Checkmk vs Icinga

Checkmk monitors cloud, hybrid, and data center infrastructure, including containers and networks. For web, mail, and database servers, it combines more than 2,000 smart checks with automatic discovery and network mapping. Monitoring can use native agents for Windows, Linux, and other systems, agentless SNMP and TCP/UDP checks, or API-based checks over HTTP/XML, SSH, or TELNET. Cloud coverage includes AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, with automatic component detection and Quick Setup. One instance can monitor thousands of servers, while distributed monitoring supports horizontal scaling. Community includes more than 2,000 integrations and is intended for smaller environments, scaling to approximately 100 hosts. The software can run on customer hardware or virtualized infrastructure, with Linux distribution packages, Docker, and a Virtual Appliance. The Community plan is free forever and includes community support. The pricing note lists paid plans from €190/mo (annual) and a 30-day trial. Other listed plan prices use USD: Pro is $275 a month, Cloud is $290 a month, and Ultimate is $400 a month. Platforms include API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web, and Windows.

Icinga monitors infrastructure and applications, collecting and analyzing data to help teams identify and resolve errors. It covers servers, applications, and network devices across on-premises and cloud environments. Dashboards, filtered and grouped views, and notifications provide visibility, while troubleshooting entry points support root-cause investigation. Teams can extend monitoring with clustering, custom checks, plugins, configurable logic, and distributed environments. Listed integrations include Grafana, InfluxDB, Elastic, Graylog, Ansible, Puppet, Terraform, AWS, Azure, Jira, PagerDuty, and ServiceNow. The free edition supports API automation and Git-based workflows; the pricing FAQ describes a REST API for custom integrations. Icinga says node communication uses TLS/SSL and provides certificate tools. It can monitor certificates, alert as they approach expiry, and verify self-signed certificates using a custom trust store. The product is self-hosted and supports Linux and Windows; official packages cover several Linux distributions and Windows, with some requiring a paid subscription. The free, open source edition includes unlimited hosts and services. Paid support and subscriptions are also available, with support starting at $15,000 a year.