Checkmk vs Elastic Observability comparison

Checkmk and Elastic are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Checkmk is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.6, while Elastic is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.2. Checkmk holds a 4.1% mindshare in IM, compared to Elastic’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Checkmk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Elastic users who would recommend it.

Checkmk

Read 9 Checkmk reviews

4,453 Views
3,384 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Elastic Observability

Read 28 Elastic Observability reviews

9,578 Views
4,023 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Checkmk

Elastic Observability

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Elastic Observability and Checkmk compete in the monitoring and observability space, offering solutions for businesses looking to maximize operational efficiency. Elastic Observability may have the upper hand in providing a comprehensive toolset with extensive metrics visibility and seamless integration capabilities, while Checkmk excels in cost-effectiveness and integration with resource monitoring.

Features: Elastic Observability provides a comprehensive toolset beyond typical APM functionalities with unlimited licensing per elastic search host. It also includes notable features such as machine learning, open-source support, and offers extensive metrics visibility. Checkmk is valued for its resource monitoring and auto-discovery features, alongside integration capabilities with event management systems, making it highly suitable for complex infrastructures that require easy scalability.

Room for Improvement: Elastic Observability needs enhancements in visualization metrics and process monitoring, along with AI integration. Users seek greater automation and predictive analytics. Checkmk could improve alert handling and integration capabilities with solutions like Dynatrace. Its complexity can be a hurdle, impeding adoption and highlighting the need for a smoother onboarding experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Elastic Observability offers versatility by being deployable across on-premises, public, and hybrid cloud environments. Its technical support is generally responsive and personalized. Checkmk, typically deployed on-premises or in private cloud settings, is known for reliable technical support. Users find Checkmk straightforward but acknowledge a notable learning curve that could benefit from improved support materials.

Pricing and ROI: Elastic Observability's pricing can vary based on data volume and infrastructure size, posing challenges for startups. Despite higher costs compared to alternatives, its extensive features promise successful ROI through efficient incident management. Checkmk offers affordable pricing, valued as a good choice for enterprises due to its potential for expansion without significant cost increases. Its observable ROI appeals to budget-conscious users.

To learn more, read our detailed Checkmk vs. Elastic Observability Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Elastic Observability

August 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Checkmk

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

14th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (8th), Server Monitoring (5th)

Elastic Observability

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

11th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (7th), Log Management (16th), Container Monitoring (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Checkmk is 4.1%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Elastic Observability is 3.1%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Elastic Observability	3.1%
Checkmk	4.1%
Other	92.8%

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Paolo Sala

Application performance and System monitoring at Agos

A reasonably priced tool for system and application monitoring

The main room for improvement is in the solution's presentation and the integration area. In our company, we use the integration capabilities from ServiceNow. We also have another big monitoring solution in place in our company, which is Dynatrace. At the moment, there doesn't exist an out-of-the-box integration for Dynatrace. I think that the integration and the exporting of the data collected are areas where Checkmk lacks but should try to improve the most. The only implementation of Checkmk that allows high availability is the virtual appliance that has the option for the availability of a different box. Otherwise, you have to find a way to implement it manually with some custom solution, which could be an improvement.

Read full review

Adelina Craciun

Product Owner at Swisscom

Customization enables tailored monitoring and alerting across departments

The possibility to customize it has been quite useful. Whatever the other departments want to dream up, we implement. Whatever they want to monitor, the granularity of it, the changes in the threshold, and the anomalies that they want reported all require some development. So far, every single request has been fulfilled.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Overall, from one to ten, I rate Checkmk a nine."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it has a lot of different pieces, and they all work together...It is a very scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"It's versatile, scalable, and easier to use compared to other solutions like Nagios and OMD."

"The alerting system in Checkmk really works properly."

"The initial setup of Checkmk was easy...It is a very stable solution."

"I really like the auto-discovery feature."

