Device42 vs Shelf

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.

Shelf is an open-source asset tracking platform that records what an organization owns, where items are, and who has custody of them. Its tools include bookings, audits, location tracking, asset pages, kits, consumables, calendars, dashboards, search, reminders, and workspaces. The free Shelf Companion app for iPhone and Android scans QR codes, supports audits and custody management, and handles booking check-ins and check-outs. The web app can be installed as a progressive web app on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux. Organizations can self-host with Docker and Supabase or use managed cloud. All plans include unlimited assets; Personal is free and is limited to one user and three custom fields. Plus costs $34 a month, and Team costs $67 a month. Enterprise pricing is custom. Shelf says it uses TLS 1.3 in transit and AES-256 at rest, but is not yet SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certified. Its managed cloud stores data in Frankfurt and runs application servers in Amsterdam.