Frequently Asked Questions

CronBeats is a cron job monitoring service that alerts you when your scheduled tasks fail to run, run late, or take longer than expected. It helps prevent silent failures in your automated jobs.

CronBeats uses a "ping" or "heartbeat" system:

1. You create a job monitor in CronBeats and set its expected schedule
2. Your cron job sends a ping (HTTP request) to CronBeats when it runs
3. If CronBeats doesn't receive the ping on time, it sends you an alert

No installation required! Just add a simple curl command to your existing cron jobs. CronBeats is a cloud service that works with any server or platform.

CronBeats works with:

• Linux/Unix cron jobs
• Windows Task Scheduler
• Docker containers
• Kubernetes CronJobs
• GitHub Actions
• AWS Lambda (scheduled)
• Any system that can make HTTP requests

Job limits vary by plan:

• Free: 5 jobs
• Starter: 15 jobs
• Pro: 50 jobs
• Business: 500 jobs

View pricing for full details.

A workspace is a container for your monitoring jobs. Use one workspace per project, environment, or team. Each plan has a workspace limit (Free: 1, Starter: 2, Pro: 10, Business: 50). You can invite team members to a workspace (Pro: up to 5, Business: up to 25) so everyone can view and manage the same jobs.

No. CronBeats only receives pings from your server. Your cron jobs run on your own infrastructure (server, Lambda, GitHub Actions, etc.). We never execute your code.

Yes! Our Free Plan includes 5 monitored jobs, 1 workspace, 7-day alert history, and email alerts. No credit card required.

We accept all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) via Stripe. We do not currently accept PayPal or invoicing.

Yes! You can cancel your subscription at any time from the Billing page. Your paid features will continue until the end of your billing period.

If you exceed your job limit, you'll be prompted to upgrade. Existing jobs will continue to be monitored, but you won't be able to create new ones until you upgrade.

Yes. Paid plans (Starter, Pro, Business) include a 7-day free trial. A credit card is required to start the trial, but you won't be charged until the trial ends. You can cancel anytime before that.

CronBeats supports multiple alert channels:

• Email - Core alert channel
• Slack - Team chat alerts
• Discord - Server/channel alerts
• Telegram - Mobile push alerts
• Webhooks - Custom endpoint integrations
• Zapier - Workflow automations

Availability for each channel is controlled by your plan features.

Yes! CronBeats is the only cron monitoring service that lets you track job progress in real time. Send progress updates from your job to see percentage completion, current step, and custom messages on your dashboard—so you know exactly how far a long-running job got before it failed.

See detailed examples and guide →

Late: The job didn't ping within its grace period but might still complete.
Down: The job is significantly overdue and likely failed.

History retention varies by plan:

• Free Plan: 7 days
• Starter: 30 days
• Pro: 90 days
• Business: 180 days

Yes! Create a shared workspace and invite team members. All members can view, edit, and receive alerts. Available on Pro (up to 5 members) and Business (up to 25 members) plans.

Our AI Assistant (available on paid plans) provides 24/7 help with:

• Troubleshooting job failures
• Setting up integrations
• Writing crontab expressions
• Answering questions about your jobs

The grace period is the time after the job's expected run time before CronBeats marks it as late or down. For example, if a job is due at 10:00 and the grace period is 5 minutes, we'll alert if we don't receive a ping by 10:05. You set it per job in the dashboard (or via the API). Plan-level defaults may apply.

The Management API (create/update/delete jobs, workspaces, integrations) is available on the Business plan ($99/month). See Management API documentation for details.

Yes. From the job page you can disable monitoring (pause alerts) so we stop expecting pings and won't alert. On the Business plan you can also use the API: POST /api/v1/jobs/{id}/pause and unpause when needed.

Yes! We take security seriously:

• All data encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS)
• Encrypted at rest in our database
• Unique, unguessable ping URLs
• Optional webhook signature verification

We have 99.9% uptime SLA. If CronBeats is unreachable, your jobs will continue running normally - you just won't receive monitoring during the outage. We'll never block or interfere with your jobs.

Yes! Your servers only need outbound HTTPS access to cronbeats.com. No inbound connections required. Our ping endpoints are accessible from anywhere.

You'll need at least outbound HTTPS access to ping CronBeats. If that's not possible, consider using a proxy or gateway server to forward pings.

Yes. The Ping API (used by your cron jobs to send heartbeats) is available on all plans—see Ping API docs. The Management API (create/update jobs, workspaces, integrations) is available on the Business plan; see Management API docs.

Management API (Business plan): 60 requests per minute and 20,000 requests per day per account. Ping API (all plans): generous per-plan daily limits (e.g. 50,000–5,000,000 pings/day) and 5 requests per second per job to prevent abuse. See API docs for exact numbers.

Go to Settings → API Keys, create a key, and use it in the X-API-Key header for Management API requests. Ping URLs use a per-job secret (job key), not the account API key.

Common causes:

• The ping is placed before the job instead of after (use &&)
• Network/firewall blocking outbound HTTPS
• Wrong ping URL or job key
• Grace period is too short

Check these things:

• Verify your email address in Settings
• Check spam/junk folder
• Whitelist [email protected]
• Ensure alert rules are enabled in Integrations

Yes! Each integration has a "Send Test Message" button. Use it to verify your alerts are working correctly.

"NEW" means CronBeats has not received a ping yet. Check that:

• Your cron command actually runs (check logs)
• The ping URL is correct and called after the job (e.g. ./script.sh && curl -fsS ...)
• Outbound HTTPS from your server to cronbeats.com is allowed

Verify:

• The integration is enabled and the webhook URL or chat ID is correct
• You've clicked "Send Test Message" and received it in the channel
• Alert rules are enabled for the workspace and include the right job states (e.g. down, late)

Integrations guide

On the login page, click "Forgot password?" and enter your email. We'll send you a link to reset your password.

Go to Billing in your dashboard. Use the link to open the billing portal where you can update your card and download past invoices.

Go to Settings → API Keys. You can create new keys, name them (e.g. "Production", "CI"), and revoke any key you no longer need. Revoking a key invalidates it immediately.

Log in at cronbeats.com using the Log in link in the header. After signing in you can open the dashboard to manage jobs and workspaces.

Yes. Log in from any browser or device—your jobs, workspaces, and settings sync. You don't need a separate account per device.

Only you and any team members you invite to a workspace. We do not share or sell your data to third parties. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Try the following:

• Check your spam or junk folder
• Whitelist [email protected]
• Wait a few minutes and request the link again
• If it still doesn't arrive, contact [email protected]

You keep full access until the end of your billing period. After that, your account may move to the Free plan (with lower limits) or retain read-only access for a short time. If you need an export of your data before leaving, contact us.