Tink vs Incus
Incus is a system-container and VM manager. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux host, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
Incus runs the instance. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on Incus after the LXD fork because a local instance manager looks like ops. Then the volume fills, host nginx dies, and incus still shows RUNNING — no container matched host fill. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is not an Incus job unless you scraped incusd 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 Incus if you already run instances. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | Incus |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — packages, incus admin init, storage pool, bridge, profiles, then a host that still has no mechanic after incus list stays RUNNING |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | A LinuxContainers.org system-container and VM manager. Disk fill, host nginx, Postgres, and certs stay your problem until you SSH in |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | Incus is Apache-2.0. You still pay the engineer who owns the node after the last instance shows RUNNING |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | A quiet node at 2am, pool disk fill, and a second tool to tell you the VPS is sick while incus list still shows RUNNING |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | Instance lifecycle and incusd. Incus does not watch a quiet cert or host auth.log after the container started |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | Daemon, storage pools, networks, profiles, and which instance death actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You read incus list, then SSH in to change the host the instance already sits on |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Start and stop instances only — Incus cannot free host disk, rotate a cert, or stop SSH brute-force unless you wrote that runbook |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | Not an Incus job — the daemon, a custom hook, and a separate monitoring tool have to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not an Incus job — a green RUNNING line does not forecast a quiet volume filling up |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Never — Incus does not read host auth.log, journald, or firewall state after the instance started |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | Silence if the box dies after the last API poll — unless you built a separate uptime check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — Incus has no customer-facing status page |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — an instance list recap is not a plain-English fleet narrative |
| On-call tracking | Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment | Not included — wire failed instances into PagerDuty or another incident tool |
| Conversation interface | Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI | incus CLI and REST API. No mechanic you text when /var filled and the last container still showed RUNNING |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — storage pools, bridges, the LXD fork history, and which host failure is the hypervisor vs the running box |
| Best for | Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers) | Teams that already run Incus instances and need a container/VM manager, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When Incus is the right choice
Keep using Incus when you already want that exact job:
- LinuxContainers.org virtualization after the LXD fork — you need incus, incusd, and a pool, not a mechanic.
- An existing Incus host — storage pools, bridges, and isolation matter more than guest nginx, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
- An existing lab or nested setup — instances already start, the daemon already ships, and someone owns the node.
- Hosts that only page on failed instances — you already run Incus hooks and exporters, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just watch incus list”
Incus runs instances. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A running container 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 — Incus will stay quiet until the next instance process dies
- A single VPS with a dead agent still needs a mechanic, not another incus line
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than an Incus host plus the engineer who keeps failed-instance notifications alive, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet incus poll will not type.
No hypervisor homework. No silent host. One command install.
Start MechanicAlso compare: Tink vs LXD · Tink vs LXC · Tink vs Proxmox