Compare / cron-job.org
norc vs cron-job.org
cron-job.org is free, open source, and self-hostable, with no paid catch, so it suits hobby projects and teams that don't want to pay for job scheduling at all. It isn't a management layer for the crontabs on your own machines. It triggers HTTP-based jobs and alerts by email, and it doesn't touch a machine's crontab or offer remote editing or one view across machines.
| norc | cron-job.org | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes · unlimited |
| Cheapest paid plan | $8/mo · 5 machines | Free |
| Value metric | flat tier by machines and jobs | free / donations |
| Jobs included | 15 free · 30 Pro · 150 Power (per account) | Unlimited |
| Reliability & security | ||
| Jobs keep running if the vendor is down | ✓ real cron runs them | — jobs run on their servers |
| Needs inbound access or your SSH keys | No · outbound agent | No · runs on their servers |
| Preserves hand-edited crontab lines | ✓ only touches its own | n/a · no crontab |
| Platform | ||
| Native apps | Desktop (macOS) · iOS · Android · CLI | Web only |
| Monitoring | ||
| Cron-job failure / heartbeat monitoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| Alerting channels | In app for now | |
| Self-host / on-prem | Agent runs on your machines | Yes · OSS |
| Management | ||
| Remotely edit & write cron jobs on your machines | ✓ | — |
| Plain-English schedule to cron expression (optional, bring your own key) | ✓ | — |
| One view of every machine’s jobs | ✓ | — |
Native apps: Competitor app availability checked against vendor sites and app stores in August 2026. “Web only” means no official native app was found at that time; third-party website wrappers are not counted.
Cron-job failure / heartbeat monitoring: Monitors are good at noticing a missed check-in, and norc does that too: it sweeps each job against its schedule and flags runs that never happened or failed. On top of that you get one view of every machine, schedule editing, and catch-up for runs missed while a machine was off (up to a cap).
cron-job.org starts at Free. norc charges a flat tier by machines and jobs instead of per monitor, with job limits counted per account across all machines. See norc pricing.
norc vs cron-job.org: common questions
- Is norc cheaper than cron-job.org?
- cron-job.org's cheapest paid plan is Free; norc's is $8/mo · 5 machines. The two use different pricing units, so it depends on your fleet: norc charges a flat tier by machines and jobs (free is 15 jobs on 2 machines, Pro 30 jobs on 5, Power 150 jobs on 25), rather than per monitor or per check.
- Can cron-job.org edit cron jobs on my servers?
- cron-job.org: —. norc: yes. Monitors are good at noticing a missed check-in, and norc does that too. It also writes the real crontab on each paired machine, touching only the jobs it manages, so you can add, change, or remove jobs without SSH or inbound ports.
- Does cron-job.org have native desktop or mobile apps?
- cron-job.org: Web only. norc: Desktop (macOS) · iOS · Android · CLI. Most tools in this category are web dashboards only, which matters when a job never ran overnight and you want to fix it from a phone rather than find a laptop.
- Do my scheduled jobs keep running if cron-job.org goes down?
- cron-job.org: — jobs run on their servers. norc: real cron runs them. norc never runs your jobs. The system cron daemon on your own machine does. A norc outage costs you visibility and remote editing, and the jobs keep running.
- Should I use cron-job.org instead of norc?
- If your jobs are HTTP-triggered and your budget is zero, cron-job.org's free, self-hostable model is the rational choice. norc is for jobs in the crontabs on your own machines, and its free tier is capped by machines and jobs.
Pricing and features as of August 2026. See the full compare matrix.