Next Inventory vs Snipe-IT: asset tracking inside Joomla or in a separate app
This article is for IT teams and office managers who run a Joomla site and need to know who has which laptop, and how much toner is left. It compares Next Inventory, a Joomla component, with Snipe-IT, a standalone open-source asset manager. Prices and features were checked on 5 September 2026.
What Snipe-IT is
Snipe-IT is a free, open-source IT asset and license management system. It is written in PHP on Laravel 12 and released under the AGPL-3.0. You can install it on your own server, where support comes from the community on GitHub and Discord. Or you can pay Snipe-IT to host it: Basic costs $39.99 a month or $399.99 a year, Small Business costs $99.99 a month or $999.99 a year, and a dedicated server starts at $249.99 a month. Snipe-IT is built for IT departments. It records who has each asset and when it was bought so it can be depreciated, tracks software licenses and their expiry dates, keeps accessories, consumables and components, and can ask a user to accept a EULA when equipment is checked out. LDAP, Google Secure LDAP and SAML logins are included, and the interface is translated into more than 55 languages.
What Next Inventory is
Next Inventory is a component that runs inside the Joomla site you already have. It tracks three kinds of items: assets you check out to people and expect back, consumables that get used up, and sellables with a stock level. Your staff log in with their Joomla accounts, roles can be given to whole Joomla user groups, and updates arrive through Joomla's own updater. A license is a one-time purchase: €59 for one year of updates and support, €99 for two years, €139 for three years, with unlimited installations and security updates for at least five years. The code is GPL, so it keeps working when the license period ends.
Side by side
| Capability | Next Inventory | Snipe-IT |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Inside your Joomla site | Its own Laravel app on your server, or Snipe-IT hosting |
| User accounts | Your Joomla users and groups | Its own users, plus LDAP and SAML |
| Price | One-time, €59 to €139 | Free self-hosted; hosting from $399.99 a year |
| Open-source license | GPL v2 or later | AGPL-3.0 |
| Check assets out to people | Yes, with serial numbers | Yes, to users or locations |
| Consumable stock and low-stock alerts | Yes, email and browser push | Yes, low inventory report |
| Sellable stock | Yes | No |
| Transfers between warehouses | Yes, in batches with draft and finalise | Not listed |
| Barcode with a USB scanner | Yes | Yes |
| Barcode with the phone camera in the browser | Yes | Not listed; QR labels for reader apps |
| Software license tracking | No | Yes, with expiry alerts |
| Depreciation | No | Yes |
| EULA acceptance on check-out | No | Yes, with digital signature |
| Custom fields | Yes, 12 types, on items, warehouses and recipients | Yes, on assets |
| Role permissions | Yes, per feature, per user or Joomla group | Yes |
| Stock valuation and FIFO/LIFO costing | Yes | Not listed |
| Public REST API | No | Yes |
| Translations | Every string, through Joomla language overrides | 55+ languages |
Where Next Inventory is the better fit
- You already run Joomla. Snipe-IT is a second application with its own server, its own login and its own patch cycle. Next Inventory installs like any Joomla extension and updates from the same screen as the rest of the site.
- You track more than IT hardware. Toner, lab reagents and packaging are consumables. Anything you sell is a sellable. All three share one catalogue and one stock movement screen, so a laptop check-out and a toner top-up land in the same log.
- Your staff scan with their phones. Next Inventory reads barcodes through the phone camera in the browser, with nothing to install. USB scanners work as well.
- You want to pay once. Hosted Snipe-IT starts at $399.99 a year. Self-hosting is free, but someone has to run and patch a Laravel server.
Where Snipe-IT is the better fit
- Your job is IT asset management in the strict sense: software licenses with expiry alerts, depreciation, asset audits and EULA sign-off on check-out. Next Inventory has none of these.
- You need LDAP or SAML login and you do not have a Joomla site to attach the inventory to.
- You need a REST API, or you want the integrations and translations that come with one of the largest open-source asset communities.
Try it
Log in to the Next Inventory demo to check an item out and watch the log update. The installation guide takes a few minutes to follow, and Why Next Inventory fits internal inventory management explains the three item types in more depth.