Tags vs. Custom Fields. Which should I use?

Q: Should I be using Tags or Custom Fields? When would I use one over the other?

A: There are a few key differences between Tags and Custom Fields.

• Tags can be added to most all objects while custom fields are supported on buildings, rooms, racks, customers, devices, assets, application components, circuits, and passwords. Check our Custom Fields documentation for the latest list of supported objects.
• A custom field can be made mandatory, can only contain one value, and the value type is configurable (boolean, picklist, etc). They are restricted to the object and allowed values you have configured.
• Tags are optional and can contain many values. They are not restricted and may be used anywhere that tags are supported, but you have no control over the content of the values.
• Both Tags and Custom Fields are filterable and reportable.

Ultimately the decision rests on the degree of control vs flexibility that you require.  If you wanted to identify the Configuration Management tool (Chef, Ansible, etc.) used on your machines, only want one tool name value for each device, and want it to be mandatory, you would need to use custom fields.  If you want more flexibility, perhaps for a project that needs its name tagged to all related devices and IPs and buildings, you might prefer the simplicity of tags.  

If you are not sure what is best for your use case, please reach out to Device42 Support and we will be happy to discuss the best solutions for your needs.