What Is the Best App for Lending Items to Friends?

Over the last few years, several platforms have emerged that help people share, lend, or give away items from their homes. Many people ask: which app suits me and my social circle best — especially if I mainly want to share with friends or neighbours?

We looked at a number of popular alternatives and compare them briefly here — along with a look at where their priorities lie and why we chose a slightly different approach with BORO.

What we want to solve with BORO

With BORO we want to make sharing within small, trusted networks easier. Many people have things they use only occasionally — tools, kitchen gadgets, sporting goods, hobby equipment — and are happy to lend them out, as long as they know to whom.

That is why BORO is designed as a private network:

• You decide who can see your items (e.g. only friends, or friends of friends too).
• You can lend, give away, or actively search for items.
• BORO runs in the browser as a web app — no installation, no platform lock-in, works on any device.

With that in mind, let us look at four other platforms: LeiMi, Kleine Tat, FreeCycle, and Pumpipumpe.

LeiMi – Android only

LeiMi is a solution offered as an Android app that also focuses on organising and lending items. Anyone with an Android smartphone can use it comfortably on the go.

The core limitation is the platform choice: iOS users or people who prefer desktop devices cannot use LeiMi without workarounds. In many friend groups and families, however, a mix of devices is the norm.

That was exactly one of our key considerations for BORO. We deliberately chose a web app that runs in the browser, meaning it works across different devices regardless of operating system — so a mixed group can use one shared solution together.

Kleine Tat – many features, sometimes complex

Kleine Tat is available for both iOS and Android and offers a wide range of sharing and helping features. User reviews frequently mention that the app can feel overly complex — presumably because it packs a large number of functions into a single application.

Complexity is a real barrier in everyday use: if you just want to quickly lend, borrow, or post a request, it is easy to feel overwhelmed when menus and options are extensive.

With BORO we chose a different focus:

• The emphasis is clearly on sharing items in your private circle.
• Workflows are designed so that you reach your goal in a few steps: create a profile, add friends, post an item, or search for something.
• Additional features exist where they genuinely help — such as requests or favourites — without overloading the core concept.

FreeCycle – large community, less focus on your own circle

FreeCycle is one of the more established platforms for giving away and passing on items, originally from the US. The community is large, many regions have active groups, and there are countless listings.

At the same time, there are a few differences that set FreeCycle apart from something like BORO:

• The experience is primarily through a classic web interface that feels somewhat dated.
• There is no dedicated mobile app, which makes using it on a smartphone a bit cumbersome.
• The focus is more on an open, sometimes anonymous community rather than a deliberately chosen private network.

For people who simply want to give things away to the wider public, FreeCycle can be a good fit. But if you prefer to share within a trusted circle — friends, family, colleagues — you often look for a different kind of structure.

That is precisely where BORO comes in: instead of a large, open marketplace, BORO offers an environment where you decide who sees your posts.

Pumpipumpe – neighbourhood focus, fewer personal network features

Pumpipumpe originates in Switzerland and is strongly oriented around neighbourhood sharing. The idea of meeting people in your local area is appealing and can foster real community connections.

From a user perspective, there are a few differences compared to a network like BORO:

• The platform is primarily focused on neighbourhood proximity.
• There is no explicit feature for adding friends in the sense of a digital social circle.

This means Pumpipumpe works well if you specifically want to share within your immediate residential area, but it does not easily map to a personal, geographically distributed network — for instance, long-time friends, sports clubs, or former colleagues who live elsewhere.

In BORO, both are possible: you can include neighbours, but also friends or family who live across town or even in another city. Visibility settings let you control exactly who sees which items.

What makes BORO distinctive

From comparing LeiMi, Kleine Tat, FreeCycle and Pumpipumpe, a few core principles of BORO emerge:

• Private network: The focus is on people who know each other or have deliberately connected.
• Clear, manageable features: Lending, gifting, searching, posting requests, and saving favourites cover most everyday situations — and stay easy to understand.
• Device independence: Because BORO is a web app, it works on any device without installation or OS lock-in.
• Granular visibility control: Each item can be set individually — from “only me” to “friends and their friends”.

For anyone looking for a way to share items in a private setting, BORO can be a fitting choice — particularly when a mixed group of friends or family members comes together and not everyone uses the same devices or apps.

Conclusion: finding the right platform for sharing in your circle

The original question — which app is “best” for lending to friends — cannot be answered universally. A lot depends on how you want to share:

• Openly and anonymously, with many people in a large community?
• Neighbourhood-focused, with an emphasis on your immediate local area?
• Or specifically within a private network of friends, family, and other trusted people?

With BORO we follow the third path. We want to make it easier to surface things that already exist and share them with people you already have a connection with. If you want to find out whether this approach works for you, simply open the web app in your browser and explore at your own pace — no sign-up required to try the demo.