Part-DB
by Part-DB (community project)
A lightweight AGPL-licensed catalog of electronic components with storage locations, datasheets, projects and bills of materials, plus a build view telling you how many of a project you could assemble from stock.
Why it is classified this way
We call this a BOM & inventory product. Tracks product structure, parts, costs, and purchasing without a complete plan-and-execute production loop.
It is not labeled Full MRP because we have not verified that it accepts dated demand, sales orders, a forecast, or a master production schedule; nets that demand against stock on hand and orders already incoming; explodes requirements through at least one level of the bill of materials; uses lead times or required dates; and produces dated buy, make, transfer, release, or reschedule recommendations. That is a statement about the evidence we found, not a claim that the product is weak, see the capability table and the sources below.
The six Full MRP tests, and how Part-DB does on each (1 of 6)
- YesIt represents a bill of materials, recipe, or formula.Evidence: docs.part-db.de(opens in a new tab)
- UnknownIt accepts dated demand, sales orders, a forecast, or a master production schedule.Not established. No evidence found yet.
- PartialIt nets that demand against stock on hand and orders already incoming.Not established. Only partly shown: the evidence covers some of this but not all of it, so the test is not established.
- UnknownIt explodes requirements through at least one level of the bill of materials.Not established. No evidence found yet.
- UnknownIt uses lead times or required dates.Not established. No evidence found yet.
- UnknownIt produces dated buy, make, transfer, release, or reschedule recommendations.Not established. No evidence found yet.
These rules are applied identically to every product and enforced at build time, a record cannot be published as Full MRP unless all six pass with a source attached. Read the methodology.
Best for
- Hobbyists and small electronics shops who mainly need to find the part they already own
- Anyone wanting a free, Docker-installable component catalog with datasheets attached
- Teams that want an API over their parts list without paying for one
Not a fit when
- Anyone who needs planning, purchasing workflows or lot control
- Production shops needing tracked work orders
- Non-technical users, every deployment path is self-hosted
Pricing facts
What it costs to do manufacturing in this product.
Free to self-host
Free under AGPL-3.0, self-hosted, with no feature gating or user limits.
Free to self-host
$0/month
No published price
This vendor does not publish pricing, so you cannot compare it against anything here without contacting them. We will not estimate a figure.
What moves the real bill
- No published price. You have to contact the vendor, which usually means a sales call.
Plans
| Plan | Price | Add-ons and setup |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hostedPart-DB (AGPL-3.0) | Free | — |
| You install, host, back up and upgrade it yourself. | ||
Pricing detail
No commercial offering. Docker, Debian and Kubernetes/Helm installation paths are documented, so a small shop can get this running on a cheap VPS in an evening.
Checked on August 13, 2026. Source: github.com(opens in a new tab). Prices change. Check before you buy.
Manufacturing capability
11 of 25 fields resolved. "Unknown" means we have not found first-party evidence. It is not a No.
Planning
Working out what to buy or make, and when.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Accepts dated demandYou can tell it what is due and when, sales orders with dates, a forecast, or a production schedule. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation showing demand records that carry a required or due date.Know the answer? |
| Nets against stock on handIt subtracts what you already have before telling you to buy more. | Partial | Part-DB can "show how often you could build this project and directly withdraw all components needed from DB". Availability against a BOM, but no forward planning.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: docs.part-db.de(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Counts incoming ordersIt knows about purchase orders and production orders already placed, so it does not tell you to order twice. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation showing open purchase or production orders included in the supply picture.Know the answer? |
| Uses lead timesIt works backwards from when you need something to when you must order or start it, using supplier and production lead times. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation showing lead time fields that shift a suggested order or start date.Know the answer? |
| Produces dated buy/make suggestionsThe output is an actionable list with dates, order this much by this date, start this batch on this date. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation or a screenshot of replenishment or planning suggestions carrying dates.Know the answer? |
| Capacity planningChecks whether your people and machines can do the work in the time available. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of work-center or resource capacity being compared against load.Know the answer? |
Production
Recipes, bills of materials, and running the work.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Bill of materialsA list of the parts and quantities needed to make one of something. | Yes | "Project management: Create projects and assign parts to the bill of material (BOM)."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: docs.part-db.de(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Multi-level BOMSub-assemblies inside assemblies, a part that is itself made from other parts, nested as deep as you need. | Partial | In the project's source code, each project has an optional build part, described as "The (optional) part that represents the builds of this project in the stock", so finished builds can be stocked and listed in another project's BOM as a sub-assembly. The docs describe single-level project BOMs, and nothing explodes requirements through levels. This is from the source code, not the user docs.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: github.com › Project(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Recipes & formulasBatch-style production by weight, volume, or percentage, including scaling a batch up or down. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of recipe or formula records, ideally with batch scaling.Know the answer? |
| Work / manufacturing ordersA record authorising and tracking the making of a specific quantity. | Partial | Building a project withdraws its components from stock. That is a build action rather than a tracked work order with status and history.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: docs.part-db.de(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Routings & operationsThe ordered steps a product goes through, and which machine or station does each one. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of operation sequences or routings attached to production.Know the answer? |
