Checkmk vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor comparison

Checkmk and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Checkmk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4, while SolarWinds is ranked #30 with an average rating of 8.0. Checkmk holds a 3.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to SolarWinds’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Checkmk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Checkmk

Read 9 Checkmk reviews

4,374 Views
3,718 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Network Device M...

Read 23 SolarWinds Network Device Monitor reviews

781 Views
750 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Checkmk

SolarWinds Network Device M...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor and Checkmk are competing network monitoring solutions. Checkmk seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and scalability, making it more adaptable to diverse IT environments.

Features: SolarWinds Network Device Monitor offers real-time monitoring, alerts, and is straightforward, appealing to smaller organizations. Checkmk includes customizable dashboards, extensive plugin support, and scalability fit for medium to large enterprises.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could enhance its features for larger and more complex network environments, improve integration with other tools, and expand its reporting capabilities. Checkmk may reduce its learning curve, streamline its initial setup, and enhance its user interface for better usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is praised for quick setup and intuitive configuration, with responsive customer support. Checkmk, though having a steeper learning curve, provides comprehensive documentation and a supportive community for complex deployments.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is competitively priced with lower initial costs, appealing to small and medium businesses seeking cost efficiency and fast ROI. Checkmk has potentially higher initial costs, offering long-term value with its features and scalability, suitable for larger organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed Checkmk vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

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

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)

SolarWinds Network Device M...

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

30th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 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 SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is 0.6%, up from 0.6% 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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Vijay Samant

Assistant Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Monitor network utilization and manage bandwidth efficiently with live monitoring and reliable fault management capabilities

I use SolarWinds Network Device Monitor for monitoring network utilization, bandwidth utilization, uptime, and downtime. It also assists in incident management SolarWinds Network Device Monitor provides live monitoring capabilities, which are very useful. Its fault management capabilities are…

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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

"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."

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

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

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

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

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

"We can monitor multiple sites using the product."

"The alerting system in Checkmk really works properly."

More Checkmk pros

"I rate the product's initial setup process a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult phase and ten is an easy process."

"The most valuable features of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor are the reports. We are configuring the reports, and the first reports are only about the devices. We are configuring the thresholds in order to monitor all the devices."

"The alerting functionality in SolarWinds Network Device Monitor helps us stay informed during off-hours by sending alerts if our main links or devices are impacted, allowing us to quickly address any issues."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is monitoring."

"There are vital features of auto-plugin core ports"

"SolarWinds is flexible and works with multiple vendor devices."

"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is it shows you the utilization of devices to allow you to take proactive action before something goes down or reaches the saturation point. You can take proactive action to fix the problem before it occurs."

"I like the mapping that you could do and the dashboards were very pretty."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor pros

Cons

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

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

More Checkmk cons

"It would be beneficial if SolarWinds Network Device Monitor could provide a feature to monitor CRC errors specifically on individual interfaces rather than the entire device. This would help in detecting intermittent issues and packet drops on main links more accurately, especially when there are CRC errors. It's important for us to be aware of these issues to avoid any voice quality problems or interruptions on our MTS links."

"It should provide user-friendly page"

"The solution lacks in performance monitoring."

"If everything were in the package so that everything was ready to go out of the box, that would be ideal."

"When an organization's network grows, the complexity of the dashboard becomes an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The solution should have AI-powered issue-resolving capabilities"

"The reporting feature needs improvement because we are unable to configure reports that were included during initial implementation."

"In terms of price, it could be less expensive."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor 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."

"SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is not an expensive solution."

"The price of the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is good."

"The enterprise license is good for the SolarWinds Network Device Monitor. However, it is expensive, they should reduce their price."

"Thankfully, it doesn't take a lot of manpower to install and deploy."

"The product is expensive."

"Well, we had a perpetual license and the renewal was $20 to $25,000."

"When compared with other solutions SolarWinds is more expensive."

"I find the cost of SolarWinds Network Device Monitor reasonable for our company. Though, I'm not aware of the exact licensing cost."

More SolarWinds Network Device Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

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 SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

I rate the product's initial setup process a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult phase and ten is an easy process.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

I am not a positive person regarding SolarWinds Network Device Monitor.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Network Device Monitor?

There are solutions that can perform better, but due to pricing for our corporate implementation, we had to stay with this solution. It accomplishes the necessary tasks, but there is room for impro...

See all answers

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Compared 22% of the time

FortiMonitor vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 19% of the time

ThousandEyes vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 9% of the time

Zabbix vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk

July 2025

Download Checkmk product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

July 2025

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Network Device Monitor product report

Also Known As

No data available

Network Device Monitor

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

Network Device Monitor is a free tool that makes it easy to monitor the real-time performance and health of a single device on your network with a desktop dashboard that alerts you when your device is in trouble.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Air Rarotonga

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

July 2025

Free Report: Checkmk vs. SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

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