Checkmk vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor comparison

Checkmk and SolarWinds are both solutions in the Server Monitoring category. Checkmk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.5, while SolarWinds is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.4. Checkmk holds a 10.1% mindshare in SM, compared to SolarWinds’s 2.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Checkmk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

Checkmk

Read 9 Checkmk reviews

4,452 Views
2,493 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Read 42 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor reviews

3,599 Views
792 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Checkmk

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor and Checkmk are two popular monitoring tools in the IT infrastructure monitoring category. While SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor excels in real-time monitoring, Checkmk might be more suitable for larger environments due to its flexibility and scalability.

Features: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor offers real-time monitoring, an extensive alert system, and a user-friendly interface. Checkmk provides flexibility, scalability, and comprehensive monitoring solutions across various environments.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor needs better integration with third-party tools, improved reporting capabilities, and streamlined user experience. Checkmk requires enhancements in documentation, ease of use for new users, and better graphical interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is known for its straightforward deployment process and mixed reviews on customer support. Checkmk has a more complex deployment but receives higher marks for customer service.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is considered costly but justifies the price with its features. Checkmk offers a more favorable cost-to-feature ratio, lower initial setup costs, and potentially better long-term ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Checkmk vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

September 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 Server Monitoring

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (14th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (24th), Cloud Monitoring Software (16th)

SolarWinds Server and Appli...

Ranking in Server Monitoring

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (20th), Active Directory Management (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Checkmk is 10.1%, up from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is 2.8%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Monitoring Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Checkmk	10.1%
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor	2.8%
Other	87.1%

Server 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.

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VIVEK PATHAK

Solutions Architect at Airtel

Offering reasonably good dashboarding features but needs to improve the application performance monitoring

My company uses Riverbed for application performance monitoring. I was doing research so that I could understand if SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor provide APM capabilities similar to Riverbed, which allows our company to get a packet capture of an entire session, and on the basis of it, we look at the application performance monitoring part. With SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor, my company does SNMP polling, so it can drag an entire session, but it focuses more on availability, CPU memory, and server connection status. In Riverbed, my company catches an entire system, so when we deal with two applications, we have end-to-end app visibility. All the application monitoring happens through Riverbed. Our company's main problem is that, as of now, we have two different products in our organization, and we don't want to continue with the multiple products currently. I wanted to understand if SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor already have capabilities like Riverbed, and if they do, then I wanted to figure out why our company should not go with SolarWinds and why we are using products from multiple vendors. My company needs to continue with either Riverbed or SolarWinds. I wanted to see which products are good for the organization and how much I want to continue with Riverbed.

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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."

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

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

"The alerting system in Checkmk really works properly."

"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."

"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."

More Checkmk pros

"SSL Certificate Monitoring and Expiry Alerting"

"It's good at monitoring system-specific things like ports, services."

"Hardware health: It allows for proactive monitoring of the hardware health and is a game changer."

"Manage Groups: The capability to group appropriate devices gives better visibility of sites, categories, or critical regions. The same can be used to represent a dashboard for higher management."

"It is simple to implement and can provide fairly decent Windows-based monitoring, beyond simple SNMP. It is great for monitoring newbies and smaller shops."

"The features like trends, capacity planning, recommendations, and diagnostics are the main items I focus on for added value."

"Features like monitoring and infrastructure dependency mapping are valuable to us."

"The most valuable feature is application monitoring."

More SolarWinds Server and Application 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."

"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."

"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 initial setup is a bit complex."

"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

"Currently SolarWinds SAM offers AppInsight for modern versions of: IIS, Exchange, SQL Server. They have shown to be powerful and insightful tools. However, AppInsight needs to be offered for more applications: Citrix, SharePoint, AX, etc."

"It lacks a user experience for measuring things like the end-to-end time for which a user waits for a specific response in the system. In the application layer, it has some very basic stuff. You have to build your own with manuscripts and things like that."

"This product has no real downside unless they fail to continue development of its capabilities."

"Support for the IBM Mainframe is needed."

"I believe that some of the trends, environmental maps, and items like those found in Orion would be very beneficial."

"Downside of the tools is the web console are hung or crash. It need to improve the performance."

"I think they need to make reporting easier and more simple & dynamic."

"The technical support was better in previous years. With the launch of the premium support service, the normal support has declined."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor 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 expensive."

"Pricing is inexpensive, starting at 2440 euros. For that, you get the ability to monitor a couple of nodes and one year of maintenance and support."

"I like the pricing for this SolarWinds product."

"I would rate the pricing for this solution a three out of five."

"The product might cost you $30,000 USD to buy, but scaling this solution requires the purchase of additional polling engines at $20,000 USD each."

"The solution is overpriced in terms of application management."

"I would advise potential buyers to wait until the end of the quarter, end of year, or other time to place orders. There are actually great deals to be had at those times if your budget cycle can match up."

"We pay around $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 yearly for the solution."

More SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

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	16
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	20

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...

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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...

See all answers

What do you like most about SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

Identifying the problem statement is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

The initial cost is quite high, but the renewal cost is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor?

There are no specific features or functionality I would like to see improved or enhanced in SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor at this time. I have not encountered any missing features or fu...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 5% of the time

Nagios Core vs Checkmk

Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 17% of the time

Azure Monitor vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 15% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 8% of the time

Prometheus-AI Platform vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 6% of the time

Nagios XI vs SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk

October 2025

Download Checkmk product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

September 2025

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor report

Download SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor product report

Also Known As

No data available

SolarWinds SAM

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

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers powerful application and server monitoring capabilities for IT pros, enabling them to diagnose and troubleshoot performance issues faster. Do not let slow applications and downtime impact your end-users and business services. Pinpoint the root cause of application issues across various layers of the IT stack. SolarWinds SAM is affordable and easy to deploy, use, and customize. You can automatically discover your system's environment and start monitoring in about an hour. No professional services or consultation needed.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Andr. L. Riis AS, NetSuite

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor

September 2025

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