Compare / cron-job.org
norc vs cron-job.org
cron-job.org is free, open source, and self-hostable — genuinely free, not a bait free tier, which makes it the go-to for hobby projects and teams unwilling to pay for job scheduling infrastructure at all. What it isn't is a management layer: it triggers HTTP-based jobs and alerts by email, but it doesn't touch your machine's actual crontab or offer remote editing, AI generation, or fleet visibility.
| norc | cron-job.org | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes · unlimited |
| Cheapest paid plan | $8/mo · 5 machines | Free |
| Value metric | flat tier by machine count | free / donations |
| Jobs per machine | Unlimited | 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 | Many | |
| Self-host / on-prem | Desktop agent | Yes · OSS |
| Management | ||
| Remotely edit & write cron jobs on your machines | ✓ | — |
| AI / natural-language job creation | ✓ | — |
| Multi-machine fleet management | ✓ | — |
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.org starts at Free. norc charges a flat tier by machine count instead of per monitor, with unlimited jobs on each machine — 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 machine count with unlimited jobs on each machine, rather than per monitor or per check.
- Can cron-job.org edit cron jobs on my servers?
- cron-job.org: —. norc: yes. This is the main difference between the two. Monitoring tools tell you a job failed; norc writes the real crontab on each paired machine, so you can add, change, or remove jobs without opening 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 fails 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 becomes the thing that runs your jobs — the system cron daemon on your own machine does. A norc outage costs you visibility and remote editing, not execution.
- 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 charges per machine and has no free-forever tier at that price point.
Pricing and features as of August 2026. See the full compare matrix.