What operating systems does Tink support?

Any Linux distribution with systemd. Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, RHEL, Amazon Linux, Fedora, and Alpine are all tested.

Does Tink run commands automatically?

No. Tink suggests fixes and waits for your explicit approval. Nothing runs without you confirming it first.

How much resources does the Tink agent use?

Minimal. The agent idles at under 20MB RAM and near-zero CPU between scans. Scans themselves take a few seconds.

Can I use Tink on containers?

Tink is designed for long-running servers, not ephemeral containers. For Kubernetes, point it at your nodes instead.

What data does Tink collect?

System metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network), running services, and relevant log snippets when diagnosing issues. No application data, credentials, or file contents.

Tink vs SNMP Exporter

snmp_exporter is Prometheus's usual SNMP walk: a :9116 /snmp endpoint of ifOperStatus and sysUpTime. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux server, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.

snmp_exporter walks if_* gauges. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”

Accidental sysadmins land on snmp_exporter because every network + Prometheus diagram starts with a UDP 161 walk. Then the disk fills, nginx dies, and Grafana is quiet — nothing walked, so nothing fired.

Tink is the other job: detect the issue on the machine, say why it happened in plain English, propose the command, and run it only after you approve. Keep snmp_exporter if you already operate Prometheus and need switch and PDU gauges. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.

Feature	Tink	SNMP Exporter
Setup time	30 seconds (one curl \| sh command)	Hours — generator, MIBs, snmp.yml, community or SNMPv3, :9116, prometheus.yml module+target, dashboards, and Alertmanager
What you get	Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes	An SNMP scrape target. Host disk, nginx, Postgres, and certs stay your problem until PromQL fires and you SSH in
Pricing	Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month	Free software (Apache-2.0). You still pay for Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, and the engineer who writes the rules
Hidden costs	None — fully managed	MIB generator rebuilds, community-string leaks, walk cardinality, and a second tool to tell you the box is sick
Monitoring approach	Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports	ifOperStatus, ifHCInOctets, and sysUpTime. snmp_exporter does not watch host disk or a quiet cert unless you added another exporter
Configuration	None after install — heuristics and AI	generator.yml, snmp.yml modules, auth, scrape intervals, and which PromQL actually pages you
Plain-English diagnosis	Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix	You graph ifOperStatus in Grafana, then SSH in to change the box
Fix execution	Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail	Export only — snmp_exporter cannot restart nginx or free disk
Alerting	Built-in across 8 channels	Not an SNMP Exporter job — Prometheus rules and Alertmanager have to fire
Predictive alerts	Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends	Not an exporter job — an SNMP walk does not forecast a quiet volume
SSH brute-force detection	Built-in — parses auth.log every scan	Only if you ship auth.log elsewhere, parse it, write a query, and wire an alert downstream
Machine offline detection	Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts	Silence if snmp_exporter dies — unless you built an up{job="snmp"} deadman check
Public status page	Shareable URL with 90-day history	None — snmp_exporter has no customer-facing status page
Weekly fleet digest	Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open	None — an SNMP scrape target is not a plain-English fleet narrative
On-call tracking	Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment	Not included — wire Alertmanager into PagerDuty or another incident tool
Conversation interface	Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI	curl :9116/snmp?target= and Grafana. No mechanic you text when a walk timed out and the disk filled
Learning curve	None — works after install	Steep — MIBs, generator, SNMPv3, PromQL, scrape configs, and which rule actually pages
Best for	Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers)	Teams that already run Prometheus and need network-device scrapes, not a sick-VPS mechanic

When SNMP Exporter is the right choice

Keep snmp_exporter when you already want that exact job:

Prometheus SNMP scrapes — you need ifOperStatus in PromQL, not a mechanic.
Network hardware gauges — switch ports, PDU amps, and UPS load matter more than host nginx, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
An existing Prometheus + Grafana stack — snmp_exporter already ships, dashboards already graph, and someone owns Alertmanager.
Hosts that only export — you already run snmp_exporter next to the switches, not a sick-box SSH loop.

The real cost of “just run snmp_exporter”

A device exporter is in every SNMP + Prometheus diagram. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:

An exported interface metric still means you SSH in and change the box by hand
Host disk, nginx, certs, and SSH brute-force never appear unless you scraped those signals and Alertmanager paged
MIB generator rebuilds, community strings, and PromQL punish the hours you spend debugging targets
A single VPS with a dead snmp_exporter still needs a mechanic, not another scrape job

For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than snmp_exporter plus the engineer who keeps Prometheus scrape alive, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet /snmp endpoint will not type.

No prometheus.yml homework. No silent host. One command install.

Start Mechanic

Also compare: Tink vs Node Exporter · Tink vs Prometheus · Tink vs LibreNMS