GLPI uses open source (free self-hosted); per-agent cloud hosting and support subscriptions pricing, runs on cloud / on-prem, supports Web, and Self-hosted version is permanently free; GLPI Network Cloud offers a trial.
GLPI is an open-source IT asset management and service desk platform maintained by Teclib. It combines CMDB, helpdesk ticketing, software license tracking, contract management, and project management in a single web-based application. The platform is used primarily by internal IT teams, public-sector organizations, and managed service providers, particularly in Europe and French-speaking markets, managing anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of assets.
GLPI earns a close look on cost, flexibility, and ITAM depth. The gaps (a dated user interface, steep initial configuration, and community-dependent support for self-hosted deployments) determine whether it survives to final selection.
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Pricing model
Open source (free self-hosted); per-agent cloud hosting and support subscriptions
Deployment
Cloud / On-prem
Supported OS
Web
Trial status
Self-hosted version is permanently free; GLPI Network Cloud offers a trial
GLPI's pricing splits into two distinct paths. The self-hosted open-source version is permanently free under the GPL license, with no seat limit, no asset cap, and no feature gating. The cost is infrastructure (a Linux server with Apache, PHP, and MySQL/MariaDB) plus the internal labor to install, configure, maintain, and upgrade it. For teams with existing server infrastructure and Linux administration skills, the out-of-pocket cost is genuinely zero beyond hosting.
Teclib's commercial offering, GLPI Network, adds managed cloud hosting and professional support. GLPI Network Cloud starts at €19 per IT agent per month for the Public Cloud plan, which includes the latest GLPI version, 5 GB storage, daily backups with 30-day retention, community and GLPI Network plugins, and Level 3 corrective support.
The Private Cloud plan starts at €21 per agent per month with a 25-agent minimum, adding dedicated system resources and 50 GB storage. IT assets and end users are unlimited and free of charge on all cloud plans. Pricing scales only with IT agent count.
On-premises support subscriptions, for teams that self-host but want Teclib's backing, run €100/month (Basic: up to 10 agents, 500 assets, 2 hours remote assistance), €300/month (Standard: up to 50 agents, 5,000 assets, 8 hours), or €1,000/month (Advanced: 51+ agents, 5,001+ assets, 20 hours). All tiers include unlimited end users and Level 3 bugfix support.
Verified from the official pricing page on March 17, 2026. View source
GLPI is the strongest choice when an IT team needs asset management and service desk functionality without per-seat licensing fees, and has the technical capacity to self-host and configure an open-source platform. The ITAM depth is genuinely impressive for free software: automated inventory via the GLPI Agent, full CMDB with dependency mapping, software license compliance tracking, and contract lifecycle management are all included out of the box.
IT teams and public-sector organizations that need full-featured ITAM and ITSM without per-seat licensing costs, have Linux server administration skills in-house, and are willing to invest in initial configuration to get a platform that costs nothing to operate at scale. It is particularly strong in environments where software license compliance tracking, contract management, and CMDB depth are primary requirements.
GLPI stands out on three dimensions that are genuinely differentiated versus the category: zero licensing cost for unlimited users and assets on the self-hosted version, ITAM depth that rivals commercial platforms costing tens of thousands per year (including native inventory agent, CMDB with dependency mapping, software license tracking, and contract lifecycle management) and a plugin ecosystem of 700+ community and Teclib-maintained plugins that extend functionality without leaving the platform.
GLPI's commercial fit depends entirely on which deployment path the team chooses. Self-hosted is the most cost-effective option in the ITAM category for teams that can absorb the administration overhead. The software is free, and the only cost is hosting and labor. GLPI Network Cloud at €19 per agent per month is price-competitive with Freshservice and significantly cheaper than ServiceNow, but the per-agent pricing means cost scales linearly with IT team headcount.
GLPI is best evaluated in the context of the specific service desk software workflows your team is trying to standardize or improve.
What matters with GLPI is the fit between its deployment model, its reporting, and the amount of operational ownership your team can realistically carry.
