Tink vs KVM
KVM is a Linux kernel hypervisor. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux host, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
KVM runs the guest. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on KVM because a local hypervisor looks like ops. Then the volume fills, host nginx dies, and virsh still shows running — no domain matched host fill. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is not a KVM job unless you scraped libvirt 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 KVM if you already run VMs. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | KVM |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — /dev/kvm, virt-host-validate, libvirt, then a host that still has no mechanic after virsh list shows running |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | A kernel hypervisor. Disk fill, host nginx, Postgres, and certs stay your problem until you SSH in |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | KVM ships in the kernel. You still pay the engineer who owns the node after the last domain stays running |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | A quiet node at 2am, qcow2 fill, and a second tool to tell you the VPS is sick while virsh still shows running |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | Guest lifecycle and virsh. KVM does not watch a quiet cert or host auth.log after the domain started |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | CPU model, hugepages, virtio, and which domain death actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You read virsh list and dmesg, then SSH in to change the host the guest already sits on |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Start and stop domains only — KVM 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 KVM job — libvirt events plus a separate monitoring tool have to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not a KVM job — a green running domain does not forecast a quiet volume filling up |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Never — KVM does not read host auth.log, journald, or firewall state after the guest started |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | Silence if the box dies after the last virsh poll — unless you built a separate uptime check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — KVM has no customer-facing status page |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — a virsh list recap is not a plain-English fleet narrative |
| On-call tracking | Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment | Not included — wire failed domains into PagerDuty or another incident tool |
| Conversation interface | Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI | virsh and libvirt. No mechanic you text when /var filled and the last domain still showed running |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — CPU flags, virtio, hugepages, 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 KVM guests and need a hypervisor, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When KVM is the right choice
Keep using KVM when you already want that exact job:
- Hardware virtualization on Linux — you need /dev/kvm, virtio, and a domain, not a mechanic.
- An existing KVM host — qcow2 images, hugepages, and isolation matter more than host nginx, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
- An existing lab or nested setup — guests already start, the hypervisor already ships, and someone owns virsh.
- Hosts that only page on failed domains — you already run libvirt and exporters, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just watch virsh list”
KVM runs guests. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A running domain 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 — KVM will stay quiet until the next domain process dies
- A single VPS with a dead agent still needs a mechanic, not another virsh line
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than a KVM host plus the engineer who keeps failed-domain notifications alive, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet virsh poll will not type.
No hypervisor homework. No silent host. One command install.
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