head to head · open source
Vector vs Checkmate
Vector has 22,579 GitHub stars, 2,286 forks, 2,512 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Checkmate has 10,830 stars, 1,200 forks, 114 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Vector leads on adoption by 108% (22,579 vs 10,830 stars). Vector is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; Checkmate is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Vector has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Checkmate 11%. Vector 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
| Vector | Checkmate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 11K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Vector if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- 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 Vector
Vector is an open source observability data pipeline written in Rust and licensed under MPL 2.0. It operates as an end to end system for collecting, transforming, and routing logs and metrics within the cloud native monitoring ecosystem. The project is maintained by Datadog's Community Open Source Engineering team, and its topics include agent, cloud native, data transformation, datadog, etl, events, forwarder, logs, metrics, and monitoring.
read the full Vector 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 Vector or Checkmate more popular?
Vector has 22,579 GitHub stars and Checkmate has 10,830. Vector has the larger community by that measure.
Are Vector and Checkmate free?
Both are open source. Vector is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Checkmate under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Vector and Checkmate?
Vector is written in Rust 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, Vector or Checkmate?
Choose Vector if you want the larger community (22,579 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Checkmate if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.