Checkmk vs Zabbix comparison

Checkmk and Zabbix are both solutions in the Network Monitoring Software category. Checkmk is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.5, while Zabbix is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Checkmk holds a 3.7% mindshare in NMS, compared to Zabbix’s 11.4% 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

4,452 Views
3,829 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Zabbix

Read 107 Zabbix reviews

23,317 Views
14,223 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Checkmk

Zabbix

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 17, 2025

Zabbix and Checkmk are two competitive solutions in the monitoring sector. Zabbix holds an upper hand due to its open-source flexibility and strong community support.

Features: Zabbix offers automated network discovery, high scalability, and seamless integration with multiple tools, all supported by a vast community. Checkmk provides robust auto-discovery, efficient resource monitoring, and a versatile rule-based configuration for effective performance management.

Room for Improvement: Zabbix could improve its reporting features, ease of use for non-technical staff, and enhance its documentation. Checkmk may focus on advancing its integration capabilities and making its user interface friendlier to novice users. Users suggest more direct user onboarding and simplified interfaces for Checkmk.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zabbix supports on-premises and hybrid cloud deployments and benefits from strong community forums with extensive informal support. Checkmk offers versatile deployments primarily on-premises. Zabbix’s community presence aids in problem-solving, while Checkmk can enhance exposure and accessibility for non-technical audiences.

Pricing and ROI: Zabbix's open-source model ensures no licensing costs, providing immediate savings and ROI, particularly when replacing costly proprietary systems. Checkmk is competitively priced in the enterprise segment, offering an affordable alternative to expense-heavy solutions. Both emphasize cost-effectiveness, with Zabbix having a significant advantage with a zero-cost entry point.

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

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk vs. Zabbix

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 Network Monitoring Software

14th

Ranking in Server Monitoring

8th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

24th

Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software

16th

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

107

Ranking in other categories

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

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Network Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of Checkmk is 3.7%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zabbix is 11.4%, up from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Monitoring Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zabbix	11.4%
Checkmk	3.7%
Other	84.9%

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.…

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 alerting system in Checkmk really works properly."

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

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

"I really like the auto-discovery feature."

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

"Checkmk helps me compare data and foresee issues."

"We can monitor multiple sites using the product."

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

More Checkmk pros

"The solution is stable."

"Zabbix is both stable and scalable."

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

"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."

"Our customers also like that they don't have to use multiple modules. Micro Focus and major vendors typically require you to buy several modules and plugins. Our customers do not like that. We offer them a single product for all their monitoring needs."

"The flexibility of this solution is amazing."

"The level of discovery-based configuration that lets us auto-configure the monitoring for various systems is a valuable feature."

"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."

More Zabbix pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

More Checkmk cons

"The APM monitoring has room for improvement, although I hear that the new 5.2 version has some improvements in that area, and I'd like to give that a go. I would like to see a few more templates out there for different styles of monitoring. I use the Grafana interface for reporting. I would also like it to have an out-of-the-box ability to email reports. You can create reports, but to be able to email those reports would be really helpful. I've got users who are not interested in logging in and generating a report. They want it all pre-canned and sent to an email address. It would also be really handy if we could pin certain reports up onto platforms such as Teams or SharePoint. A GUI for the proxy server would be cool to have for debugging purposes and for the support teams to have a look at, but I don't know whether that's really feasible to do. I get enough from the log files themselves."

"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."

"There's a small module of APM, however, it is not an enhanced version. People usually ask for a full-fledged APM solution."

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

"One of the things we don't like is that Zabbix has a license structure with a price that is high compared to the competition. It's very high, for example, compared to something like Microsoft Teams."

"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."

"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."

"An area for improvement would be the ease of doing aggregation from the value or different devices."

More Zabbix cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The product is affordable."

"Checkmk is a fairly reasonably priced solution."

"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."

"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

"The solution is free. However, many open-sourced tools start out free but eventually start charging."

"Its licensing is fair. It seems to be much cheaper than others."

"For pricing, it's free. We don't pay anything for it. They open-source the code, and people pay for support."

"I was using the free, Community Edition."

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

"We use the open-source version of Zabbix."

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

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing 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	53
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	34

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?

If you want to save costs, you can use Zabbix.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zabbix?

The reporting is lacking because this is an open-source tool, and nowadays, management's expectation is that the reports should be of high quality and every information should be presented in a con...

See all answers

Comparisons

LibreNMS vs Checkmk

Compared 9% of the time

Icinga vs Checkmk

Compared 8% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Checkmk

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios Core vs Checkmk

Compared 4% of the time

Centreon vs Checkmk

Compared 3% of the time

More Checkmk Competitors

LibreNMS vs Zabbix

Compared 9% of the time

Icinga vs Zabbix

Compared 6% of the time

NetXMS vs Zabbix

Compared 5% of the time

Centreon vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

Nagios XI vs Zabbix

Compared 4% of the time

More Zabbix Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Checkmk

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Zabbix

September 2025

Download Zabbix product report

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

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

September 2025

Free Report: Checkmk vs. Zabbix

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