Chadburn vs Yacron
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Chadburn | Yacron |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 57 · Fair | 54 · Fair |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 78 | ★ 474 |
| First released | 2021 | 2017 |
| Replaces | cron | cron |
What are Chadburn and Yacron?
Chadburn
Chadburn is a job scheduler inspired by Ofelia that runs scheduled tasks defined as Docker labels or in an INI file, designed for container environments. It is self-hosted as a single lightweight binary.
- Docker-label job scheduling
- INI file config
- Container-native
- Lightweight binary
Yacron
Yacron is a modern replacement for the cron daemon configured entirely in YAML, with built-in reporting to email, Slack, and other channels when jobs fail. It handles overlapping runs and timezones gracefully.
- YAML job configuration
- Failure reporting channels
- Overlap protection
- Timezone aware
Chadburn vs Yacron: key differences
Chadburn is written in Go, while Yacron is built with Python. Chadburn is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 64 MB for Yacron. Yacron is the more established project (first released 2017), while Chadburn arrived in 2021. Yacron has the considerably larger community, at 474 GitHub stars versus 78.
Why pick each one
Choose Chadburn if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Choose Yacron if…
- Clear configuration
- Good alerting
Watch out for
- No web interface
- Single-host scope
Frequently asked questions
Is Chadburn or Yacron better?
Neither is universally better. Yacron has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Chadburn and Yacron free and open-source?
Yes. Chadburn is licensed under MIT and Yacron under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Chadburn and Yacron with Docker?
Chadburn: yes. Yacron: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Chadburn or Yacron?
Chadburn has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 64 MB for Yacron. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.