Scrutiny vs smartmontools
Scrutiny
github.comsmartmontools
smartmontools.orgSide by side
| Figure | Scrutiny | smartmontools |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Disk Health Monitoring Software | 7.6 (#18) | 8.0 (#10) |
| License | The repository lists the MIT license. | Smartmontools is licensed under the GNU GPL Version 2. |
| Purpose | Scrutiny is a hard drive health dashboard and monitoring solution for S.M.A.R.T. metrics. | Smartmontools provides utilities to control and monitor storage systems using S.M.A.R.T. |
| Supported platforms | The repository lists Linux, macOS, and Windows binaries; Windows Docker support is marked work in progress. | Darwin (Mac OS X),Linux,FreeBSD,NetBSD,OpenBSD,Solaris,OS/2,Cygwin,QNX,eComStation,Windows |
Plans
In their own words
Scrutiny
Scrutiny is a free, self-hosted dashboard for monitoring hard drive health through S.M.A.R.T. metrics. It records metric history and temperature, and allows customized thresholds based on real-world failure rates. Its collector uses smartctl to discover connected drives, and the project integrates with smartd. Failure notifications can be sent through email, webhooks, Discord, Gotify, Mattermost, ntfy, Slack, Teams, Telegram, and other listed services. Deployment choices include an all-in-one Docker image, separate hub-and-spoke Docker components, and manual installation; the hub-and-spoke setup stores S.M.A.R.T. data in InfluxDB 2.8. The repository lists Linux, macOS, and Windows binaries, while Windows Docker support remains in progress. For Docker, users must pass drive devices through and grant SYS_RAWIO; NVMe drives may also require SYS_ADMIN. Some RAID controllers do not pass underlying SMART data to smartctl. Manual installation instructions describe running the collector as an unprivileged user with restricted systemd permissions and network access. The project describes itself as a work in progress with rough edges and lists the MIT license.
smartmontools
smartmontools is a free package containing smartctl and smartd for controlling and monitoring storage devices through SMART. It supports ATA/SATA, SCSI/SAS, and NVMe disks, as well as SCSI/SAS tape devices. smartctl can report SMART health status, show capabilities such as error logging and offline surface scanning, display vendor-specific attributes, start device self-tests, and read their logs. A failing health status can mean a device has failed or predicts failure within 24 hours. smartd periodically monitors SMART status, error and self-test logs, and attribute changes; it can schedule tests and report errors and attribute changes to syslog. It also supports warning emails and executable commands. The project says it should run on modern Linux, BSD variants, macOS, Solaris, Windows, Cygwin, OS/2, eComStation, and QNX systems, and can run from various Live CDs and DVDs. The package uses the GNU GPL Version 2 license and was originally derived from the Linux smartsuite package. Its capabilities focus on SMART health reporting, testing, and ongoing monitoring.