Software Alternatives & Reviews

pfSense VS Checkmk

Compare pfSense VS Checkmk and see what are their differences

pfSense logo pfSense

pfSense is a free and open source firewall and router that also features unified threat management, load balancing, multi WAN, and more

Checkmk logo Checkmk

Checkmk - the software for effective IT monitoring
  • pfSense Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-20
  • Checkmk Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-21

Checkmk is a comprehensive solution for IT Monitoring of servers, applications, networks, cloud infrastructures (public, private, hybrid), containers, storage, databases and environment sensors. In the network field we support SNMP, but also have integrations to APIs and powerful agents for operating systems. Our users benefit from more than 1.900 Plugins for vendors like Cisco, Brocade, Dell, Enterasys, Extreme Networks, Huawei, Intel and many more.

pfSense videos

pfsense Firewall Setup and Features in Depth Version 2.4

More videos:

  • Review - Pfsense: 5 Reasons to Use It
  • Review - Netgate SG-3100 Teardown / Speedtest / Review of this powerful pfsense packet pusher!

Checkmk videos

Episode 1: Install Checkmk and monitor your first hosts

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to pfSense and Checkmk)
Cyber Security
100 100%
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
58 58%
42% 42
Log Management
0 0%
100% 100
Perimeter Security And Firewalls

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare pfSense and Checkmk

pfSense Reviews

The top 10 alternatives to OpenVPN
Netgate offers secure networking solutions, including pfSense Plus and TNSR software, which provide firewall, router, and VPN functionalities. These solutions cater to personal users, professional users, and organizations seeking secure and reliable internet connectivity.
Best pfSense Software Alternatives and Competitors
pfSense Software firewall is a robust, open-source security solution that is compatible with any hardware and can be tailored to meet your specific needs. It is a widely used technology, and many individuals seek dependable, popular software solutions with multi-device support, multiple concurrent connections, and protocol selections. Despite its usefulness, pfSense has...
The Best Open Source Router OS Software for Large or Small Networks
pfSense is a free and open-source router and firewall operating system based on the FreeBSD operating system. It is designed to be used on standard x86 hardware and can be deployed as a virtual machine or on dedicated hardware. pfSense offers advanced features and capabilities that are typically found in commercial routers and firewalls, making it an ideal solution for small...
Best free Linux router and firewall distributions of 2023
pfSense is one of the most popular operating systems today. It's a BSD-based system, similar to OPNSense, but with a longer history. pfSense started in 2004, and since then, it has grown to be the most well-known open-source platform in the industry. Although it gradually loses users to OPNsense, it's still an excellent system for new users because it has the most extensive...
Source: teklager.se
11 Best pfsense Alternatives To Secure Your Network
Unlike those of other available pfSense competitors, its capabilities allow it to be compared to commercial firewalls. You can also customize the pfSense firewall to match your needs based on the level of security and protection you want, as well as your specialist knowledge.

Checkmk Reviews

The Best Open Source Network Monitoring Tools in 2023
Description: Checkmk Raw Edition is an open source infrastructure and application monitoring tool that also includes network monitoring capabilities. For network monitoring, Checkmk can discover and monitor switches and routers, wireless networks, and firewalls; the software supports integration with several network hardware vendors. The solution uses a rule-based concept...
Top 10 PRTG Alternatives for Monitoring Networks and IT Infrastructure
Those wanting to monitor databases as part of their network analysis can do so with Checkmk, as well as track Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and performance, the latter being sometimes tricky with other network monitoring software.
10 Best Zabbix Alternatives
The Checkmk server can only be deployed on a Linux machine. A basic knowledge of Linux is all you need to get the application up and running. All the software you need is either included in your Linux distribution or in the Checkmk package. It is also possible to run Checkmk as a virtual appliance, a physical appliance, or as a Docker-Container. The agents used by Checkmk to...
10 Best Open Source Monitoring Software for IT Infrastructure
Flexible monitoring: Over 1,900 official integrations provided ‘out of the box’. Monitor states, metrics, events & logs via Checkmk agents, vendor APIs, SNMP, or any way you prefer
Source: geekflare.com
13 Best Nagios Alternatives for Networks, Servers, IT Systems Monitoring
Unlike Solarwinds NPM described above which is focused only on networking, checkmk can monitor a wide range of devices such as servers, network devices, applications etc.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Checkmk should be more popular than pfSense. It has been mentiond 53 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

pfSense mentions (10)

  • Need some help on setting up home network
    Https://pfsense.org (netgate hardware is used in businesses). Source: about 1 year ago
  • Is pfsense.org down, or is it just me?
    I am having trouble seeing available packages, updating pkg, or getting a response from pfsense.org. Is anyone else seeing this or am I going to spend the rest of my day chasing bugs? Source: over 1 year ago
  • Help with VLAN
    From the PIA Client to pfsense.org PING pfsense.org (208.123.73.69) from 10.6.112.128: 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=0 ttl=49 time=49.455 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=51.927 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=2 ttl=49 time=49.333 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=3 ttl=49 time=49.133 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=4 ttl=49 time=49.027 ms ... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Can Surveillance Station record offsite cameras ?
    The above setup is critical to a reliable system. I'd use enterprise quality routers for a store and home connection. I personally use https://pfsense.org but there are many to choose from and several open source. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Exposing Synology to web: best/practical practices?
    What I would do is put that thing in DMZ and install a good router behind it like https://www.pfsense.org. No affiliation, just been my router for many years. There's also it's sibling https://opnsense.org. There are many, just get a enterprise quality router. Source: over 1 year ago
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Checkmk mentions (53)

  • Monitoring solution
    CheckMK https://checkmk.com. You can spin this up in a docker container. Source: 10 months ago
  • "All in one monitoring solution"?
    I use CheckMK to do all of this and more, except nutanix. But checkmk also can Monitor nutanix via the "Nutanix Prism" special agent Integration. Source: 12 months ago
  • Is there an alternative to BI Tools?
    BI machine and NVR report to CheckMK Raw host so it's easy to see historic stats. Source: 12 months ago
  • Uptime Monitor
    I’m using https://checkmk.com/ to monitor stuff and it seems to work great. Lots of built in features and functions and if they don’t have what you need you can also create custom scripts to check and report on anything you can dream up. Runs great in docker (I’m using portainer but will run fine in plain old docker). Source: 12 months ago
  • Actually usefull or uneccessary? SNMP, AD, Monitoring...
    Have a look at CheckMK open source version is really good, you can spin it up in a docker container and is relatively easy to get some initial monitors going. As to whether it's worthwhile, I guess it depends how much you want to know how you servers are doing and when something goes wrong. Source: about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing pfSense and Checkmk, you can also consider the following products

MikroTik RouterOS - The main product of MikroTik is a Linux-based operating system known as MikroTik RouterOS.

Zabbix - Track, record, alert and visualize performance and availability of IT resources

OPNsense - OPNsense® you next open source firewall. Free Download. High-end Security Made Easy™. Offers Intrusion Prevention, Captive Portal, Traffic Shaping and more.

Datadog - See metrics from all of your apps, tools & services in one place with Datadog's cloud monitoring as a service solution. Try it for free.

OpenWrt - OpenWrt is an open-source firmware based on Linux for wireless routers

Nagios - Complete monitoring and alerting for servers, switches, applications, and services