Healthchecks

Open source alternative to Cronitor and Dead Man's Snitch

10.5K stars
BSD-3-Clause
Active this week
Last commit today

Last verified Nov 5, 2026

Monitor cron jobs and scheduled tasks with ping-URL checks that alert you when background work stops running on time.

Visit website GitHub10.5K Deploy on Hostinger

Read the full breakdownWho it is for, how it works, trade-offs, the quick start and the FAQ

who it's for

Who Healthchecks is for#

Sysadmins monitoring server maintenance tasks

If you run regular backups, SSL renewals, database exports, or antivirus scans via cron, Healthchecks gives you a central view of which jobs ran and when. Configure a grace period slightly above each job's expected runtime so brief slowdowns don't trigger false alerts.

Skip if:

If your jobs are already instrumented with alerting inside the job itself (e.g., a backup script that emails on failure), adding Healthchecks overlaps with that coverage. It is most useful for jobs that run silently with no built-in failure reporting.

Development teams monitoring data pipelines and scheduled workers

Healthchecks fits data import jobs, nightly report runs, and background queue workers that must run on schedule. The event log records every ping, making it straightforward to audit when a pipeline last ran and spot gradual drift in job duration.

Skip if:

If your pipeline tool already provides scheduling guarantees and failure alerting (e.g., Airflow with an SMTP integration), Healthchecks duplicates that monitoring. Use it where the job runner itself has no built-in check-in reporting.

Teams self-hosting infrastructure who want cron visibility without SaaS costs

For teams running on-premise or on a private cloud, Healthchecks self-hosted removes per-check pricing. The hosted healthchecks.io service offers up to 20 checks for free; the self-hosted path scales to as many checks as your server supports.

Skip if:

If you have fewer than 20 checks and no requirement to keep monitoring data on-premise, the hosted healthchecks.io free tier removes the need to operate your own instance.

IoT and embedded device health monitoring

Any device that can send an HTTP request (Raspberry Pi, NAS, router) can ping a Healthchecks check. Configure a check as an unconditional heartbeat: if the device goes offline or fails to run its health script, the missing ping triggers an alert. The website documents this use case explicitly.

Skip if:

If your devices cannot reach an external URL because they are on a fully airgapped network, Healthchecks requires a self-hosted instance reachable from that device network.

the problem

The problem it solves#

When a cron job fails silently, it leaves no log entry, no error page, and no pager notification. A database backup that stopped running three weeks ago looks exactly the same as one that ran an hour ago until the moment you need to restore from it. Scheduled tasks are invisible by default: they appear in crontabs and task schedulers, but nothing outside the job itself reports whether it actually executed.

Teams typically discover silent failures too late: the report wasn't sent, the import didn't run, the SSL renewal was skipped. Setting up custom alerting for each background job requires duplicating monitoring logic across scripts, adding complexity every time a new task is added.

how Healthchecks solves it

How it solves it#

Ping URL check-in monitoring

Each cron job or scheduled task gets a unique HTTP ping URL. Your job sends a GET or POST request to that URL on every successful run. If the ping stops arriving within the configured period plus grace time, Healthchecks fires an alert. No agents to install and no server credentials to share with the monitoring service.

Cron expression and period-based schedules

Define check schedules either as a fixed period (e.g., every 6 hours) or as a full cron expression. Healthchecks parses expressions using the cronsim library and tracks four states: New, Up, Late, and Down. The transition from Late to Down triggers notifications, so brief slowdowns during a grace window don't create false alerts.

25+ notification channels

Built-in integrations include Slack, Discord, PagerDuty, Opsgenie, PagerTree, ntfy, Gotify, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Pushover, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Spike.sh, Splunk On-Call, Trello, Prometheus, email, SMS, and webhooks. Toggle channels per check from the dashboard without changing any job configuration.

Live-updating dashboard with event log

The web dashboard lists all checks with current status, last ping time, and integration indicators. Each check's detail page shows a time-ordered event log of received pings, state transitions, and sent notifications. Logs keep the 100 most recent pings per check by default; the administration panel can raise this limit per user.

