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If you know where your devices are, does that mean you are in control of what happens next?
No. That’s what the modern workforce looks like, spread across offices, homes, and multiple countries, often stretching across IT and network infrastructure. Your firm may deploy an asset-discovery tool, but you could still be flying blind even after.
Globally, enterprise IT spending is heading toward $6 trillion in 2026, driven by device and infrastructure growth.
As spending climbs, the gap between what organizations know and what they act on widens. Without a clear process, you’ll see assets accumulate (both physical and virtual machines), workflows clog up, and teams scramble to deploy, retrieve, or retire devices.
This is where organizations lose money, expose themselves to compliance risk, and frustrate users. In this article, we’ll cover why discovery alone falls short, review six major discovery tools (including how they compare), and then show how Firstbase closes the loop by automating the lifecycle from procurement through retrieval and certified retirement.
Disclaimer: We built Firstbase to address the complex, real-world aspects of IT asset management. While we’re proud of what we’ve built, this guide aims to give a fair, research-backed overview of the best tools in the space. Our goal is to help you understand where each platform excels, and where lifecycle-focused automation platforms like Firstbase can add extra value.
On average, Firstbase customers save $163,000 and 2,300 IT hours each year by automating procurement, deployment, and recovery. Take a self-guided tour to see how lifecycle automation looks in action.
Let’s look at the major pain points you’ll see across IT, Finance, and HR teams.
Most IT teams already use some kind of discovery tool. But what you must be looking for is a tool that also helps teams act on what they find. Here are such tools we’ve reviewed extensively over the past few months.
Firstbase is an IT asset discovery and lifecycle platform that helps companies not just find devices but manage everything that happens after. It connects discovery data with real-world actions like shipping, retrieval, repair, and recycling, all from one dashboard.
It’s built for distributed teams that need speed, visibility, and compliance across borders. With delivery coverage in 150+ countries and two-day SLAs, Firstbase helps IT, Finance, and HR teams handle onboarding, offboarding, and asset recovery without delays.
The platform connects with systems you already use (like ServiceNow, Intune, or Workday) and automates every step. Customers like Cresta and Docebo have saved hundreds of IT hours and recovered devices that would have been lost.
See your potential ROI
Global teams choose Firstbase because automation and in-house logistics save real time and money. With guaranteed SLAs and worldwide coverage, companies consistently see measurable results:
Use our ROI calculator to see what these savings look like for your own team.
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ServiceNow is a full IT asset management and discovery platform built around a single cloud data model. It gives companies visibility across on-prem, hybrid, and cloud environments, helping them identify devices, software, and configuration changes in real time.
Its agentless and client-based discovery methods provide continuous updates on IT infrastructure health, certificates, and endpoints. The system connects asset data to IT, finance, and security workflows through its AI-powered Now Platform.
Where ServiceNow ends at digital discovery, Firstbase takes over with physical lifecycle management, automating the shipment-to-reuse process for those same assets in the real world.
ServiceNow’s pricing scales with the number of assets, which can make large deployments expensive. Some features, like advanced Hardware or Software Asset Management (HAM/SAM Pro), require separate licenses. Users also report that integrations with custom vendor systems can be challenging, and setup takes time to fine-tune.
SolarWinds is a cloud-based IT management platform that includes built-in asset discovery. It scans networks using both agent and agentless methods to identify every connected device across on-prem, hybrid, and cloud services.
The Discovery Scanner updates inventories, while the Discovery Agent captures deeper hardware and software data for each device. Its Asset Map tool lets teams see ownership, location, and system dependencies at a glance.
SolarWinds gives IT departments strong visibility for troubleshooting, compliance, and cost control. It helps them reduce overspending and minimize risks tied to untracked or outdated assets.
SolarWinds focuses heavily on discovery and monitoring. It doesn’t cover global logistics, retrievals, or device reuse workflows. Some users mention that initial configuration can be complex in large networks and that maintaining integrations with other tools requires manual oversight.
