Netdisco alternative: configuration audit, CVE and end of life on top of inventory
Netdisco is an open source web tool that collects IP and MAC data over SNMP, finds which switch port a machine is on, inventories hardware and acts on ports. NacTrack reads the same devices over SSH, read-only, and also answers the questions Netdisco's official documentation does not describe: does the configuration follow the rules, which CVEs is each version exposed to, which hardware is out of support. Here is why NacTrack is the better choice when those questions matter.
- Verified on 2026-10-13, against Netdisco 2.111000 (released 9 October 2026) and NacTrack 2.12.97. Sources are listed at the bottom of the page.
Why choose NacTrack
Six reasons, each with the page that shows it.
Comparison table
| Criterion | NacTrack | Netdisco |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance | 586 rules in 18 rule sets per platform, every failure with its rule and config extract; custom rules not yet open [N4] | Not described in the official documentation [1][3] |
| CVE | Matched to the exact version (NVD, Cisco PSIRT, KEV, EPSS); SMUs not evaluated; no findings for Huawei VRP yet [N5] | Not described in the official documentation [1][3] |
| End of life | Hand-curated catalogue, "no data" shown as such [N6] | Not described in the official documentation [1][3] |
| Configurations | Configuration kept on every collection, diff between two collections, export as text and .patch [N7] | An extension generates RANCID configuration [3]; config backup not described in the official documentation |
| Access to devices | Read SSH account, no agent; nothing is written to the device [N1][N8] | Collection over SNMP, CLI or device APIs [1]; action on ports from the web UI [1][3] |
| Topology | Rebuilt on every collection from CDP, LLDP, MAC and ARP tables; spanning tree parsed per instance on Cisco [N1][N2]; recursive discovery plus an address-range sweep [N3] | SNMP discovery that follows CDP, FDP or LLDP neighbours [3]; network diagrams ("pretty pictures of your network") [2][3] |
| Finding a machine | By IP or MAC, with the access port and VLAN where the address was seen [N1][N11] | By MAC or IP, with the switch port [1][3] |
| Vendors | 8 vendors collected over SSH (Cisco, Huawei, Aruba, Dell, Fortinet, F5, Infoblox, Forcepoint), Juniper and Palo Alto by import; matrix published with its empty cells, Arista EOS not collected [N2] | Through the SNMP::Info library: about 120 device classes, including Cisco, Juniper, Huawei, Aruba, Arista, Dell, Fortinet, Palo Alto, F5, HP, Extreme, MikroTik, plus generic classes [4] |
| Port control | No, by design [N1] | Yes: turn off a port, change its VLAN or PoE status from the web UI [1][3] |
| API | No open REST API; a read-only MCP endpoint for an AI assistant; CSV, Excel, PDF exports [N7] | API documented in Swagger (public demo) [1] |
| Deployment | Appliance on your hardware (NacTrack ISO or Ubuntu VM), 4 vCPU, 13 GB, 50 GB minimum, single machine [N8] | Linux or Unix, Perl 5.10+, PostgreSQL 9.6+; guides for Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, SUSE, FreeBSD, OpenBSD; Docker images [1][3] |
| NacTrack outbound flows | Daily licence validation, mandatory; CVE and end-of-life catalogues (counts per model or version) and error reports, can be switched off [N9] | (not compared) |
| Licence | Commercial, subscription per device per year; below roughly 80 devices it stops being an obvious purchase [N10] | Open source, BSD-3-Clause [2] |
When Netdisco fits
- You want a free, open source tool [2], or your estate has fewer than about eighty devices: our pricing page says that at that size buying NacTrack stops being obvious.
- Your main need is to act on a port: shut it, change its VLAN or PoE [1][3]. NacTrack reads ports but does not act on them.
- Your estate includes vendors missing from the NacTrack matrix, Arista or MikroTik for example, already reachable over SNMP [4].
Frequently asked questions
Is NacTrack open source or free like Netdisco?
No. NacTrack is commercial software sold as a subscription, per device per year. Netdisco is distributed under the BSD-3-Clause licence. The NacTrack subscription does include updates and vendor support, and a one-day, read-only network audit is offered free of charge so you can judge NacTrack on your own estate.
Can NacTrack shut a port or change a VLAN?
No. NacTrack shows port state (free, in use, in error) and the VLAN where an address was seen, but the action stays on the device or in a tool such as Netdisco. That is a choice: NacTrack only needs read access and writes nothing to your devices.
Why SSH rather than SNMP?
The trade-off first: you need an SSH read account on every device, and a platform whose command set is not written yet is not collected. In return, NacTrack reads the configuration text itself and the exact version from command output, and that is what makes the rule-by-rule configuration audit and version-exact CVE matching possible.
Can NacTrack find a machine from its MAC address?
Yes: the search returns the access port and VLAN where the address was seen in the latest collection, not on the live device. The same collection also gives the compliance, CVEs and end of support of that switch.
Can we keep Netdisco and add NacTrack?
Yes. Netdisco polls over SNMP, NacTrack reads over SSH, and neither needs the other. NacTrack then adds what Netdisco's documentation does not describe: compliance, CVE and end of support.
Sources
- 1. Netdisco, official site
- 2. Netdisco GitHub repository (BSD-3-Clause licence)
- 3. App::Netdisco on MetaCPAN, version 2.111000 of 9 October 2026
- 4. SNMP::Info on MetaCPAN (device classes), version 3.978
- N1. NacTrack, home
- N2. Vendors and coverage matrix
- N3. Discovery
- N4. Compliance
- N5. Vulnerabilities
- N6. End of life
- N7. Integrations
- N8. Installation and operations
- N9. Sovereign by design
- N10. Pricing
- N11. Guide, find which switch port a MAC address is on
Names are cited for identification only; Netdisco is an open source project of its authors.
Judge NacTrack on your own estate
A one-day, read-only network audit is offered free of charge, and the demo shows the product on sample data.