Project and team management

Organize checks into projects, invite team members, and assign read-only or full access per member. WebAuthn 2FA is available for account security without a third-party service. The Django administration panel lets a superuser adjust per-user limits and manage accounts.

Public status badges

Each tag you use on checks generates a status badge with a public but hard-to-guess URL. A global badge shows the overall status of all checks in an account. Badges can be embedded in READMEs, internal dashboards, or status pages to give stakeholders a live health view.

strengths · trade-offs

Strengths and trade-offs#

Strengths

BSD-3-Clause license with no per-check feesSelf-hosting is free and unrestricted. BSD-3-Clause means you can run Healthchecks on your own infrastructure, modify it, and use it commercially without paying per-check or per-user fees. The hosted healthchecks.io service offers up to 20 checks free; the self-hosted path removes all limits.
Over a decade of continuous developmentHealthchecks has been actively developed since 2015 and has 10,498 GitHub stars and 1,042 forks. The last commit was 2026-11-04, confirming ongoing maintenance. The monitoring approach (HTTP pings, period/grace states, notifications) is stable and unchanged across major versions.
Environment-variable configuration for clean deploymentsAll settings are configurable via environment variables, with an optional local_settings.py for Django overrides. This makes Healthchecks straightforward to deploy in Docker or Kubernetes with no manual file editing. External authentication via reverse proxy headers lets you plug into an existing SSO setup without modifying the application.
WebAuthn 2FA and project-based access controlHealthchecks includes WebAuthn two-factor authentication without requiring a third-party service. Project-based organization lets teams isolate checks per product or environment, with per-member read-only access for stakeholders who need visibility without edit permissions.

Trade-offs

-Requires a persistent sendalerts background processIn production, Healthchecks requires the sendalerts management command to run continuously alongside the web process. Without it, checks will change state but no notifications will fire. This means the deployment needs a process manager (systemd or supervisor) to keep sendalerts running and restart it on failure, adding operational overhead beyond a single container.
-Monitors tasks but does not schedule or run themHealthchecks only checks whether jobs ran on time. It does not execute jobs, retry failed runs, or manage job queues. If you need a scheduler that also runs tasks, you need a separate tool (Celery Beat, systemd timers, or a job runner) alongside Healthchecks.
-55 open GitHub issuesAs of 2026-11-05, the project has 55 open GitHub issues. Reviewing the open issue list before deployment is a reasonable step to confirm whether any affect your intended notification channels or database backend.

versus alternatives

Healthchecks vs alternatives#

Healthchecks vs Cronitor

Both tools use the same core mechanism: your job sends an HTTP ping on each run, and an alert fires when the ping stops arriving on time. Cronitor is a commercial monitoring service.

Feature	Healthchecks	Cronitor
License	BSD-3-Clause	Proprietary
Self-hosting	Yes	No
Notification channels	25+	Managed service
Free tier	Up to 20 checks (hosted); unlimited (self-hosted)	Commercial plans

Healthchecks self-hosted removes per-check pricing and keeps monitoring data on your own infrastructure. It is the stronger choice for teams with privacy requirements, high check volumes, or a preference for running their own tooling. Cronitor is worth considering when you want a fully managed monitoring service without operating your own server.

Healthchecks vs Dead Man's Snitch

Dead Man's Snitch and Healthchecks both use the dead man's switch pattern: a unique check-in URL your job pings on success, with an alert when pings stop arriving. Dead Man's Snitch is a managed commercial service.

Feature	Healthchecks	Dead Man's Snitch
License	BSD-3-Clause	Proprietary
Self-hosting	Yes	No
Notification channels	25+	Managed service
Team management	Projects, members, read-only access	Commercial plan

Healthchecks delivers a wider set of notification channels, including Slack, Discord, PagerDuty, Signal, and more than 20 others, plus project-based team management with read-only roles for stakeholders. Dead Man's Snitch suits teams that prefer a fully managed service with no server operations.

install · quick start

Quick start#

bash

Self-hosting uses Docker with pre-built images from Docker Hub.
```bash
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 healthchecks/healthchecks
```

tech stack · detected from GitHub

What it's built on#

Languages: JavaScriptPython
Frameworks: Django

frequently asked

FAQ#

Can Healthchecks monitor processes and services, not just cron jobs?