| Shop-floor trackingOperators report progress, time, and completions as the work happens. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of a shop-floor, operator, or terminal interface for reporting production.Know the answer? |
| Quality controlsChecks, tests, holds, and non-conformance records tied to production or receiving. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of quality inspections, checks, or non-conformance handling.Know the answer? |
Inventory & traceability
Knowing what you hold and being able to trace it.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Batch & lot traceabilityWhich incoming material lots went into which finished batch, and where those finished goods went. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of lot or batch numbers tracked through consumption into finished goods.Know the answer? |
| Expiry & shelf lifeBest-before dates on materials and finished goods, with warnings before they lapse. | Yes | Part lots can carry an expiration date. The label documentation lists a placeholder for the "Expiration date of the part lot" and a field for whether a lot has expired. This comes from the label docs; we have not seen a stock screen or alert that uses it.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: docs.part-db.de › Labels(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Serial numbersUnique identifiers on individual units, for warranty or field service. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of serial number tracking on individual units.Know the answer? |
Commerce & accounting
Costs, purchasing, storefronts, and the books.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Product costing & COGSWhat it costs you to make one, and the cost of the goods you sold. | Partial | Part pricing is stored against components. We have not verified a rolled-up assembly cost.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: docs.part-db.de(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| PurchasingRaising and tracking purchase orders to suppliers from inside the system. | Partial | Part-DB stores vendors, order numbers and price breaks per part: "The purchase information describes where the part can be bought (at which vendors) and at which prices." Neither the docs nor the source code has a purchase order or goods receipt; beyond vendor data, a part can only be flagged with an order quantity. That is why this is partial.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: docs.part-db.de › Concepts(opens in a new tab); github.com › Part DB server(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Accounting connectionSends financial data to bookkeeping software, or includes its own general ledger. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of a named accounting integration or a built-in ledger.Know the answer? |
| Ecommerce connectionPulls orders and pushes stock levels to a storefront or marketplace. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of a named storefront or marketplace integration.Know the answer? |
Openness & your data
Getting data in, out, and away if you leave.
| Capability | Finding | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| APIA documented programming interface so other software can read and write your data. | Yes | "API to access Part-DB from other applications/scripts."Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: docs.part-db.de(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| WebhooksThe system can notify other software the moment something changes. | Unknown | Not yet researched. We would need: documentation of outbound webhooks or event subscriptions.Know the answer? |
| MCP supportA Model Context Protocol server, letting an AI assistant read or act on this data. Useful, but it has nothing to do with whether the product plans materials. | Yes | Part-DB says it ships an MCP server: "Part-DB ships a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, which allows AI assistants and agents (like Claude, ChatGPT, or AI-powered coding tools) to directly interact with your Part-DB inventory" It is off by default until an admin turns it on, and the docs say it was added recently and might still change.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: docs.part-db.de › Mcp(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| CSV exportYou can get your lists out as spreadsheet files. | Yes | The vendor states: "* CSV (Comma Separated Values): A semicolon-separated list of values, where every line represents an element. This format can be imported into Excel or LibreOffice Calc and is easy to work with." Excel export is also offered. This covers data exports, not a full backup. Checked 2026-09-14.Reviewed September 14, 2026. Source: docs.part-db.de › Import export(opens in a new tab)Question this |
| Full data exportYou can take everything, including history and relationships, not just a few screens' worth of rows. | Yes | Self-hosted under AGPL-3.0 with your own database.Reviewed October 9, 2026. Source: github.com › Part DB server(opens in a new tab)Question this |
Deployment, licensing and your data
- Deployment
- Self-hosted, On-premise (vendor-supported)
- Licensing
- Open sourceAGPL-3.0
- Team sizes
- Just me, 2–5 people, 6–20 people
- Manufacturing styles
- Countable assembled products, Kits & bundles
About the licence
AGPL-3.0, confirmed both in the documentation and against the repository on 13 August 2026. AGPL's network clause only matters if you offer it as a service to others; running it inside your own shop is unaffected.
Licence: github.com(opens in a new tab)
Jobs this product qualifies for
Derived from the capability table above, not hand-assigned.
Editorial notes and cautions
Things we would want a friend to know before buying.
- Part-DB is a component catalog with BOM and build support, not manufacturing software. Its own documentation makes no MRP or production-planning claim, and neither do we.
- It is the lightest thing in this directory. For a solo hardware developer that is a feature, not a shortcoming.
Alternatives to Part-DB
An alternative is always an alternative for a reason. There is no universal replacement.
- InvenTreeSimpler for makers
Part-DB is the smaller, quicker install; InvenTree adds a full build-order workflow, supplier records and a larger plugin ecosystem for shops that outgrow a catalog.
Evidence and verification
License stated in the documentation and confirmed against the repository. Scope is small and the documentation is honest about it, which made this an easy record to classify.
Sources we checked (7)
What we still want to confirm
We publish our gaps rather than hiding them. If you can point us at a first-party page for any of these, we will update the record and credit the correction.
- Find first-party evidence for the fields still marked unknown: accepts dated demand, counts incoming orders, uses lead times, produces dated buy/make suggestions, capacity planning, recipes & formulas, routings & operations, shop-floor tracking, quality controls, batch & lot traceability, serial numbers, accounting connection, ecommerce connection and webhooks.
Still unknown: accepts dated demand, counts incoming orders, uses lead times, produces dated buy/make suggestions, capacity planning, recipes & formulas, routings & operations, shop-floor tracking, quality controls, batch & lot traceability, serial numbers, accounting connection, ecommerce connection, webhooks.