1

So now that Spiceworks is ending, what is everyone going to go to?

I haven’t been able to find anything similar.

12 Spice ups
2

I didn’t hear anything about that. Can you elaborate?

1 Spice up
3

They stopped developing this a long time ago. They’re moving to some cloudy, pay-us-to-sell-your-data, business model or something.

1 Spice up
4

well, the cloud version is still free. so not sure what you saw. Sean (Spiceworks) posted about the roadmap of Spiceworks, but i can’t find that thread. Maybe just taggin him he can help out.

@sean-spiceworks

1 Spice up
5

I think Spiceworks is way more than the free help desk software.

If you can’t see the value that this community has, then you are not paying attention.

I think we are way past the freebie software stage here.

Having this community available to me has strengthened my stance within my company as the IT Manager and personally has empowered me to take charge and make IT a staple in my company.

There are way more resources available here than just free help desk software.

1 Spice up
6

Meh. Not the same.
It has at least two strikes against it that I’m aware of;

  1. It’s “cloud” based. (Have had enough of that thanks).
  2. No scanning. It’s completely agent based.

…Anyway, spiceworks is dead. Only spiceworks Doesn’t know that.

Anyone find an alternative yet?

1 Spice up
7

Well they are exploring backporting the cloud based solutions into an in-house version, since 8 didn’t test well. So it is stagnant, not dead. Depends on what you use SW for. Lots of free helpdesk options, not as many free inventory options, though there are many free monitoring options.

1 Spice up
8

well that’s encouraging. But we’ll see… I don’t have the same level of trust in SW I once did. But then once you truly love something you’ll always love it. and oh how I do love SW so very much.

Its not one particular thing about SW I love. If i HAD to choose I would choose the scanning/inventor features. But it isnt just that, would go with Zabbix if t where just that. Its that it really is the whole shebang all in one.

in the interim, has anyone found an alternative to spiceworks? I have scoured the internet and came up with nothing.

9

In the free market there isn’t anything I can think of that matched SW. If you are willing to spend some money you might look at manageengine They have a modular system which can combine most of what SW offers in one though I think they mainly use an agent based solution too for workstations, most solutions do, though they will network scan as well for network devices.

1 Spice up
10

We have a post that we’re working on to announce this properly but we did talk about this in a few posts (and I brought it up at All Access 2019), but this is what you’re talking about, I believe:

https://community.spiceworks.com/product-plans

11

Scuttlebutt I’m hearing is that there’s no SNMP, SSH or any scanning at all for that matter. If it can’t run the agent it can’t be inventoried.
Also heard he agent phones home.
Tisk, tisk. Very Un-Spiceworksy.

1 Spice up
12

I looked into manage engine. At first I thought the price wasn’t that bad. But then I realized it’s an annual charge. I’m not into that.

13

I hadn’t really looked at the online inventory before but it loses a lot over on prem, like network device backups, and ssh/snmp scanning for non Win/Mac devices. That really is a shame, here’s to hoping an on prem version based of the DB backend of the online is forthcoming.

14

I don’t know which, if any of these are free but here is a list of several products and what they can offer https://www.capterra.com/sem-compare/help-desk-software?gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9pDpBRCkARIsAOzRzitwQWTOClbEA8eSyL4EWXL1STSKm_cCxpufNDGlURJCSaGlxWecMfkaAuYxEALw_wcB here is another with a free community and also paid versions iTop: open source ITIL ITSM CMDB Software

The only one I can speak to that I have first hand experience is manageengine. But I will note I have had good experience with Solarwinds product (though $$$), and I have heard many SW community members say good things about freshdesk

1 Spice up
15

I went with Lansweeper. Still running SW too but the data I get from Lansweeper is very, very thorough. Agents for Linux and Mac too.

1 Spice up
16

LOL - I thought you mean is there life after you stop posting to Spiceworks!

For many Spiceheads, getting to PC is a goal all in itself - and when it’s reached, I find most PC SPicheads tend to back off a bit. For me, my PowerShell script tells me the good/bad news:

Date         : 10/07/2019 11:12:55
PointsSoFar  : 164578
PointsPerDay : 65.4386
DaysToGo     : 1,305
WeeksToGo    : 186
YearsToGo    : 3.58
WhenPC       : 04 February 2023

I can see that I’ve accumulated 164, 578 splice points. Since I started here, that means 65.4 spice points per day. And at that level of contribution, I’ll make PC in another 3.58 years. When (Ed: I think you mean if) I get there, I too might start to ask what is next?

17

So I gave LANSweeper a whirl.

Bottom line upfront, it is indeed a viable Spiceworks replacement. …But only if your network is super tiny. I’m not going with it.

I was impressed and shocked most by these things;

  1. Scan included literally everything. I mean everything! Serial number of installed hard drives for example.

  2. It’s blistering fast. Completely scanned 100 devices in like ten minutes or so.

  3. It has software deployment capabilities (at least to Windows hosts). To included scheduled deployments. very cool.

In the above area’s its so vastly superior to Spiceworks that it almost made me cry.

Here’s what I don’t like though.

  1. Had to tinker with it to get it run on 80/443. (Not a big deal, I know. Who on Spiceworks is against tinkering? But i felt it worth mentioning.)

  2. The software deployment method seems crackable to me. (but I’m not into such things so this isn’t a qualified opinion. It just makes my spidey senses tingle a bit)

  3. The ticketing system is overly complicated. cumbersome. I prefer spice works.

  4. The user portal is hokey (not that the spiceworks portal isnt. just noting what I don’t like)

  5. The remote agent cant be configured to connect directly to your server. It passes through Lansweepers sire. This is show stopper for me.

  6. I couldn’t figure out if it had remote site capabilities or not.

All in all, while LANSweeper is pretty amazing and for some people it could indeed be a full spiceworks replacement it is not for me. If you have a single site with less than 100 devices this is your software.

Im still looking for a Spiceworks alternative other than LAN Sweeper though I’ll not be adopting it.

Primarily because I exceed the 100 asset limit at just my main site so I don’t qualify for it anyway.

Secondarily because i’ll never own it. The price is yearly. I’m not into that. I have no problem paying for software (that i can afford) but I have a aversion to ‘renting’ software.

I also don’t like the way the remote agent works. for this reason alone I would always be on the hunt for something new.

So does anyone have another suggestion?

18

What is the reason behind not wanting to use something that is cloud based?

19

I know what happens in the cloud.

20

What can happen in the cloud that can’t happen locally, unless you are talking about services where the TOS lets them do what they want with your data.