Short answer: NetBox is free and more capable than Netplot at almost everything — and that is not the deciding factor. NetBox is a source of truth you host, model and populate; its cost is not money, it is a server and sustained discipline. Netplot is one file you fill in an afternoon and hand to a client. Pick by which cost you can actually pay.
What NetBox does well
Free and open source — no licence, no vendor, self-hosted.
A real data model — sites, racks, devices, interfaces, cables, IPAM, VLANs, circuits, tenancy. Far deeper than Netplot's.
An API everything can write to, which is why it is the backbone of serious automation.
Multi-user, versioned, with change logging.
If you are building network automation and need a programmatic source of truth, use NetBox. Netplot has no API and is not trying to be one.
Where the real cost sits
NetBox's price is zero and its cost is not. To get value from it you need:
A server to run and maintain — PostgreSQL, Redis, the application, backups, upgrades.
Someone who learns the model properly. Device types, roles, interface templates, cable terminations — the structure that makes NetBox powerful is also what takes weeks to use correctly.
Sustained discipline. A source of truth that drifts is worse than no source of truth, because people believe it.
For a 40-client MSP with a handful of switches per site, that overhead frequently exceeds the value. The documentation ends up half-populated, which is the common failure.
What Netplot does instead
No server, no install. One HTML file, opened in a browser, saved back to itself.
Finished in an afternoon for a typical site, because the model stops at what a field engineer actually records: device, ports, IPs, VLANs, uplinks.
An engineering PDF in one click — the deliverable NetBox was never meant to produce.
A read-only viewer for the client, who will never be given a NetBox login.
A live wallboard from the same file, with an optional SNMP collector.
Where NetBox is genuinely ahead
Depth of model — racks, power, circuits, full IPAM. Netplot has none of that.
API and automation. Netplot has no API.
Multi-user with history and permissions. Netplot is a file.
Scale. At thousands of devices, NetBox is the right answer and Netplot is not.
Side by side
Netplot
NetBox
Licence cost
€79 once
free, open source
Server to run and maintain
none
yes
Time to a usable site record
an afternoon
days to weeks
Engineering PDF deliverable
one click
not its purpose
Hand a copy to a non-technical client
read-only viewer file
no
Live traffic wallboard
built in
separate tooling
IPAM, racks, power, circuits
no
yes
API / automation
none
yes
Thousands of devices
not the target
yes
The honest verdict
Choose NetBox if you are building automation, run infrastructure at scale, or need a programmatic source of truth — and you have someone who will own it.
Choose Netplot if the documentation is a deliverable rather than a system: a file per client site, finished the same day, handed over at the end of the job. The two answer different questions, and the honest test is whether anyone on your team will keep a source of truth current.