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SNMP, or Simple Network Management Protocol to use its full name, is an Internet Standard protocol that’s used for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on a network. The protocol has been around for a very long time, with the design of the first version of SNMP being finalized in the 1980s by a group of collaborators.

Today, there are three versions of SNMP in use simultaneously, with version 2 being the most prevalent. The bad news is that version 2 is incompatible with version 1 because of the differences in message formats and protocol operations. Version 3 is also fundamentally different from version 1 and 2, but all three versions can be translated by a proxy.

What Is Network Inventory?

Techopedia defines network inventory management as the process of keeping records of all the IT or network assets that make up a network. In the past, the average network inventory was fairly small and static. But due to the accelerating rate of technological change, companies today often acquire and decommission IT and network assets so frequently that they sometimes lose track of the state of their network inventory.

Fortunately, the developers of network inventory software have been listening to the needs of companies large and small, developing comprehensive network inventory scanners that greatly simplify the process of keeping records of all the IT and network assets.

What Are the Best Network Inventory Tools?

We have selected five best network inventory tools and sorted them based on several criteria, including their price, ease of use, reliability, features, customer support, user reviews, and versatility.

Out of all the network inventory software solutions that are currently available, Network Inventory Advisor has proven to outperform others in virtually every way, and it’s also one of only a few network inventory software solutions capable of meeting the needs of large enterprises just as well as it can meet the needs of small mom and pop businesses.

1. Network Inventory Advisor

Network Inventory Advisor is a professional network inventory software and the best network inventory solution featured on this list. Unlike other similar software products, we can recommend Network Inventory Advisor to anyone from small businesses to large enterprises. The core feature of Network Inventory Advisor is its ability to gather information about all hardware and software assets on a network.

The information that Network Inventory Advisor gathers includes software installations, software versions, licenses, and hardware details, making it indispensable when preparing for an audit. Network Inventory Advisor could never become the official audit partner of Autodesk if it wasn’t for its ability to collect licensing information for more than 500 independent software vendors, including the aforementioned Autodesk, Microsoft, or Adobe.

Network Inventory Advisor supports agent-less scanning of Windows nodes, Macs, Linux machines, and SNMP network devices. Thanks to the option to create multiple network groups, it’s possible to gather scan data from multiple networks with just one installation of the software. What’s more, it’s possible to set up Network Inventory Advisor to send alerts in case it detects a change on a network, which is something that every network administrator can appreciate.

Despite its vast capabilities, Network Inventory Advisor is one of the more affordable network inventory management solutions on the market, and it comes with fair license terms and absolutely no hidden fees whatsoever. The developers of Network Inventory Advisor guarantee business-friendly license terms, which state that any license purchased can be used for personal and commercial needs.

2. Spiceworks

Regardless of whether you need to monitor critical devices, troubleshoot issues, rescue users, or manage your inventory Spiceworks has the right tool for you. The inventory management software from Spiceworks supports automatic scanning, customizable alerts, software and hardware tracking, and much more. Spiceworks Inventory has been designed from scratch to integrate with other Spiceworks products and be a one-stop shop for managing devices and creating comprehensive reports. Spiceworks Inventory is easy to use, and it takes just a few minutes the finish the first scan thanks to pre-configured templates and out-of-the-box support for most networking devices.

3. Lansweeper

Lansweeper is an agent-free network inventory software with over 300 default network reports, integrated help desk, and the capability to scale to thousands of network assets. Because Lansweeper pairs network inventory management capabilities with Lansweeper Help Desk, it’s popular with small and medium-sized companies who want to kill two birds with one stone. But even when used only for network inventory management, Lansweeper still fares well when compared to other similar solutions, supporting automated software deployment, SNMP network management, active directory management, and license compliance monitoring.

4. Open-AudIT

Open-AudIT is a popular network auditing application based on PHP, Bash, and VBScript. Open-AudIT is available in two editions: Community and Enterprise. The Community edition is free and, as the name suggests, maintained by the community, while the Enterprise edition includes additional modules that improve discovery, simplify administration and increase reporting ability. Among the extra features found only in the Enterprise edition are a dashboard, scheduled reporting, reporting over time, advanced report filtering, exclusive reports, location mapping, scheduled discovery, bulk upload of discovery schedule, and commercial product and development support.

5. EMCO Network Inventory

EMCO Network Inventory is an award-winning network inventory software designed for companies both large and small. The main purpose of EMCO Network Inventory is to help business owners and network administrators automatically collect up-to-date information about all hardware and software assets from all remote PCs. To accomplish this, EMCO Network Inventory features a number of useful network inventory tools as well as the ability to generate detailed network inventory reports based on collected network audit information. EMCO Network Inventory is available in two editions: Professional and Enterprise. The Enterprise edition has additional software licenses management capabilities which the Professional edition lacks.

Automated Network Discovery

Manage and inventory your network servers, find all devices on network easily. Increase your network visibility with automated discovery of new devices with our IT asset management software.

You don't have to manually add devices to network groups, Network Inventory Advisor does this for you keeping your units organization. Additionally, you can track non-IT nodes manually. Manage and inventory your network servers and network devices easily.

Company Software Audit

Do you have 25 or 2500 nodes in your network? Organize, arrange and manage networks of any size easily! Highlight 2 or more network nodes in the network tree and select any of numerous network management tasks available.

Easily batch-tag your IT assets by adding custom data fields and including them in various reports afterwards.

Multi-platform Network Management

Software & hardware management are key factors in any IT system. With Network Inventory Advisor you can monitor software license compliance, track all software installations, antivirus updates status and subscriptions, disk space usage in all your offices, automatic updates configuration, offline assets and more.

...includes network management for all the computer inventory