Checkmk
Checkmk: A broad hybrid-monitoring platform with free open-source coverage and paid automation tiers. Ranked #2 of 32 in Infrastructure Monitoring by our editors (9.3/10); pricing: Free plan · 30-day trial; best for hybrid monitoring with discovery and automation.
At a glance
- Editor score9.3 / 10
- PricingFree plan · 30-day trial
- Best forHybrid monitoring with discovery and automation
- Free planYes
- Paid from€190/mo
- Founded2007 · Munich, Germany
- Facts checked23 Sep 2026
Where it wins
- Automatic discovery across servers, networks, cloud, and Kubernetes
- Agent and agentless collection, including SNMP, WMI, IPMI, and Redfish
- Free Community edition with 2000+ pre-built integrations
Where it doesn't
- Paid self-hosted plans start at €190 per month with annual billing
- Community edition scales to approximately 100 hosts
- Advanced features and professional support require paid tiers
Our verdict on Checkmk
Checkmk is an infrastructure monitoring and observability platform for IT teams managing on-premises, cloud, hybrid, and containerized environments. It discovers hosts and services, collects status and performance data, and provides dashboards, alerting, reporting, automation, historical data, and integrations. Coverage includes servers, networks, storage, VMware ESXi and vCenter, cloud services, Kubernetes, and applications through OpenTelemetry. Deployment options span self-hosted installations, web access, Linux, APIs, and a fully managed SaaS edition.
The freemium structure gives smaller environments a clear entry point. Community is free forever, open source, includes 2000+ pre-built integrations, scales to approximately 100 hosts, and comes with community support. Pro starts at €190 per month with annual billing and adds approximately 3,000 services at the displayed starting tier, advanced analytics and reporting, distributed monitoring, and professional support available 8 hours by 5 days. Ultimate costs €275 per month with annual billing and adds full-stack observability, advanced cloud integrations, automated mass rollouts, and support available 10 hours by 5 days. Cloud is fully managed, AWS-hosted, supports up to 50,000 services, and offers US or EU hosting regions.
Checkmk fits teams that need one monitoring layer across mixed infrastructure and want automatic discovery, centralized automation, or flexible collection methods. Agent-based monitoring covers Linux, Windows, and other operating systems, while agentless options include SNMP, TCP/UDP, IPMI, WMI, and Redfish. Integrations with ServiceNow, Jira, Slack, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, VMware, Kubernetes, and flexible APIs support operational workflows. Teams wanting a free starting point can choose Community; organizations needing distributed monitoring, managed hosting, or advanced observability should consider the corresponding paid edition.
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Checkmk pricing
All 4 Checkmk plans and prices →
Checkmk fact sheet
| Free plan | Yes |
|---|---|
| Paid from | €190/mo |
| Included hosts | Not verified |
| VM monitoring | Yes |
| Service monitoring | Yes |
| Metrics retention | Custom |
| Deployment model | Hybrid |
| OS coverage | Multiple |
| Agentless monitoring | Yes |
| Free trial | 30 days |
| Deployment | Cloud, Self-hosted |
| Platforms | Web, Linux, Windows |
| Compliance & security | ISO 27001, SOC 2, SSO/SAML, 2FA |
| Support | Community, Tickets, Docs |
| Built for | Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise (editorial estimate) |
| Integrations | 2,000+ integrations: AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Kubernetes … See all → |
| Pricing | Free plan · 30-day trial (source) |
| Website | checkmk.com |
| Facts checked | 23 Sep 2026 |
Checkmk integrations
Checkmk lists 2,000+ integrations on its own site — the 15 named here are the ones its pages call out.
- AWS
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform
- VMware ESXi
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Kubernetes
- OpenShift
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Slack
- Mattermost
- PagerDuty
- Jira
- ServiceNow
- Microsoft Teams
See all Checkmk integrations →
Alternatives to Checkmk
- ZabbixA broad monitoring platform with a free self-hosted edition and flexible deployment options.9.4
- Datadog Infrastructure MonitoringBroad infrastructure observability for cloud-native teams, with host-based pricing.9.2
- Splunk Infrastructure MonitoringA metrics-first observability service with dashboards, alerts, Kubernetes monitoring, and contextual logs.9.1
See all Checkmk alternatives →
Checkmk vs the competition
- Checkmk vs Zabbix
- Checkmk vs Datadog Infrastructure Monitoring
- Checkmk vs Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring
- Checkmk vs Google Cloud Monitoring
- Checkmk vs SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
- Checkmk vs Netdata
Compare Checkmk with any tool side by side →
Also Ranked In
Checkmk is ranked in 15 of our directories; the 6 strongest besides Infrastructure Monitoring.
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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
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