Checkmate vs ThousandEyes DNS Monitoring

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.

ThousandEyes DNS Monitoring tracks DNS servers, resolvers, and records across customer and provider networks to identify availability, performance, and security issues. It covers on-premises, hosted, and third-party DNS servers, checking availability, resolution speed, and record mappings. Tests can discover DNS infrastructure, trace routing and paths, measure resolver responsiveness, and check record accuracy. The service can trace a record's DNS hierarchy from top-level servers to the authoritative server, and verify the DNSSEC keychain from the bottom up. Users can configure and export alerts for availability, record mappings, DNSSEC, and record changes, including changes that may indicate cache poisoning. Alert destinations include email, SMS, webhooks, PagerDuty, Slack, ServiceNow, AppDynamics, Splunk, Webex, and Microsoft Teams. The Network & App Synthetics plan is an annual subscription priced according to visibility needs and test units; pricing is on request. A 15-day trial includes Cloud Agents in 20+ global locations and Enterprise Agents for customer infrastructure and cloud VPCs.