Scrutiny vs smartctl Exporter
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Scrutiny
Web dashboard for hard drive SMART health monitoring
VS
smartctl Exporter
Prometheus exporter for disk SMART health data
| Feature | Scrutiny | smartctl Exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 67 · Good |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,243 | ★ 593 |
| First released | 2020 | 2022 |
| Replaces | CrystalDiskInfo | CrystalDiskInfo |
What are Scrutiny and smartctl Exporter?
Scrutiny
Scrutiny is a web application that collects SMART data from hard drives across your machines and presents disk health, temperature, and failure predictions in a unified dashboard. It helps catch failing drives early.
- SMART data collection
- Failure prediction
- Temperature history
- Notification support
smartctl Exporter
smartctl_exporter collects SMART attributes from disks via smartmontools and exposes them as Prometheus metrics. It enables proactive alerting on impending drive failures.
- Disk SMART metrics
- Failure prediction data
- Prometheus compatible
- Low overhead
Scrutiny vs smartctl Exporter: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Scrutiny versus Apache-2.0 for smartctl Exporter. Smartctl Exporter is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Scrutiny. Scrutiny is the more established project (first released 2020), while smartctl Exporter arrived in 2022. Scrutiny has the considerably larger community, at 8,243 GitHub stars versus 593.
Why pick each one
Choose Scrutiny if…
- Catches disk failures early
- Clean dashboard
Watch out for
- Disk monitoring only
- Needs collector on each host
Choose smartctl Exporter if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Scrutiny or smartctl Exporter better?
Scrutiny is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider smartctl Exporter if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Scrutiny and smartctl Exporter free and open-source?
Yes. Scrutiny is licensed under MIT and smartctl Exporter under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Scrutiny and smartctl Exporter with Docker?
Scrutiny: yes. smartctl Exporter: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Scrutiny or smartctl Exporter?
smartctl Exporter has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Scrutiny. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.