Comparison
EZOfficeInventory vs GLPI
Two tools districts shortlist for device tracking and IT operations, compared the way a buying committee actually reads them: what each is, what each does well, and what to check before signing. We build Chalk, a third option in this space — that context is worth knowing as you read, and it is why every claim below carries its basis.
EZOfficeInventory
A capable commercial asset tracker with the deepest MDM connector list in its class — and, like the rest of that class, no roster, no student, and no write-back.
Where EZOfficeInventory is strong
- The deepest device-ingest integration list of the commercial asset trackers — Intune, Jamf Pro, Kandji, Mosyle, SCCM, Workspace ONE, JumpCloud, Meraki, Apple Business Manager, and Google Endpoint Management for ChromeOS.
- Warranty details sync automatically from manufacturers including Dell and Lenovo, and procurement data can sync from CDW — genuinely less manual data entry than most.
- Native iOS and Android apps with barcode and QR scanning, on every tier.
- Real checkout, reservation, and audit workflows, with custom fields, purchase orders, and RFID support at the middle tier.
- Unlimited users at every tier, so adding technicians or building staff does not change the bill.
- AssetSonar's ITSM tier includes genuine ticketing with SLA management, a knowledge base, and a service catalog — the only product in this asset-tracker group with native SLAs.
What to check before you buy
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The base product has no ticketing at all. Native help desk with SLAs exists only in AssetSonar's ITSM tier — a different product at a higher per-asset rate — so a district gets either the asset tracker or a second contract.
Basis: EZOfficeInventory offers Jira and Zendesk connectors rather than native ticketing; SLA management appears in AssetSonar's ITSM pricing tier.
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No SIS or rostering integration — no OneRoster, Clever, ClassLink, or PowerSchool anywhere in the connector catalog. Students arrive by CSV.
Basis: None appear in EZO's full published integration list, which covers MDM, identity, and procurement systems only.
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No student, guardian, or family concepts, and therefore nothing that notices a transfer, a withdrawal, or grade rollover.
Basis: Absent from the product's data model, which tracks items and users.
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No parent e-signature on a device agreement, no student fee assessment, and no family balances.
Basis: Absent from EZO's documented feature set.
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No funding-source or grant tracking for ESSER, Title, or E-Rate reporting.
Basis: No funding-source dimension appears in the product documentation.
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ChromeOS support is import only. The Google Endpoint Management connector is described as importing ChromeOS and mobile data; nothing writes back, so OU moves and disabling a stolen Chromebook stay manual in Google Admin.
Basis: EZO's integration listing describes the connector as importing ChromeOS and mobile data into AssetSonar, with no write-back claimed.
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It consumes SSO but is not an identity provider — Entra ID, Okta with SCIM, OneLogin, and Ping are identity sources it reads, not identity it issues.
Basis: EZO's identity integrations are configured as a service provider against an external IdP.
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Maintenance is a separate paid CMMS add-on even on the top tier, so repairs that draw parts out of stock are not simply included.
Basis: EZO CMMS is listed as an add-on alongside the Premium tier and sold as its own product.
GLPI
The one product in this comparison that shares Chalk's whole premise — free, open source, self-hostable, with a real ITIL service desk attached to a real asset inventory — and none of its K-12 model.
Where GLPI is strong
- Genuinely free and genuinely open: GPL-3.0 on GitHub, downloadable and self-hostable with no license fee, no crippled community edition, and two decades of production use behind it.
- A full ITIL service desk — tickets, problems and changes, with planning, statistics and dashboards — sitting on the same database as the asset inventory rather than integrated with it.
- Very broad inventory coverage: computers, monitors, software, network equipment, printers, phones, cartridges, consumables, SIM cards, cables, PDUs and datacenter infrastructure, plus a CMDB over the relationships between them.
- Financial management most asset trackers do not attempt — budgets, contracts, suppliers and license tracking as first-class objects, so the cost side of the estate lives with the asset side.
