Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Checkmk vs SolarWinds NPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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
12th
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
13th
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (6th)
SolarWinds NPM
Ranking in Network Monitoring Software
4th
Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring
5th
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
158
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Checkmk is 3.4%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds NPM is 4.7%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

Paolo Sala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
MohitKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
High-level, comprehensive, and proactive monitoring in a user-friendly interface
The solution needs to integrate with additional SDN technologies that are part of the hyper market. The solution supports many vendors by default and just included Meraki SDN with the new release, but continued expansion is important. We created a custom method to pair with unsupported vendors but that can produce a lag in performance so future releases should expand SDN support. The solution does a good job of automating features but could expand that even more.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"It's versatile, scalable, and easier to use compared to other solutions like Nagios and OMD."
"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."
"We can monitor multiple sites using the product."
"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."
"The most valuable features of Checkmk are its resource monitoring, infra monitoring, and log factor configuration."
"I believe the ease of setup and use, including everything, from the initial installation to the discovery of devices is the most valuable."
"SolarWinds NPM is a scalable solution since it can handle a huge number of users."
"SolarWinds is user-friendly with a manageable console."
"For end-user performance monitoring, we like features such as availability of our all devices."
"What I've found most valuable about the solution is that it's scalable."
"The people in technical support are very good."
"The biggest thing for me is that it provided enough information for me to monitor. It alerts and provides you with the information you need."
"I like the tracking feature to track devices and see where they are connected. This is very practical."
 

Cons

"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."
"The initial setup is a bit complex."
"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."
"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 allow running scripts at varying intervals."
"We decided that we were no longer going to trust that their products have not been capitalized."
"Better offline license management. I’ve had to get in touch with customer support several times simply to remove an expired license from our NPM servers."
"The improvement would be that SolarWinds NPM thoroughly checks its patches before releasing them to the market. Better testing, alpha testing, and then releasing it to the market."
"One of the challenges with SolarWinds is that in order to pull the data, we have to have a lot of false positives."
"An area for improvement would be the use of modular licenses, which are not practical for big clients."
"If they did some type of synthetic monitoring, it would have been better."
"The only thing that can be improved is to continually add to the existing capabilities of the product."
"Real-time analytics is the major weakness of the SolarWinds NPM platform today. They've done a fantastic job enabling the collection of data. Users are now demanding the ability to generate their own graphs, views, and so on; all of this must be done by an admin today."
 

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."
"It's expensive and there are costs in addition to the standard licensing."
"SolarWinds NPM has different pricing models available. The cost of the solution is less than some competitors."
"It is relatively inexpensive compared to other products in the same category."
"The pricing is very expensive for SolarWinds. That's a huge disadvantage for it."
"The cost is based on the number of nodes, so it is expensive when you have a lot of them."
"We pay approximately $700 per year for renewal of the license."
"The solution's pricing is low compared to a lot of other tools in the market."
"We pay for SolarWinds NPM yearly. We buy it and then we renew it, but it's not subscription-based. I don't remember the value exactly, because it's my manager who manages pricing, but we pay $60,000 per year for all the solutions. Pricing will also depend on the number of devices. We have a lot of devices."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
57%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

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.
What needs improvement with Checkmk?
I frequently program functions with PowerShell, and although Bash could be used, my specialization is in PowerShell. Two of us focus on programming in PowerShell for infrastructure optimization. I ...
What is your primary use case for Checkmk?
Currently, I use two Dell PowerStore systems, and I'm responsible for disposing of systems in our environment. We need to upgrade our systems, but we are working on less pressing issues. Right now,...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
It actually depends on the exact purpose or kind of devices (network devices, servers, something else). Some tools are better for only network devices while others are better for a cloud monitoring...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
We are partners with SolarWinds and we sell a lot of Network management to large enterprises also because of scalability, products like Network Performance Monitor & Netflow Traffic Analyzer ar...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft, Federal Express, Hewlett-Packard, and MasterCard
Find out what your peers are saying about Checkmk vs. SolarWinds NPM and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.