When is cron-job.org the better choice?

You need a hosted cron scheduler that just hits URLs on a timer. You want unlimited cronjobs on a perpetual free tier, within fair use. You are monitoring a small set of endpoints and do not need dashboards or status pages. You need support for custom HTTP methods, headers, bodies, and HTTPS, including self-signed certificates. You want the simplest path with no paid tier to evaluate later.

When is Cronitor the better choice?

You want cron monitoring plus uptime checks, heartbeat monitoring, and website/API monitoring in one product. You need alerts through several channels, including Slack, Telegram, Discord, Teams, and webhooks. You want a basic status page and subscriber notifications for incident communication. You care about check frequency, dashboards, and multi-environment monitoring more than raw cron throughput. You expect to grow into a paid monitoring setup with per-monitor pricing and add-ons like RUM or synthetic checks.

cron-job.org vs Cronitor: Free Tier Comparison

Q: How much does cron-job.org cost after the free tier?

No paid plans listed. cron-job.org has no paid plans listed, so the free tier is effectively the whole product in the data provided. Cronitor uses usage-based pricing on its first paid step: Business starts at $2 per monitor and $5 per user, with add-ons like synthetic browser checks at 1000 checks for $1/mo and RUM at 100k events for $10/mo. That means costs rise with what you monitor and who needs access. For small, simple setups, cron-job.org is cheaper because it stays free; Cronitor becomes more expensive as you add monitors, users, or higher-volume observability.

Q: How much does Cronitor cost after the free tier?

Business - $2/month + $5/month. cron-job.org has no paid plans listed, so the free tier is effectively the whole product in the data provided. Cronitor uses usage-based pricing on its first paid step: Business starts at $2 per monitor and $5 per user, with add-ons like synthetic browser checks at 1000 checks for $1/mo and RUM at 100k events for $10/mo. That means costs rise with what you monitor and who needs access. For small, simple setups, cron-job.org is cheaper because it stays free; Cronitor becomes more expensive as you add monitors, users, or higher-volume observability.

Quick answer

cron-job.org - Cron-job.org wins for most builders who want a simple, always-free scheduler with no account-level quota pressure, while Cronitor wins if you need monitoring breadth, alerts, and status pages in one place.

How the free tiers compare

These products overlap on scheduled job monitoring, but they optimize for different jobs. cron-job.org is the narrower tool: it is built to send HTTP requests on a schedule, with generous free usage, long-standing core features, and no paid tier to move into. That makes it a fit for lightweight automation, URL checks, and simple uptime pings where you mostly care about whether the request fired. Cronitor is more of a monitoring suite. Its free tier is tighter on monitor count and check frequency, but it adds heartbeats, website/API checks, alerts across several channels, a status page, dashboards, and even free RUM events. If you want one place to watch jobs and communicate incidents, Cronitor has more surface area. If you want the simplest free cron runner, cron-job.org is easier to keep using.

cron-job.org vs Cronitor free tier, side by side

	cron-job.org FTV 43	Cronitor FTV 42
Free monitor/job count cron-job.org is not capped by a stated count; Cronitor is.	Unlimited cronjobs per account, subject to fair usage	5 monitors
Fastest check frequency Cronitor’s free tier checks less often.	Once per minute, or 60 times per hour	5 minutes
Execution/history retention Only A provides explicit retention details here.	Last 50 executions per cronjob; response headers and bodies stored for 2 days	Not specified in the free tier items provided
Alerts and notifications B covers more channels.	Failure email notifications	Email, Slack, Telegram, Discord, Teams, and webhook alerts
Status page B includes status communication on the free tier.	Not specified	1 basic status page; 50 included subscribers
RUM events This is an extra monitoring type unique to B in the provided data.	Not available in provided free tier	First 100,000 Real User Monitoring events free

After you outgrow the free tier

cron-job.org has no paid plans listed, so the free tier is effectively the whole product in the data provided. Cronitor uses usage-based pricing on its first paid step: Business starts at $2 per monitor and $5 per user, with add-ons like synthetic browser checks at 1000 checks for $1/mo and RUM at 100k events for $10/mo. That means costs rise with what you monitor and who needs access. For small, simple setups, cron-job.org is cheaper because it stays free; Cronitor becomes more expensive as you add monitors, users, or higher-volume observability.

cron-job.org next step No paid plans listed Contact sales

Cronitor next step Business - $2/month + $5/month Usage-based

Cost at real usage

Usage	cron-job.org	Cronitor
5 monitors, 1 user Based on $2 per monitor plus $5 per user, and the provided Business line item of $2/month + $5/month.	Free	$17/mo est.
10 monitors, 3 users 10 x $2 for monitors plus 3 x $5 for users.	Free	$35/mo est.
1,000 synthetic browser checks/mo Only Cronitor provides a quoted synthetic browser check rate.	Free	$1/mo
100k RUM events/mo Cronitor includes the first 100k RUM events free in the free tier, but the paid quota is quoted at 100k for $10/mo.	Free	$10/mo

Estimates, not quotes. Usage-based rates change - verify with the vendor's pricing page before committing.

When to pick each one

Pick cron-job.org when…

You need a hosted cron scheduler that just hits URLs on a timer.
You want unlimited cronjobs on a perpetual free tier, within fair use.
You are monitoring a small set of endpoints and do not need dashboards or status pages.
You need support for custom HTTP methods, headers, bodies, and HTTPS, including self-signed certificates.
You want the simplest path with no paid tier to evaluate later.

Pick Cronitor when…

You want cron monitoring plus uptime checks, heartbeat monitoring, and website/API monitoring in one product.
You need alerts through several channels, including Slack, Telegram, Discord, Teams, and webhooks.
You want a basic status page and subscriber notifications for incident communication.
You care about check frequency, dashboards, and multi-environment monitoring more than raw cron throughput.
You expect to grow into a paid monitoring setup with per-monitor pricing and add-ons like RUM or synthetic checks.

Bottom line

For the most common builder use case, cron-job.org is the winner if you just need scheduled HTTP calls, lightweight checks, or a free uptime-style cron runner that can stay free indefinitely. Cronitor is the better pick when the job is only one part of a broader monitoring setup and you also need alerts, status pages, dashboards, or RUM. The tradeoff is simple: cron-job.org is narrower but cheaper, while Cronitor is broader but starts turning into a paid monitoring stack once you grow beyond the free monitor limit.

Read the full listings: cron-job.org and Cronitor. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.