Checkmk vs Zabbix comparison

Checkmk and Zabbix are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Checkmk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4, while Zabbix is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. Checkmk holds a 3.9% mindshare in NMS, compared to Zabbix’s 12.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Checkmk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Zabbix users who would recommend it.

Checkmk

Read 9 Checkmk reviews

3,718 Views
2,669 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Zabbix

Read 106 Zabbix reviews

15,425 Views
8,415 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Checkmk

Zabbix

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 6, 2025

Zabbix and Checkmk are both open-source monitoring solutions competing in the network, server, and application monitoring category. Zabbix appears to have an upper hand due to its flexible and comprehensive feature set.

Features: Zabbix is known for its flexibility, auto-discovery, and scalability. It supports features like Low-Level Discovery and provides extensive integration options. Checkmk is valued for its automatic discovery capabilities and its ability to integrate seamlessly with other systems.

Room for Improvement: Zabbix users often desire enhancements in its reporting functions, user-friendly interface, and support for modern workloads like containers. Improvements in automation and integration are also suggested. Checkmk could enhance its integration capabilities and make its documentation more user-friendly to improve accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zabbix offers flexible deployment options, including on-premises and hybrid cloud environments, but non-experts may find the setup complex. Its community support is appreciated, though less direct than Checkmk's structured support services. Checkmk stands out for its easy on-premises deployment and effective setup process.

Pricing and ROI: Zabbix is an open-source platform with no licensing fees, allowing significant cost savings, particularly for large-scale deployments, and generally offers a high ROI due to its comprehensive features. Checkmk is considered affordable, with its enterprise edition's cost being justified by the features and support offered compared to other solutions. Both products offer highly cost-effective solutions with significant value.

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

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Zabbix

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

Ranking in Server Monitoring

6th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

13th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zabbix

Ranking in Network Monitoring Software

1st

Ranking in Server Monitoring

1st

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

1st

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

106

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (9th)

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 Zabbix is 12.7%, up from 11.2% 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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B Ahmed

Manager, Information Technology Zara & Inditex at Cenomi

Enables seamless global client monitoring with reliable remote connectivity

I use the solution to provide a perfect environment for remote connectivity with my clients. Many tools that I require for system maintenance are included. I can easily monitor all of my clients throughout the world I did not give much thought to it, however, improvements could be made to Zabbix.…

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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

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

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

"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."

"We can monitor multiple sites using the product."

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

"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."

"I really like the auto-discovery feature."

More Checkmk pros

"Zabbix is scalable."

"There is less computing power needed for scaling."

"The most valuable feature is the protocol to manage anything."

"The initial setup was very quick. The first time it was long because I didn't know it yet. I was only using Windows. The first time was very difficult because of the operating system."

"The resource usage, CPU utilization, disk usage, network monitoring, network performance, and alerting features are invaluable."

"It has good graphs of what is going on within the operating system."

"Health and communication links availability."

"Zabbix is an excellent performance monitoring tool."

More Zabbix 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 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."

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

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

More Checkmk cons

"I'm using the free version of Zabbix, and I'd like to see more customization options, especially for setting trigger thresholds."

"Implementation is always tailored to the customer and the kind of information we need from the client to carry it out can make them very uncomfortable. Sometimes the clients are not ready to share it."

"It could be more stable."

"I had problems using Zabbix when working with SUSE Enterprise; many companies use SUSE."

"Zabbix technical support is sold separately."

"If Zabbix had a better dashboard then it would be nice."

"Implementing Zabbix is difficult. I've deployed many solutions over the years, and Zabbix is the hardest to implement. You have to do some development to get it to work with IBM, Micro Focus, or HP products."

"When it comes to troubleshooting or technical support, there is usually some time lag."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"Checkmk is a fairly reasonably priced solution."

"The product is affordable."

"The tool's licensing is good."

"We pay the subscription for support by year."

"If you have 20,000 hosts, the support costs around €95,000 for a year."

"I use the tool's free version."

"We purchased Zabbix for a good price, including support"

"There is a license required for this solution and we pay annually for our license."

"We were searching for an open source solution and Zabbix fit the bill because it is free and open source under the GPL license."

"We’re using the free version, which covers all our current needs."

More Zabbix pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user174738

IT Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

May 31, 2015

Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

14%

Financial Services Firm

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.

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 Zabbix?

The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?

We didn't use the commercial version. We used the free version.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zabbix?

I think it's the best solution for monitoring. I don't know any better.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 8% of the time

LibreNMS vs Checkmk

Compared 8% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Checkmk

Compared 5% of the time

Centreon vs Checkmk

Compared 3% of the time

SCOM vs Checkmk

Compared 3% of the time

More Checkmk Competitors

LibreNMS vs Zabbix

Compared 10% of the time

Icinga vs Zabbix

Compared 7% of the time

NetXMS vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

Centreon vs Zabbix

Compared 3% of the time

Nagios XI vs Zabbix

Compared 3% of the time

More Zabbix Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Zabbix

June 2025

Download Zabbix 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

Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software that provides real-time monitoring and alerting for servers, networks, applications, and services.

It offers a wide range of features including data collection, visualization, and reporting.

With its user-friendly interface and customizable dashboards, Zabbix helps organizations ensure the availability and performance of their IT infrastructure.

Zabbix

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

1. IBM 2. Dell 3. Cisco 4. HP 5. Oracle 6. Microsoft 7. Amazon 8. Google 9. Facebook 10. Twitter 11. LinkedIn 12. Netflix 13. Adobe 14. VMware 15. Salesforce 16. SAP 17. Intel 18. AT&T 19. Verizon 20. T-Mobile 21. Vodafone 22. Ericsson 23. Nokia 24. Siemens 25. General Electric 26. Honeywell 27. Philips 28. Sony 29. Samsung 30. LG 31. Panasonic 32. Toshiba

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Zabbix

June 2025

Free Report: Checkmk vs. Zabbix

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