The server was off
A reboot, a full disk or a host problem, and the crontab simply did not fire.
Cron job monitoring
Know when a job
did not run.
Backups, imports and queue workers on your own server fail quietly. Add one line to the end of the job, and CronEngine tells you the moment it does not check in on time.
2 heartbeats free
Works with any language
Pings are free
The problem
A job that never starts sends no error.
Error alerts only fire when something runs and fails. When a job does not run at all, nothing is logged and nobody is told. You find out days later, when the backup you need is not there.
The crontab got lost
A server move or a new deploy, and nobody set the schedule up again.
It crashed early
The script died before it could log anything or send its own error.
It hung forever
It started but never finished, quietly blocking the next run.
A heartbeat catches all four, because it listens for the job instead of waiting for an error.
How it works
One line at the end of your job.
Create a heartbeat
Say how often the job should run, and how late it may be. You get a private address to ping.
Ping it when the job ends
Add one request to the end of the job. Any tool that can call a URL works.
Hear when it goes quiet
If the ping does not arrive in time, you get an alert by email, Slack, Discord, Telegram or webhook.
crontab
# Run the backup at 03:00, then ping when it succeeded 0 3 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh && curl -fsS https://cronengine.com/ping/hb_your-token
More than “it ran”
Start, finish, fail, and how long it took.
One ping says the job finished. Add a ping at the start and we measure how long every run takes, so a job that slowly gets slower shows up long before it breaks. Ping /fail and you hear about a failure straight away.
- Expect a ping every few minutes, hours or days
- Or on a cron schedule, so weekends stay quiet
- A grace period, so a slow night does not wake you
- A heartbeat that was never pinged waits quietly
- Ping history and run times for every heartbeat
Works with anything
If it can call a URL, it can check in.
No agent to install and no library to add. Copy-ready examples for the most common setups are on the integrations page.
What people watch
The jobs you only miss when they are gone.
Backups
Database dumps and file backups that have to run every night.
Queue workers
Workers that should keep checking in every few minutes.
Imports and syncs
Feeds from suppliers, CRMs and payment providers.
Emails and reports
Digests, invoices and reports that go out on a schedule.
Cleanups
Jobs that clear old data before the disk fills up.
CI and deploy jobs
Scheduled pipelines that can be delayed or skipped.
In the same account
Everything else around it.
Run jobs for you
For work your app can do when asked, CronEngine can call the URL on a schedule instead.
Cron jobsWatch your website
Uptime checks every minute, with certificate expiry warnings.
Uptime monitoringTell your customers
Put heartbeats on a status page, so people see that the nightly import ran.
Status pagesPricing
Heartbeats on every plan.
Pings are free and never count against your scheduled runs. Prices exclude VAT.
Free
€0
2
heartbeats
100 pings of history each, plus cron jobs and uptime monitors.
Starter
€5.99/mo
10
heartbeats
250 pings of history each, plus cron jobs and uptime monitors.
Pro
€12.99/mo
25
heartbeats
500 pings of history each, plus cron jobs and uptime monitors.
Business
€24.99/mo
75
heartbeats
1,000 pings of history each, plus cron jobs and uptime monitors.
FAQ
Questions about cron monitoring
What is a heartbeat?
A private address your job calls when it finishes. If the call does not arrive in time, CronEngine alerts you. Some tools call this a dead man’s switch.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Anything that can make a web request works: curl, wget, PowerShell, or one line in your own code.
What if my job does not run around the clock?
Give the heartbeat a cron schedule instead of an interval, such as weekday mornings only, and it stays quiet the rest of the time.
What if the ping itself fails because of the network?
Use a short timeout and a few retries on the request, as in our examples. The grace period also gives a late ping time to arrive.
Do pings count against my plan?
No. Pings are free and never use your scheduled runs. Your plan only sets how many heartbeats you can have.
Can I show heartbeats on a status page?
Yes, from the Starter plan, so customers can see that a nightly import or sync ran.
Stop finding out days later.
Set up your first heartbeat in a couple of minutes. Free plan, no credit card.