Device42 vs Netdisco

Device42 provides agentless discovery, asset management, and dependency mapping for data center, cloud, and hybrid IT environments. Its scope includes CMDB, DCIM, ITAM, IPAM, password management, and application dependency mapping, in a self-hosted deployment. It can discover network devices through SNMP and cloud resources across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and OpenStack.

For data centers, its visual models cover buildings, rooms, racks, cabling, and patch panels, with power and temperature heat maps. Core includes discovery, inventory and asset management, integrations, REST APIs and webhooks, warranty and SSL certificate management, cable and password management, and IPAM. Device42 also tracks software licenses, contracts, and barcodes, and lists more than 30 integrations. Licenses count devices with IP addresses; non-IP assets do not count, and user seats are unlimited. If the device limit is exceeded, the software keeps running but stops collecting additional information until the license is increased. Pricing is available on request, and a free trial is offered.

Netdisco is free, self-hosted network management software for administrators of small through very large networks. It gathers IP and MAC address data into PostgreSQL through SNMP, command-line interfaces, or device APIs. A lookup by MAC address or IP can show the connected switch port, which administrators can disable or change for VLAN or PoE status. Netdisco inventories hardware by model, vendor, software, and operating system, and preserves historical system IP and location data. It can draw network diagrams and expose search and retrieval through an API. The distribution includes a web interface, backend daemon, and command-line interface; the maker says it runs on Linux or Unix and provides Docker images. Installation requires Perl 5.10 or later and PostgreSQL 9.6 or later. The first setup requires manually discovering a network device that knows its neighbors. Plugins can add interface or backend commands and actions.