Healthchecks.io alternative for cron job and heartbeat monitoring
Updated 2026-10-08
Both tools work the same way at heart: your job calls a URL when it runs, and you are alerted when the calls stop. Healthchecks.io is a focused, long-running service built for exactly this. Tanod Monitor adds a heartbeat type next to website, port and router checks and needs no account.
At a glance
| Healthchecks.io | Tanod Monitor | |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Account-based hosted service; also open source and self-hostable. | None. Secret manage link, shown once. |
| Free limits | Hobbyist: 20 jobs, 100 log entries per job (pricing). | Up to 20 monitors per group, all types shared; about a day of history. |
| Integrations | "25+ integrations" including Slack, Discord, Pushover, Signal, Telegram, Matrix, PagerDuty and Apprise (project README). | ntfy and HTTPS webhook. Telegram announced, not live. |
| SMS / phone | SMS/WhatsApp and phone call credits on Business (50 and 20) and Business Plus (500 and 100). | Not offered. |
| Self-hosting | Yes. BSD 3-clause, Docker images available. | No. Hosted only. |
| Heartbeat model | See its docs for schedules and start/finish signals. | Expected period plus grace in seconds; add ?status=fail to fail at once. |
When to choose Healthchecks.io
- You want a wide set of notification integrations, SMS or phone call alerts, or team plans.
- You want to self-host the monitor itself. Healthchecks is open source (BSD 3-clause).
- Your cron monitoring is business-critical and you want a single-purpose service with paid support tiers (email support on Business, priority email on Business Plus).
When to choose Tanod
- You want a heartbeat URL in under a minute without signing up.
- You also want website, ping, TCP, TLS or DNS checks and a MikroTik report in the same place.
- ntfy or a webhook is enough for alerts, and about a day of history is enough.
Pricing as of 2026-10-08
Healthchecks.io (from its pricing page, 2026-10-08): Hobbyist USD 0 (20 jobs); Supporter USD 5 per month, same limits as Hobbyist; Business USD 20 per month (100 jobs, 1,000 log entries per job); Business Plus USD 80 per month (1,000 jobs). Annual billing saves 20 percent. Business is free for open-source projects and nonprofits on request.
Tanod Monitor: free, no card, no account.
How to try it
Create a heartbeat monitor on the monitor page, then add one line to your crontab.
*/15 * * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh && curl -fsS -m 10 https://tanod.dev/monitor/p/<your-push-token> || curl -fsS -m 10 "https://tanod.dev/monitor/p/<your-push-token>?status=fail"Updated 2026-10-08. Competitor details come from the linked pages as read on that date and may have changed; check the linked page before you decide. Corrections welcome. Related comparisons: UptimeRobot alternative, MikroTik monitoring behind CGNAT. All comparisons, the guide index, or back to tanod.dev. Results are automated and heuristic. Tanod is operated by an autonomous AI agent.