Checkmk vs Nagios Core comparison

Checkmk and Nagios are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Checkmk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4, while Nagios is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5. Checkmk holds a 3.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to Nagios’s 2.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Checkmk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Nagios users who would recommend it.

Checkmk

Read 9 Checkmk reviews

4,374 Views
3,718 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nagios Core

Read 51 Nagios Core reviews

4,590 Views
4,039 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Checkmk

Nagios Core

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Nagios Core and Checkmk compete in the network monitoring solutions category. Checkmk appears to have the upper hand due to its ease of use and comprehensive built-in monitoring functionalities, contrasting with Nagios Core's flexibility but steeper learning curve.

Features: Nagios Core is known for its open-source nature, flexibility, and customizable options. It allows integration with custom monitoring systems and features a variety of plugins. Checkmk, however, offers user-friendly automatic discovery, comprehensive monitoring capabilities, and ease of setup with built-in functionalities.

Room for Improvement: Nagios Core can be challenging due to its complex configuration and less interactive display, needing UI and dashboard enhancements. Checkmk could improve its integration options with third-party systems and streamline its alerting process to reduce manual intervention.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nagios Core supports a variety of deployment environments, including on-premises and cloud-based. The lack of direct customer service is a disadvantage, relying mainly on community support. Checkmk also provides flexible deployment options and generally has better support structures, although integrations can be limited.

Pricing and ROI: Nagios Core's open-source model allows for cost-effective deployment for basic monitoring needs, with community resources often providing necessary support, though it may demand technical expertise and effort. Checkmk presents a budget-friendly price compared to other enterprise solutions, offering significant value by facilitating scaling and advanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed Checkmk vs. Nagios Core Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Nagios Core

July 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

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

13th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (6th), Cloud Monitoring Software (12th)

Nagios Core

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

10th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 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 Nagios Core is 2.8%, down from 3.2% 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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Nishith-Vyas

Tech Lead at STL Digital Limited

Valuable reporting and alert system with room for PDF export improvements

The NetEase reporting structure needs improvement, especially the availability report, which is weak. It should be generated automatically with minimal human intervention and should be exportable as a PDF. Besides that, an integrated PDF export feature for reports is necessary. Also, the alert mechanism and graphing mechanism need to be integrated properly into Nagios Core. Currently, integrating these requires advanced Linux knowledge. Integration of more visualization tools like Grafana and Prometheus for better graphing and visualization is also recommended.

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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

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

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

"I really like the auto-discovery feature."

"We can monitor multiple sites using the product."

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

"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."

"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."

"The alerting system in Checkmk really works properly."

More Checkmk pros

"Key features include the GUI interface, its notification capabilities, and the real-time reporting."

"Nagios Core integrates with tools like Splunk, Datadog, or Dynatrace. It is usually used as a feed to provide more technical information about devices or hosts to another system."

"Monitoring with Nagios Core is helpful because it provides immediate alerts if something goes down, such as a server, or wireless router, or if there's a cable break. This allows us to respond promptly to any issues."

"Nagios Core is stable."

"The most valuable feature of Nagios Core is it allows us to develop and add as many plugins as we want."

"The application performance monitoring feature is valuable."

"I like that it's very simple to install, easy to manage and deploy, and easy to use for monitoring."

"What I like about Nagios Core is that it helps me ensure everything is running smoothly by checking the status of hosts and services."

More Nagios Core pros

Cons

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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 allow running scripts at varying intervals."

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

More Checkmk cons

"The UI is a little outdated and graphics could be displayed in a better way."

"The alerting mechanism in Nagios Core could be improved."

"We're using the free version, which limits us in terms of the things that we can do. If we had the paid version, a lot of our issues would probably go away. For example, we can't isolate instances that are being built or updated with the production ones. When they're being built, on Nagios, they're showing in red. It'd be nice to be able to partition those off until they're all green, and then we can bring them into the environment. This is probably because we've got the free version and not the paid version. If we went for the paid version, it would probably allow us to do exactly what we want to or remove the restrictions that we have, but if we are able to isolate instances in the free version, it would make life much easier."

"I would like to see a sensor that shows the traffic of a user and what they're doing on the network."

"Cloud monitoring is an area for improvement because there aren't too many plugins available."

"Bandwidth monitoring is the pain point for me because Nagios Core does not monitor bandwidth effectively like Cacti does."

"Nagios Core does not have a graphic display."

"It is a bit slow due to latency."

More Nagios Core cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Checkmk is a fairly reasonably priced solution."

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

"The product is affordable."

"The product is cheaply priced."

"We have saved a lot of time, money, and effort in reducing disaster times, which is owed to Nagios quick alerting."

"We are using the free version."

"The enterprise version has technical support. The version we are using is free."

"Most the plugin features are free."

"I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The Nagios Core (PNP4Nagios + Core) is free and can be setup by Netadmin within a few hours. The only additional cost is the cloud server."

"We are using the open-source, unpaid version."

More Nagios Core pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

10%

Comms Service Provider

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...

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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 do you like most about Nagios Core?

What I like about Nagios Core is that it helps me ensure everything is running smoothly by checking the status of hosts and services.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nagios Core?

Nagios Core is a free and open-source product. We don't charge for the product itself, but we charge for the man-hour costs related to installation, configuration, ongoing operation, and maintenance.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Nagios Core?

The dashboard should be improved. It's very simple. I don't have a very clear or specific suggestion. You can change the skin of the dashboard, however, it's good for me.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Nagios Core

July 2025

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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

This is IT infrastructure monitoring's industry-standard, open-source core. Free without professional support services.

Nagios

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Airbnb, Cisco, PayPal, FanDuel

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Nagios Core

July 2025

Free Report: Checkmk vs. Nagios Core

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