A vibration sensor based on hexagonal and compact fiber Bragg grating is designed, which consists of elastomer, mass block, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and shell. Firstly, the hexagonal elastomer structure is analyzed and simulated theoretically. The measurement ranges of sensitivity and frequency are changed by designing hairpin turns structure, so that the designed FBG sensor can meet the vibration monitoring requirements of different mechanical equipment. The performance of sensor is tested with the vibration exciter and the application in vacuum pump vibration monitoring is also demonstrated. The experimental results show that the designed FBG vibration sensor possesses good responses. The first-order natural frequency of conventional hexagonal elastomer FBG sensor is as high as 1 481 Hz, and the sensitivity is 4. 93 pm/ g at the vibration frequency of 100 Hz. For comparison, the first-order natural frequency of hexagonal elastomer FBG sensor with hairpin turns structure is only 185 Hz, and the sensitivity is 105. 73 pm/ g when the vibration frequency is 100 Hz. The transverse interference of both sensors is less than 5% , which possesses a good ability to resist lateral interference.