GLPI (Gestionnaire Libre de Parc Informatique) is a comprehensive open-source IT Asset Management and IT Service Management platform that transforms how organizations manage their entire IT infrastructure.
Known for its extensive feature set and cost-effectiveness, GLPI provides a unified solution for asset tracking, helpdesk operations, and ITIL-compliant service management—enabling IT departments, operations teams, and MSPs to orchestrate complete IT workflows from incident resolution to change management.
What Is GLPI?
GLPI is a free, open-source ITSM platform designed to centralize IT asset management, service desk operations, and business process automation.
Organizations can track everything from computers and network devices to software licenses and contracts while managing incidents, problems, and changes through integrated workflows. Originally developed for IT inventory management, GLPI now supports comprehensive ITIL processes, project management, and financial tracking. Its user base spans from small businesses to global enterprises, with particularly strong adoption among IT teams, managed service providers, and organizations seeking cost-effective alternatives to proprietary ITSM solutions.
What is GLPI used for?
GLPI serves as a comprehensive platform for managing IT operations and assets across organizations of all sizes:
- IT Asset Management - Tracks hardware, software, network equipment, and consumables throughout their complete lifecycle from procurement to disposal
- Service Desk Operations - Manages incidents, service requests, and problems with automated workflows, SLA tracking, and user self-service portals.
- License and Contract Management - Monitors software compliance, renewal dates, and vendor relationships to prevent legal issues and optimize costs
- Change and Problem Management - Plans and implements IT changes with impact analysis, approval workflows, and root cause documentation
- Project Management - Coordinates IT initiatives using Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and resource allocation with full integration to assets and tickets.
- Financial Management - Tracks IT expenses, depreciation, budgets, and procurement with comprehensive reporting for cost optimization.
- Multi-Entity Support - Manages separate departments, subsidiaries, or client environments within a single platform instance.
- Knowledge Management - Maintains searchable documentation, FAQs, and troubleshooting guides to enable self-service and faster resolution.
Key Features of GLPI
The platform's comprehensive functionality makes it suitable for complex IT environments:
- Comprehensive Asset Tracking provides detailed inventory management for all IT resources, including computers, servers, network devices, phones, consumables, and custom assets with automatic discovery capabilities.
- Integrated Service Desk handles incident, problem, request, and change management with customizable workflows, SLA enforcement, and automated notifications throughout the resolution process.
- Advanced Automation Engine executes business rules, automates ticket routing, triggers notifications, and manages recurring processes to reduce manual workload and ensure consistency.
- Plugin Ecosystem extends core functionality through 90+ community and official plugins covering monitoring integration, advanced reporting, authentication, and specialized workflows.
- Multi-Entity Management supports complex organizational structures with isolated data, workflows, and permissions for different departments, locations, or client environments.
- Financial Integration tracks contracts, purchases, and warranties while linking financial data directly to assets and service operations for comprehensive cost management.
- ITIL Compliance implements industry best practices for service management, including problem management, change control, configuration management, and service level management.
GLPI Pros & Cons
GLPI offers significant advantages for organizations seeking comprehensive IT management while presenting some implementation challenges.
GLPI Pros
- Cost-effective open-source licensing eliminates expensive per-seat fees while providing enterprise-level functionality.
- Comprehensive feature coverage handles ITAM, ITSM, project management, and financial tracking in one integrated platform.
- Extensive customization options through plugins, custom fields, and workflow configuration adapt to specific organizational needs.
- Strong community support provides ongoing development, troubleshooting assistance, and plugin contributions.
- Scalable architecture supports organizations from small businesses to large enterprises with unlimited assets and users.
- ITIL alignment implements industry best practices for service management and operational excellence
GLPI Cons
- Complex initial setup requires technical expertise and significant configuration time, especially for advanced features.
- Steep learning curve for administrators unfamiliar with ITSM concepts or open-source platform management
- Interface limitations may feel dated compared to modern SaaS solutions, potentially affecting user adoption.
- Community-dependent support relies primarily on forums and documentation rather than formal vendor assistance.
- Plugin management overhead requires careful compatibility tracking and maintenance across system updates.
GLPI Pricing
GLPI follows a freemium model with both open-source and commercial options to meet different organizational needs.
When GLPI Isn't Enough: Meet Siit
GLPI handles IT asset tracking and ticketing well—but its dated portal interface, weak reporting capabilities, and IT-focused design can't coordinate workflows across IT, HR, Finance, and Operations. Even with comprehensive asset management and ITIL processes, you're still stuck with the coordination chaos that happens when requests need approvals from multiple departments, plus the manual work of exporting data to build dashboards.
Siit solves what GLPI can't: turning multi-department workflows into seamless experiences where employees actually work.
- Works Where Employees Already Are - GLPI requires portal logins through its dated interface. Siit's Slack-native and Teams-native service desk lives in the tools employees already use daily. No portals, no training on unintuitive interfaces.
- Agentic AI That Executes Across Departments - GLPI tracks IT assets and tickets within IT boundaries. Siit's AI agents execute complete workflows: pulling employee data from BambooHR, routing approvals to managers in Slack, provisioning access in Okta, and updating compliance records. One request, complete resolution across every system.
- Built-In Analytics That Actually Work - GLPI makes it difficult to export data for business dashboards and reporting. Siit's analytics provide real-time operational insights without manual exports or custom development—see resolution times, bottlenecks, and department performance instantly.
- Unified Context Without Performance Issues - GLPI slows down with large deployments and requires navigating different modules. Siit's contextualized employee view shows everything—employee records, equipment, permissions, system history—in one fast interface that doesn't degrade at scale.
- Days to Value, Not Weeks of Configuration - GLPI requires technical expertise for setup, plugin management, and LDAP integration troubleshooting. Siit connects through 50+ native integrations and starts automating workflows within days—no complex configuration, plugin compatibility issues, or database optimization required.
While GLPI handles IT asset management and ticketing, Siit eliminates the coordination overhead and usability problems that IT-focused platforms can't touch. Workflows that span multiple departments become automated processes where employees get complete resolution in seconds instead of multi-day coordination chains through dated interfaces.
Book a demo to see Siit in action.
GLPI Alternatives
For organizations seeking comprehensive ITSM solutions, several alternatives offer different capabilities and deployment models. All tools listed below can integrate with Siit to prevent data silos during platform transitions.
- Siit provides cross-departmental process orchestration that works natively in Slack and Teams, automating workflows across IT, HR, Finance, and Operations without requiring platform migration.
- ServiceNow offers enterprise-grade ITSM with extensive automation and integrations, though at significantly higher cost and complexity than GLPI's streamlined approach.
- Jira Service Management integrates seamlessly with Atlassian's development ecosystem, making it ideal for DevOps teams while requiring additional tools for comprehensive asset management.
- Freshservice provides cloud-native ITSM with modern interfaces and quick deployment, though with less customization flexibility than GLPI's open-source model.
- ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus combines ITSM and asset management in a modular suite, though often requiring multiple licenses for full functionality that GLPI includes by default.


