Tink vs Nginx Exporter
nginx-prometheus-exporter is Prometheus's usual nginx scrape: a :9113 /metrics endpoint of nginx_up and stub_status gauges. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux server, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
nginx-prometheus-exporter exposes nginx_* gauges. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on nginx-prometheus-exporter because every reverse-proxy + Prometheus diagram adds it after node_exporter. Then the disk fills, Postgres dies, and Grafana is quiet — nginx was accepting connections, 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 nginx-prometheus-exporter if you already operate Prometheus and need nginx gauges. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | Nginx Exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — stub_status location, binary, NGINX_STUB_STATUS, :9113, prometheus.yml scrape job, dashboards, and Alertmanager |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | An nginx scrape target. Host disk, 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 | A stub_status location, Plus API vs OSS flags, and a second tool to tell you the box is sick |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | nginx_up and nginx_connections_* gauges. nginx-prometheus-exporter does not watch host disk or a quiet cert unless you added another exporter |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | stub_status, --nginx.scrape-uri, scrape intervals, and which PromQL actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You graph nginx_connections_waiting in Grafana, then SSH in to change the box |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Export only — nginx-prometheus-exporter cannot restart nginx or free disk |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | Not an Nginx 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 — a stub_status scrape 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 nginx-prometheus-exporter dies — unless you built an up{job="nginx"} deadman check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — nginx-prometheus-exporter has no customer-facing status page |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — an nginx 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 :9113/metrics and Grafana. No mechanic you text when 502s filled the error log |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — stub_status, scrape URI, 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 nginx scrapes, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When Nginx Exporter is the right choice
Keep nginx-prometheus-exporter when you already want that exact job:
- Prometheus nginx scrapes — you need nginx_http_requests_total in PromQL, not a mechanic.
- Per-instance connection gauges — active, waiting, and reading connections matter more than host disk, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
- An existing Prometheus + Grafana stack — nginx-prometheus-exporter already ships, dashboards already graph, and someone owns Alertmanager.
- Hosts that only export — you already run the exporter next to nginx, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just run nginx-prometheus-exporter”
An nginx scrape is in every Prometheus reverse-proxy diagram after node_exporter. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- An exported nginx_up still means you SSH in and change the box by hand
- Host disk, Postgres, certs, and SSH brute-force never appear unless you scraped those signals and Alertmanager paged
- stub_status, scrape URI, and PromQL punish the hours you spend debugging targets
- A single VPS with a dead nginx-prometheus-exporter still needs a mechanic, not another scrape job
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than nginx-prometheus-exporter plus the engineer who keeps Prometheus scrape alive, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet /metrics endpoint will not type.
No stub_status homework. No silent host. One command install.
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