A Netdata alternative for the devices that run no agent
Netdata watches the machines you install it on. DeviceShelf starts with the ones you cannot install anything on.
Netdata is a serious observability platform and a large open-source project. It collects per-second metrics from servers, containers and applications, and since version 2.11 it also reads network gear over SNMP, ingests flow records and decodes traps. If your question is "how is my server doing right now", it answers it better than we do.
Its reach ends where the agent and SNMP end. A printer, a smart TV, a camera, a games console or a guest's phone runs neither, so none of them appear. DeviceShelf reads the network itself, so those devices show up with vendor, type and open ports without anything being installed on them.
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Is there a Netdata alternative that finds devices without an agent?
DeviceShelf is a network scanner that discovers and identifies devices without installing anything on them. It reads the network itself through ARP, mDNS, DHCP fingerprints and the router's own device list, so a printer, a smart TV, a camera or a phone appears with vendor, type and open ports even though none of them can run a monitoring agent or answer SNMP. It runs as a desktop app on macOS, Windows and Linux, on iOS and Android, and as a self-hosted server edition for continuous monitoring. Scan data stays on the machine that ran the scan, there is no account, and the licence is a one-time purchase whose price does not change with the number of devices on the network. Netdata remains the stronger choice for per-second metrics, logs and alerting on servers you administer.
What is a node, and why does it matter?
In Netdata a node is a monitored system that appears as its own entry: normally a machine running the agent, and since the SNMP work also each network device, because the collector creates a virtual node for it by default. That is the unit their paid plans are counted in. The free cloud tier covers a handful of nodes for non-commercial use, the homelab plan lifts that limit under a fair-use policy, and the business plan is billed per node per year.
DeviceShelf has no such unit. It scans a network, and whether that network holds nine devices or nine hundred, the licence is the same one-time purchase. There is nothing to count and nothing to add up as the household or the office grows.
DeviceShelf vs Netdata
| Feature | DeviceShelf | Netdata |
|---|---|---|
| Finds devices with nothing installed on them | ✓ (ARP, mDNS, DHCP, router API) | — |
| Sees printers, TVs, cameras, phones, consoles | ✓ | — (no agent, no SNMP on them) |
| Identifies vendor and device type | ✓ | ~ (SNMP devices, via vendor profiles) |
| Per-second metrics of servers and containers | ~ (uptime, sensors, Docker) | ✓ (this is their core strength) |
| Logs, OpenTelemetry, flow records, SNMP traps | — | ✓ |
| Layer 2 / 3 topology | ~ (LLDP/CDP and switch-port mapping, local only) | ✓ (SNMP topology engine) |
| Alert when an unknown device joins the network | ✓ | — |
| Security report (open ports, TLS, SSH, SMB) | ✓ | — |
| Desktop app you simply open | ✓ (macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android) | — (server platform) |
| Works without any account | ✓ | ~ (local agent dashboard yes, cloud needs an account) |
| Data stays on your own hardware | ✓ | ✓ (metrics stay on the agent) |
| Open source | — | ✓ (agent, GPL-3.0) |
| Price grows with the number of devices | No, one-time licence | Yes on the business plan, per node |
✓ = yes · — = no · ~ = limited or partial. As of August 2026, best-effort from public product pages, documentation and the project's own source; features may change.
Keep Netdata or switch?
Keep Netdata if the thing you watch is servers. Per-second resource metrics, logs, containers, Kubernetes, cloud accounts and alerting on all of it are what it is built for, and a homelab full of machines is well served by it. It is free software with a large community behind it.
Use DeviceShelf if the question is what is actually connected. Most things on a home or small-office network will never run an agent and do not speak SNMP, and those are exactly the ones you want named when an unfamiliar address turns up. It is a program you open rather than a platform you operate.
They also sit together without friction. Netdata on the servers, DeviceShelf for the network they hang on, and neither needs the other.
Try it on your own network
DeviceShelf has a 7-day trial, no credit card required. Run one scan and compare the device list against what your monitoring shows today: the gap is usually the printer, the TV, the doorbell and the two phones nobody could name.
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