Tink vs Duplicati
Duplicati runs backup jobs, dblock sets, and destinations. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux host, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
Duplicati runs the job. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on Duplicati because a backup job looks cheaper than a NAS. Then the host volume fills, nginx dies, and the UI still shows Success — no job match for host fill. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is not a Duplicati job unless you scraped send-mail 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 Duplicati if you already run backup jobs. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | Duplicati |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — duplicati-server, web UI :8200, AES passphrase, destinations, then a host that still has no mechanic after the last job says Backup completed |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | Encrypted backup jobs, dlist/dindex/dblock sets, and destinations. Disk fill, nginx, Postgres, and certs stay your problem until you SSH past duplicati-cli |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | LGPL and free. You still pay the person who owns the VPS after the last job stays Backup completed |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | A quiet duplicati-server timer at 2am, a compact that is not host fill, and a second tool to tell you the box is sick while the UI still shows Success |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | Jobs, destinations, and result codes. Duplicati does not watch a quiet cert or host auth.log after the last backup finished |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | web UI :8200, destination URLs, filters, encryption, --webservice-port, and which send-mail report actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You read Backup completed, then SSH into the host to change the Linux box Duplicati already sits on |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | systemctl restart duplicati and duplicati-cli repair — Duplicati cannot free host disk, rotate a cert, or stop SSH brute-force unless you wrote that job |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | Not a Duplicati job — send-mail reports plus a separate monitoring tool have to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not a Duplicati job — a Success result does not forecast a quiet host filling up |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Never — Duplicati does not read host auth.log, journald, or firewall state after the last backup finished |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | Silence if duplicati-server dies after the last timer — unless you built a separate uptime check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — Duplicati has no customer-facing status page for the Linux host |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — a job recap is not a plain-English fleet narrative |
| On-call tracking | Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment | Not included — wire failed duplicati-server into PagerDuty or another incident tool |
| Conversation interface | Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI | web UI :8200 and SSH. No mechanic you text when /var filled and the last job still showed Success |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — jobs, dblock sets, compact, repair, destinations, and which failure is Duplicati vs the running host |
| Best for | Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers) | Teams that already run Duplicati for backup jobs, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When Duplicati is the right choice
Keep using Duplicati when you already want that exact job:
- Backup jobs with web UI :8200 — you need duplicati-server, AES passphrases, and dblock destinations, not a mechanic.
- An existing backup stack — compact, repair, and send-mail reports matter more than guest nginx, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
- An existing lab or nested setup — duplicati-server already starts, the destination already ships, and someone owns the Duplicati box.
- Hosts that only page on job or destination death — you already run Duplicati reports, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just watch Backup completed”
Duplicati runs jobs and destinations. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A healthy job still means you SSH into the host 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 — Duplicati will stay quiet until the next job fails
- A single VPS with a dead agent still needs a mechanic, not another Success line
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than the engineer who keeps failed-job notifications alive after a free Duplicati install, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet Backup completed will not type.
No duplicati-server homework. No silent host. One command install.
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