Infrastructure monitoring
What it costs to self-host Checkmk Community
Checkmk - Best-in-class infrastructure & application monitoring Below is the server it needs at each fleet size, what that costs, and how long the 2 commercial products it replaces would take to cost more.
| Servers monitored | Memory | Disk | Cheapest plan that fits | Server | With backups and your time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 servers | 2.5 GB | 10.2 GB | Starter 4 GB · VPSServer | $22.00 | $139 |
| 10 servers | 2.6 GB | 10.5 GB | Starter 4 GB · VPSServer | $22.00 | $139 |
| 25 servers | 2.6 GB | 11.2 GB | Starter 4 GB · VPSServer | $22.00 | $139 |
| 50 servers | 2.8 GB | 12.5 GB | Starter 4 GB · VPSServer | $22.00 | $139 |
| 100 servers | 3.1 GB | 15 GB | Starter 4 GB · VPSServer | $22.00 | $139 |
| 250 servers | 4.0 GB | 22.5 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $159 |
| 500 servers | 5.5 GB | 35 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $159 |
The sizing model for Checkmk Community
The free, open-source edition of Checkmk, with the Nagios core and round-robin metric files that do not grow once created. It installs as one package containing every component it needs. The figures are our estimate: Checkmk does not publish a requirements table we could cite.
- 2 GB of memory for the whole stack at rest, every container the project ships included.
- 5 MB more per monitored server, then 25% on top so the box is not running at its ceiling.
- 10 GB of disk to begin with, growing 0.05 GB per server.
- 2 vCPU. Carried through from the project's baseline and not scaled with fleet size, because for this workload memory is what runs out first.
The base figures are our estimate, derived from the services in the project's reference Docker Compose file, because it does not publish a minimum specification we could cite. The per-server increments are ours in every case. They are deliberately generous rather than optimistic: a comparison that undersizes the server flatters self-hosting.
Time, not just money
Checkmk Community is rated medium to operate, which in this model means about 6 hours to get it running properly the first time and 1.5 hours a month after that. At $75 an hour that is $450 once and $112 a month, which is usually the largest line in the whole calculation.
What it replaces
| Commercial product | Its cost at 25 servers | Checkmk Community at 25 servers | Break-even | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datadog Infrastructure Pro | $375 | $139 | about a month | full breakdown |
| PRTG Network Monitor Subscription | $174 | $139 | 13 months | full breakdown |
Where to put Checkmk Community
2.6 GB of memory and 11.2 GB of disk is what this needs at 25 servers. The cheapest plan that fits, among the providers whose prices we have read ourselves, is the Starter 4 GB at VPSServer for $22.00 a month.
We are not claiming this is the cheapest server on the internet. It is the cheapest one we can honestly quote. Hetzner Cloud, Vultr and PikaPods publish prices we could not read programmatically, and Hetzner in particular is usually cheaper per gigabyte of memory than anything quoted above. Price them yourself before you commit.
The VPSServer link above is an affiliate link, run through the same programme as our Kamatera link; VPSServer and Kamatera belong to the same group. If you sign up through it we may earn a commission, but the programme does not state an amount for VPSServer. That never changes the computed costs, which server is chosen, or the conclusion of this page. The sizing model and every price source are published in full.
Project facts
| Licence | GNU General Public License v2.0 |
|---|---|
| Licence caveat | Checkmk Community is GPL-2.0. Several features, including the faster monitoring core, are only in the paid editions. |
| Written in | Python |
| GitHub stars | 2,372 |
| Open issues | 54 |
| Last commit | 2026-09-21 |
| Repository checked | 2026-09-21 |
| Project | checkmk.com · Checkmk/checkmk |
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