Dell calls it PCaaS. HP and Lenovo often call the same idea DaaS. Underneath, it's usually the same model: instead of buying laptops and desktops, your company pays a monthly fee and gets the whole package — hardware, setup, support, and end-of-life handling included.
PC as a Service (PCaaS) turns your PC fleet into a subscription. You get fully configured laptops, desktops, or workstations, plus the services that keep them running: deployment, helpdesk support, maintenance, security, and — when a device reaches the end of its life — secure data erasure and responsible disposal.
The market is growing fast. Mordor Intelligence estimates the global PCaaS market at USD 100.81 billion in 2026, on its way to USD 252.42 billion by 2031 — a 20.15% annual growth rate. Gartner goes further: by 2028, 70% of organizations will use a managed service for their device lifecycle instead of managing it themselves.
What's included in a PCaaS subscription?
A typical PCaaS contract bundles several things that used to be separate line items:
Hardware. Laptops, desktops, or workstations from vendors like Dell, HP, or Lenovo, selected and configured for the role that will use them.
Deployment. Devices arrive pre-configured and ready to use — no manual setup by your IT team.
Support. Helpdesk access, often with defined response times, so employees aren't stuck waiting when something breaks.
Lifecycle management. Maintenance, software updates, and a defined refresh cycle so nobody works on outdated hardware for years.
Asset recovery. When a device comes back, it's wiped, refurbished, or retired securely — with documentation you can use for audits.
PCaaS vs. DaaS: what's the real difference?
Here's the part vendors don't make easy: the labels aren't reliable. As TechTarget puts it, "customers can't simply rely on the DaaS or PCaaS label" to know what they're actually getting. Dell uses "PCaaS" exclusively. HP and Lenovo often use "DaaS" for offerings that also focus mostly on computers.
The original, narrower distinction still matters, though:
PCaaS historically means computers only — laptops, desktops, workstations.
DaaS (Device as a Service) covers the wider device fleet — smartphones and tablets alongside laptops and desktops.
There's a second source of confusion worth clearing up: "DaaS" is also used for Desktop as a Service — virtual desktops delivered from the cloud (think Citrix or Amazon WorkSpaces). That's a completely different product. If a search result talks about virtual machines and streaming a desktop to a browser, you've landed on Desktop as a Service, not Device as a Service.
For most companies, the practical question isn't which acronym a vendor uses. It's whether the service covers every device your workforce actually needs — not just the laptops.
Why companies are moving to a subscription model
The appeal of PCaaS isn't the acronym. It's what changes on the ground for IT, finance, and employees.
CapEx becomes OpEx. No large upfront hardware investment. Devices show up as a predictable monthly cost instead of a capital expense that ties up budget for years.
IT gets its time back. Deployment, support, and returns are handled by the provider — not by your internal helpdesk.
Fleets scale with the business. Growing, shrinking, or restructuring a team no longer means a fresh procurement cycle.
Devices stay current. Regular refresh cycles mean employees aren't stuck with five-year-old laptops that slow down every rollout.
Sustainability is built in. Devices get refurbished and reused instead of scrapped after one lease. That's a real answer to the growing pressure from ESG and CSRD-style reporting requirements — not just a marketing line.
Illustrating the cost logic: some analyses show that two consecutive three-year leases over a six-year period can come out cheaper than buying one PC and running it for the full six years — because the total cost of ownership includes support, repairs, and the productivity loss from aging hardware, not just the sticker price. To learn more, try our TCO calculator!
The catch: what a "PCaaS" label often leaves out
PCaaS solves the PC problem. It usually doesn't solve the phone and tablet problem.
Most employees today don't just use a laptop. They use a smartphone, sometimes a tablet, and increasingly a mix of company-owned and personal devices for the same job. If your PCaaS contract only covers the laptop, you're still running a separate process — a separate vendor, a separate portal, a separate set of SLAs — for phones and tablets.
That's not a small gap. It means your IT team still juggles multiple contracts, multiple support lines, and multiple refresh cycles for what is, from the employee's perspective, a single "my work equipment" problem.
PCaaS at Everphone: one platform for laptops, smartphones, and tablets
This is where Device as a Service earns its broader scope. Everphone runs the same subscription logic as PCaaS — hardware, deployment, support, lifecycle, secure data erasure — but across your entire device fleet, not just PCs.
That means:
A wide manufacturer selection, including Dell, HP, Lenovo, Apple, and Samsung, for laptops, smartphones, and tablets alike.
One portal and one set of processes for ordering, incident management, upgrades, and returns — instead of one system per device category.
Integration with your existing MDM and ITSM tools (Intune, Jamf, Workspace ONE, ServiceNow) so devices fit into workflows you already have.
GDPR-compliant data erasure and refurbishing at the end of every device's life, documented for compliance and ESG reporting.
For procurement and finance, the effect is the same predictability PCaaS promises — clear monthly costs, no large upfront spend — but without the fragmentation of running a separate service just for computers.
How the switch to Device as a Service actually works
Moving from ad-hoc purchasing to a subscription model sounds like a big project. In practice, it follows a simple pattern.
1. Define device categories by role.
Together with your team, we map out which roles need which device — a lightweight laptop for the frontline, a workstation for engineering, a smartphone for anyone in the field.
2. Devices arrive configured and ready to use.
Laptops, smartphones, and tablets ship pre-configured — via Autopilot, Apple Business Manager, or Android Enterprise — directly to headquarters, a branch office, or an employee's home. New hires can have their equipment waiting before day one, without needing a company email address to get started.
3. Support and lifecycle run in the background.
Broken screen, battery replacement, upgrade request, employee leaving the company — it's all handled through one portal, with GDPR-compliant data erasure and refurbishing built into every return.
No separate onboarding for phones. No separate contract renewal date for laptops. One process, one point of contact, for the entire fleet.