Scanopy is for IT teams and MSPs who want a dedicated network diagram automation tool which works alongside their existing monitoring platform. phpIPAM is for teams that plan and assign address space, including ranges reserved before anything is deployed. Discovery, the four topology views, pricing, and licensing are where the two differ, including phpIPAM's trade-offs.
Scanopy vs phpIPAM: head to head
| Scanopy | phpIPAM | |
|---|---|---|
| DiscoveryProtocols used to find devices and map connections | SNMP LLDP CDP ARP TCP/UDP | SNMP ICMP [47] |
| ServicesNo No service awareness Basic Common port detection Yes Application-level fingerprinting | Yes250+ types | No |
| Network ViewsWhich topology views the tool produces from discovery. L2 Physical switch ports and links L3 Subnets, VLANs, routing Workload VM/container host nesting Application Service-dependency / app grouping Yes supported Tag ? unverified Greyed not supported | Records subnets and hosts as tables; there is no rendered topology map. [48] | |
| Live UpdatesWhether diagrams update automatically after the initial scan | Yes | No |
| Open SourceOSI OSI-approved open source license Source available Source code available, restricted license No Proprietary | OSI AGPL-3.0 | OSI GPL-3.0 |
| PricingStarting price or pricing model | Starts at $11.99 monthly, unlimited hosts | Free |
| Also IncludesCapabilities beyond network diagramming | Docker Visualization | — |
How they compare
phpIPAM and Scanopy both keep a record of what is on the network, and they build it from different directions. phpIPAM is IP address management: subnets, allocations, VLANs, and device records in a structured database, populated from routing tables and from scan agents that ping, resolve DNS, and query SNMP. Its distinctive job is recording intent: ranges reserved before anything is deployed, subnets split as they are planned, VLAN and VRF assignment written down. Scanopy discovers hosts, services, interfaces, and topology on a schedule and renders four views of the same scan: physical (L2), logical (L3), workloads, and applications, with the host, service, and subnet data behind them available through the API and as CSV.
The difference is what each one produces. phpIPAM produces tables, and a network drawing is not part of it; requests for one are open feature requests rather than shipped features. Scanopy produces an interactive map, with the underlying host and service data available as CSV. Both are free to self-host: phpIPAM under GPL-3.0, Scanopy under AGPL-3.0, with flat pricing regardless of host count and commercial self-hosted editions when you outgrow the caps.
The split is intent against observation, which is why teams run both. phpIPAM holds what address space is meant to look like, including the parts nobody has deployed yet, and that is the one thing discovery cannot produce. Scanopy holds what is actually on the network and how it connects, without anyone maintaining it. If the job is planning and assigning address space, phpIPAM is built for it. If the job is seeing what is really there and how it fits together, that is what Scanopy is built for.
When to choose which
Choose Scanopy when: Choose Scanopy for a dedicated, living network-documentation tool: automatic L2, L3, workload, and application views, per-host service detection, flat pricing regardless of host count, and a free, self-hostable Community edition. It sits alongside your monitoring stack rather than replacing it.
Choose phpIPAM when: Teams that assign address space rather than only observe it: reserving ranges before anything is deployed, splitting subnets as they plan them, and recording VLAN and VRF allocation as intent, including addresses that are not live yet.
This is a focused, two-tool comparison. Weighing other options too? See the best phpIPAM alternatives. For all 13 tools side by side, see the full network documentation tools comparison.
Sources
Started as a homelabber, now deep in SNMP MIBs, Layer 3 topology, and service fingerprinting - building the network documentation tool I wished existed.