"Checkmk was built on a platform that was user-friendly, and I could build my charts easily."

"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."

More Checkmk pros

"I found Elk to be excellent for log analytics, security analytics, application code-level analytics, collaboration with DevOps teams, CI/CD, microservices, and Kubernetes, specifically cloud-native or cloud-specific tasks."

"We can view and connect different sources to the dashboard using it."

"Elastic APM has plenty of features, such as the Elastic server for Kibana and many additional plugins. It's a comprehensive tool when used as a logging platform."

"It is scalable and supports multitenancy, which is beneficial for MSPs."

"The product has connectors to many services."

"It is a powerful tool that allows users to collect and transform logs as needed, enabling flexible visualization and analysis."

"The tool's most valuable feature is centralized logging. Elastic Common Search helps us to search for the logs across the organization."

"We use AppDynamics and Elastic. The reason why we're using Elastic APM is because of the license count. It's very favorable compared to AppDynamics. It's inexpensive; it's economical."

More Elastic Observability pros

Cons

"Checkmk does not allow running scripts at varying intervals."

"In Checkmk, the documentation can probably be improved a bit more."

"If an alert is generated for a specific pattern in the log, and if Checkmk catches that log, it will stay there even after the alert is resolved."

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

"The main challenge for us is that we're moving from Nagios to Checkmk, and we're still getting used to the new way of working."

"I think that the integration and the exporting of the data collected are areas where Checkmk lacks but should try to improve the most."

"Checkmk does not work too easily with the PowerStore. I use a PowerShell script as Checkmk runs on Linux and a Windows system, connecting with the Checkmk agent."

"It is easy for tech-savvy people, but newcomers might find it intimidating."

More Checkmk cons

"Simplifying the parsing of logs and manual efforts would also be beneficial."

"Elastic APM's visualization is not that great compared to other tools. It's number of metrics is very low."

"Elastic Observability needs to have better standardization, logging, and schema."

"The price is the only issue in the solution. It can be made better and cheaper."

"There could be more low-code features included in the product."

"Elastic Observability’s price could be improved."

"Elastic Observability needs to improve the retrieval of logs and metrics from all the instances."

"One example is the inability to monitor very old databases with the newest version."

More Elastic Observability cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is affordable."

"The price of Checkmk is cheaper compared to other enterprise products."

"Checkmk is a fairly reasonably priced solution."

"We have been using the open-source version."

"We will buy a premium license after POC."

"Pricing is one of those situations where the more you use it, the more you pay."

"There are two types: cloud and SaaS. They charge based on data ingestion, ingest rate, hard retention, and warm retention. I believe it costs around $25,000 annually to ingest 30GB of data daily. That is the SaaS version. There is also a self-managed license where the customer manages their own infrastructure on-prem. In such cases, there are three license tiers that respectively cost $5,000 annually per node, $7,000 per node, and $12,500 per node."

"Users have to pay for some features, like the alerts on different channels, because they are unavailable in different source versions."

"Elastic Observability is cheaper than other similar solutions, such as Dynatrace. Its license calculation is based on various factors like data volume and physical infrastructure, particularly related to RAM capacity."

"The product is not that cheap."

"One needs to pay for the licenses, and it is an annual subscription model right now."

More Elastic Observability pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	16

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Checkmk?

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it has a lot of different pieces, and they all work together...It is a very scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Checkmk?

I will get more information about Checkmk when the proof of concept is done. It's going to be before the summer. There will be a report about the tool and a recommendation to use it. So far, it loo...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Checkmk?

Checkmk ( /products/checkmk-reviews ) is a monitoring tool, so that's what I will use it for. Right now, it's not in production, but it's in a proof of concept phase. It looks good, so probably, du...

See all answers

What do you like most about Elastic Observability?

Elastic Observability significantly improves incident response time by providing quick access to logs and data across various sources. For instance, searching for specific keywords in logs spanning...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Observability?

