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Best cron job monitoring tools in 2026

Dead man's switches for scheduled work. A job pings a URL when it runs, and the tool alerts when a ping is late or missing. This list has the top 6 of 12 cron job monitoring tools, ranked by a published score. Of these, 1 are open source, 6 have a free plan and 1 can be self-hosted. Checked by hand on 30 September 2026.

How this list is ranked

Each active tool gets a score out of 100. Archived, end-of-sale and maintenance-only tools are left out.

  • Capabilities: up to 75 points for the share of the category checklist that the tool's own documentation confirms. A tool meeting 8 of 10 items gets 60.
  • Free to start: 15 points for a free plan or a free edition.
  • Open or self-hostable: 10 points if it is open source or can be self-hosted.

Each category has a fixed checklist of capabilities (shown in the table below and on every tool page). An item counts only when the tool's own documentation confirms it; anything we could not confirm counts as not met. How long a tool has existed is deliberately not scored, so a new tool is not ranked below an older one for being new. Tools with the same score share a rank (shown as =), are listed A to Z within it, and the list never cuts between them. Nobody pays for a position.

  1. 1

    Healthchecks.io

    Cron job and heartbeat monitoring: each job pings a unique URL, and a missed or late ping sends an alert. The server is open source and can be self-hosted.

    Free plan Free: 20 jobs Open source (BSD-3-Clause) Self-hosted HeartbeatsNotifications
    100 8 of 8 capabilities (75), free 15, open 10
  2. =2

    cronalive

    Heartbeat monitoring for cron jobs with HTTP uptime and TLS expiry checks, plus Laravel, Python and Node packages that create checks from code.

    Free plan Free: 10 checks, 5-min HTTP interval, 50k pings/mo HeartbeatsUptime checksNotifications
    90 8 of 8 capabilities (75), free 15, open 0
  3. =2

    Cronitor

    Monitoring for cron jobs, background workers and scheduled tasks that tracks run duration and failures, plus website uptime checks and status pages.

    Free plan Free: 5 monitors, email and Slack alerts HeartbeatsUptime checksStatus page
    90 8 of 8 capabilities (75), free 15, open 0
  4. =2

    Drumbeats

    Cron job, heartbeat and uptime monitoring with incident tracking and status pages, billed by check-in volume rather than monitor count.

    Free plan Free: 200K check-ins (beats)/mo HeartbeatsUptime checksStatus page
    90 8 of 8 capabilities (75), free 15, open 0
  5. =2

    LastPing

    Dead man's switch monitoring for cron jobs, CI pipelines and AI agents, with an MCP server so agents can set up their own monitors.

    Free plan Free: Free for individuals HeartbeatsUptime checks
    90 8 of 8 capabilities (75), free 15, open 0
  6. =2

    Watchgoose

    Heartbeat monitoring and status pages for cron jobs, backups and background workers, with an MCP server and free plans for open source projects.

    Free plan Free: 10 checks, 1 user HeartbeatsStatus pageNotifications
    90 8 of 8 capabilities (75), free 15, open 0

Side by side

Tool Pricing Free plan Open source Self-hosted Ping URLGrace periodCron expressionsStart and failure signalsRun durationOutput captureAlert integrationsAPI or IaC
Healthchecks.io Free plan 20 jobs Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
cronalive Free plan 10 checks, 5-min HTTP interval, 50k pings/mo No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Cronitor Free plan 5 monitors, email and Slack alerts No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Drumbeats Free plan 200K check-ins (beats)/mo No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
LastPing Free plan Free for individuals No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Watchgoose Free plan 10 checks, 1 user No No YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes

Yes: confirmed in the tool's documentation. No: documented as not offered. -: not confirmed. Plans and prices change; check each tool's own site before you decide.

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