Checkmk vs Pixie

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.

Pixie is open-source Kubernetes observability and debugging software for developers. It collects metrics, events, traces, and logs without code changes, using dynamic eBPF probes and ingestors. Users can run community, team, or custom scripts to debug as code and share sessions. Its CLI provides health checks and charts, with a browser interface available when needed. Pixie supports hosted and self-hosted deployments; its Vizier data-collection component runs in the Kubernetes cluster. Requirements include Kubernetes v1.21 or later and Linux nodes, and pods that install BPF programs need privileged access to the Linux kernel. The project lists Cosmic Cloud and New Relic Cloud as free hosted versions. Pixie lists Minikube, EKS, GKE, AKS, and self-managed Kubernetes environments. Telemetry traffic is encrypted in transit. The requirements page says telemetry passes through Pixie Cloud without persistence, while the install guide says hosted-backend telemetry data is stored exclusively on the Kubernetes cluster, not in Pixie Cloud. Listed unsupported environments include EKS Fargate, GKE Autopilot, Docker Desktop, k3d, kind, and Windows. Help options include Community Slack, a troubleshooting guide, and GitHub issues.