant-led onboarding.
The real cost math
Headline pricing is misleading when the headline doesn't include what you actually need. Here's what a 3-yard operator with two staff actually pays.
Rentman fully loaded
- Rentman Classic tier
- EUR €159/user/month (~GBP £135/user)
- Three users (owner + counter + yardhand) — typical UK plant yard
- EUR €477/mo (~GBP £405)
- Transport / routing module (if you need it)
- +EUR €99/mo (~GBP £84)
- Finance / accounting integration module
- +EUR €49/mo (~GBP £42)
- FX spread on EUR → GBP card payment
- ~2-3%
- Onboarding (typically 4-6 weeks with a consultant)
- Quoted separately
- Total
- ~GBP £450-550/mo loaded, plus one-time onboarding
YardGuild Multi-yard
GBP £179/mo (flat, no FX, no onboarding fee)
Includes
- ✓GBP-native billing — no EUR FX line
- ✓Unlimited staff users — 3, 5, 15, same price
- ✓Up to 3 depots included, unlimited on Pro
- ✓Daily due-back SMS to manager included (no Twilio + Zapier glue)
- ✓Tablet waiver kiosk with UK CRA 2015-aware template
- ✓HMRC-compliant VAT invoice format
- ✓Owner mobile PWA — barcode scan, condition photos
- ✓Structured bond records (method, ID sighted, photos, audit trail)
- ✓Live in days — self-serve onboarding, starter inventory in one click
Feature by feature
| Feature | YardGuild | Rentman | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-user pricing | Flat — unlimited users | Per-user from €99-€249/month | YardGuild |
| Cost at 3 users | GBP £179/mo (Multi-yard) | ~GBP £405/mo (Classic, before modules) | YardGuild |
| Cost at 5 users | GBP £179/mo | ~GBP £675/mo | YardGuild |
| Billing currency for UK shops | GBP | EUR (FX on every invoice) | YardGuild |
| UK VAT invoice format (HMRC) | Built-in | Generic — manual format work | YardGuild |
| AV/events workflow depth (crew, call sheets, transport routing) | Generic — works for AV but not specialised | Specialised — built for AV/events from day one | Competitor |
| RFID kit tracking | Barcode-only (PWA + BarcodeDetector) | RFID supported with hardware integration | Competitor |
| General plant / tool hire fit | Built for plant, tool, party, ski from day one | AV-oriented — plant categories don't map cleanly | YardGuild |
| Onboarding | Self-serve, days | Consultant-led, 4-6 weeks typical | YardGuild |
| Time in market | New (2026) | Since 2014 | Competitor |
| Free trial | 30 days, no credit card | 30 days | Tie |
| Payment processing for renter charges | We don't — you keep your till / card terminal / PayPal / Stripe. We log the records. | Integrates with several processors (Stripe, Adyen) — extra module | — |
Questions you might be asking
- Rentman is the AV/events standard. Why look at YardGuild?
- If you're running an AV shop with crew scheduling, transport routing, and stage gear, you shouldn't — Rentman is built for that workflow with years of depth and we're not. The reason to look at us is if you're a general plant or tool hire yard, a party/marquee operator, or a ski hire shop that ended up on Rentman because someone recommended it, and you're paying GBP £400+/month for features you don't use. Our Multi-yard at £179 covers what you actually do.
- Rentman starts at €99/user. Cheaper for me?
- Cheaper if you're the only user on Lite tier. Once you add a counter person and a yardhand (so three users at Classic, which is what a real UK depot needs), Rentman is around GBP £405/month before any modules — and most operators end up on at least one (transport routing, finance integration). Add in the EUR-to-GBP FX spread on the subscription and the consultant-led onboarding, and a comparable Multi-yard setup is £450-£550/month vs our flat £179.
- Do you have crew scheduling like Rentman?
- No, not at Rentman's depth. We have staff users (unlimited on Counter+ tier) and we track who checked a contract in/out, but we don't do call sheets, day rates by role, or crew availability calendars. That's a real workflow gap if your business is AV/events. For tool/plant/party/ski hire, the gap doesn't matter — your team isn't being scheduled per-event.
- RFID — Rentman supports it. Do you?
- Not yet. The owner mobile PWA uses the browser's BarcodeDetector API (with @zxing/library fallback) for barcode + QR scanning, which covers what most plant and tool yards need. Native RFID with antenna hardware integration is on the roadmap, ordered by demand — if you're managing a 5,000-unit AV inventory with RFID gates at the depot door, Rentman fits today.
- We do plant hire AND occasional event work. Where do we go?
- That's the crossover case. Honestly, if event work is >30% of revenue and you're scheduling crew per-event, Rentman is the right tool even at the price premium. If event work is occasional (you rent generators and lighting for the odd festival but don't crew them), YardGuild handles the plant-hire side properly and you treat the event gigs as standard rentals — same waiver, same bond record, same invoice.
- Migration from Rentman?
- Export your equipment list from Rentman as CSV (Settings → Export). Our importer reads it — categories, day rates, deposit amounts, barcode SKUs. Active jobs you finish in Rentman; new ones go into YardGuild. Most operators run parallel for 30 days before cutting over at month-end. Crew records and call-sheet history don't migrate — that data shape doesn't exist in our model.
Try it on your own yard for 30 days
No credit card. Import your assets via CSV, run a few contracts, see if the kiosk and the mobile check-in actually save the time we say they do.