Gocron 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 | Gocron | Supercronic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 22 · At risk | 86 · Excellent |
| 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 | ★ 2,651 |
| First released | 2017 | 2017 |
| Replaces | cron, Rundeck | cron |
What are Gocron and Supercronic?
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
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
Gocron vs Supercronic: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Supercronic 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 2,651.
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 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 Gocron or Supercronic 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 Supercronic free and open-source?
Yes. Gocron is licensed under MIT and Supercronic under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gocron and Supercronic with Docker?
Gocron: yes. Supercronic: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Gocron or Supercronic?
Supercronic 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.