Crontab UI vs Supercronic
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Crontab UI | Supercronic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,287 | ★ 2,651 |
| First released | 2016 | 2017 |
| Replaces | cron | cron |
What are Crontab UI and Supercronic?
Crontab UI
Crontab UI is a web application that makes managing the system crontab safe and easy, offering job editing, logging, backups, and import or export. It removes the risk of hand-editing crontab files.
- Visual crontab editing
- Job execution logs
- Backup and restore
- Import and export jobs
Supercronic
Supercronic is an open-source cron job runner that is crontab compatible and designed specifically to run inside containers. It is self-hosted to schedule periodic tasks with proper logging and signal handling.
- Crontab compatible
- Container friendly
- Proper logging
- Lightweight single binary
Crontab UI vs Supercronic: key differences
Crontab UI is written in JavaScript, while Supercronic is built with Go. Supercronic is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Crontab UI.
Why pick each one
Choose Crontab UI if…
- Safer than editing crontab
- Simple interface
Watch out for
- Single-host scope
- Basic scheduling only
Choose Supercronic if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.7k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Crontab UI or Supercronic better?
Neither is universally better. Crontab UI has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Crontab UI and Supercronic free and open-source?
Yes. Crontab UI is licensed under MIT and Supercronic under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Crontab UI and Supercronic with Docker?
Crontab UI: yes. Supercronic: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Crontab UI or Supercronic?
Supercronic has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Crontab UI. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.