Checkmk vs Elastic Observability comparison

Checkmk and Elastic are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Checkmk is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.4, while Elastic is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.1. Checkmk holds a 3.9% mindshare in IM, compared to Elastic’s 4.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Checkmk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Elastic users who would recommend it.

Checkmk

Read 9 Checkmk reviews

3,360 Views
2,982 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Elastic Observability

Read 26 Elastic Observability reviews

5,029 Views
4,376 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Checkmk

Elastic Observability

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Elastic Observability and Checkmk compete in the monitoring and observability space, offering solutions for businesses looking to maximize operational efficiency. Elastic Observability may have the upper hand in providing a comprehensive toolset with extensive metrics visibility and seamless integration capabilities, while Checkmk excels in cost-effectiveness and integration with resource monitoring.

Features: Elastic Observability provides a comprehensive toolset beyond typical APM functionalities with unlimited licensing per elastic search host. It also includes notable features such as machine learning, open-source support, and offers extensive metrics visibility. Checkmk is valued for its resource monitoring and auto-discovery features, alongside integration capabilities with event management systems, making it highly suitable for complex infrastructures that require easy scalability.

Room for Improvement: Elastic Observability needs enhancements in visualization metrics and process monitoring, along with AI integration. Users seek greater automation and predictive analytics. Checkmk could improve alert handling and integration capabilities with solutions like Dynatrace. Its complexity can be a hurdle, impeding adoption and highlighting the need for a smoother onboarding experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Elastic Observability offers versatility by being deployable across on-premises, public, and hybrid cloud environments. Its technical support is generally responsive and personalized. Checkmk, typically deployed on-premises or in private cloud settings, is known for reliable technical support. Users find Checkmk straightforward but acknowledge a notable learning curve that could benefit from improved support materials.

Pricing and ROI: Elastic Observability's pricing can vary based on data volume and infrastructure size, posing challenges for startups. Despite higher costs compared to alternatives, its extensive features promise successful ROI through efficient incident management. Checkmk offers affordable pricing, valued as a good choice for enterprises due to its potential for expansion without significant cost increases. Its observable ROI appeals to budget-conscious users.

To learn more, read our detailed Checkmk vs. Elastic Observability Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Elastic Observability

February 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 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

Network Monitoring Software (11th), Server Monitoring (5th)

Elastic Observability

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

7th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (7th), Log Management (15th), Container Monitoring (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Checkmk is 3.9%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Elastic Observability is 4.0%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure 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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Adelina Craciun

Product Owner at Swisscom

Customization enables tailored monitoring and alerting across departments

The possibility to customize it has been quite useful. Whatever the other departments want to dream up, we implement. Whatever they want to monitor, the granularity of it, the changes in the threshold, and the anomalies that they want reported all require some development. So far, every single request has been fulfilled.

Read full review

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."

"I really like the auto-discovery feature."

"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."

"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 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."

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

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

More Checkmk pros

"I found Elk to be excellent for log analytics, security analytics, application code-level analytics, collaboration with DevOps teams, CI/CD, microservices, and Kubernetes, specifically cloud-native or cloud-specific tasks."

"It is scalable and supports multitenancy, which is beneficial for MSPs."

"We can view and connect different sources to the dashboard using it."

"Elastic Observability significantly improves incident response time by providing quick access to logs and data across various sources. For instance, searching for specific keywords in logs spanning over a month from multiple data sources can be completed within seconds."

"The Elastic User Interface framework lets us do custom development when needed. You need to have some Javascript knowledge. We need that knowledge to develop new custom tests."

"The most valuable feature of Elastic Observability is the text search."

"The most valued feature of Elastic is its log analytics capabilities."

"Elastic provides built-in features for queries and report generation. It's a very good tool for monitoring integration capabilities."

More Elastic Observability pros

Cons

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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

"They need more skills in the market. There are not enough skills in the market. It is not pervasive enough on the market, in my opinion. In other words, there isn't a big enough user base."

