Checkmate vs Nagios XI
Checkmate
checkmate.so
Nagios XI
nagios.comSide by side
| Figure | Checkmate | Nagios XI |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 9 |
| Spec score · DNS Monitoring Software | 8.5 (#5) | 9.0 (#3) |
| Spec score · Infrastructure Monitoring | 8.5 (#6) | 9.0 (#3) |
| Spec score · Container Monitoring | 8.4 (#11) | 9.0 (#4) |
| API | The maker says the API accepts JSON for bulk monitor setup and provides a REST API reference. | The built-in REST API uses API-key authentication and returns JSON for reading, creating, updating and deleting system data. |
| Deployment | The documentation describes Docker Compose installation and lists Kubernetes/Helm deployment; it says the image runs on x86, Apple Silicon, and Raspberry Pi. | Nagios XI is self-hosted on Linux and offers virtual machine images for VMware Workstation, Oracle VirtualBox, VMware ESXi and vSphere, and Microsoft Hyper-V. |
| Founded | 2023 | 2007 |
| Integrations | Alert channels include email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Twilio SMS, Pushover, ntfy, Matrix, Rocket.Chat, PagerDuty, Microsoft Teams, and webhooks. | Nagios XI supports authentication with Active Directory or LDAP over SSL, Single Sign-On with Microsoft Entra ID, and two-factor authentication through Duo. |
| License | Checkmate is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and the maker says users can read, fork, and audit its source. | Nagios commercial software is proprietary; the terms grant a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for permitted internal use, while third-party components have separate licenses. |
| 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. | A paid license includes the first year of Maintenance & Support, version upgrades, up to ten support cases, Support Portal access, Premium features, and an assigned Customer Success Manager. |
Plans
Nagios XI
- Standard — 100 Nodes$2,595, paid once
- Enterprise — 100 Nodes$4,690, paid once
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Standard$2,595, paid once
- Standard (100-Node)$2,595, paid once
- Enterprise$4,690, paid once
- Enterprise (100-Node)$4,690, paid once
- SitewidePriced 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.
Nagios XI
Nagios XI monitors servers, network devices, applications and services from a Linux server you manage. It checks configured thresholds, records results and sends notifications. Standard includes more than 90 configuration wizards, auto-discovery, dashboards, performance graphs, an open REST API, automation, configuration rollback and snapshots. Enterprise adds SLA and capacity-planning reports, scheduled reports and pages, business process intelligence, bulk changes and an audit log. Users can be restricted to assigned host and service groups, with authentication options including Active Directory or LDAP over SSL, Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on and Duo two-factor authentication. It is self-hosted on Linux, with virtual machine images for several hypervisors and offline installation on Red Hat and CentOS Stream. A 30-day trial provides unlimited monitoring, Enterprise features and direct support without a credit card. The free plan is limited to 7 nodes or 100 services, whichever comes first. Paid perpetual licenses are priced by monitored nodes: Standard is $2,595.00 once and Enterprise is $4,690.00 once, each shown for 100 nodes.