GLPI's CMDB is the core of the platform. It tracks computers, monitors, network devices, printers, phones, peripherals, and software, with full component-level detail including CPU, RAM, storage, network interfaces, and installed software with version numbers. - VMware inventory connects to vCenter and ESXi hosts to track virtual machines and hypervisor resources.
GLPI tracks software licenses against actual installations discovered through the inventory agent, enabling compliance monitoring without a separate license management tool. License records capture vendor, purchase date, expiration, license type (per-seat, per-device, site, OEM), and entitlement count. - The system flags over-deployment (installations exceeding purchased licenses) and under-utilization for cost optimization during renewal.
The service desk supports incident, problem, change, and service request management with configurable SLAs, OLAs, escalation rules, and automatic ticket assignment based on category, entity, requester group, or custom business rules. Email-to-ticket conversion via IMAP/POP handles inbound requests. - The self-service portal allows end users to submit and track requests, browse a knowledge base, and view service catalog items.
GLPI manages vendor contracts, warranty agreements, and financial records tied directly to assets. Contract records track start and end dates, renewal terms, associated costs, and linked assets or tickets. Budget management allows tracking of IT spending by entity, category, or time period. - Financial information can be attached to any asset: purchase price, depreciation schedule, and book value.
GLPI includes a project management module with task tracking, Gantt charts, milestones, and team assignment. - Projects can be linked to tickets and assets, which is useful for infrastructure deployment projects or migration planning. - The project module is adequate for IT-specific project tracking. It is not a replacement for Jira, Asana, or Monday.com for general project management, but it provides enough structure for IT teams to track implementation timelines, assigned resources, and dependencies without a separate tool.
The knowledge base supports FAQ articles organized by category and linked to ticket categories for suggested fixes. Articles can be internal (visible only to IT staff) or public (visible in the self-service portal). - Limitation: The knowledge base is functional but basic. It lacks the rich formatting, multimedia embedding, and analytics that dedicated knowledge management platforms provide.
This is the point in the evaluation where buyers should separate what sounds strong in the demo from what will still matter after implementation, reporting setup, and day-two administration are real.
These are the strengths most likely to keep GLPI in contention once the team starts comparing practical fit, which feature breadth does not settle.
GLPI's self-hosted version is free under the GPL license with no seat limits, asset caps, or feature gating. An organization managing 10,000 assets with 50 IT agents pays nothing for the software itself: the only costs are server infrastructure and internal administration time. This is not a freemium play with upgrade pressure; the self-hosted product is fully featured.
GLPI's asset management goes well beyond basic inventory. The GLPI Agent handles automated discovery and inventory of computers, network devices, printers, and virtual machines: collecting hardware components, installed software with version numbers, network ports, and storage volumes.
The service desk module covers incident management, problem management, change management, and service request fulfillment: all ITIL-aligned. SLA and OLA configuration is built in, with automatic escalation rules and ticket assignment based on categories, entities, or custom business rules. For teams that need both ITAM and ITSM in a single platform without paying for two separate products, GLPI consolidates both.
Over 700 plugins are available through the GLPI plugin directory, covering everything from advanced reporting (Additional Reports, Data Injection) to cloud inventory synchronization (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), LDAP integration, and custom field extensions. Teclib maintains a curated set of GLPI Network plugins with guaranteed compatibility. The plugin architecture means teams can add capabilities incrementally without replacing the platform, though plugin compatibility after major version upgrades requires careful testing.
GLPI's entity system allows hierarchical segmentation of assets, tickets, users, and configurations across business units, departments, or client organizations. For MSPs managing multiple clients or large enterprises with decentralized IT operations, the entity model provides data isolation and delegated administration without running separate instances. This is architecturally cleaner than running multiple Snipe-IT instances or paying per-tenant fees in commercial platforms.
These are the points worth pressing in pricing calls, technical validation, and rollout planning before the team treats the product as a safe choice.
GLPI's interface has not fundamentally changed in years. For IT administrators who live in the backend, it is functional. For end users submitting service requests through the self-service portal, the experience feels significantly behind Freshservice, Jira Service Management, or ServiceNow.
