What it does
Healthchecks.io monitors cron jobs and other periodic processes through pings. Create a check with a unique ping URL, expected schedule, grace period, and notification integrations, then have the job send an HTTP request or email when it runs. If the success signal does not arrive before the grace period ends, the check moves to Down and sends an alert.
For a nightly backup or weekly report, create a separate check and set its expected schedule and grace time. The job can ping its unique URL when it reaches the success path; teams can also configure a failure signal or attach logs when an earlier step fails. Healthchecks.io stays quiet while pings arrive on time, marks a check Down when the grace period expires, and notifies through its configured integrations.
The hosted service's Hobbyist plan is free for up to 20 jobs, with 100 log entries per job. Business is listed at $20 per month for up to 100 jobs, and Business Plus at $80 per month for up to 1,000 jobs; annual billing reduces those amounts according to the pricing page. The official repository also provides a BSD-3-Clause self-hosted application, so operators can choose between the managed service and running the software themselves. The product checks whether a job signaled completion; it does not independently determine whether a backup file or report contains correct data.
Strengths
- The unique ping URL and grace period make missed scheduled jobs visible without adding a monitoring agent to each job.
- The docs cover success pings, failure signaling, attached logs, and notification integrations.
- The hosted Hobbyist plan includes 20 checks for free, and the official repository supports self-hosting.
Watch out for
- The check depends on a job sending its ping; it does not inspect the correctness of the job's output by itself.
- The hosted free plan is limited to 20 jobs, so teams with larger schedules need a paid plan or a self-hosted deployment.
Best for
- Teams that need alerts when backups, reports, renewals, or other scheduled jobs fail to run on time.
- Developers who want a simple heartbeat workflow with a hosted or self-hosted deployment choice.
Sources
- Healthchecks.io: Cron Job Monitoring (Oct 25, 2026)
- Healthchecks.io Documentation (Oct 25, 2026)
- Plans and Pricing - Healthchecks.io (Oct 25, 2026)
- healthchecks/healthchecks (Oct 25, 2026)
- LICENSE | healthchecks/healthchecks (Oct 25, 2026)