What Snipe-IT is
Free and open-source. You install it on a web server (it needs a machine running PHP 8.2 or newer and a MySQL or MariaDB database, on Linux or Windows Server) and use it from a browser. Self-hosted it costs nothing but your time; hosted, it starts at $39.99 a month. Checkouts and check-ins, maintenance, audits, custom fields, a very large community. For a shop that already runs servers and wants a browser tool, it is a strong answer, and no comparison page should pretend otherwise.
The difference that decides most of the rest
Snipe-IT lives on a server and you reach it through a browser. That is fine at a desk and awkward standing in a stockroom. And it is more than a preference: to run it you stand up a machine, keep its OS, PHP version and web server patched, back up its database, and remember which client site each of those things belongs to. A consultant running five client registers on Snipe-IT is running five of everything.
Manifest’s register is a file on your Mac in the local track. There is no server, no database to keep alive, nothing to patch but the app itself. Your iPhone syncs to it over your own network. Download from the App Store, open the demo, and you are looking at a filled-in register minutes later. When the register holds other people’s hardware, the machine that keeps it is one less thing that can be down.
Side by side
| Snipe-IT | Manifest | |
|---|---|---|
| What it runs on | A web server you set up and maintain (PHP 8.2+, MySQL or MariaDB) | A native Mac app and a native iPhone app, one purchase |
| Where the register lives | On the server you chose, your own or their cloud | “This Mac and my devices”, or Starkive Cloud, your pick at setup |
| Getting started | Install PHP, a database and a web server, then configure | Download free, open the demo. Three days free, no card |
| Price | Free self-hosted; hosted from $39.99/mo | From $19/mo, seven tiers, priced by assets, never by seat |
| Compliance | The audit mapping is yours to assemble | 12 standards, 72 controls, 16 evidence reports in every tier |
| Support | Community, GitHub and Discord | Support from a person |
What Snipe-IT does that Manifest does not
Stated in the same size type as everything else on this page, because a comparison that only runs one way is an advertisement.
- It is free. Free forever, their words, not ours. If you host it yourself, Snipe-IT is completely free. If the budget is zero and the hours are not, Snipe-IT wins, and this page will not pretend otherwise.
- It runs in a browser. A mixed team on Windows, Linux and anything with a URL reaches it from anywhere. Manifest is Mac and iPhone only, and if that is a dealbreaker it is an honest one.
- It is open source. You can read the code, fork it, and never depend on a vendor’s judgement. Manifest is a product from a small company, and that dependency is real.
What Manifest does that Snipe-IT does not
- No server at all. Nothing to stand up, patch, monitor or back up. The register is the app’s own file, under your backup regime, and Time Machine already knows about it.
- Offline-first on the phone. The iPhone is a smaller build of the same product, built for standing in a rack checking serials against labels, with or without a network.
- Compliance, not exports. The evidence pack maps to 72 controls across 12 standards over 16 reports, in every tier. In Snipe-IT the mapping to an audit is yours to assemble.
- If a subscription ends, the register stays readable and exportable. Reading, reporting and exporting keep working; only adding and editing stop.
The limit, on both sides
Nothing in Manifest scans a machine or a network to find out what is on it. Neither does Snipe-IT; you feed both tools by import or by hand. If what you need is a network that inventories itself, that is Lansweeper’s product, and there is a page for that.
The honest close
If Snipe-IT is already running and you are happy in it, the advice is to stay. The case for Manifest has to be about the Mac being the desk and the iPhone being the stockroom, and about not wanting to own a server to count laptops. Download it free, open the demo, and you will know in ten minutes. Download on the App Store, or see the pricing first.
Sources
- snipeitapp.com: “If you host it yourself, Snipe-IT is completely free”; “Snipe-IT is open source software”; Grokability, Inc.
- snipeitapp.com/pricing: Basic Hosting $39.99/month; self-hosted free with unlimited users and assets.
- Snipe-IT installation requirements: PHP 8.2+, MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB, mod_rewrite or IIS.
- Checked 2026-09-28. Every figure quoted from Snipe-IT’s own site; if one moves, we move it here.