Compare / Healthchecks.io
norc vs Healthchecks.io
Healthchecks.io is open source and self-hostable, so it's the obvious choice for teams that want to run their own monitoring rather than depend on a vendor. Pricing is per job, starting at $20/mo for 100 jobs. It tells you when a check-in did not arrive, and that is all it does: it does not edit crontabs or deploy jobs to your machine. norc does. The norc app is not self-hostable, so if you need that, Healthchecks wins outright.
| norc | Healthchecks.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes · 20 jobs |
| Cheapest paid plan | $8/mo · 5 machines | $20/mo · 100 jobs |
| Value metric | flat tier by machines and jobs | per job |
| Jobs included | 15 free · 30 Pro · 150 Power (per account) | Billed per job |
| Reliability & security | ||
| Jobs keep running if the vendor is down | ✓ real cron runs them | n/a · monitors only |
| Needs inbound access or your SSH keys | No · outbound agent | No · receives pings |
| Preserves hand-edited crontab lines | ✓ only touches its own | n/a · never edits |
| Platform | ||
| Native apps | Desktop (macOS) · iOS · Android · CLI | Web only |
| Monitoring | ||
| Cron-job failure / heartbeat monitoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| Alerting channels | In app for now | Many |
| 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).
Healthchecks.io starts at $20/mo · 100 jobs. 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 Healthchecks.io: common questions
- Is norc cheaper than Healthchecks.io?
- Healthchecks.io's cheapest paid plan is $20/mo · 100 jobs; 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 Healthchecks.io edit cron jobs on my servers?
- Healthchecks.io: —. 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 Healthchecks.io have native desktop or mobile apps?
- Healthchecks.io: 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 Healthchecks.io goes down?
- Healthchecks.io: n/a · monitors only. 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 Healthchecks.io instead of norc?
- If self-hosting is non-negotiable (compliance, air-gapped infra, or just not wanting another vendor in the loop), use Healthchecks.io's open-source core. norc has no self-hosted mode.
Pricing and features as of August 2026. See the full compare matrix.