Tink vs StatsD
StatsD is Etsy's UDP aggregator: counters, timers, and gauges flushed to Graphite. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux server, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
StatsD flushes buckets. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on StatsD because every Graphite diagram starts with UDP. Then the disk fills, nginx dies, and the flush is quiet — nothing was sent, 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 StatsD if you already instrument apps into Graphite. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | StatsD |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — StatsD daemon, UDP 8125, flush interval, and a Graphite carbon that actually stores the buckets |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | An aggregator. Disk, nginx, and certs stay your problem until an app sent `foo:1|c` and something else graphed it |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | Free software (MIT). You still pay for Graphite/Influx and the engineer who debugs dropped UDP |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | Fire-and-forget UDP loss, flush timing, cardinality in bucket names, and a second tool to tell you the box is sick |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | Apps send UDP. StatsD does not watch a quiet disk unless you instrumented df and flushed it |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | statsd config.js: port, backends, flushInterval, and which Graphite prefix actually stored the sample |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You grep Graphite, then SSH in to change the box |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Aggregate only — StatsD cannot restart nginx or free disk |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | Not a StatsD job — Graphite, Nagios, or a backend alert has to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not an aggregator job — a timer bucket does not forecast a quiet volume |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Only if you parsed auth.log, emitted a counter, flushed it, and wired an alert downstream |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | Silence if StatsD dies — unless you built a deadman check on the backend |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — StatsD has no customer-facing status page |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — a UDP daemon is not a plain-English fleet narrative |
| On-call tracking | Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment | Not included — wire Graphite into PagerDuty or another incident tool |
| Conversation interface | Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI | statsd CLI and the Graphite UI. No mechanic you text when disk filled |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — bucket naming, sampling rates, flush vs UDP loss, and which backend actually stored the sample |
| Best for | Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers) | Teams that already instrument apps into Graphite and need a UDP aggregator, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When StatsD is the right choice
Keep StatsD when you already want that exact job:
- App-emitted counters — you need UDP buckets into Graphite, not a mechanic for the box itself.
- Low-overhead sampling — fire-and-forget timers matter more than disk, certs, and nginx on a quiet VPS.
- An existing Graphite stack — StatsD already flushes, carbon already stores, and someone owns bucket names.
- Instrumenting code, not hosts — you already send `page.views:1|c` from the app, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just run StatsD”
A UDP aggregator is in every Graphite architecture diagram. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A flushed counter still means you SSH in and change the box by hand
- Disk, nginx, certs, and SSH brute-force never appear unless an app emitted them and the backend alerted
- Dropped UDP, flushInterval vs carbon lag, and bucket cardinality punish the hours you spend debugging config.js
- A single VPS with a dead StatsD still needs a mechanic, not another Graphite backend
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than StatsD plus the engineer who keeps Graphite ingest alive, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet flush will not type.
No config.js homework. No silent host. One command install.
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