Renting costs a little every month. Buying costs a lot once, and you get some of it back when you sell. So the answer is mostly about time: past a certain number of months, owning comes out ahead. This guide gives you a worksheet to find that month with your own quotes, then covers what the numbers leave out: condition, placement, permits, security and what happens at the end.
Option A
A provider delivers the box, bills it by the month and picks it up when you are done.
Option B
You buy a new or used box, pay for delivery and keep it as long as you like.
The short answer
If you can say how many months you need it, the worksheet below settles most of it.
The break-even worksheet
Use your own quotes. Renting adds up month by month. Buying starts high and adds only upkeep. Where the two lines cross is the break-even month.
On paper
Need it longer than line I? Buying costs less on these numbers. Shorter, and renting does. If H is zero or less, renting stays cheaper however long you keep it. If G is zero or less, buying is cheaper from the start. It leaves out interest, tax and a resale value that falls with age.
Side by side
The worksheet covers cost. This covers everything else.
| Question | Rent | Buy |
|---|---|---|
| What drives the cost | Months on site, delivery and pickup, and the market. Longer terms are usually priced lower per month | Size, condition grade, distance to deliver, then upkeep, and what you recover at the end |
| Condition | Set by the provider's fleet. Ask about the roof, floor, seals and doors before delivery | You choose a grade and live with it. Inspect a used box or get photos first |
| Changes to the box | Ask before you drill, cut or weld. The box goes back at the end | Yours to fit out with shelving, vents, extra doors or power |
| More units or a different size | Add, swap or remove units as the job changes | Buy another, or sell and buy again |
| Security | Ask what locks it takes and whether a lock box is fitted | Choose your own locks and add a lock box if it lacks one |
| Placement and permits | The same site rules apply. A defined end date can make the conversation with the city simpler | The same site rules apply, for as long as it stays. Check before you buy, not after |
| At the end | The provider picks it up | Sell it, reuse it or pay a truck to take it away |
| Read more | Storage container rental | Storage container sizes |
Tell us the size, the drop spot and how long you need it. We source rental containers from local providers and quote the monthly rate with delivery and pickup.
Condition grades
Sellers use these names for used and new boxes. They are trade terms, not a single published standard, and sellers draw the lines differently. Ask what the grade means in writing and get photos of the actual unit.
A new box, or one the seller says has made a single trip. The top of the range.
A used box the seller says is still fit to carry cargo. Ask whether that means a current inspection or plate.
A used box the seller says keeps out wind and rain. Sold for storage, not for shipping.
No promise about leaks or doors. Only worth it if you inspect it yourself.
One hard reference point: containers in international transport are approved under the IMO's Convention for Safe Containers, carry a Safety Approval Plate, and the owner has to have them examined periodically.1 A box sold off for storage may no longer be kept on that schedule, so the plate tells you its history, not its condition today. Check the roof, floor, seals and doors yourself.
Placement
These apply whether you rent or buy, but they matter more the longer the box stays.
Rules vary by city, and by how long the box stays. Ask the zoning or building office whether a container is allowed where you want it, for how long, and whether it needs a permit. Ask a landlord or HOA too.
Plain storage needs no utility hookup. It needs firm, reasonably level ground so the doors open and close. Soft ground or a slope is worth settling before delivery.
The approach is usually the hard part, not the pad. A truck has to reach the spot with room to set the box. Say so up front if the drop point is behind a gate or up a grade.
Standard lengths are 20 and 40 feet, 8 feet wide. Measure what you store against the door opening, not the inside. See storage container sizes and conex box vs shipping container.
Adding power to a bought box is electrical work. Ask the local building office what it needs before anyone wires it.
What it depends on
Two people with the same quotes can reach different answers. These are the reasons.
Jobs run long and storage needs outlast plans. Run the worksheet at your best guess and at a longer one.
Resale is the number that does the most work in the worksheet, and the one you know least. Try it at zero.
Every move of a bought box is a truck you pay for. A rental move is a delivery on the provider's schedule.
A cheap used box that leaks costs you what is inside it.
Shelving, vents, lights and extra doors make a box more useful and harder to give back.
For a rental quote
Detritus sources rental containers. If the worksheet says buy, a container dealer is the right call, and the questions on this page still apply.
Common questions
Renting is usually cheaper for shorter needs and buying for longer ones. The break-even month is the purchase price plus delivery, minus resale and the rental's one-time charges, divided by the rent minus any monthly owner costs.
Take the purchase price plus delivery, subtract the resale value and the rental's delivery and pickup, then divide by the monthly rent minus your monthly owner costs. If you need the box longer than that many months, buying costs less.
It is a seller's grade for a used container sold for storage that the seller says keeps out wind and rain. Sellers define grades differently, so ask for the definition in writing and photos of the unit.
It depends on the city and how long the box stays. Ask the local zoning or building office, and a landlord or HOA if there is one, before you rent or buy.
Ask the provider before you drill, cut or weld, because the box goes back at the end. If you need a fitted-out container for years, buying usually makes more sense.
Detritus sources rental containers from local providers. If buying fits better, a container dealer is the right place to go. Call sales at (888) 588-2607 for a rental quote.
Local providers do the work; we hold the contract, own the problems, and send one bill. If a delivery gets missed, we contact the provider the same business day.
Read next
Sources