Rental has three requirements that ordinary ecommerce simply does not have: the price depends on how long, you usually want money held against damage, and you need to know when the thing is coming back. A normal store checkout handles none of them.
Rates by duration, not one price
Each item carries the rates you actually quote — hourly, daily, weekly, monthly — and you turn on the ones you offer. A customer picks a duration and the total comes from the matching rate, so a week costs your week rate rather than seven day rates. Minimum and maximum durations stop the edge cases that lose money at both ends.
Deposits, and exactly how they work
A security deposit is added to the rental total and charged with the order, so the customer pays both in one transaction and you are not chasing it afterwards.
What it is not: an authorization placed on a card and released automatically. The deposit is charged, so when the item comes back undamaged you issue a refund in your own payment processor. That is a manual step, and if you were expecting hold-and-release you should know before you switch, not after your first return.
Knowing what is out and when it returns
Stock counts control how many of an item can be out at once, and each rental records a start date and a calculated return date. That is enough for a small inventory of interchangeable items — tables, tools, sound gear.
It is not enough if you track individual serialized units, need per-unit service history, or run a yard where knowing which specific machine went out matters. That is dedicated rental software, and this is not pretending to be it.
Getting paid
Card payments settle into your own Stripe or PayPal account on a paid plan, deposit included, with no commission taken on a rental.
Starting cost
Free covers 10 rental items and 30 rentals a month with no card required. Growth at $9.99 a month adds your own domain and card checkout — US pricing.