The license for Elastic Observability is the same as for other uses; you pay for Elastic, and you can use it for various cases. Observability is actually cheaper compared to logs because you're not...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Elastic Observability?

I think they are working on the AI-based features, which are currently in technical preview. The only challenging aspect for new users is often writing the query language. Basic searching is very e...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 5% of the time

Nagios XI vs Checkmk

Compared 1% of the time

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New Relic vs Elastic Observability

Compared 12% of the time

Dynatrace vs Elastic Observability

Compared 12% of the time

Grafana vs Elastic Observability

Compared 8% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Elastic Observability

Compared 1% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk

September 2025

Download Checkmk product report

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability

September 2025

Download Elastic Observability product report

Overview

Checkmk provides a comprehensive monitoring solution designed to streamline IT infrastructure management with features like auto-discovery, custom checks, and effective alerting.

Checkmk serves as a powerful tool for organizations managing large networks of servers, databases, and network appliances across multiple locations. It simplifies monitoring tasks with features like auto-discovery, custom scripting, and Slack integration. Users benefit from its resource monitoring capabilities and scalability, although there are areas for improvement, such as alert acknowledgment and greater usability. It supports both Linux and Windows environments, enabling effective oversight of IT infrastructure. The growing body of documentation enhances its adaptability in complex settings.

What are the key features of Checkmk?

Auto-Discovery: Identifies new hosts and applies monitoring rules automatically.
Custom Monitoring Checks: Tailor checks for databases and specific applications.
Slack Integration: Receive downtime alerts directly in Slack channels.
Automation for Scripts: Streamline repetitive tasks with scripts.
Effective Alerting System: Offers timely notifications on network activities.

What benefits can users expect?

Resource Efficiency: Saves time on configuration with automated features.
Scalability: Easily adapts to growing network and system requirements.
Cost-Effectiveness: Suitable option for budget-conscious users.
User-Friendly Setup: Easy to configure, reducing the learning curve.

Industries deploying Checkmk frequently utilize it for monitoring IT infrastructure, including servers and network appliances, to manage proactive issue identification and compliance. Companies employ it in the proof of concept phase or for ongoing monitoring, covering hosts, services, and custom application metrics.

Checkmk

Elastic Observability offers a comprehensive suite for log analytics, application performance monitoring, and machine learning. It integrates seamlessly with platforms like Teams and Slack, enhancing data visualization and scalability for real-time insights.

Elastic Observability is designed to support production environments with features like logging, data collection, and infrastructure tracking. Centralized logging and powerful search functionalities make incident response and performance tracking efficient. Elastic APM and Kibana facilitate detailed data visualization, promoting rapid troubleshooting and effective system performance analysis. Integrated services and extensive connectivity options enhance its role in business and technical decision-making by providing actionable data insights.

What are the most important features of Elastic Observability?

Centralized Logging: Streamlines the collection, analysis, and storage of log data.
Powerful Search: Provides robust search capabilities for quick access to relevant information.
Scalability: Supports growing data needs across diverse environments.
Real-time Telemetry: Ensures up-to-date insights and monitoring.
Platform Integration: Seamlessly connects with services like Teams and Slack.
Data Visualization: Enhances visibility with Elastic APM and Kibana.

What benefits and ROI should users explore in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Offers significant savings through efficient data management.
Rapid Incident Response: Minimizes downtime with quick troubleshooting tools.
Comprehensive Insights: Supports better business decisions with detailed data analysis.
Performance Tracking: Enables assessment of system effectiveness and improvements.

Elastic Observability is employed across industries for critical operations, such as in finance for transaction monitoring, in healthcare for secure data management, and in technology for optimizing application performance. Its data-driven approach aids efficient event tracing, supporting diverse industry requirements.

Elastic

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

PSCU, Entel, VITAS, Mimecast, Barrett Steel, Butterfield Bank

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Elastic Observability

August 2025

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