Glpi

Open source alternative to Jira Service Management, Freshservice and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

6.5K stars
GPL-3.0
Active this week
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Last verified Oct 31, 2026

Manage IT assets, incidents, and service requests with a self-hostable ITSM platform covering helpdesk, CMDB, and financial tracking.

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Read the full breakdownWho it is for, how it works, trade-offs, the quick start and the FAQ

who it's for

Who Glpi is for#

IT department consolidating multiple tools

A mid-size IT department running separate helpdesk, inventory, and contract management tools can replace all three with a single GLPI deployment. The shared data model means a support ticket links directly to the affected asset and its warranty record, cutting context-switching between systems.

Skip if:

The team only needs ticketing and has no asset tracking or CMDB requirement.

Organizations with compliance or data residency requirements

Regulated industries that cannot store asset or support data in a third-party cloud can run GLPI on their own servers or private infrastructure. The GPL-3.0 license and full self-hosting path give IT teams complete control over where records live and who can access the database.

Skip if:

The organization has no data residency constraint and prefers a managed SaaS product.

IT teams replacing a commercial ITSM after a price increase

When Freshservice or Jira Service Management pricing moves out of budget on a license renewal, GLPI offers a migration path covering the same core ITSM functionality without ongoing per-agent costs. The CMDB, service catalog, and financial modules provide feature parity with mid-tier commercial plans.

Skip if:

The team is satisfied with its current ITSM vendor pricing and contract.

the problem

The problem it solves#

IT service management platforms combine ticketing, asset inventory, configuration management, and financial tracking in one system. Commercial platforms like Freshservice and Jira Service Management charge per agent, which makes costs unpredictable for mid-size IT teams and prohibitive for larger ones with many technicians. When agents need read-only access for reporting or asset auditing, adding seats still adds cost.

The deeper challenge is data ownership. Commercial ITSM platforms keep asset records, ticket history, and configuration data in the vendor's cloud. Teams that need air-gapped deployments for compliance or that want direct database access for reporting hit a wall. Most free ticketing tools stop at helpdesk and do not include inventory, CMDB, or financial management.

how Glpi solves it

How it solves it#

ITIL-aligned service desk

Manages incidents, problems, change requests, and service requests in a single workflow. Supports service catalog forms with SLA tracking, keeping ticket queues organized and escalations predictable. Includes a knowledge base and FAQ module for capturing solutions to repeat requests.

Native agentless asset inventory

Scans networks and generates SNMP reports without requiring an agent installed on every device. From version 10 onward, GLPI ships built-in dynamic inventory that tracks computers, peripherals, printers, and their components in real time. Network-scanned data feeds directly into the CMDB.

CMDB and impact analysis

Tracks configuration items and the relationships between them, supporting accurate change management and blast-radius analysis before and after incidents. Impact analysis helps IT teams understand which services a configuration change could affect before approving it.

Financial and license management

Centralizes budgets, purchase orders, warranty details, depreciation records, supplier contacts, and software license counts. Aligns with ITIL financial management for IT services and flags license overuse or upcoming expirations. Tracks contract terms alongside the assets they cover.

Data Center Infrastructure Management

Manages physical data center assets including rack layouts with drag-and-drop placement. Tracks network connections between rack units and supports visual management of the physical infrastructure layer, providing visibility that virtual asset tracking tools typically omit.

Plugin marketplace

The plugin directory at plugins.glpi-project.org lists hundreds of community-built and vendor-supported extensions covering monitoring systems, mobile device management, antivirus management, and application deployment tools. Core functionality remains stable while plugins extend it for specific environments.

strengths · trade-offs

Strengths and trade-offs#

Strengths

Single deployment covering helpdesk, CMDB, and financialsGLPI combines helpdesk, CMDB, asset inventory, financial management, and DCIM in one deployment. Commercial ITSM platforms typically charge per agent or per technician. With GLPI, adding IT staff costs nothing in licensing, which changes the economics for teams that grow.
Active development since 2015, 6,500+ starsThe repository has 6,539 GitHub stars and 1,848 forks. The last push was October 30, 2026, and the project has been under continuous development since 2015. Teclib' backs the project commercially while the open source community contributes alongside, keeping release cadence steady.
Extensive plugin ecosystemHundreds of plugins extend the core without modifying it, covering MDM, monitoring, antivirus management, and third-party integrations. This makes GLPI adaptable to varied IT environments without forking the codebase or waiting for upstream additions.
GPL-3.0 with full self-hosting rightsGPL-3.0 allows organizations to run GLPI internally on their own servers with no usage restrictions. Teams can inspect and modify the source code, keep all data on their own infrastructure, and avoid vendor lock-in. The license does require distributing modifications if GLPI is offered as a hosted service to others.