Yes. Any process that can send an HTTP request on a schedule can be monitored. The website documents examples including checking whether a Docker container is running, monitoring application processes, checking database replication lag, verifying free disk and RAM, and sending unconditional heartbeats from servers, NAS devices, and routers. Write a shell script that tests the condition and pings the check URL on success, then run the script on a schedule.

What databases does Healthchecks support?

Healthchecks works with PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB. SQLite is used in the default development configuration, but a persistent production database is the documented production path. Configure the database connection through environment variables or the local_settings.py Django settings override file.

Is there a hosted version I can use without self-hosting?

Yes. Healthchecks.io is the hosted service run by the project maintainers. It offers a free tier covering up to 20 checks with no credit card required. Paid plans support more checks. The self-hosted version is freely available under the BSD-3-Clause license with no check limits and no per-check fees.

How does the grace period work?

The grace period extends the alert window beyond the check's normal period. When a ping is overdue, the check moves to 'Late' status; it stays in Late until the period plus the grace time has passed, at which point it moves to 'Down' and triggers notifications. Set the grace period to slightly above the expected maximum runtime of your job so a slow run doesn't fire a false alert.

Does Healthchecks support team access and multiple projects?

Yes. You can create multiple projects within one Healthchecks account, invite team members to each project, and assign read-only or full-access roles. The Django administration panel (available to superusers) lets you adjust per-account limits and manage users. WebAuthn two-factor authentication is supported for account security.

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Self-host Healthchecks on a Hostinger VPS

Keep it running 24/7, even when your laptop is off. A Hostinger VPS gives it a server of its own.

01
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Starts from $6.49/mo
02
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On a server that stays on
04
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Focus on the app, not the server

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Healthchecks vs Cronitor

Both tools use the same core mechanism: your job sends an HTTP ping on each run, and an alert fires when the ping stops arriving on time. Cronitor is a commercial monitoring service.

Feature	Healthchecks	Cronitor
License	BSD-3-Clause	Proprietary
Self-hosting	Yes	No
Notification channels	25+	Managed service
Free tier	Up to 20 checks (hosted); unlimited (self-hosted)	Commercial plans

Healthchecks vs Dead Man's Snitch

Feature	Healthchecks	Dead Man's Snitch
License	BSD-3-Clause	Proprietary
Self-hosting	Yes	No
Notification channels	25+	Managed service
Team management	Projects, members, read-only access	Commercial plan

Who Healthchecks is for#

Sysadmins monitoring server maintenance tasks

Skip if:

Development teams monitoring data pipelines and scheduled workers

Skip if:

Teams self-hosting infrastructure who want cron visibility without SaaS costs

Skip if:

IoT and embedded device health monitoring

Skip if:

The problem it solves#

How it solves it#

Ping URL check-in monitoring

Cron expression and period-based schedules

25+ notification channels

Live-updating dashboard with event log

Project and team management

Public status badges

Strengths and trade-offs#

Strengths

Trade-offs

Healthchecks vs alternatives#

Healthchecks vs Cronitor

Healthchecks vs Dead Man's Snitch

Quick start#

What it's built on#

FAQ#

Similar open-source tools#

Open source tools in these categories#

Security & Monitoring

DevOps & CI/CD

Developer Tools

Find open source alternatives to paid software

Who Healthchecks is for#

Sysadmins monitoring server maintenance tasks

Skip if:

Development teams monitoring data pipelines and scheduled workers

Skip if:

Teams self-hosting infrastructure who want cron visibility without SaaS costs

Skip if:

IoT and embedded device health monitoring

Skip if:

The problem it solves#

How it solves it#

Ping URL check-in monitoring

Cron expression and period-based schedules

25+ notification channels

Live-updating dashboard with event log

Project and team management

Public status badges

Strengths and trade-offs#

Strengths

Trade-offs

Healthchecks vs alternatives#

Healthchecks vs Cronitor

Healthchecks vs Dead Man's Snitch

Quick start#

What it's built on#

FAQ#

Similar open-source tools#

Open source tools in these categories#

Security & Monitoring

DevOps & CI/CD

Developer Tools

Find open source alternatives to paid software