Asset Inventory Tools: Frequently Asked Questions

A continuously updated list of the hardware, software, cloud resources, SaaS apps and identities an organization has, with who owns each one and what state it is in. See What is an IT asset inventory.

A CMDB is the system of record for configuration items that IT workflows run on. An asset inventory tool reads many sources, including the CMDB, works out which records describe the same asset and shows where they disagree. Most enterprises run both. See CMDB vs asset inventory.

A category of tools that connect to the security and IT systems an organization already runs, consolidate their asset data into one view and show coverage gaps. See What is CAASM.

Agentless discovery finds assets by scanning the network, listening to traffic or reading other tools' APIs, with nothing installed on the device. Agents report detail from inside the device but only where they are installed. See Active, Passive, Agent and API.

Deciding that records from different tools describe the same asset and merging them into one record, then settling conflicts between their fields. See How asset correlation works.

Identities. In our coverage grid 2 of seven tools document identities fully and 3 partially. SaaS apps are documented fully by 3. See the coverage grid.

On the pages we reviewed in September 2026, JupiterOne, runZero and Lansweeper publish prices. Device42 publishes its pricing model but not amounts. Axonius, Armis and Oomnitza do not publish prices. See the calculator.

JupiterOne publishes annual list prices: Small-Market $25,000; Mid-Market $50,000 per 12 months for up to 200,000 data points; Enterprise $100,000 per 12 months for up to 400,000 data points; custom quotes above 1 million data points. See the JupiterOne review.

Two tools in our ranking publish free tiers: runZero's Community Edition covers 100 or fewer assets with 30-day retention, and Lansweeper continues free for up to 100 assets after its 14-day trial. See runZero vs Lansweeper.

Run a short proof of concept on a small scope with a known sample of assets and success criteria written in advance. See How to run an asset inventory proof of concept.

Start with the sources you need connected, the asset classes you must cover, how records are matched, how often data refreshes and how fixes reach your system of record. The buyer's guide lists twelve questions.

Yes. The calculator lets you set a weight from 0 to 10 for each criterion and re-ranks the seven tools on our scores, next to the prices vendors publish.

Correlating what many security and IT tools report into one record per asset. It scores 76, ranks 1 of 7 and has the top score on source coverage, correlation and deduplication and remediation and write-back. It aggregates findings from tools already in place rather than scanning for vulnerabilities itself, and it does not publish prices. See the Axonius review.

Relationship queries across a security graph, with published annual prices from $25,000. It scores 73 and has the top score on query and reporting and price transparency. OT and IoT devices are not listed among its asset classes. See the JupiterOne review.

Dragos announced on 21 September 2026 that it has acquired runZero and NetRise; runZero continues to serve existing customers. runZero scores 72 and has the top score on deployment effort. See the runZero review.

For IT teams that want a fast start on published plans, yes. It scores 86 on deployment effort, 90 on price transparency and 70 overall. It does not document enforcement actions of its own, and its SaaS coverage is AI usage tracking. See the Lansweeper review.

ServiceNow completed its acquisition of Armis on 20 April 2026. Armis Centrix remains available as part of the ServiceNow AI Platform and as a standalone product, and we score it separately: 69, with the top score on data freshness. See the Armis review.

No. The ServiceNow CMDB is the system of record where incident, change and request work runs. Asset inventory tools check the CMDB against other sources and feed corrections into it. See Works alongside: ServiceNow CMDB.

Hardware and license lifecycle. It reconciles procurement, MDM, EDR and ITSM data into one record per physical asset and automates onboarding, refresh, recovery and license reclamation. It scores 62; OT, IoT and network devices are not documented. See Oomnitza alternatives.

Data center discovery and dependency mapping, from mainframes to cloud containers, with IP address management. It is a Freshworks company and scores 57; pricing is per device and amounts are not published. See Device42 alternatives.

Each tool gets a 0-100 editorial score on seven criteria, weighted source coverage 22%, correlation and deduplication 18%, data freshness 12%, query and reporting 12%, remediation and write-back 14%, deployment effort 12% and price transparency 10%. The total is computed from those weights. See the methodology.

No. Scores come from public vendor pages, documentation and pricing pages reviewed in September 2026. We did not run the products or interview vendors; the limits are listed on the methodology page.

We looked at Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management and Rapid7 Surface Command but could not retrieve enough product documentation from their public pages to score them fairly this quarter. We will revisit both. See the methodology.

Contact us with the page, the statement and a public source. We review corrections within seven days and note material changes on the page. See About.