CronEngine vs Healthchecks.io
Healthchecks.io only listens for pings from jobs that run elsewhere. CronEngine does that too, and can also run the job itself, check your websites and show it all on a status page.
Checked against Healthchecks.io's own pages on 22 October 2026
Choose Healthchecks.io if
You only need heartbeats, want to self-host, or want many checks for little money.
Choose CronEngine if
You also want something to run your jobs, check your websites, or give customers a status page, in the same account.
About Healthchecks.io
Healthchecks.io is a focused, well-liked service that alerts you when a job stops pinging it. It is open source, can be self-hosted, and has a generous free plan.
Side by side
"Not listed" means Healthchecks.io's own pages do not mention it, not that it is impossible.
| Healthchecks.io | CronEngine | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs your scheduled requests | No. It listens for pings from jobs that run elsewhere | Yes: any method, headers, body and authentication |
| Fastest schedule | Not applicable, schedules can be a period, cron or OnCalendar | Every 15 minutes on Free, every minute on Business |
| Request timeout | Not applicable, it does not call your URL | 20 seconds on Free, up to 600 on Enterprise |
| Run history | 100 log entries per check on the free plan, 1,000 on Business | 5 to 50 runs per job, with 10 KB of each reply |
| Heartbeats for your own scripts | Yes, its core feature: start, success, fail and exit code pings | Yes: start, success and fail pings, and the run time. 2 on Free |
| Website uptime checks | Not listed | Yes: 1 on Free, checks every minute from Pro |
| SSL certificates | Not listed | Expiry warnings at the countdowns you choose, from Starter |
| Status pages | Not listed (status badges are) | From Starter: 1 page, 3 on Pro, with email subscribers, RSS and a badge |
| Status page branding | Not listed | Logo, colours, dark mode and 5 languages from Starter; your own address from Pro |
| Alert channels | Email, webhooks, SMS, Slack, PagerDuty and more; SMS, WhatsApp and phone call credits on Business | Email, webhooks (also in Slack and Discord format) and Telegram |
| Team members | Projects with read-only or read-write team members | One login per account |
| API | Yes, API keys per project | No public API |
| Free plan | 20 checks, 100 log entries per check | 5 cron jobs, 2 heartbeats, 1 uptime check, no card |
| Paid pricing | $20/month for 100 checks, $80/month for 1,000 | Flat monthly plans from €5.99, in euros |
Where Healthchecks.io is stronger
Worth knowing before you switch:
- Open source under the BSD license, and you can host it yourself.
- A larger free plan for heartbeats: 20 checks.
- Exit code pings, and SMS, WhatsApp and phone call alerts on Business.
- Projects with team members and API keys.
- The Business plan is free for open-source projects and nonprofits.
Pricing
Healthchecks.io
$20/month for 100 checks, $80/month for 1,000. Free plan: 20 checks, 100 log entries per check.
If heartbeats are all you need, Healthchecks.io is hard to beat on price: 100 checks for $20 a month.
CronEngine
- Free €0: 5 active cron jobs
- Starter €5.99/month: 25 active cron jobs
- Pro €12.99/month: 50 active cron jobs
- Business €24.99/month: unlimited cron jobs
Switching from Healthchecks.io
- Create a heartbeat in CronEngine for each check, with the same schedule and grace period.
- Replace the ping URL in your scripts. /start and /fail work the same way.
- Optional: let CronEngine run the jobs that only call a URL, so they no longer need a server.
Questions
Is CronEngine cheaper than Healthchecks.io?
Not for heartbeats alone: Healthchecks.io gives 20 checks for free. CronEngine becomes the better deal when you also want cron jobs, uptime checks or a status page, which Healthchecks.io does not list.
Do the ping URLs work the same way?
Yes. One URL per job, with /start when it begins and /fail when it fails. Only the address changes.
Can I self-host CronEngine?
No, CronEngine is a hosted service. If self-hosting matters, Healthchecks.io is open source and can run on your own server.
Sources, checked 22 October 2026
- https://healthchecks.io/pricing/
- https://healthchecks.io/docs/
- https://healthchecks.io/docs/self_hosted/
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