updated 2026-10-23
Cron alternatives
13 schedulers, supervisors and monitors people move to from cron. What each one is, when it last shipped, and who should pick it. Including the ones we'd tell you to pick over ours.
- tools
- 13
- maintained
- 10 of 13
- updated
- 2026-10-23
| Tool | What it is | Latest release | Maintained | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RunWisp ours | Scheduler + supervisor | v1.7.12026-10-19 | ✓ | One box: scheduled jobs and long-running services, with run history, retries and alerts in one binary. |
| cron | OS scheduler | cronie 1.7.2 2024-04-08 | ✓ ships with the OS | A few jobs that never fail, on a box you'd rather not add anything to. |
| systemd timers | OS scheduler | v262.1 2026-10-16 | ✓ | Linux only, and you want per-job CPU and memory limits and sandboxing. |
| Supercronic | cron for containers | v0.2.51 2026-10-21 | ✓ | A crontab in a container, logging to stdout, and nothing more. |
| Jobber | cron replacement | v1.4.4 2020-06-02 | ✗ README says not actively maintained | Per-user jobs on a shared box, and you can live without updates. |
| Ofelia | Docker label scheduler | v0.3.22 2026-04-11 | ✓ the netresearch fork is the active one | Every job lives in Docker Compose labels, and that's where you want it. |
| supervisord | Process supervisor | 4.3.0 2025-08-23 | ✓ a release every year or two | Long-running programs, and tooling that already talks its XML-RPC API. |
| PM2 | Node process manager | v7.1.1 2026-10-23 | ✓ | Node apps that need cluster mode or zero-downtime reloads. |
| Cronicle | Multi-server scheduler | v0.9.137 2026-10-16 | ~ fixes only; xyOps is the successor | Jobs across many servers, with failover and per-user accounts. |
| Dagu | Workflow (DAG) engine | v2.22.2 2026-10-23 | ✓ | Your jobs are pipelines: steps that depend on each other. |
| Rundeck | Runbook automation | v6.3.0 2026-10-22 | ✓ | Teams running the same job across many nodes, with ACLs and self-service. |
| Healthchecks.io | Cron monitor, hosted or self-hosted | v5.0.1 2026-10-22 | ✓ | Hearing that a whole server died. Only an outside monitor can tell you. |
| Cronitor | Hosted cron monitor | hosted | ✓ SaaS, no versions | One outside dashboard for jobs on many hosts, with on-call integrations. |
| Cronhub | Hosted cron monitor | closed | ✗ shut down on 30 June 2026 | Nothing new. Its URLs no longer respond. |
Each name opens a side-by-side page: Yes/No matrix, the same job configured in both, a migration map and an FAQ. Release data syncs daily from GitHub and PyPI.
What is the best cron alternative?
It depends on what cron is missing for you. For per-job resource limits on Linux, systemd timers are already installed. For a crontab inside a container, Supercronic. For multi-step pipelines, Dagu. For jobs across many servers, Cronicle or Rundeck. For one server where you want run history, retries, alerts and a web UI without adding a database, RunWisp: an open-source cron replacement that ships as a single binary and keeps cron's schedule syntax. Its limits: one machine per daemon, no DAGs, one shared password, and no native Windows.
Which cron tools are no longer maintained?
Of the tools on this page, Jobber's last release was v1.4.4 in June 2020 and its README says it isn't actively maintained. Cronhub shut down on 30 June 2026. Cronicle still ships releases, but its author has said it gets mainly bug fixes and security patches while new work goes into xyOps.
What happened to Cronhub?
Cronhub closed on 30 June 2026 and deleted its data afterwards, so its ping and scheduler URLs no longer respond. To run the jobs, use cron, systemd timers or a self-hosted scheduler. To be told when a whole server dies, you still need an outside monitor such as Healthchecks.io or Cronitor.
Which of these can I self-host?
All of them except Cronitor and the now-closed Cronhub. Healthchecks.io is open source and runs either hosted or on your own server. cron and systemd timers come with the OS; the rest are a binary, a package or a container you install.
GPL 3.0 · no accounts · free to self-host
Start in 30 seconds. Ship on your terms.
A single Go binary. If it doesn't earn the disk space, rm it. No account, no signup, no catch.
Install in 30 seconds
curl -fsSL https://get.runwisp.com | sh