Checkmate vs DNS Check
Checkmate
checkmate.so
DNS Check
dnscheck.coSide by side
| Figure | Checkmate | DNS Check |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $8/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 6 |
| Spec score · DNS Monitoring Software | 8.5 (#5) | 8.4 (#8) |
| API | The maker says the API accepts JSON for bulk monitor setup and provides a REST API reference. | The REST API returns JSON, supports monitoring individual records and record groups, and uses API keys; all accounts can use it. |
| Founded | 2023 | 2015 |
| Integrations | Alert channels include email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Twilio SMS, Pushover, ntfy, Matrix, Rocket.Chat, PagerDuty, Microsoft Teams, and webhooks. | Listed integrations include Basecamp, Jira Service Management, Nagios, OpsGenie, PagerDuty, Pingdom, Slack, and Splunk On-Call. |
| Limits | The maker says there is no one-click migration import and describes managed cloud as something users give up when choosing Checkmate. | More than 3,000 monitored DNS records requires contacting the company for a quote. |
| Support | The maker identifies Discord as the fastest help channel and GitHub issues for bugs and feature requests, and says there is no paid support tier. | The contact page invites feature requests and provides a contact form, phone number, email, and postal address. |
Plans
DNS Check
- BasicFree
- Professional$8 a month
- Enterprise$60 a month
- Enterprise x2$90 a month
- Enterprise x3$120 a month
- CustomPriced on request
In their own words
Checkmate
Checkmate is a free, open-source, self-hosted dashboard for monitoring infrastructure, service uptime, PageSpeed, and incidents. It checks HTTP, ping, TCP, gRPC, WebSocket, DNS, SSL, and more than 100 game server types. Its Capture agent reports server CPU, memory, disk, temperature, and network metrics, while PageSpeed monitoring tracks Lighthouse scores and Core Web Vitals over time. Public status dashboards can show per-service uptime and incident history with custom branding. Alerts can go to email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Twilio SMS, Pushover, ntfy, Matrix, Rocket.Chat, PagerDuty, Microsoft Teams, and webhooks. The maker says metrics, logs, incidents, and user accounts remain in the database configured by the operator, with no phone-home or telemetry pipeline. Checkmate is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and can be installed with Docker Compose or Kubernetes/Helm; its image runs on x86, Apple Silicon, and Raspberry Pi. The maker says the API accepts JSON for bulk monitor setup and provides a REST API reference. The free plan includes all features, no monitor limits, self-hosting, and 12 alert channels. There is no one-click migration import or paid support tier.
DNS Check
DNS Check monitors DNS records and name servers for changes, lookup failures and troubleshooting issues. Automated checks run every five minutes on all plans, with one-click rechecks, record history and shareable read-only reports. The checker compares entered records with DNS responses and can flag unresponsive name servers, missing or duplicate records and invalid SPF records. Fourteen record types are supported, including A, AAAA, ALIAS, CAA, CNAME, HTTPS, MX, NS, PTR, SOA, SPF, SRV, SVCB and TXT. Notifications can use email, PagerDuty and Slack on all plans, with listed integrations including Basecamp, Jira Service Management, Nagios, OpsGenie, Pingdom and Splunk On-Call. The REST API returns JSON, uses API keys and is available to every account for individual records or groups. Basic is free for 10 records and seven days of history. Professional costs $8 a month, or $80 yearly, for 100 records and 90 days. Higher plans cover up to 3,000 records; more requires a quote.