If you are already self-hosting Homebox, switching to KeepTrack does not change your privacy posture — both are free, open source, and run on your own hardware. The question is whether you want offline operation, AI search, receipt OCR, and floor plans, or whether Homebox's lighter, simpler approach is the right fit.
you want a minimal, well-established app with a low server footprint and do not need offline support, AI search, or floor plans.
you want the app to work without internet, need AI search, want a one-click insurance export, use floor plans to locate items, or want NFC or Home Assistant integration.
| Feature | KeepTrack | Homebox |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure | ||
| Self-hosted, open source | Yes — MIT license | Yes — MIT license |
| Cost | Free | Free |
| Server memory footprint | Moderate — Python backend | Light — Go backend |
| Core Inventory | ||
| Items with photos and attachments | Yes | Yes |
| Warranty tracking with expiry dates | Yes — email reminders included | Dates stored; reminders not documented |
| Rooms and location hierarchy | Yes | Yes |
| CSV import and export | Yes | Yes — documented format |
| REST API | Yes — personal API keys | Yes — Homebox REST API |
| Capture & Scanning | ||
| Receipt OCR — fills price and date from a photo | Yes | — |
| Barcode / UPC scanning | Yes — phone camera with product lookup | Limited camera support |
| NFC tag support | Yes — tap to open item | — |
| QR label printing | Yes | Yes |
| Offline & Mobile | ||
| Works without internet | Yes — full offline with automatic sync | — |
| Installs to phone home screen (PWA) | Yes — iOS and Android | — |
| Advanced Features | ||
| AI search — ask in plain English | Yes | — |
| Visual floor plan view | Yes | — |
| Depreciation calculator | Yes | — |
| Insurance claim export (PDF / CSV) | Formatted, adjuster-ready | CSV only; no dedicated insurance format |
| Home Assistant integration | Yes | — |
— Not documented as of April 2026.
Add or edit items in a basement, detached garage, or storage unit with no Wi-Fi, and everything syncs automatically when you reconnect. This is not just a nice-to-have: it changes where the app is actually useful. A service worker caches the full app; an offline queue holds every change. As of April 2026, Homebox does not offer offline operation.
Point your camera at a receipt and KeepTrack reads the purchase date, price, and store name automatically. Homebox stores receipt images but does not extract data from them as of April 2026.
KeepTrack's floor plan view lets you place rooms and containers on a visual map of your home, giving a spatial picture of where items are. Homebox uses a text-based location hierarchy only.
Generate a formatted PDF or CSV report ready for an insurance adjuster — items, serial numbers, purchase prices, depreciated values. Homebox exports a raw CSV but not a formatted insurance document as of April 2026.
Homebox is written in Go, which uses significantly less memory than a Python runtime. If you are running on a Raspberry Pi, a low-memory VPS, or a NAS with limited RAM, Homebox is the more practical choice. On any standard home-lab machine or a basic VPS with 1 GB or more, KeepTrack's resource usage is not a concern.
Homebox has been publicly available and maintained for longer, with a wider self-hosted community. More people have stress-tested it across different hardware and deployment scenarios.
Fewer features means fewer things to configure, fewer things to break, and less to learn. If basic item tracking, attachments, and CSV export cover your needs, Homebox's smaller scope may be a feature rather than a limitation.
Homebox's CSV import format is publicly documented, making bulk-imports from a spreadsheet straightforward without guessing column names.
Both KeepTrack and Homebox are free, open-source, self-hosted home inventory apps — your data stays on your own server with either one. The difference is feature depth. KeepTrack adds offline operation, receipt OCR, AI semantic search, interactive floor plans, NFC tag binding, a depreciation calculator, insurance-formatted exports, and a Home Assistant integration. As of April 2026, none of these are documented in Homebox. Homebox is built in Go, runs lighter on server resources, and has a longer track record as an established open-source project.
KeepTrack includes a dedicated insurance export that produces a formatted PDF or CSV report you can hand to an insurance adjuster — listing items with photos, serial numbers, purchase prices, and depreciated values. Homebox lets you export to CSV and store receipt attachments, which can serve as an informal record, but it does not have a dedicated insurance export format as of April 2026.
KeepTrack works without internet — add an item in a garage, edit a serial number in a storage unit, or scan a barcode in a basement with no Wi-Fi, and everything syncs automatically when you reconnect. As of April 2026, Homebox does not document offline or PWA capabilities.
Via CSV. Homebox supports CSV export and KeepTrack has a CSV import tool that lets you map column headers. Export your Homebox data, adjust the column names to match KeepTrack's import format, and your items come over. A dedicated one-click Homebox importer is not currently available.
KeepTrack uses more server memory than Homebox because it runs a Python (FastAPI) backend. Homebox is built in Go, which typically has a smaller footprint. On very constrained hardware — a Raspberry Pi with 512 MB RAM, for example — Homebox may be a more comfortable fit. On any standard home-lab machine, NAS, or VPS, KeepTrack's resource usage is not a practical concern.
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