Trade-offs

-Server prerequisites require PHP 8.3+ and MariaDBGLPI requires PHP 8.3 or later, MariaDB 10.11 or MySQL 8.0, and mandatory PHP extensions including curl, gd, intl, mbstring, and openssl. Teams without an existing PHP server environment will need to provision one. This is a higher baseline than ITSM tools shipped as self-contained Docker images.
-367 open issues on GitHubThe GitHub issue tracker shows 367 open issues (pull requests excluded, as of October 2026). Teams should review issues in their specific feature area before committing to a deployment that depends on a niche capability or a recently added module.
-Module breadth can overwhelm smaller teamsGLPI exposes a broad set of ITIL-aligned modules including DCIM, impact analysis, and financial management. Teams that only need a simple ticketing system will find the default interface dense with options they will not use. Lighter-weight tools with fewer modules may suit small teams with basic helpdesk needs.

versus alternatives

Glpi vs alternatives#

GLPI vs Jira Service Management

Jira Service Management is built around Atlassian's project management ecosystem. Teams already using Jira Software benefit from deep issue-linking between developer tickets and IT service requests. The tradeoff is pricing: JSM charges per agent, and costs compound when adding the full Atlassian stack. GLPI has no per-agent cost and runs on your own infrastructure, but it lacks JSM's native integration with developer workflows. For IT operations teams with no existing Atlassian dependency, GLPI covers the same ITSM scope at zero licensing cost.

GLPI vs Freshservice

Freshservice targets IT teams that want a polished SaaS experience with minimal setup. It includes a guided onboarding flow, mobile app, and AI-assisted ticket routing that GLPI does not offer in the core product. Freshservice's per-agent pricing model becomes expensive as the IT team grows. GLPI provides the same core ITSM modules, a CMDB, and DCIM without licensing costs, but requires server provisioning, PHP configuration, and ongoing maintenance. Teams with the technical capacity to manage their own hosting trade Freshservice's ease of use for lower long-term cost and full data ownership.

GLPI vs ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is positioned at the enterprise end of the ITSM market, with modules for change management, service catalog, and asset management that closely parallel GLPI's own feature set. Both cover ITIL-aligned workflows, CMDB, and financial tracking. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus carries per-technician licensing and ties organizations to a proprietary platform. GLPI matches it on ITIL module coverage while running under GPL-3.0 on the organization's own servers. The practical differentiator is operational overhead: teams that can absorb the self-hosting burden get comparable capability without vendor lock-in.

install · quick start

Quick start#

bash

Download the GLPI release archive from GitHub Releases and extract it to your web server: https://github.com/glpi-project/glpi/releases/latest

tech stack · detected from GitHub

What it's built on#

Languages: JavaScriptPHPTypeScript
Frameworks: Vue
Tooling: Webpack

frequently asked

FAQ#

Is GLPI free to use for commercial teams?

GLPI is licensed under GPL-3.0, which means the software itself is free to download, run, and modify for internal use, including commercial organizations. Teclib' offers a paid cloud-hosted version (GLPI Network Cloud) and commercial support contracts, but the core software has no licensing cost for self-hosted deployments.

What are the server requirements for hosting GLPI?

GLPI requires a web server (Apache, Nginx, or IIS), PHP 8.3 or higher with extensions including curl, gd, intl, mbstring, mysqli, openssl, and zlib, and either MariaDB 10.11 or MySQL 8.0. The README also recommends Zend OPcache for performance and the LDAP extension for enterprise authentication.

How does GLPI compare to Freshservice for small IT teams?

Freshservice offers a polished SaaS experience with less setup overhead. GLPI requires server provisioning and ongoing maintenance, but adds capabilities Freshservice restricts to higher tiers: unlimited agents, a CMDB, and DCIM. For teams with the technical capacity to self-host, GLPI removes per-agent costs entirely.

Does GLPI support integrations with external monitoring tools?

Integration with external systems is handled through the plugin marketplace. The plugin directory at plugins.glpi-project.org lists extensions for monitoring platforms, MDM tools, and security alert management. The core GLPI release also includes SNMP-based network scanning and REST API endpoints for custom integrations.

What does the GPL-3.0 license restrict for self-hosters?

Organizations can run, modify, and redistribute GLPI under GPL-3.0 without restriction for internal use, including in commercial businesses. The main limitation is that if you offer a modified version of GLPI as a hosted service to others, you must publish your modifications under the same GPL-3.0 license. Running it on your own servers for your own team does not trigger this requirement.

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