Hudu vs Open Network Diagram

Hudu is a documentation and operations platform for IT teams, bringing client records, passwords, assets, and infrastructure information together. Structured documentation helps teams maintain consistent records across client environments, while forms track devices, vendors, and systems. Teams can build searchable guides for common tasks and fixes, then use checklists to make recurring processes repeatable and trackable. Hudu is available as a cloud service or through self-hosted and on-premise deployment. Listed capabilities include 60+ integrations, a REST API, webhooks, and IP-restricted API keys. Security controls include enforced SSO, MFA including Duo, granular permissions, audit logs, and encryption at rest and in transit. iOS and Android apps provide access to client details, passwords, knowledge articles, and processes; the Hudu Assist extension supports Firefox and Chromium-based browsers. The pricing note starts at $27/user/mo (annual) and includes a 14-day trial. A separate Hudu plan is listed at $30 a month, with no user minimums. Hudu also lists 24/7 support and free, read-only portal access for a single client portal.

Open Network Diagram is a free, self-hosted tool for visualizing and managing home lab and network architecture. It provides network, Hosts & VMs, and rack views for mapping topology and inventory, including subnets, VLANs, virtual machines and rack positions. Connections can record cable type, colour and length. Its IPAM panel reports subnet utilization, detects duplicate addresses and suggests the next free IP. The application keeps JSON as its source of truth; self-hosted changes autosave, writes are persisted atomically, and rolling backups retain the last five files. Deployment is Docker-first, with writable data volumes and Docker Compose support. The runtime exposes GET and PUT operations at /api/network-data, and published Docker images support AMD64 and 64-bit ARM, including Raspberry Pi systems. The project is licensed under GNU GPL v3 and has no runtime dependency on external APIs. It does not include authentication or TLS. The project warns that topology details may expose sensitive infrastructure information and advises restricting access or using an authenticated TLS-terminating reverse proxy.