Tink vs crun
crun is the C OCI container runtime. It also records crun spec. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux host, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
crun starts the process. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on crun because Podman ships it by default. Then the volume fills, host nginx dies, and crun list still shows running — no bundle matched host fill. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is not a crun job unless you scraped the process and watched it.
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 using crun if you already run a C OCI runtime. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | crun |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — OCI bundles, config.json, cgroups v2, and a host that still has no mechanic after crun list looks fine |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | A C OCI runtime. Disk fill, host nginx, Postgres, and certs stay your problem until you SSH in |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | crun is free and OCI-hosted. You still pay the engineer who owns the node after the container process started |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | A quiet node at 2am, overlay disk fill, and a second tool to tell you the VPS is sick while crun list still shows running |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | Container process status. crun does not watch a quiet cert or host auth.log after the bundle started |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | config.json, cgroups v2, systemd exec, and which container death actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You read crun events and crun state, then SSH in to change the host crun already started |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Create and delete only — crun cannot free host disk, rotate a cert, or stop SSH brute-force unless you wrote that runbook |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | Not a crun job — the shim, kubelet, and a separate monitoring tool have to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not a crun job — a green crun list does not forecast a quiet volume filling up |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Never — crun does not read host auth.log, journald, or firewall state after the bundle started |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | Silence if the box dies after the last crun list — unless you built a separate uptime check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — crun has no customer-facing status page |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — a crun list recap is not a plain-English fleet narrative |
| On-call tracking | Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment | Not included — wire failed containers into PagerDuty or another incident tool |
| Conversation interface | Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI | crun spec and crun state. No mechanic you text when /var filled and the last container still showed running |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — OCI bundles, cgroups v2, systemd, and which host failure is the runtime vs the running box |
| Best for | Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers) | Teams that already run a C OCI runtime and need a container process, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When crun is the right choice
Keep using crun when you already want that exact job:
- C OCI container runtime — you need bundles, cgroups v2, and a container process, not a mechanic.
- An existing crun host — config.json, systemd exec, and rootfs mounts matter more than host nginx, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
- An existing Podman host — containers already start, the runtime already ships, and someone owns the bundle.
- Hosts that only page on failed containers — you already run exporters and PromQL, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just run crun list”
crun is the process under Podman. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A green crun list still means you SSH in and change the box by hand when it gets sick later
- Host fill, nginx, certs, and SSH brute-force never appear unless a separate tool scraped those signals and a rule fired
- A filling /var is a Tink disk warning on every scan — crun will stay quiet until the next container process dies
- A single VPS with a dead agent still needs a mechanic, not another crun state line
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than a crun host plus the engineer who keeps failed-container notifications alive, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet crun list will not type.
No OCI homework. No silent host. One command install.
Start MechanicAlso compare: Tink vs Podman · Tink vs runc · Tink vs containerd