NetBox

What is NetBox?

NetBox is an open source IPAM (IP address management) and DCIM (data center infrastructure management) tool that acts as the single source of truth for your network. You model your infrastructure — IP space, VLANs, racks, devices, cabling, and power — in one database, then expose it through a REST and GraphQL API to drive automation. It was created by DigitalOcean’s network engineering team and is released under the Apache 2.0 license.

What is NetBox best for?

NetBox is best for network and infrastructure teams who want a structured, authoritative record of how the network is supposed to be built. It replaces the spreadsheets and wiki pages that drift out of date, and its API-first design makes it the data backbone for network automation pipelines built with tools like Ansible, Terraform, or custom scripts.

What can NetBox do?

• Manage IP address space: prefixes, VLANs, VRFs, aggregates, and per-address assignments
• Document physical infrastructure: sites, racks, devices, interfaces, cabling, and power feeds
• Model virtualization, circuits, tenancy, and contacts alongside physical gear
• Serve everything through a REST API and a read-only GraphQL API for automation
• Render device configs from NetBox data with Jinja2 templates
• Trigger webhooks and custom scripts on data changes via event rules
• Extend the data model with custom fields, tags, and community plugins
• Track every change with a full, user-attributed change log and granular permissions

Where does NetBox fall short?

• It’s a source of truth, not a monitoring or config tool. NetBox documents intended state; it doesn’t poll devices for uptime, alert on outages, or push configs on its own. You pair it with monitoring and automation tools to close that loop.
• The open source core has no auto-discovery. Data is entered manually or fed via the API, so keeping it accurate is on you. NetBox Labs sells NetBox Discovery and Assurance as paid products to detect drift between NetBox and the live network — a gap the free version leaves open.
• The data model is rich and opinionated. Modeling sites, tenants, roles, and relationships correctly takes real upfront effort, and the learning curve is steeper than a flat IP spreadsheet or a lightweight tool like phpIPAM.

Is NetBox free?

Yes — the core NetBox application is free and open source under Apache 2.0, and you can self-host it at no license cost. NetBox Labs sells paid options on top: NetBox Cloud (fully hosted SaaS), NetBox Enterprise (supported on-prem), and add-ons like Discovery, Assurance, and the NetBox Copilot AI assistant. None of those are required to run the open source version.

What does NetBox replace?

NetBox is a self-hosted alternative to commercial IPAM and DCIM products like SolarWinds IP Address Manager and Device42. It covers the same IP planning, rack and device documentation, and cabling records, but you run it on your own infrastructure without per-IP or per-device licensing. Among open source options it overlaps with phpIPAM and RackTables, while going far broader than either.

FAQ

Is NetBox open source? Yes. NetBox is released under the Apache 2.0 license — a permissive, OSI-approved license — so the full application is free to use, self-host, and modify.

Can I self-host NetBox for free? Yes. The open source NetBox has no license fee; you only pay for the server it runs on. NetBox Cloud and NetBox Enterprise are the paid, managed alternatives if you’d rather not run it yourself.

Is NetBox a good SolarWinds or Device42 alternative? For teams that want an open, API-first source of truth, yes — NetBox matches their IPAM and DCIM modeling without licensing costs. The tradeoff is that the free version has no built-in network discovery, which those commercial tools include.

What do I need to run NetBox? NetBox is a Python/Django application that requires PostgreSQL for its database and Redis for caching and task queuing. It’s commonly deployed with Docker or behind a WSGI server for production.