Own it now, or decide at the end.
A loan, or an EFA, an equipment finance agreement, makes you the owner from day one. The lender holds a lien until you finish paying, but the equipment is yours, you carry it on your books, and you take the depreciation. A lease keeps the lessor as the owner during the term, and you decide at the end whether to buy it, return it, or keep going. The practical headline: a loan and one specific lease, the $1 buyout, both deliver ownership plus the Section 179 write-off. So ownership is not a reason to pick a loan over every lease, only over the leases that keep a residual with the lessor.
Four endingsThe four ways a lease can end.
A lease is not one thing. What happens at the finish is set on the day you sign, and it is the single biggest lever on both the monthly payment and what you walk away owning. The tax notes below are the ones commonly cited for each structure. They are general, not advice, so confirm the treatment for your business with your tax advisor before you lean on it.
$1 buyout, a capital lease
Capital lease; buy the asset for a nominal $1 (or $101 in some states) at term end. Economically a full-payout loan; the merchant is treated as the owner and deducts via depreciation or Section 179.
FMV, a true lease
True lease; return, renew, or buy at fair market value at term end. The lessor keeps a residual, so the monthly payment is lower, and payments are fully deductible when the arrangement qualifies as a true lease.
10 percent PUT
Purchase Upon Termination; the merchant is obligated to buy at about 10% of original cost. The payment lands between the $1-buyout and FMV levels.
TRAC, for titled vehicles
For titled vehicles and trailers where the lessee certifies more than 50% business use; an agreed residual is trued up to actual resale value at term end.
Read the four as a spectrum. The $1 buyout gives the most ownership and the least flexibility; FMV gives the lowest payment and the most flexibility but no built-in ownership; the 10 percent PUT and TRAC sit in between. Match the ending to whether you intend to keep the equipment past the term, not to the smallest payment on the sheet.
Which channel fitsWho each channel is built for.
The figures below are minimum doors, the point at which a channel will look at you at all. Approved deals skew well above them, so clearing a door is not the same as pricing at the floor. Read them as the entry point, not the expected outcome.
Captive, bank, and SBA
Prime credit and an established time in business, plus SBA 504 or 7(a) underwriting for the SBA route. The lowest all-in cost sits here, and so does the highest bar. Market data, not a Trident quote.
Independent finance company
App-only up to about $250,000 with no financial statements required, priced off your credit and the asset itself. This is the deep middle of the equipment market, and its securitized book is prime. Market data, not a Trident quote.
Online, fintech, and micro-ticket
Published doors around 600 to 650, with better pricing at 700 and up, and as low as 520 at the micro-ticket edge. Six months to two years in business, and revenue floors near $180,000 a year, some as high as $250,000. Reviewed on a one-page application, and priced the highest. Market data, not a Trident quote.
Small, mid, or large ticket.
Ticket size decides which channel even applies. Small-ticket deals, whose securitized contracts average around $80,000, are the app-only world: quick decisions, no financial statements, independents and online lenders. The aggregator population figures run higher and softer, an average near $127,000 and a median near $48,000, and should be read as directional rather than measured. Mid-ticket deals, roughly $1.37 million to $2.62 million per contract, move to independents and banks with real underwriting. Large-ticket contracts reach $17 million and up per financed unit. Across all of them the term envelope runs 24 to 84 months, with the core between 36 and 60, because the term is capped by how long the equipment stays useful.
The questionsFive questions to ask before you sign.
The all-in APR-equivalent, in writing
One number, inclusive of every fee. It is the only way to put a loan quoted as an APR and a lease quoted as a money factor on the same footing.
For a lease: the money factor, the term, and the ending
Ask for all three, plus any residual. A money factor alone is meaningless without the term it runs over and the end-of-term structure, $1 buyout, FMV, 10 percent PUT, or TRAC, that decides what you owe and own at the finish.
The documentation fee
Equipment deals carry a documentation fee on top of the payment. Ask what it is in dollars, because it changes the all-in APR-equivalent, especially on a smaller ticket.
Whether it is a loan or a lease
They are quoted in different languages and they end differently. Ask plainly which one you are being offered, and whether you own the equipment at the end.
New or used, and how that moves the price
Used equipment usually prices a little higher than new, commonly by about 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points, because it is harder to resell. Ask which your quote assumes.
Some answers only arrive with an offer.
A few of these answers cannot exist before a partner underwrites your file. Your exact APR-equivalent, your money factor, your term, and your fee schedule are priced from your real revenue, your time in business, your credit, and the specific asset, so no honest number exists before that review. That is how the pricing is built: your real numbers set it. When a question can only be answered with an offer in hand, the next step is to apply and get one. Any offer we bring back goes on a single page, with the structure, the all-in cost, and the ending in plain figures, before you sign, and walking away costs nothing.
Every figure on this page is general US market data as of Jul 2026, not Trident pricing and not an offer. It is here so you can read a quote with clear eyes. Any real offer, and the partner paperwork behind it, governs. Nothing here is tax, legal, or financial advice; confirm any tax treatment with your own advisor.