Checkmk vs Radar
Checkmk
checkmk.comRadar
radarhq.ioSide by side
| Figure | Checkmk | Radar |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $275/mo | $149/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 5 |
| Spec score · Kubernetes Monitoring | 9.4 (#1) | 8.1 (#24) |
| Deployment | Checkmk can run on customer hardware or virtualized, with packages for major Linux distributions, Docker and Virtual Appliance. | Radar runs as a single binary locally with a kubeconfig or in-cluster through Helm. |
| Integrations | Checkmk advertises more than 2,000 built-in integrations covering hardware, networks, applications, operating systems and cloud or container platforms. | Built-in integrations include Argo, Flux, Cilium, Istio, Karpenter, KEDA, Crossplane, cert-manager, OpenCost, Kubecost, Prometheus, Trivy, and Velero, with no plugins required. |
| Support | The Pro plan includes professional support for 8h x 5d, while Ultimate includes 10h x 5d and can be upgraded to 24h x 5d. | Radar OSS support is through GitHub and Discord; Enterprise includes priority support, while Custom lists a dedicated CSM and phone support. |
Plans
Checkmk
- CommunityFree
- Synthetic MonitoringFree
- Pro$275 a month
- Cloud$290 a month
- Ultimate$400 a month
Radar
- Cloud FreeFree
- Radar OSSFree
- Team$149 a month
- Enterprise$299 a month
- CustomPriced on request
In their own words
Checkmk
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.
Radar
Radar is an open-source Kubernetes interface for platform engineering teams and AI agents. It brings topology, events, Helm, GitOps, image internals and audits into one interface. Its live graph shows Deployments, Services and Ingresses with traffic, TLS health and cross-namespace dependencies. Radar can run locally as a single binary with a kubeconfig or in-cluster through Helm, and desktop apps are available for macOS, Linux and Windows. Built-in integrations include Argo, Flux, Cilium, Istio, Karpenter, KEDA, Crossplane, cert-manager, OpenCost, Kubecost, Prometheus, Trivy and Velero. Radar OSS is free forever, supports unlimited clusters and nodes, and sends no cluster data out, though it makes one anonymous version check that can be blocked. Cloud Free supports up to three clusters and 100 hosted investigations per month. Paid plans start at $149 per cluster per month for Team; Enterprise costs $299 per cluster per month. Cloud offers AI investigations and alerts to Slack or webhooks. It streams viewed resources, events and logs through its control plane without storing them.