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Thermal Canary Pro vs MangoHud
These are not competitors. MangoHud is the in-game FPS and sensor overlay millions of Linux gamers already use, and Thermal Canary Pro bundles it internally to read that same sensor feed. The honest way to think about it: MangoHud shows you the numbers while you play, Pro tells you what those numbers meant after the fact, before a crash, and over the following weeks.
What MangoHud does
- A configurable, real-time in-game overlay: FPS, frametime graph, CPU/GPU load and temperature
- Free, open source, actively maintained by the Linux gaming community
- Per-game configuration via a plain text config file
- No diagnosis, no history, no crash forensics, by design, it is a display layer
What Thermal Canary Pro adds on top
| MangoHud gives you | Thermal Canary Pro adds |
|---|---|
| Live in-game FPS and sensor overlay | Reads the same sensor data silently in the background, no duplicate overlay |
| A number when FPS drops | Throttle Detector: says whether it was thermal, power, or voltage limited, in plain English |
| Nothing after a crash | Crash Black Box: the 60 seconds of sensor history right before the crash, auto-dumped |
| No trend over time | Hotspot Delta Analyzer: tracks GPU edge-vs-junction drift over weeks to catch drying paste early |
| No session logging | Sessions with CSV export and a shareable Before/After comparison PNG |
| Always-on overlay, whether you look or not | Silent Smart Alert Overlay: a toast only appears when a temperature actually crosses a danger threshold |
What Thermal Canary Pro does not try to replace
If you like your current MangoHud overlay setup, keep it exactly as it is. Pro does not draw its own in-game FPS HUD, and it is not trying to out-configure MangoHud's overlay options. Its FPS strip lives in its own window's status bar, fed by the same data, not a second overlay competing for screen space.
Pricing
MangoHud is free and open source, and stays that way, keep using it for the in-game overlay. Thermal Canary Pro is a one-time payment of €49 that unlocks every 1.x release, forever, no subscription, for the diagnostics layer on top.
FAQ
Does Thermal Canary Pro replace MangoHud?
No, and it does not try to. MangoHud is the in-game overlay: FPS, frametime, and live sensor numbers drawn over your game. Thermal Canary Pro bundles MangoHud internally to read that same sensor feed, but its own job starts where MangoHud stops: what happened before a crash, why FPS dropped, and whether your hardware is degrading over weeks.
Do I need MangoHud installed separately to use Thermal Canary Pro?
No. Pro ships a pinned, bundled copy of MangoHud inside the AppImage and extracts it on first run. If you already run your own system MangoHud for its in-game HUD, Pro does not touch or override it, it uses its own private instance purely to read FPS data in the background.
What does MangoHud do that Thermal Canary Pro does not?
MangoHud is a real-time, in-game overlay: it draws FPS, frametime graphs, and sensor readouts directly over your game while you play, fully configurable, actively maintained, and free. Thermal Canary Pro does not draw an in-game HUD of its own. It shows live sensors in its own window, and only ever overlays your game for a brief toast when a temperature crosses a dangerous threshold.
What does Thermal Canary Pro do that MangoHud does not?
Diagnosis, not just display. A Crash Black Box that auto-dumps the 60 seconds of sensor history before a GPU crash. A Throttle Detector that says whether an FPS drop was thermal, power, or voltage limited, in plain English. A Hotspot Delta Analyzer that tracks GPU edge-vs-junction temperature drift over weeks to catch drying thermal paste before it fails. Session history with Before/After comparison and a shareable PNG. MangoHud logs numbers; Pro tells you what the numbers mean.
Can I use MangoHud and Thermal Canary Pro at the same time?
Yes, that is the intended setup. Keep your own MangoHud configuration for the in-game overlay you already like. Pro runs alongside it, reading the same hwmon and NVML sensor data, and adds the forensics and diagnostics layer neither MangoHud nor a bare sensor overlay provides.
MangoHud is an independent open-source project by the FlightlessMango community, licensed under the MIT License. Thermal Canary Pro bundles a pinned copy of MangoHud and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the MangoHud project.