Gocron 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 | Gocron | Yacron |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 22 · At risk | 54 · Fair |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,264 | ★ 474 |
| First released | 2017 | 2017 |
| Replaces | cron, Rundeck | cron |
What are Gocron and Yacron?
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
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
Gocron vs Yacron: key differences
Gocron is written in Go, while Yacron is built with Python. Yacron is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Gocron. Gocron has the considerably larger community, at 6,264 GitHub stars versus 474.
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 Yacron if…
- Clear configuration
- Good alerting
Watch out for
- No web interface
- Single-host scope
Frequently asked questions
Is Gocron or Yacron 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 Yacron free and open-source?
Yes. Gocron is licensed under MIT and Yacron under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gocron and Yacron with Docker?
Gocron: yes. Yacron: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Gocron or Yacron?
Yacron has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Gocron. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.