GLPI vs Snipe-IT: Which Asset Manager Fits a Small IT Team

This comparison is for a small IT team (one to five people) that wants a free, self-hosted system to know what hardware and software it owns. The short answer: pick Snipe-IT if your main job is tracking assets and who holds them, with a light, focused web app. Pick GLPI if you also want a ticketing system, change and problem records, and automatic inventory from agents in the same product. Both are free and open source, both run on a PHP and MySQL/MariaDB stack, and neither needs a paid licence to use.

The facts below come from the projects’ own repositories and documentation, checked on 20 October 2026. Not tested yet: we have not installed either product ourselves, so treat this as a documentation-based comparison and try both in a test VM before committing.

At a glance

What GLPI does

GLPI describes itself as an ITSM and asset inventory product. Its repository lists incident, problem and change management, request fulfilment, a knowledge base and a service catalogue. On the asset side it covers computers, peripherals, network printers and their components, plus licence tracking, software auditing, contracts and financial data, asset reservation, DCIM, impact analysis and project management. It is extended through plugins.

The inventory side is driven by the GLPI Agent, a fork of the FusionInventory agent. According to its repository it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, collects a local inventory, can discover devices with NetBIOS, SNMP and ARP lookups, can inventory network devices over SNMP, and can send data to a GLPI server using the native inventory feature. The agent is open source (GPL-2.0 or later). Recent agent releases appear every few weeks, the newest seen being 1.21 on 8 Oct 2026.

The cost of that breadth is more to learn and more to configure: entities, profiles, rules, and a lot of menu depth. For a team that only wants a list of laptops, it can feel heavy.

What Snipe-IT does

Snipe-IT’s documentation centres on one idea: assets are checked out to people, locations or other assets, and checked back in. The same model covers licences and accessories, while components (for example RAM or RAID drives) are checked out to assets and consumables (toner, paper) are issued to people. You set status labels such as deployable, undeployable, archived or pending, use asset tags (including auto-incrementing ones from Admin Settings), and configure branding, alerts, LDAP and two-factor authentication.

Snipe-IT has a JSON REST API, which the documentation says can do most of what the web interface does, and an LDAP sync command that can be run from cron (snipeit:ldap-sync). That makes onboarding simple: accounts arrive from the directory, and equipment is assigned to them. The project is built on Laravel and publishes a Docker image.

What it does not do: it has no ticket queue and no agent that scans machines. If you want inventory without typing, you either import spreadsheets or feed it from another source through the API.

Requirements that affect your server choice

• GLPI 11.0: PHP 8.2 or later, and MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.6 (GLPI install documentation). The current repository README lists PHP 8.3 or later and MariaDB 10.11 or later or MySQL 8.0 or later, so check the requirements for the exact version you install. Point the web server’s document root at GLPI’s public directory.
• Snipe-IT: PHP 8.2 or later (below 8.6), MySQL 5.7 or later or MariaDB, and a long list of PHP extensions including BCMath, Fileinfo, Sodium and Exif. On Linux, mod_rewrite is needed; on Windows Server the documentation describes IIS with URL Rewrite.

Both ask you to maintain PHP and a database yourself. Plan updates, backups of the database and of uploaded files, and a test restore before you rely on either.

Which one fits which team

1. You need tickets and assets in one place. Choose GLPI. Doing this with Snipe-IT means adding a separate help desk.
2. You mainly hand out laptops, phones and licences and need to know who has what. Choose Snipe-IT; the check-out model is its core.
3. You want machines to report their own hardware and software. GLPI with the GLPI Agent covers this directly. With Snipe-IT you would script it against the API.
4. You already have network discovery. A scanner such as Open-AudIT (agentless discovery over SNMP, WMI and SSH, free edition limited to 100 devices) can feed an asset list, and either tool can then hold the records you maintain.
5. You also document racks, cables and IP space. That is a different job again: NetBox is a free open-source IPAM and DCIM tool, and it sits beside an asset manager rather than replacing one.

Limitations to know before you choose

• GLPI 12.0.0 is only days old at the time of writing. If stability matters more than new features, the 11.0 line is still receiving releases; read the release notes before upgrading an existing instance.
• Snipe-IT is not a help desk and does not inventory machines by itself.
• Neither product removes the need for process: tags on devices, a rule for who updates records, and a periodic audit are what keep the data accurate.
• We have not run either product, so the usability judgements above are drawn from documentation, not hands-on use.

For the wider picture of free tools for assets and help desks, see our hub IT Asset Management and Help Desk Tools for Small IT Teams.

FAQ

Is GLPI better than Snipe-IT?

Neither is better in general. GLPI is broader (tickets, changes, inventory agent); Snipe-IT is narrower and centred on checking assets in and out. Choose by the job you need done first.

Are GLPI and Snipe-IT free?

Yes. GLPI is released under GPL-3.0 and Snipe-IT under AGPL-3.0, and both can be self-hosted at no licence cost. You pay for your own server and your own time to maintain it.

Can I use GLPI or Snipe-IT with Docker?

Snipe-IT publishes a Docker image and its Docker setup is a frequent search. For GLPI, check the current installation documentation for the supported container approach before relying on it.

Does Snipe-IT have an API?

Yes. It provides a JSON REST API that its documentation says can perform most actions available in the web interface.

Does GLPI have an agent?

Yes, the GLPI Agent, which runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and reports hardware and software inventory to a GLPI server.

Can I run both?

You can, but most small teams do better picking one record system. If you need tickets and assets, GLPI alone is usually simpler; if you only need asset tracking, Snipe-IT alone is enough.

Last updated: 20 October 2026 · AdminHub Plus editorial team. Licence, version and platform details are checked against each developer's official documentation.