Sortly alternative for medical equipment & loaner management
2 June 2026 · 5 min read
Sortly is a lovely, simple visual inventory app — folders, photos, QR labels, quantity counts. For tracking stock, supplies and "what's in the storeroom," it's quick and pleasant. But a medical loaner pool isn't an inventory count; it's a workflow — units leave, get used, come back, get repaired, get cleaned, and ride on annual service contracts. That's where a dealer needs more than Sortly was built to give.
What Sortly does well
- Beautiful, simple visual folders with photos
- QR/barcode labels and quick counts
- Low learning curve for small teams
- Great for supplies, stock and consumables
Where it falls short for medical loaners
1. Inventory counting, not a loaner round-trip
Sortly tells you how many and where. It doesn't model the 5-stage loaner lifecycle, the repair round-trip (received → repaired → returned) or the four box trips with carrier tracking that a medical loan involves.
2. No service contracts, renewals or due-back logic
No annual-contract end dates, expired/due-soon KPIs or one-click renewal; no expected-return dates with overdue alerts and reminder emails. Loaners.app has all of it, plus AI Excel import for your existing data.
3. No chain of custody for MDR/UDI
Counting stock doesn't produce the timestamped, actor-attributed custody trail auditors expect for medical devices. Loaners.app does, and exports it.
4. No needs-service block
Nothing stops a faulty unit being marked "available" and shipped again. Loaners.app blocks re-deployment until a unit is explicitly marked serviced.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Sortly | Loaners.app |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Simple visual inventory | Medical/dental loaners, repairs & contracts |
| Loaner lifecycle | — | 5 stages |
| Repair round-trip + carrier tracking | — | ✅ |
| Service contracts & renewals | — | ✅ |
| Overdue alerts / due-back | — | ✅ |
| MDR-aware chain of custody | — | ✅ |
| Photos | ✅ | ✅ at check-out + return |
| Hosting | Cloud | EU (Frankfurt) |
When Sortly is the right choice
Stay with Sortly if your need is genuinely inventory — counting supplies, stock and consumables — and you want the simplest possible app.
When Loaners.app is the right choice
Choose Loaners.app when the thing you track moves through a workflow: lent out, repaired, cleaned, returned, and under a service contract — i.e. a real medical/dental loaner operation.
Request access
Invitation-only while we onboard new dealers. EU-hosted, GDPR-clean.