Tink vs Xen
Xen is a type-1 hypervisor. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux host, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
Xen runs the guest. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on Xen because a local hypervisor looks like ops. Then the volume fills, Domain 0 nginx dies, and xl still shows running — no domain matched host fill. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is not a Xen job unless you scraped xenstore 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 Xen if you already run VMs. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | Xen |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — xen.efi, Domain 0, xl.cfg, then a host that still has no mechanic after xl list shows running |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | A type-1 hypervisor. Disk fill, host nginx, Postgres, and certs stay your problem until you SSH into Domain 0 |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | Xen is GPL. You still pay the engineer who owns Domain 0 after the last guest stays running |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | A quiet node at 2am, xenstore fill, and a second tool to tell you the VPS is sick while xl still shows running |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | Guest lifecycle and xl. Xen does not watch a quiet cert or host auth.log after the domain started |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | PV vs HVM, balloon, vif, and which domain death actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You read xl list and xenstore, then SSH into Domain 0 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 — Xen 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 Xen job — xapi events plus a separate monitoring tool have to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not a Xen 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 — Xen does not read Domain 0 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 xl poll — unless you built a separate uptime check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — Xen has no customer-facing status page |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — an xl 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 | xl and xenstore. No mechanic you text when /var filled and the last domain still showed running |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — Domain 0, PV/HVM, balloon, 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 Xen guests and need a type-1 hypervisor, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When Xen is the right choice
Keep using Xen when you already want that exact job:
- Type-1 virtualization with Domain 0 — you need xl, xenstore, and a PV or HVM guest, not a mechanic.
- An existing Xen host — balloon, vif, 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 xl.cfg.
- Hosts that only page on failed domains — you already run xapi and exporters, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just watch xl list”
Xen runs guests. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A running domain still means you SSH into Domain 0 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 — Xen will stay quiet until the next domain process dies
- A single VPS with a dead agent still needs a mechanic, not another xl line
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than a Xen host plus the engineer who keeps failed-domain notifications alive, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet xl poll will not type.
No hypervisor homework. No silent host. One command install.
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