Manuka by Andew Michael Smith vs SSHoney: 2026 Comparison
Manuka by Andew Michael Smith is a free honeypots & deception tool. SSHoney is a free honeypots & deception tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best honeypots & deception fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Security teams building internal honeypot infrastructure on limited budgets will appreciate Manuka by Andew Michael Smith for how quickly it spins up dionaea and kippo instances without wrestling Docker configuration. The script approach cuts setup time from hours to minutes, which matters when you're running honeypots as a learning tool or low-cost early warning system. Skip this if you need managed honeypot infrastructure, commercial-grade alert tuning, or support beyond what the 26-star GitHub community provides; Manuka assumes you're comfortable maintaining your own Docker environment and interpreting raw honeypot data.
Security teams running exposed SSH services who want free, lightweight SSH connection logging should deploy SSHoney. It requires minimal setup, runs as a standalone binary, and captures authentication attempts without agent overhead. Skip this if you need centralized threat intelligence, automated response, or integration with existing SIEM tooling; SSHoney logs locally and offers no native connectors, so you're building glue code yourself.
