ssh-auth-logger vs SSHoney: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
ssh-auth-logger 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 running flat networks or isolated honeypot segments will get real value from ssh-auth-logger for one reason: it logs every SSH authentication attempt in structured JSON, making it trivial to pipe into your existing SIEM without custom parsing. Free pricing and a 26-star GitHub footprint mean minimal friction to deploy a decoy SSH server alongside production infrastructure. Skip this if you need honeypot management at scale or cross-protocol deception; ssh-auth-logger does SSH authentication logging and nothing else.
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.
