# Cablefolio vs NetBox

> NetBox is an open-source network source of truth that infrastructure teams use to model and automate their networks; Cablefolio is hosted documentation for the technicians and contractors who install and service networks on site, and hand them over to clients.

| Topic | Cablefolio | NetBox |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | Hosted network and low-voltage documentation for MSPs, IT teams, and contractors | An open-source network source of truth (DCIM and IPAM) built for network automation |
| How it is run | A hosted service: nothing to install, patch, or back up | Self-hosted from the open-source project, or NetBox Cloud from NetBox Labs |
| Licence | Commercial subscription | Apache 2.0 (open source) |
| Who records the data | Technicians on site, on a phone, online or offline | Engineers and automation, through the web interface and the API |
| API | A JSON API with an OpenAPI reference, and signed webhooks | REST and GraphQL APIs, and event-driven webhooks |

## Where NetBox fits

NetBox models a network in depth — sites, racks, devices, cables, IP addresses, VLANs, circuits — so that automation can read the intended state from one place. Teams that generate configurations from their source of truth, and run it themselves, choose NetBox for that, and it has a large community and plugin ecosystem.

## Where Cablefolio fits

Cablefolio is built for the person standing in the comms room. It works offline on a phone, files photos where they were taken, draws floor plans with every device and run pinned on them, walks a crew through a checklist the customer signs, prints the labels, and turns the record into the as-built report and the customer’s portal. It is hosted, so there is no server to keep. NetBox device-type files import into Cablefolio as presets.

## Using both

They are not exclusive. A team can keep NetBox as the automation source of truth and use Cablefolio for site surveys, installs, and client handovers; Cablefolio’s API and webhooks are there for syncing what each one owns.

## Questions and answers

### Is Cablefolio a NetBox alternative?

For field documentation, floor plans, client handovers, and teams that want a hosted service with an offline phone app, yes. For a self-hosted source of truth that drives network automation, NetBox is built for that job, and the two can be used together.

### Is Cablefolio open source?

No. Cablefolio is a commercial hosted service. Your data can be exported in full at any time.

## What NetBox’s own pages say

- NetBox’s maintainers wrote that floor plans and outlet locations would not be pursued “as part of the core application”; floor plans are available through community plugins. Source: [NetBox issue #21342 (floor plans)](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/issues/21342), read 2026-11-13.

## Sources

- [NetBox documentation](https://netboxlabs.com/docs/netbox/)
- [NetBox on GitHub](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox)