Checkmk vs Kentik comparison

Checkmk and Kentik are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Checkmk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4, while Kentik is ranked #33 with an average rating of 9.0. Checkmk holds a 3.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to Kentik’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Checkmk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Kentik users who would recommend it.

Checkmk

Read 9 Checkmk reviews

3,674 Views
2,684 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Kentik

Read 16 Kentik reviews

1,158 Views
546 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Checkmk

Kentik

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

Kentik and Checkmk compete in the network monitoring and resource management sectors. Kentik stands out with its advanced traffic analysis and NetFlow visualization, making it a strong contender for network optimization and security.

Features: Kentik provides advanced traffic analysis and NetFlow visualization tools, making it ideal for network planning and optimization. Its flexible data exploration capabilities and visualization tools like Sankey flow diagrams make it suitable for both real-time and historical analytics. Checkmk features robust resource and infrastructure monitoring with easy auto-discovery, aiding environments with frequent changes like power outages. It offers rule-based configurations and seamless integration with event management tools.

Room for Improvement: Kentik users mention the need for more granular user permissions and better alert customization. The complexity of API usage and lack of direct actionability on detected issues are also highlighted. Checkmk could benefit from a more user-friendly interface, easier alert handling, and improved onboarding processes. Expanding integration options with more third-party solutions and simplifying setup are suggested.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Kentik, as a SaaS, ensures straightforward deployment with highly responsive technical support. Users find their proactive customer service remarkable. Checkmk, available for on-premises and private cloud deployment, also receives positive feedback for customer service, though improvements in support efficiency and deployment options are noted.

Pricing and ROI: Kentik's pricing, which is device and flow-based, is seen as premium but justified due to its robust features and ROI in network optimization. Checkmk offers cost-effective pricing, particularly appealing to educational institutions and smaller setups, without compromising on essential monitoring capabilities. Both solutions present strong ROI potential, catering to different budget considerations with Kentik as a high-value investment for larger operations and Checkmk offering an affordable yet reliable alternative.

To learn more, read our detailed Checkmk vs. Kentik Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Kentik

June 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 Network Monitoring Software

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (6th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (13th), Cloud Monitoring Software (12th)

Kentik

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

33rd

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (17th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Checkmk is 3.9%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kentik is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software

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.

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ADRIANA SALDARRIAGA TOBON

Sales Manager at IFX NEtworks

Client experience and cybersecurity have improved with an easy setup

The solution is valuable for client experience, especially in the financial sector. The most important feature is cybersecurity. The pricing is good, but the functionality is the most important aspect for clients. The solution is easy to deploy and requires only one person to set up, making it easy and quick. Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I really like the auto-discovery feature."

"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."

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

"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."

"We can monitor multiple sites using the product."

"The most valuable features of Checkmk are its resource monitoring, infra monitoring, and log factor configuration."

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

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

More Checkmk pros

"Overall, I would give Kentik nine out of ten stars."

"Kentik excels in telemetry within data centers and works well in multi-vendor environments."

"I really love the Data Explorer. I use it all the time to go in and craft exactly what I need to see. I'm able to then take that story and explain it to the executives. I've done that a couple of times and it is helpful."

"Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives."

"It offers a simple yet powerful feature of classifying applications, going beyond basic statistics."

"The most valuable features have been anything around traffic engineering: being able to determine the source or destination of a surge of traffic, whether it's DDoS-related, or a customer just happened to have a sudden uptick in traffic. Being able to tell where that's coming from or where it's going to enables us to do things based on that."

"I am able to do a lot of work on the visualization end to create different visualizations and different ways to get information out of it."

"The drill-down into detailed views of network activity helps to quickly pinpoint locations and causes. All the information is there."

More Kentik pros

Cons

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

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

"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 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."

"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."

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

"Sometimes we receive alerts, and it can become annoying when you acknowledge an alert. It is very clunky when you acknowledge the alert. The process is not very intuitive, and there are instances where it feels a bit cumbersome to acknowledge an alert."

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

More Checkmk cons

"There is room for improvement around the usability of the API. It's a hugely complex task to call it and you need a lot of backing to be able to do it. I should say, as someone who's not in networking, maybe it's easier for people who are in networking, but for me that one part is not very user-friendly."

"The product could strive for more improvements to become closer to perfect."

"They're moving more in a direction where they are saying, "Hey, here's information that you may be interested in or may a need," before the question has to explicitly be asked. Continuing to move in that direction would be a good thing."

"We had faced some issues during an outage and were not able to get the desired results from Kentik tools. It took time to resolve these issues, which is why I give them eight points."

"I consider the pricing model as an area for improvement."

"We asked for a way, regarding the potential networks that exist, to hook Kentik up with external tools like peering DBs to correlate things together and see what we can do... This is all in the [next] beta now."

"I would like to see them explore the area of cost analysis."

"The only downside to Kentik, something that I don't like, is that it's great that it shows you where these anomalies lie, but it's not actionable. Kentik is valuable, don't get me wrong, but if it had an actionable piece to it..."

More Kentik cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The product is affordable."

"Checkmk is a fairly reasonably priced solution."

"We have an annual contract with Kentik that we renew each year for a set number of licenses. We also have some burstable licenses which we can spin up and spin down, and those are paid as they are used."

"The tool is cheaply priced."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

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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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kentik?

I would say Kentik's pricing is not cheap. From my perspective as part of the technical team, I would not categorize it as expensive, but I know it is not cheap.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Kentik?

There's always room for improvements and better relations when using any kind of product. We faced some issues with Kentik UI and alerting, which we asked them to fix, and they succeeded. They have...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Kentik?

We are using Kentik mostly for synthetic tests, and from one last year, network monitoring as well. We are using it for inter DC BGP tests and server monitoring as well.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk

June 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Kentik

June 2025

Download Kentik product report

Overview

Checkmk is a powerful tool for monitoring IT infrastructure, providing vital insights on servers, databases, network devices, and custom applications.

Primarily used for supervising IT infrastructure, Checkmk helps organizations ensure service availability by monitoring hosts, processes, load, storage, and network appliances. With support for both Linux and Windows environments across multiple data centers, Checkmk performs compliance checks and preserves historical data for core network devices.

What are the key features of Checkmk?

Auto-discovery: Automatically identifies new hosts and applies monitoring rules.
Custom monitoring: Enhances MySQL performance tracking.
Slack integration: Provides immediate downtime alerts.
Graphical trend analysis: Offers 400 days of trend data.
Multiple site monitoring: Ensures seamless data synchronization through task automation.
Resource and infrastructure monitoring: Configures log factors to fit budget constraints.
System metric imports: Includes servers, SQL, file systems, and application monitoring.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Time-saving: Auto-discovery and task automation streamline processes.
Proactive alerts: Immediate downtime notifications optimize response times.
Historical insights: Long-term graphical trend analysis aids strategic planning.
Cost efficiency: Resource monitoring aligned with budget constraints.

Checkmk is deployed extensively in large enterprise environments for monitoring critical infrastructure. It proves particularly useful under conditions of frequent power outages or network issues, helping maintain smooth operations. While the alert acknowledgment process and interface require improvements, and the lack of an agent-less platform complicates server management, the strengths in auto-discovery, integration, and comprehensive monitoring make Checkmk a strong contender for IT infrastructure monitoring.

Checkmk

Kentik's AIOps Network Traffic Intelligence platform unifies network operations, performance, security, and business intelligence.

With a purpose-built big data engine delivered as public or private SaaS, Kentik captures a high-resolution view of actual network traffic data and enriches it with critical application and business data, so every network event or analysis can be tied to revenue & costs, customer & user experience, performance & risk.

Kentik

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Pandora, Yelp, Neustar, Box, University of Washington, Zoom, Tata, and Cogent.

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Kentik

June 2025

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