If you own camera and production equipment, you have multiple platforms where you can list it for rental. Sharegrid, Fat Llama, and KitSplit are the three most common peer-to-peer options, and each one works differently. Different fees, different audiences, different strengths.
Choosing the right platform, or the right combination of platforms, can mean the difference between steady bookings and gear that collects dust. This comparison breaks down what actually matters: how much each platform costs you, who is renting on each one, and where your specific gear is most likely to book.
Sharegrid: the production industry standard
Sharegrid is built specifically for the film and video production industry. The renter base is mostly working professionals: DPs, camera operators, production companies, and independent filmmakers. This focus on professional users has a few important implications.
First, renters generally know how to handle gear. A gaffer renting a set of Aputure lights on Sharegrid has used those lights before. This reduces the risk of misuse compared to platforms with a broader consumer audience.
Second, production timelines drive booking patterns. You'll see spikes around commercial shoots, music video season, and indie film production windows. Weekend warriors are less common than on general-purpose platforms.
Sharegrid charges a 15% service fee on the owner's side. This fee is applied to the rental subtotal after any multi-day discounts. Renters pay a separate community fee on top, but that doesn't come from your payout. Listing is free, and there are no monthly subscription fees.
The platform is strongest in major production hubs: Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and Chicago. If you're in one of these markets, Sharegrid likely has the deepest pool of active renters for production gear. In smaller markets, listings exist but booking frequency drops significantly. Understanding who your renters are helps you decide which platform best serves your audience.
Fat Llama: the generalist approach
Fat Llama takes a very different approach. It's a general peer-to-peer rental marketplace where you can list anything from camera equipment to DJ speakers to camping gear. The platform isn't tailored to any single industry.
For equipment owners, this means a much broader potential renter base, but one that skews more casual. Someone renting a Canon R5 on Fat Llama might be a wedding photographer, a hobbyist, or a content creator who has never used that camera before. The demographic is less predictable than Sharegrid's professional community.
Fat Llama's fee structure works differently. The platform takes a commission that varies but is typically around 15% to 25% from the owner's side, depending on the item category and pricing tier. Renters also pay a service fee. The exact percentage can be less transparent than Sharegrid's flat 15%.
The platform's geographic strength is broader but shallower. Fat Llama operates in many cities and even internationally (it started in the UK), but the density of active renters in any given market tends to be lower for camera equipment specifically. Where it excels is in reaching casual renters who would never think to search Sharegrid because they're not part of the production world.
One notable difference: Fat Llama allows shipping rentals, which can expand your reach beyond your local market. Sharegrid is primarily local pickup.
KitSplit: the photo and video middle ground
KitSplit positions itself between Sharegrid's production focus and Fat Llama's generalist approach. The platform targets photographers and videographers, with a strong presence in New York City (where it was founded) and growing activity in other markets.
KitSplit's renter base tends to include more photographers, content creators, and smaller video productions compared to Sharegrid's heavier tilt toward film and commercial work. If you own photography-specific gear like studio lighting kits, high-end stills cameras, or lens sets that appeal to portrait and event photographers, KitSplit may deliver better results than Sharegrid.
The fee structure is similar to Sharegrid, with the platform taking a percentage of each transaction. KitSplit charges around 15% on the owner side. The platform also offers an insurance-backed protection program for covered rentals.
KitSplit's main limitation is market depth. Outside of New York and a handful of other cities, the active renter pool is smaller than Sharegrid's. If you're based in LA, Sharegrid almost certainly has more active production renters. If you're in New York with photography-oriented gear, KitSplit is worth serious consideration.
Fee structures compared
Here's how a $200-per-day, three-day rental plays out across platforms (approximate, as multi-day discount structures vary):
On Sharegrid, the shoot-day pricing model converts three calendar days to roughly two shoot days. Your gross before fees might be around $400. After the 15% service fee ($60), you receive approximately $340. That's an effective rate of $113 per calendar day.
On Fat Llama, three calendar days at $200 per day gives a gross of $600 (Fat Llama uses straight calendar-day pricing). After a roughly 20% commission ($120), you receive approximately $480. Effective rate: $160 per calendar day.
On KitSplit, the math falls somewhere between the two, with calendar-day pricing and a 15% fee. Three days at $200 gives a gross of $600, minus $90 in fees, for roughly $510. Effective rate: $170 per calendar day.
