head to head · open source
monolog vs Checkmate
monolog has 21,404 GitHub stars, 1,921 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Checkmate has 11,020 stars, 1,234 forks, 114 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. monolog leads on adoption by 94% (21,404 vs 11,020 stars). monolog is written in PHP under MIT; Checkmate is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. monolog has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Checkmate 11%. monolog 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
| monolog | Checkmate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick monolog if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- 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 monolog
Monolog Logging for PHP Note This is the documentation for Monolog 3.x , if you are using older releases see the documentation for Monolog 2.x or Monolog 1.x Monolog sends your logs to files, sockets, inboxes, databases and various web services. See the complete list of handlers below. Special handlers allow you to build advanced logging strategies. This library implements the PSR 3 interface that you can type hint against in your own libraries to keep a maximum of interoperability. You can also use it in your applications to make sure you can always use another compatible logger at a later time. As of 1.11.0…
read the full monolog overview →
About Checkmate
🇺🇸 English 🇸🇦 العربية 🇪🇸 Català 🇨🇿 Čeština 🇩🇪 Deutsch 🇪🇸 Español 🇫🇮 Suomi 🇫🇷 Français 🇮🇹 Italiano 🇯🇵 日本語 🇧🇷 Português (Brasil) 🇷🇺 Русский 🇹🇭 ไทย 🇹🇷 Türkçe 🇺🇦 Українська 🇻🇳 Tiếng Việt 🇨🇳 简体中文 🇹🇼 繁體中文 Checkmate An open source uptime and infrastructure monitoring application This repository contains both the frontend and the backend of Checkmate, an open source, self hosted monitoring tool for tracking server hardware, uptime, response times, and incidents in real time with beautiful visualizations. Checkmate regularly checks whether a server/website is accessible and performs…
read the full Checkmate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is monolog or Checkmate more popular?
monolog has 21,404 GitHub stars and Checkmate has 11,020. monolog has the larger community by that measure.
Are monolog and Checkmate free?
Both are open source. monolog is licensed under MIT and Checkmate under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between monolog and Checkmate?
monolog is written in PHP 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, monolog or Checkmate?
Choose monolog if you want the larger community (21,404 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Checkmate if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.