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Head-to-head · Cloud Monitoring

Checkmk vs Prometheus

  • Updated Oct 2026
  • Both researched from official sources
  • 1 check side by side
Higher score Checkmk #2 in Cloud Monitoring 9.2/10 Free plan · 30-day trial Free planFree trial✓ 0 of 3 features Visit Checkmk
Prometheus #7 in Cloud Monitoring 8.7/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 0 of 3 features Visit Prometheus

Checkmk leads on 0 checks, Prometheus on 0, and 1 is even. Who comes out ahead on the 1 yes/no, price and count check where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.

Our verdict

  • Highest scoreCheckmk · 9.2/10
  • Free planboth
  • Free trialonly Checkmk

Checkmk scores higher on our rubric for cloud monitoring: 9.2 against 8.7 out of 10; our editors rank them #2 and #7.

Checkmk is the better fit for hybrid infrastructure monitoring teams. Prometheus is the better fit for teams building open-source metric monitoring.

  • Checkmk fits best

    Hybrid infrastructure monitoring teams

  • Prometheus fits best

    Teams building open-source metric monitoring

Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.

Side by side

Feature Checkmk 9.2/10 Visit ↗ Prometheus 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score 9.2 8.7
Ranking #2 in Cloud Monitoring #7 in Cloud Monitoring
Best for Hybrid infrastructure monitoring teams Teams building open-source metric monitoring
Pricing model Free plan + paid Free
Starting price €190/mo Free plan
Free plan ✓ ✓
Free trial 30 days —
Deployment Cloud, Self-hosted Self-hosted
Platforms Web, Linux, Windows Web, Windows, macOS, Linux
Support Community, Tickets, Docs Community, Docs
Integrations 2,000+ integrations 8 integrations
Built for Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Checkmk 0/3 · Prometheus 0/3
Kubernetes monitoring Not checked yet Not checked yet
Serverless monitoring Not checked yet Not checked yet
Synthetic monitoring Not checked yet Not checked yet
Specs
Cloud providers Not checked yet Not checked yet
Metrics retention Not checked yet Not checked yet
Log retention Not checked yet Not checked yet
Our review
Pros
  • Monitors servers, networks, storage, cloud, Kubernetes, and virtual machines
  • Automatic host and service discovery with agent and agentless collection
  • Community edition includes 2,000+ pre-built integrations and is free forever
  • PromQL supports selecting and aggregating labeled time-series data
  • HTTP scraping supports static and service-discovery-based targets
  • Alerting, federation, and remote read/write support broader architectures
Cons
  • Community scales to approximately 100 hosts
  • Pro and Ultimate are self-hosted paid editions
  • Displayed Pro and Ultimate prices use annual billing
  • Local storage is single-node
  • No SQL query support
  • Horizontal scaling is not verified
Our verdict

Checkmk is an infrastructure monitoring and observability platform for teams managing on-premises, cloud, hybrid, and containerized environments. It discovers hosts and services, collects status and performance data, and provides…

Read the review →

Prometheus is an open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit for collecting numeric metrics and storing them as timestamped time-series data with labels. It suits teams monitoring infrastructure, applications, and services, particularly in…

Read the review →
  1. CheckmkCloud Monitoring 9.2Free plan · 30-day trial
  2. PrometheusCloud Monitoring 8.7Free plan

Strengths and trade-offs

  • Checkmk — where it wins

    • Monitors servers, networks, storage, cloud, Kubernetes, and virtual machines
    • Automatic host and service discovery with agent and agentless collection
    • Community edition includes 2,000+ pre-built integrations and is free forever

    Where it doesn't

    • Community scales to approximately 100 hosts
    • Pro and Ultimate are self-hosted paid editions
    • Displayed Pro and Ultimate prices use annual billing

  • Prometheus — where it wins

    • PromQL supports selecting and aggregating labeled time-series data
    • HTTP scraping supports static and service-discovery-based targets
    • Alerting, federation, and remote read/write support broader architectures

    Where it doesn't

    • Local storage is single-node
    • No SQL query support
    • Horizontal scaling is not verified

More comparisons

All cloud monitoring comparisons → · Full ranking →

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Last updated · How we research and update