SHSelfHostIndex

Checkmate vs Blackbox Exporter

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
CH Checkmate Open-source uptime and infrastructure monitoring tool VS BL Blackbox Exporter Probes endpoints over HTTP, TCP, DNS, and ICMP
FeatureCheckmateBlackbox Exporter
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseAGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB32 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 10,436★ 5,818
First released20242016
ReplacesPingdom, Better UptimePingdom

Why pick each one

Choose Checkmate if…

  • Clean modern interface
  • Active development
Checkmate details

Choose Blackbox Exporter if…

  • Simple uptime monitoring
  • Tiny footprint
Blackbox Exporter details

Frequently asked questions

Is Checkmate or Blackbox Exporter better?

Neither is universally better. Checkmate has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Checkmate and Blackbox Exporter free and open-source?

Yes. Checkmate is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Blackbox Exporter under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Checkmate and Blackbox Exporter with Docker?

Checkmate: yes. Blackbox Exporter: yes.

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