Flexera helps large organizations map and clean up complex IT environments by combining discovery, normalization, and market intelligence. Its strength lies in identifying all software, hardware, SaaS, and cloud assets across hybrid infrastructures and presenting them in a single, reliable inventory.
The platform’s Technopedia catalog, one of the largest technology reference databases, standardizes data from multiple sources so every system speaks the same language. This normalized view helps companies reduce unmanaged device risk, prepare for vendor audits, and make smarter renewal and migration decisions.
Flexera is used heavily in enterprise environments where visibility and accuracy are top priorities.
Flexera’s setup and learning curve can be challenging for new users. Some reviews mention slow report loading and a dated interface. License reconciliation and version tracking (e.g., for Java) still require manual review, and splitting licenses between cost centers can be cumbersome in large deployments.
Freshservice by Freshworks combines IT service management with strong asset discovery and cloud management. Its Discovery Hub scans all connected devices, laptops, printers, servers, and network equipment, using both agents and probes. It keeps asset data current through automated and scheduled scans, integrates with Microsoft SCCM and Active Directory, and extends visibility to cloud resources across AWS, Azure, and VMware.
Freshservice also includes dependency mapping and a built-in CMDB, giving IT teams real-time visibility into how systems connect and impact one another. This helps prevent service disruptions, improves audit readiness, and keeps asset records consistently accurate.
Users report that support responses can feel generic and take time for complex issues. Advanced workflow customization has limits, and performance can lag with large asset inventories. The reporting interface lacks flexibility; exporting data or running granular reports often needs manual work.
CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management helps organizations find every asset that could expose them to risk. It combines active, passive, and third-party discovery to monitor endpoints, cloud workloads, and even shadow IT in real time.
The platform’s main strength lies in context: it finds devices and shows how they connect, where vulnerabilities exist, and how attackers might exploit them.
With AI-assisted analysis, Falcon takes exposure data and converts them into actionable steps for remediation. It’s a strong fit for enterprises that prioritize proactive security visibility rather than periodic scans.
CrowdStrike’s licensing costs are higher than most IT discovery tools. Some users note false positives that require fine-tuning, and managed detection options can introduce privacy considerations since external teams may access sensitive data.
Most IT asset discovery solutions we’ve discussed can scan networks, identify devices, and show usage patterns, but they don’t handle what comes next. That gap leaves IT, HR, and Finance teams managing manual shipping, customs, and resale workflows that discovery tools never automate.
But Firstbase connects discovery data directly to global lifecycle operations, from procurement to ITAD. It’s the only IT asset platform that combines global discovery with 48-hour SLA-backed logistics across 150+ countries. That means once an asset is discovered, it can be shipped, replaced, or retrieved from anywhere, all with tracked custody and proof of compliance.
Use this checklist to assess if a platform goes beyond discovery and truly automates the lifecycle:
✅ Global 48-hour shipping and retrieval SLAs across 150+ countries
✅ Zero-touch deployment with HRIS and MDM integrations
✅ Real-time inventory management and full audit trail visibility
✅ NIST 800-88–certified data destruction with proof of compliance
✅ Predictable per-seat pricing and no hidden freight costs
✅ Integrated ITAD and resale workflows to recover device value
✅ Self-service employee portal to cut IT ticket volume
If a provider can’t meet these benchmarks, it’s not built for lifecycle automation at scale.
We’ve reviewed multiple IT asset discovery tools and found that the real operational value begins when that visibility connects to logistics, compliance, and recovery. Firstbase stands apart by unifying asset discovery with worldwide logistics, certified data wiping, and resale automation. It turns what most tools identify into actions that save time, money, and compliance risk.
Companies using Firstbase save $125 per offboarded employee, reclaim over 700 IT hours that would otherwise be spent on logistics, and recoup over $ 175,000 annually through device reuse and redeployment.
See what these numbers look like for your organization. Book a demo to understand your ROI with Firstbase today.