GLPI is not a product you deploy on Monday and start using on Tuesday. The initial setup (server provisioning, PHP/Apache configuration, database tuning, entity structure design, GLPI Agent deployment, business rule configuration, SLA setup, and user import from LDAP or Active Directory) typically requires several weeks of dedicated effort from someone with Linux administration and ITSM experience.
Out-of-the-box reporting in GLPI covers basic asset lists, ticket statistics, and SLA compliance summaries. Custom reporting (cross-entity dashboards, trend analysis, or executive-level summaries) requires plugins like Additional Reports or Data Injection, or exporting data to an external BI tool. For teams that need to present IT operations metrics to leadership, the native reporting falls short of what Freshservice or ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus provide without add-ons.
Running GLPI self-hosted means the organization is responsible for PHP and Apache version upgrades, MariaDB/MySQL maintenance, security patching, SSL certificate management, backup procedures, and, critically, plugin compatibility testing after every major GLPI version update. Plugin breakage after upgrades is a well-documented pain point in the GLPI community. Teams that chose GLPI to avoid licensing costs sometimes discover that the accumulated administration hours exceed what a managed SaaS platform would have cost.
GLPI remains fundamentally an IT tool. Extending it to HR, facilities, or finance service management is technically possible through custom entities and categories but requires heavy customization that Teclib does not natively support. Organizations adopting enterprise-wide service management (where IT, HR, and operations share a request platform) will find GLPI's IT-centric design limiting compared to Freshservice, Jira Service Management, or ServiceNow, all of which support multi-department service catalogs with less custom development.
GLPI can be self-hosted on any LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP) or deployed through GLPI Network Cloud. Self-hosted installation is straightforward for experienced Linux administrators. The requirements are PHP 8.1+, a supported database, and a web server.
Teclib also publishes Docker images for containerized deployments. GLPI Network Cloud eliminates infrastructure management entirely at €19 per agent per month. The choice between self-hosted and cloud should be driven by whether the team has the capacity to maintain the underlying infrastructure long-term; installing it once is the easy part.
The GLPI Agent (successor to FusionInventory) handles automated inventory of computers, network devices, printers, and virtual machines. It supports Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints and can be deployed via GPO, SCCM, or package managers. Network discovery via SNMP inventories switches, routers, and printers without an agent. VMware inventory connects directly to vCenter or ESXi hosts. The agent is lightweight and well-documented, but initial deployment across a mixed environment requires deliberate planning, particularly for SNMP credential management and network segmentation.
Integration options include LDAP and Active Directory for user authentication and provisioning, IMAP/POP for email-to-ticket conversion, and plugins for Slack, Microsoft Teams, and various monitoring tools.
Before you book a demo
GLPI's evaluation path is different from most ITSM platforms because the self-hosted version is permanently free and fully featured. The buying decision is not whether to purchase GLPI. It is whether to self-host for free or pay for GLPI Network Cloud, and whether GLPI's tradeoffs versus commercial alternatives are acceptable for the team's specific environment.
Decide between self-hosted and cloud before evaluating features. If the team does not have reliable Linux administration capacity, GLPI Network Cloud at €19 per agent per month eliminates the maintenance burden. If the team does have that capacity and budget is the primary constraint, self-hosted is genuinely free. Make this infrastructure decision first. It determines the total cost of ownership more than any feature comparison.
Test the self-service portal with actual end users, separate from IT staff. GLPI's biggest adoption risk is that end users bypass the portal because the interface feels dated. During evaluation, have five non-technical users submit and track service requests. If they struggle or revert to email, factor in the cost of that adoption failure: it is the most common reason teams migrate away from GLPI to Freshservice or Jira Service Management.
Map the plugin dependencies before committing to a deployment. If the team needs advanced reporting, cloud asset sync, or integrations beyond LDAP and email-to-ticket, identify which plugins are required and verify they are compatible with the current GLPI version. Plugin breakage after upgrades is a documented issue.
