head to head · open source
Grafana vs Checkmate
Grafana has 76,791 GitHub stars, 14,749 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Checkmate has 10,830 stars, 1,200 forks, 114 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Grafana leads on adoption by 609% (76,791 vs 10,830 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Checkmate is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Checkmate 11%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Grafana | Checkmate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 11K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Grafana if
- You weight community size — 77K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Checkmate if
- You want the Checkmate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Checkmate fits your workflow better
About Grafana
Grafana is an open source observability platform for visualizing metrics, logs, and traces across diverse data sources. It runs in the infrastructure and operations ecosystem, designed for teams needing unified visibility into system behavior without vendor lock in. Built with TypeScript and Go, it provides a composable architecture that integrates with existing toolchains.
read the full Grafana overview →
About Checkmate
Checkmate is an open source, self hosted monitoring application for infrastructure and observability. It is written in TypeScript and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. The repository contains the frontend and backend, and the project sits in the infrastructure monitoring ecosystem for teams that need to track servers, websites, and hardware status without relying on a hosted only product.
read the full Checkmate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or Checkmate more popular?
Grafana has 76,791 GitHub stars and Checkmate has 10,830. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and Checkmate free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Checkmate under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and Checkmate?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and Checkmate in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Grafana or Checkmate?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,791 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Checkmate if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.