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

4,374 Views
3,718 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Zabbix

Read 106 Zabbix reviews

25,708 Views
15,425 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

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

"I really like the auto-discovery feature."

"The alerting system in Checkmk really works properly."

"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."

"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."

"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."

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

More Checkmk pros

"We like the user-interface for this solution, which makes it an easy to use tool."

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

"We use it to monitor and manage our servers."

"The most valuable feature is the monitoring of virtual machines."

"The implementation process is very straightforward."

"Every new asset placed in the environment can be automatically detected, predicting human failures."

"In terms of customization and integration, we have more flexibility. We can automate configurations, define deletion rules, and customize based on the needs. The client interface allows for further configuration, making it quite comprehensive."

"The best feature is that Zabbix can report everything, and everything in Zabbix is free."

More Zabbix pros

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 initial setup is a bit complex."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

More Checkmk cons

"I would like to better be able to monitor Oracle processes."

"The only improvement I would suggest, revolves around its AI and ML capabilities."

"The GUI could be more intuitive. Also, we'd like streaming telemetry. Zabbix might have this feature, but I haven't seen it yet. It took us a long time to get started because the documentation isn't very descriptive. We had to go through various sources like YouTube and forums to get this solution working."

"Zabbix could improve when it comes to large-scale use cases. Additionally, the inventory could be better when connecting to other solutions, such as ServiceNow. There show to be better integration with other platforms and storage."

"Zabbix does not draw automatic mapping of the network, this is something they should add in the future. There is a lot of effort that is involved in tailoring some of the settings which could be made easier."

"There are some features of Zabbix that are not good for reporting. The DX Spectrum solution has better reporting."

"For us, the initial setup was complex"

"We would like to see the addition of automatic push functionality to this product. This would save time when monitoring our servers and networks as, at present, we have to manually install the Zabbix agent on any hardware to be monitored."

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."

"This is an open-source solution that can be used free of charge."

"My manager is very happy because it doesn't cost anything."

"It is freeware. We still use the free version of Zabbix."

"I was using the free, Community Edition."

"There is no license but we need to pay for support."

"The solution is free to use but they offer support as a paid service. If you can go read the manuals and do the fine-tuning based on your needs, you do not need to pay anything and you will have a full solution."

"Zabbix is a free solution but the support contact costs money."

"The solution is open source so is free."

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

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

11%

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...

See all answers

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

Icinga vs Checkmk

Compared 8% of the time

LibreNMS vs Checkmk

Compared 8% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Checkmk

Compared 5% of the time

SCOM vs Checkmk

Compared 3% of the time

Centreon vs Checkmk

Compared 3% of the time

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LibreNMS vs Zabbix

Compared 10% of the time

Icinga vs Zabbix

Compared 7% of the time

NetXMS vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

Nagios XI vs Zabbix

Compared 3% of the time

Centreon 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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