"If we had some pre-defined templates for observability that we could start using right away after deploying it – instead of having to build or to change some of the dashboards – that would be helpful."

"The cost must be made more transparent."

"There's a steep learning curve if you've never used this solution before."

"The price is the only issue in the solution. It can be made better and cheaper."

"Elastic Observability could improve asset discovery as the current requirement to push the agent is not ideal."

"The interface could be improved."

"The tool's scalability involves a more complex implementation process. It requires careful calculations to determine the number of nodes needed, the specifications of each node, and the configuration of hot, warm, and cold zones for data storage. Additionally, managing log retention policies adds further complexity. The solution's pricing also needs to be cheaper."

More Elastic Observability cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Checkmk is a fairly reasonably priced solution."

"The product is affordable."

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

"The price of Elastic Observability is expensive."

"We will buy a premium license after POC."

"Elastic Observability is cheaper than other similar solutions, such as Dynatrace. Its license calculation is based on various factors like data volume and physical infrastructure, particularly related to RAM capacity."

"One needs to pay for the licenses, and it is an annual subscription model right now."

"The product is not that cheap."

"Since we are a huge company, Elastic Observability is an affordable solution for us."

"Elastic Observability's pricing could be better for small-scale users."

"The product’s pricing needs improvement."

More Elastic Observability pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

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...

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 Elastic Observability?

Elastic Observability significantly improves incident response time by providing quick access to logs and data across various sources. For instance, searching for specific keywords in logs spanning...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Observability?

Elastic Observability is cost-efficient and provides all features in the enterprise license without asset-based licensing. However, sizing and licensing information could be clearer.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Elastic Observability?

Of course, maintenance is necessary, as with any software, requiring updates with the latest features and security enhancements. It lacked some capabilities when handling on-prem devices, like netw...

See all answers

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Compared 1% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 14% of the time

Dynatrace vs Elastic Observability

Compared 13% of the time

Grafana vs Elastic Observability

Compared 9% of the time

Zabbix vs Elastic Observability

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk

April 2025

Download Checkmk product report

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Observability

April 2025

Download Elastic Observability 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

Elastic Observability is primarily used for monitoring login events, application performance, and infrastructure, supporting significant data volumes through features like log aggregation, centralized logging, and system metric analysis.

Elastic Observability employs Elastic APM for performance and latency analysis, significantly aiding business KPIs and technical stability. It is popular among users for system and server monitoring, capacity planning, cyber security, and managing data pipelines. With the integration of Kibana, it offers robust visualization, reporting, and incident response capabilities through rapid log searches while supporting machine learning and hybrid cloud environments.

What are Elastic Observability's key features?

Economic licensing: Offers cost-effective plans.
Extensive metrics tracking: Helps in comprehensive system monitoring.
Comprehensive logging: Centralizes log data efficiently.
Performance Monitoring: Provides robust APM capabilities.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other solutions.
Kibana visualization: Facilitates data visualization and reporting.
Machine learning support: Enables advanced data analysis.
Flexible deployment: Supports various deployment environments.
Rapid log searches: Enhances quick incident response.
Accessibility: Offers extensive online documentation and connector support.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in Elastic Observability reviews?

Stability: Look for consistent performance and reliability.
Compliance: Effective monitoring aids in regulation adherence.
System Security: Enhanced system monitoring and alert management.
Cost-Effectiveness: Evaluate the economic pricing models.
Scalability: Adequate scalability options for growing needs.

Companies in technology, finance, healthcare, and other industries implement Elastic Observability for tailored monitoring solutions. They find its integration with existing systems useful for maintaining operation efficiency and security, particularly valuing the visualization capabilities through Kibana to monitor KPIs and improve incident response times.

Elastic

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

PSCU, Entel, VITAS, Mimecast, Barrett Steel, Butterfield Bank

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Elastic Observability

February 2025

Free Report: Checkmk vs. Elastic Observability

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