CronPupA Healthchecks.io alternative: when CronPup fits, and when it doesn't
Healthchecks.io is a mature, well-run heartbeat monitor with a generous free tier and an open-source codebase. If it's working for you, there's no strong reason to switch. CronPup is a newer, smaller service. Here is the honest difference, using list prices from both sites on 5 November 2026.
| Healthchecks.io | CronPup | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 20 checks | 10 monitors |
| ~50 monitors | $20/mo (Business, up to 100) | $12/mo (Starter, up to 100) |
| 51–100 monitors | $20/mo | $12/mo (Starter) |
| ~300 monitors | $80/mo (Business Plus, up to 1,000) | $29/mo (Team, 300) |
| TLS certificate expiry | no | yes, in the same quota |
| SMS / phone alerts | yes (credits) | no |
| Self-hosting | yes (open source) | no |
Stay with Healthchecks.io if
- you need more than 10 free checks, SMS/phone alerts, or one of its many integrations;
- you want to self-host, or prefer a long track record.
CronPup may fit better if
- you have 21–300 jobs and want a lower flat price;
- you also want TLS expiry checks in the same dashboard;
- you like a one-command setup for an existing crontab (cronpup-sync) and ntfy push alerts.
Both use the same pattern (a URL per job, with /start, /fail and exit-code signals), so moving
in either direction is mostly a find-and-replace of ping URLs. To move to CronPup, the importer copies your checks and writes the URL mapping for you. See the full comparison.