Compare GLPI's total cost of ownership against Freshservice and Snipe-IT explicitly. For teams that need both ITAM and ITSM, GLPI's self-hosted version is likely the cheapest option, but only if the administration hours are honestly accounted for. Freshservice starts at $19 per agent per month and eliminates all infrastructure overhead. Snipe-IT is free for asset management but has no service desk. The right comparison depends on which combination of requirements and constraints the team actually faces.
Yes. GLPI's core software is free and open-source under the GPL license. You can self-host it with no licensing fees, no seat limits, and no asset caps. What costs money is Teclib's commercial offering, GLPI Network, which provides managed cloud hosting starting at €19 per IT agent per month and on-premises support subscriptions from €100 to €1,000 per month. The self-hosted open-source version remains fully featured and permanently free.
GLPI Network Cloud starts at €19 per IT agent per month for the Public Cloud plan, which includes the latest version, 5 GB storage, daily backups, and Level 3 support. The Private Cloud plan is €21 per agent per month with a 25-agent minimum and dedicated resources. IT assets and end users are unlimited and free on all plans. Pricing scales only with the number of IT agents.
Self-hosted GLPI requires a LAMP stack and someone comfortable with Linux server administration, PHP configuration, and database management. Initial setup (including entity structure design, GLPI Agent deployment, LDAP integration, and business rule configuration) typically takes several weeks. GLPI Network Cloud eliminates the infrastructure setup but still requires the same application-level configuration. Teams without Linux administration skills should budget for Teclib partner professional services or choose the cloud path.
GLPI is the open-source software project: free to download and self-host. GLPI Network is Teclib's commercial offering built on GLPI, providing managed cloud hosting, curated plugins with guaranteed compatibility, professional support with SLAs, and on-premises support subscriptions. Think of it as the difference between running WordPress yourself versus using WordPress.com: same core software, different operational models and support levels.
GLPI handles IT asset management and ITIL service desk operations at enterprise scale. Organizations manage tens of thousands of assets on it. The limitations become relevant when the enterprise needs a modern self-service portal for end users, deep custom reporting without plugins, or enterprise service management beyond IT departments. For IT-centric ITAM and ITSM with budget constraints, GLPI is viable at enterprise scale. For multi-department service management with a polished user experience, Freshservice or ServiceNow is a better architectural fit.
Yes. GLPI supports ITIL-aligned processes including incident management, problem management, change management, service request fulfillment, and service level management with configurable SLAs and OLAs. It does not carry formal ITIL certification like ServiceNow, but the process coverage is sufficient for most IT operations requirements.
GLPI can replace either on core ITAM and ITSM functionality at a fraction of the cost. It cannot match Freshservice's user experience or ServiceNow's enterprise service management breadth. The replacement is most successful when the team prioritizes asset management depth and budget over portal polish and out-of-the-box reporting, and has the technical capacity to self-host or is willing to pay for GLPI Network Cloud.
If GLPI looks credible but not final, compare it against these alternatives before committing. The most useful comparison is not feature-level (GLPI covers an unusual amount of ground for free software), but on user experience, maintenance burden, and whether the team's technical capacity matches the self-hosted operational model.
Enterprise ITSM with process automation, AI-assisted routing and deep ties into configuration management and asset data.
Jira Service Management is free for up to three agents and integrates deeply with the Atlassian ecosystem. Its strengths are the self-service portal experience, automation engine, and multi-department service management. Asset management requires the Insight (now Assets) module. Compare it when the organization already uses Jira for software development and wants service management to share the same platform.
Enterprise ITSM with deep process automation and AI-based ticket routing, tied into BMC's wider IT operations portfolio.
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers ITAM and ITSM with a free tier for up to five technicians. It has stronger out-of-the-box reporting and a more polished interface than GLPI, with on-premises and cloud deployment options. Compare it when the team wants a commercial product with a free entry tier and less infrastructure overhead than self-hosted GLPI.
ITSM platform with ITIL-aligned incident, problem, change and asset management held together in a single interface.
Head-to-head comparisons
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These are the public references, pricing pages, and editorial inputs used to support this page. Readers should still confirm final commercial or product details directly with the vendor when the decision becomes real.
pricing · verified Mar 17, 2026
Official pricing pageGLPI pricing reference
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