- GLPI Agent does automated inventory across platforms, so hardware and software data arrives without anyone typing serial numbers.
- A multi-entity model with granular profiles and access control that maps naturally onto a district of many schools, plus a large plugin ecosystem — and both deployment shapes are real and priced openly, self-hosted or hosted GLPI Network at a published per-user rate.
What to check before you buy
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The free download and the product Teclib' sells are not the same surface. OAuth SSO, SCIM, GLPI AI, the advanced dashboard and whole tiers of official plugins are bundled into paid GLPI Network subscriptions.
Basis: Vendor pricing page lists these as contents of the Basic, Standard and Advanced subscription tiers.
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Self-hosted support starts at €100 per month even for a small installation, and the meter is IT agents — the technicians who answer tickets — with tiers stepping to €300, €1,000 and €4,500 per month.
Basis: Vendor pricing page, self-hosted subscription tiers with per-tier agent limits.
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It is a general ITIL tool with no K-12 model: no student, guardian or enrollment concepts, and no SIS or rostering connectors — no OneRoster, Clever, ClassLink, PowerSchool, Infinite Campus or Skyward. Students arrive by import.
Basis: Absent from GLPI's published feature set, which describes users, groups and entities rather than students.
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No 1:1 circulation machinery. GLPI can reserve and assign equipment, but there is no student device agreement, no parent e-signature, no overdue on a school-year loan, no damage fee and no family balance.
Basis: Absent from the vendor's documented modules, which cover assets, helpdesk, CMDB and financial management.
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No ChromeOS story. Inventory comes from GLPI Agent and network scanning; Google Admin, Intune and Jamf ingest are plugin or integration territory rather than documented core modules, and there is no ChromeOS AUE surface.
Basis: Core inventory is documented as GLPI Agent-driven; no first-party MDM connector appears in the published feature list.
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It is not an identity provider. GLPI authenticates against directories and external providers — and OAuth SSO is itself a subscription plugin — rather than issuing SAML or OIDC to your other vendors.
Basis: Vendor pricing page lists OAuth SSO and SCIM as plugins included with paid subscriptions, positioning GLPI as the consumer of identity.
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Self-hosting GLPI is a PHP and database deployment plus agent rollout that you patch and upgrade yourself, unless you buy a subscription or engage a partner. That is a real operations line, not a download.
Basis: GLPI is distributed as a PHP application released on GitHub with a separately versioned GLPI Agent; the vendor routes implementation through its partner network.
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Pricing, documentation and support are anchored to a European vendor and priced in euros, so a US district is usually buying implementation through a partner rather than from the vendor directly.
Basis: Vendor site publishes euro pricing and directs implementation to its Platinum Partner network.
The third option: Chalk
If you are weighing EZOfficeInventory against GLPI, Chalk belongs on the same shortlist. It is the open-source K-12 IT stack: device inventory that fills itself in from Google Admin, Intune, and Jamf against a roster synced from your SIS, a 1:1 circulation desk with agreements and fees, repairs with parts and costs, a help desk that already knows who is asking, and a built-in SAML/OIDC identity provider.
- Self-host it free forever under AGPL-3.0 — the entire feature set, one binary, your infrastructure — or use the hosted version, priced by fleet size with no per-seat or per-student fees and the price ladder published.
- Built only for K-12: students, buildings, custody, funding sources, and ChromeOS auto-update expiration are native concepts, not custom fields.
- Writes back to Google Admin as a reviewed diff — every OU move, disable, and deprovision previewed before it executes — and serves a OneRoster 1.1 API so other district systems can pull the roster from Chalk.
- Fees are assessed and tracked without touching payment cards, keeping the asset system out of your PCI scope.
See all three on your own roster.
Chalk installs to a populated inventory in about 30 minutes. Self-host free under AGPL-3.0, or let us run it — priced by fleet size, never per seat.