On paper, KitSplit and Fat Llama look better because they don't use shoot-day pricing. But there's a critical catch: booking frequency. A higher rate per transaction means nothing if you get half as many bookings. Sharegrid's shoot-day discounts exist because they drive more bookings, especially multi-day ones. The platform with the most active renters for your specific gear type will almost always generate more total revenue over a year, even with lower per-booking payouts. For a deeper dive into platform fees versus renting direct, the numbers tell a more nuanced story.
Which gear performs best on each platform
Cinema cameras and accessories (ARRI, RED, Sony cinema line, cine lenses, follow focuses, matte boxes): Sharegrid is the clear winner. Production professionals looking for these items go to Sharegrid first. Listing a RED Komodo on Fat Llama is unlikely to reach the right audience.
Photography cameras and lenses (Canon R bodies, Sony Alpha, Nikon Z, fast primes, zoom lenses): All three platforms work, but KitSplit can be competitive, especially in New York. Sharegrid still performs well if your market has active production renters who also shoot stills.
Lighting and grip (Aputure, Nanlite, C-stands, flags, diffusion): Sharegrid dominates. These are production-specific items that casual renters on Fat Llama have no use for.
Drones: Fat Llama can actually compete here. Drone rentals attract a mix of hobbyists, real estate photographers, and content creators who browse general marketplaces. Sharegrid works too, but the renter pool for drones extends beyond traditional production.
Audio equipment (wireless lavs, boom setups, field recorders): Sharegrid is strongest for production audio. Fat Llama might pick up podcast and event-related audio rentals.
General accessories (tripods, gimbals, memory cards, monitors): These items often book as add-ons to bigger packages rather than standalone rentals. Whichever platform you use for your primary items, list the accessories there too.
Geographic strengths
Los Angeles: Sharegrid is the dominant platform with the deepest renter pool. If you're in LA and only listing on one platform, it should be Sharegrid.
New York City: KitSplit has genuine strength here alongside Sharegrid. Listing on both makes sense, especially for photography gear.
Atlanta: Sharegrid has grown significantly here due to the city's expanding production industry. Fat Llama and KitSplit have less presence.
Chicago, Austin, Nashville, Portland: Sharegrid has listings but lower density. Fat Llama's broader audience might pick up some of the slack for non-production-specific gear.
Smaller markets and international: Fat Llama's international presence gives it an edge in markets where Sharegrid has minimal coverage. If you're outside the major US production cities, Fat Llama might be your only option with a meaningful renter base.
The case for listing on multiple platforms
There's no exclusivity requirement on any of these platforms. You can list the same gear on Sharegrid, Fat Llama, and KitSplit simultaneously. The main cost is time: maintaining multiple listings, managing availability across platforms, and responding to inquiries in multiple places.
For most owners, the practical approach is to pick one primary platform where your gear type and market align best, and add a second platform for incremental bookings. Listing on all three often creates more calendar management headaches than the extra bookings are worth, especially if you're managing more than a few items.
The exception is owners in smaller markets where no single platform has strong renter density. In that case, casting a wider net across platforms makes sense because you need every booking you can get.
The key challenge with multi-platform listing is avoiding double bookings. When someone books your lens on Sharegrid, you need to block those dates on Fat Llama immediately. Some owners manage this manually. Others use calendar sync tools or off-platform rental tracking. Either way, it takes discipline.
How to track earnings across platforms
Running your rental business across multiple platforms creates a tracking challenge. Each platform has its own dashboard, its own fee structure, and its own way of reporting earnings. Getting a unified picture of how each piece of gear is actually performing requires consolidating data from all sources. And the hidden costs beyond platform fees make accurate tracking even more important.
Spreadsheets work if you're disciplined. Export your transaction history from each platform, normalize the data into a consistent format, and calculate net earnings per item across all platforms. Most people start this way and stop maintaining it within a few months.
Rental IQ can import your Sharegrid transaction data and show you per-item earnings, net of all fees and discounts. If Sharegrid is your primary platform, this gives you accurate item-level analytics without the spreadsheet maintenance. You see exactly how much each piece of gear has earned, how close it is to paying back its purchase price, and whether your pricing is working.
The platform you list on matters, but not as much as understanding what your gear actually earns on that platform. Whichever combination you choose, make sure you're tracking the real numbers, not the headline rates.
