Overview

CMDBuild is an open-source environment for building web-based asset-management applications. It best suits organizations with technical staff who can shape and operate a self-hosted system; teams seeking a ready-to-use CMDB should look elsewhere.

Key features

CMDBuild can track asset composition, location, relationships, changes, and lifecycle. Its modeling tools, workflow and report engines, dashboards, task management, and scheduling let teams tailor how assets and related work are recorded. Import and export, document archives, history, and GIS and BIM capabilities broaden the kinds of records it can manage.

REST services support reading and writing data, running operations, and exchanging notifications with external asset, staff, ERP, infrastructure, monitoring, and IoT systems. This makes CMDBuild a candidate for organizations that need to connect asset records to other systems, but the standard download does not supply a finished model or workflow to connect around.

Role-based permissions can be scoped down to classes, rows, columns, processes, views, filters, reports, and dashboards. Authentication options include local accounts, LDAP, CAS, SAML 2.0, ADFS 4 through SAML, HTTP proxy headers, and custom OAuth2. Multitenancy can separate organizations with distinct databases or use partially divided data with some shared information, giving administrators choices about isolation.

Discovery imports, service and dependency mapping, and ownership tracking are supported capabilities. They add useful scope for configuration management, while the depth of the resulting system depends on how administrators configure it.

Pricing

The CMDBuild plan costs 0.00 USD per free under the AGPL open-source license. It includes the software, but requires self-hosting and server setup; the standard download has no data model, workflows, reports, or dashboards. Organizations needing a preconfigured instance can consider READY2USE. Subscription support is a separate route for assistance, upgrades, bug fixes, a certified appliance, mobile app, and interoperability connectors.

Platforms

CMDBuild is browser-accessed software that can run on Linux, OSX, or Windows, with on-premises deployment and API access. Operating it requires web-server setup knowledge. The stated minimum is a server-class computer with 16 GB RAM, 150 GB disk per instance, and four cores, alongside PostgreSQL 17.x, Tomcat 10, and Java 17. Those requirements make it a substantial infrastructure commitment compared with a hosted service.

Who it's for

CMDBuild is a strong fit for organizations that want control over their asset data model, processes, access rules, integrations, and deployment, and have the people and infrastructure to configure them. It is less suitable for small teams that need a populated asset system quickly or lack server administration capacity. Modified versions must also follow AGPL conditions, including specified legal notice and logo requirements.

Pros and cons

Pros: Extensive modeling, workflow, reporting, access-control, and authentication options allow a tailored system for complex organizational needs.
Pros: REST services and multitenancy support integration and tenant separation without forcing a single data-sharing arrangement.
Pros: The AGPL software is free to use, distribute, and edit under its license conditions.
Cons: The standard download lacks the data model, workflows, reports, and dashboards needed for an immediately useful deployment.
Cons: Server setup and sizeable minimum hardware and software requirements raise the operational bar.

Alternatives

CMDB Software is the category directory for comparing options. BlueKing CMDB is another free option, with a community edition that emphasizes one-click deployment, automated operations, user community, and documentation. teemIP is worth considering for a free open-source community edition with download, installation, GitHub, wiki, and forum access.

GLPI offers a public-cloud plan at 19.00 EUR per month per IT agent, making it an alternative for teams preferring a paid cloud service. Hornbill IT Asset Management uses personalized pricing tailored to requirements. BeaverFlow CMDB has a Growth plan at 24.00 USD per month for up to 50 users, for buyers considering a priced hosted or dedicated-cloud package.

Matrix42 FastViewer is a paid alternative priced at 540.00 EUR per year per concurrent session, plus 19% VAT. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus may suit teams seeking an IT help desk, with Standard at 13.00 USD per month and Professional at 27.00 USD per month, the latter including asset management. OpenText Universal Discovery and CMDB has pricing based on environment and deployment needs.

Verdict

Choose CMDBuild if your organization wants a free, highly configurable asset-management foundation and can provide the server administration and design work to make it useful. Its breadth of controls and integration options is the main draw; the empty standard starting point and infrastructure burden are the main reasons to choose a more turnkey alternative.

	CMDBuild	ServiceNow CMDB
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	Free	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, Web, Windows	Web
Free plan	Yes	—
Service mapping	Yes	Yes
Dependency mapping	Yes	Yes
Discovery imports	Yes	Yes
Ownership tracking	Yes	Yes
Deployment options	on-premises	cloud

CMDBuild vs ServiceNow CMDB

CMDBuild

ServiceNow CMDB