Frequently asked
questions
Vitrine is a collection management platform for museums, galleries, and hobbyist collectors. Plans start free. Here are the answers to the questions we hear most often.
What is Vitrine?
Vitrine is a modern collection management platform that helps museums, galleries, and hobbyist collectors catalog, organise, and showcase their collections. It provides a professional CMS, a public-facing website, and tools for valuation, insurance documentation, ticketing, and more. Plans start free.
What types of collections can I manage with Vitrine?
Vitrine supports any type of physical or digital collection. Popular use cases include coins, trading cards, vinyl records, books, wine, watches, art, photography, antiques, and museum objects. If you can describe it, you can catalogue it in Vitrine.
How much does Vitrine cost?
Vitrine offers four plans. Community is free for up to 100 items. Hobbyist costs £5/month and includes up to 1,000 items, collection analytics, CSV import, and 100 MB document storage. Professional costs £79/month and adds visitor analytics, event ticketing, compliance tools, staff management, and 1 GB document storage. Institution costs £349/month for full museum-grade features. Enterprise pricing is available for large organisations.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. The Community plan is permanently free and includes core cataloguing features for small collections. No credit card is required to sign up. You can upgrade to a paid plan at any time as your collection grows.
How do I start cataloguing my collection?
Sign up for a free account at vitrinecms.com, create your first collection, and begin adding items. Each item can include a title, description, images, condition notes, acquisition date, value estimate, and custom fields. You can add items one by one, or bulk-import via CSV on Hobbyist and above.
Can I import my existing collection data?
Yes, on Hobbyist plans and above. Vitrine supports bulk import via CSV, making it straightforward to migrate from a spreadsheet or another collection management tool. The import tool maps your columns to Vitrine fields and flags any rows that need review before committing. Community users can add items individually.
Can I export my collection data?
Yes. You can export your full collection as a CSV at any time. Your data always belongs to you — Vitrine does not lock you in.
Does Vitrine create a public website for my collection?
Yes. Every Vitrine account gets a public-facing website at a vitrinecms.com subdomain. Visitors can browse your collection, view object details, and — on Professional and above — book event tickets. You control exactly which items are publicly visible.
Is Vitrine suitable for professional museums and galleries?
Yes. The Professional and Institution plans are designed for organisations that need staff role management, analytics dashboards, event ticketing, compliance and risk tools, conservation records, loans management, and more. The Institution plan mirrors the feature set of much more expensive museum CMS tools, at a fraction of the cost.
How is Vitrine different from using a spreadsheet?
Spreadsheets are flexible but lack images, structured fields, access control, a public website, valuation tracking, and audit trails. Vitrine gives you all of these, with a purpose-built interface for collections. It also scales as your collection grows — thousands of items remain just as easy to search and filter as ten. See a detailed comparison →
Does Vitrine support multiple users and staff roles?
Yes. Professional and Institution plans include staff management with configurable roles (e.g., registrar, curator, volunteer). Each role can be granted or restricted access to specific parts of the dashboard. All changes are logged for audit purposes.
Is my collection data secure?
Yes. Vitrine is built on Supabase with row-level security, meaning each account's data is strictly isolated. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Private collection items are never publicly accessible. We do not sell or share your collection data.
Can I use Vitrine on my phone or tablet?
Yes. Vitrine is a web application that works on any modern browser, including mobile browsers on iPhone and Android. The cataloguing interface and public collection website are both fully responsive.
Does Vitrine help with insurance documentation?
Yes. You can record acquisition value, current estimated value, condition reports, and provenance for each item. This creates a structured inventory that insurers typically require. You can export your full collection as a CSV at any time. See all compliance tools →
Can I track the value of my collection over time?
Yes, on all plans. Each item has fields for purchase price and your own estimated current value. Your dashboard shows total paid vs estimated value across the collection. Professional and above also support formal recorded valuations with date, valuer, method, and supporting documents.
What happens to my data if I cancel?
You can export all your data as CSV before cancelling. After cancellation, your account and data are retained for 30 days, during which you can reactivate. After 30 days, data is permanently deleted in accordance with our privacy policy.
Do you offer discounts for non-profit organisations?
Yes. Registered charities and non-profit cultural organisations can apply for a discount on Professional and Institution plans. Contact us via the enterprise enquiry form with details of your organisation.
Still have questions?
Read our step-by-step guides or start a free account to explore Vitrine yourself — no credit card required.