Gocron vs go-crond
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Gocron | go-crond |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 22 · At risk | 5 · At risk |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,264 | ★ 143 |
| First released | 2017 | 2017 |
| Replaces | cron, Rundeck | cron |
What are Gocron and go-crond?
Gocron
Gocron is an open-source, lightweight task scheduling system with a web interface for managing shell and HTTP jobs across hosts. It is self-hosted to schedule, run, and monitor recurring tasks.
- Web-based job management
- Shell and HTTP tasks
- Distributed task nodes
- Execution logs and alerts
go-crond
go-crond is a small cron daemon written in Go that runs scheduled jobs from crontab-style files, designed for use inside containers and minimal environments. It is self-hosted as a single binary.
- Container-friendly cron
- Single static binary
- Crontab-compatible
- Run jobs as users
Gocron vs go-crond: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Go-crond is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Gocron. Gocron has the considerably larger community, at 6,264 GitHub stars versus 143.
Why pick each one
Choose Gocron if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 6.3k GitHub stars
Choose go-crond if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Gocron or go-crond better?
Neither is universally better. Gocron has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Gocron and go-crond free and open-source?
Yes. Gocron is licensed under MIT and go-crond under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gocron and go-crond with Docker?
Gocron: yes. go-crond: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Gocron or go-crond?
go-crond has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Gocron. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.