TrigRun vs cron-job.org
Detailed comparison of TrigRun and cron-job.org for scheduled HTTP job execution. Features, pricing, reliability, and developer experience.
cron-job.org is a free, open-source cron service that has been running for over 15 years with 500K+ users. It is a solid choice for hobby projects. TrigRun is built for production workloads and AI agent integration with retry logic, encrypted secrets, and full execution observability.
At a glance
| Feature | TrigRun | cron-job.org |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free 500 exec/mo, Pro 50k exec/mo, Team 200k exec/mo | Free (donation-based, 5-20 EUR/mo optional) |
| Job limit | 5 (Free), 100 (Pro), 500 (Team) | Unlimited (fair use) |
| Min interval | 1 minute | 1 minute |
| Retry logic | Exponential backoff, configurable max attempts and status codes | None |
| Notifications | Webhook, Slack, Discord, Email | Email only |
| Secret management | AES-256-GCM encrypted vault with secret:// interpolation | None |
| Execution history | 1 day (Free), 30 days (Pro) | 2 days, last 50 executions only |
| Response body storage | 64 KB inline | 64 KB (Free), 256 KB (paid) |
| Execution timeout | 1-300 seconds, per-job | 30 seconds (Free), 5 minutes (paid) |
| API | REST with OpenAPI spec, idempotency keys | REST, 6 endpoints, 100 req/day (Free) |
| CLI | trigrun with JSON output | None |
| MCP / AI agent support | Native MCP server, llms.txt / llms-full.txt | None |
| Team collaboration | Workspaces with RBAC (Owner, Admin, Member) | Single-user only |
| Crontab import | Yes | No |
| Dynamic variables | {{timestamp}}, {{uuid}}, {{execution_id}} | %cjo:unixtime%, %cjo:uuid4% |
| SLA | 99.9% target | None ("no warranties of any form") |
| Open source | No | Yes (GPL-2.0) |
| SSRF protection | Private IP blocking, DNS validation | Not mentioned |
Where TrigRun wins
Automatic retries
When your target server returns a 500 or times out, TrigRun automatically retries with exponential backoff. cron-job.org has zero retry logic — if a job fails, it stays failed. After 25 consecutive failures, cron-job.org auto-disables the job entirely.
Encrypted secrets
TrigRun provides an AES-256-GCM encrypted vault. Reference secrets in job headers with secret://api-key syntax — they are resolved at execution time and never logged. cron-job.org has no secret management; any credentials must be embedded directly in headers or URLs.
Notifications beyond email
TrigRun sends failure alerts to Slack, Discord, email, and arbitrary webhooks with per-job rules. cron-job.org supports email notifications only.
Developer tooling
TrigRun ships an OpenAPI spec, a CLI (trigrun), API tokens with workspace scoping, idempotency keys, execution-scoped variables, response matching, and a native MCP server for AI agent integration. cron-job.org has a basic 6-endpoint API with no CLI, no SDK, no OpenAPI spec, and no AI agent support.
Team support
TrigRun has workspace-based multi-tenancy with role-based access control. cron-job.org is single-user only with no team collaboration.
Crontab import
TrigRun can bulk-import jobs from raw crontab files. cron-job.org has no import or export capability.
Where cron-job.org wins
Unlimited free jobs
cron-job.org does not cap the number of jobs on its free tier. TrigRun's free tier includes 5 jobs and 500 executions per month.
Open source
cron-job.org is GPL-2.0 licensed and self-hostable. The C++ execution daemon (chronos), PHP API, and React frontend are all on GitHub with 1,900+ stars.
Self-signed SSL support
cron-job.org accepts self-signed certificates on target URLs. TrigRun requires valid TLS certificates.
Variable substitution
cron-job.org supports %cjo:unixtime% and %cjo:uuid4% variables in URLs, headers, and request bodies. TrigRun supports execution-scoped variables too, including {{timestamp}}, {{uuid}}, and {{execution_id}}, plus response body matching and structured assertions.
Who should use what
Choose TrigRun if: You need production-grade reliability, automatic retries, encrypted secrets, team collaboration, or AI agent integration. You want a platform you can trust for business-critical scheduled jobs.
Choose cron-job.org if: You have a hobby project, want unlimited free jobs, prefer open-source software, or need to self-host your cron infrastructure.