Auvik vs Checkmk

Yes. Checkmk Raw Edition is fully open source and free — there is no license cost. Checkmk Cloud is also free up to 750 monitored services (approximately 50 hosts). Checkmk Enterprise adds official support, SLA guarantees, and advanced features starting at €600/year. Auvik has no free plan — only a 14-day trial.

Auvik monitors servers via SNMP — basic connectivity, interface status, and SNMP-exposed metrics. It does not install agents on servers for CPU, memory, disk, and process monitoring. For deeper server monitoring, Auvik users typically pair it with a dedicated server monitoring tool. Checkmk installs agents on servers for comprehensive OS-level monitoring.

Auvik pricing is quote-based and charged per 'billable device' (network infrastructure devices — switches, routers, firewalls, APs). Typical pricing is $150–$250/device/year depending on tier and volume. For 50 billable devices, annual cost is approximately $7,500–$12,500. Servers and workstations are not typically billed as Auvik devices.

Auvik is better for rapid network discovery and MSP workflows — automatic topology maps, cloud management, and PSA integrations are Auvik's strengths. Checkmk is better for comprehensive infrastructure monitoring at lower cost — it covers servers, applications, and cloud services that Auvik cannot. Neither is universally better; the choice depends on your primary use case.

Yes. Checkmk includes active network discovery that scans IP ranges and automatically adds discovered hosts. The discovery is more manual to configure than Auvik's point-and-click cloud approach, but once set up, Checkmk auto-discovers new services on existing hosts and adds checks automatically. Checkmk's discovery is powerful but requires more initial configuration than Auvik.

Checkmk can be used by MSPs but requires significant configuration for multi-tenant setups. Checkmk Enterprise includes distributed monitoring with a central management server, but client separation, PSA integrations, and billing-oriented reporting need custom setup. Auvik is purpose-built for MSP workflows and requires far less configuration to achieve the same multi-tenant result.

Yes. Auvik Performance tier includes automatic network device configuration backup — it saves running and startup configs from routers, switches, and firewalls at regular intervals. This is a useful feature for change tracking and disaster recovery. Checkmk does not include device config backup natively.

Yes. Checkmk includes monitoring plugins for AWS, Azure, and GCP — EC2 instances, RDS, S3, Azure VMs, and other cloud services are discoverable. Auvik has basic cloud monitoring but it is not a primary use case. For organizations with significant cloud infrastructure, Checkmk's cloud monitoring capabilities are more developed.

Auvik typically delivers initial network visibility within hours — deploy a collector, discover devices, and topology maps are available almost immediately. Checkmk setup takes longer: install the server, configure discovery rules, install agents on monitored hosts, and tune alert thresholds. Initial setup typically takes 1–5 days depending on environment size. Ongoing configuration is continuous with Checkmk as you tune and customize checks.

Yes. Checkmk Raw Edition is licensed under the GNU GPL v2 and is fully open source. The source code is publicly available. Checkmk Enterprise (commercial) is built on the same codebase but includes proprietary modules and official support. The open-source Raw Edition is functionally complete for most monitoring requirements.