Koillection Review, Pricing & Features

Koillection is a free, self-hosted, open-source app for cataloging any type of collection. See its features, tech stack, and how it compares to CLZ Collectorz.

Category
Productivity
Pricing
Free, from Free
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 18, 2026
Founded
2018
Web AppAPIOpen SourceSelf-Hosted

Overview

Koillection is a free, self-hosted web app for cataloging personal collections, created by developer Benjamin Jonard, with its GitHub repository dating to May 2018 and released under the MIT license. It works like a nested file system: users create collections, such as books, stamps, or trading cards, then add items inside them with custom metadata.

Built with Symfony and API Platform on the backend and Vue.js on the frontend, Koillection is also a Progressive Web App, letting it be installed on phones and tablets like a native app while running entirely on infrastructure the user controls.

Key Features

Koillection supports unlimited collections and nested sub-collections, rich custom item fields, cross-collection tagging, wishlists, and a loan or missing-item tracking system called signs. Multi-user accounts let several people maintain independent private collections on one instance.

Sharing controls let users expose specific collections publicly or privately via shareable links, and a full REST API supports custom integrations and scrapers, since Koillection deliberately ships without built-in metadata lookups like ISBN or barcode databases.

Pricing

Koillection is completely free and open source, with no subscription, paid tier, or hosted SaaS offering from the project itself.

Users self-host the application via Docker on their own server, NAS, or VPS, requiring a PHP environment and a MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL database, with all costs limited to the user's own hosting infrastructure.

Key Features

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Completely free and open source with no subscription
  • Full data ownership through self-hosting
  • Works for literally any type of collection, not just one category
  • Progressive Web App support gives a native-app-like mobile experience
  • REST API allows custom scrapers and integrations

Cons

  • Requires self-hosting skills such as Docker, PHP, and database setup
  • No built-in metadata lookups like ISBN or barcode scanning
  • No official hosted cloud version for non-technical users
  • Smaller community than mainstream self-hosted apps
  • Relies on a single primary maintainer for long-term development

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Koillection free?

Yes, Koillection is completely free and open source under the MIT license, with no paid tiers or subscriptions.

Do I need to self-host Koillection?

Yes, Koillection is a self-hosted application; there is no official hosted cloud version, so you run it on your own server, NAS, or VPS, typically via Docker.

What can I catalog with Koillection?

Koillection is designed to catalog any kind of physical collection, including books, stamps, coins, vinyl records, trading cards, and action figures.

What technology does Koillection use?

Koillection is built with the Symfony PHP framework and API Platform on the backend and Vue.js on the frontend, and supports MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL.

Does Koillection have a mobile app?

Koillection is a Progressive Web App, so it can be installed on phones and tablets and used like a native app without a separate app-store download.

Can I share my collection with others using Koillection?

Yes, Koillection supports public and private sharing links so you can expose specific collections to other people.

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