SHSelfHostIndex

go-crond vs Ofelia

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
GO go-crond Lightweight cron daemon for containers and minimal systems VS OF Ofelia A docker-friendly job scheduler written in Go
Featurego-crondOfelia
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score5 · At risk86 · Excellent
CategoryAutomation & WorkflowsAutomation & Workflows
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM32 MB32 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 143★ 3,996
First released20172016
Replacescroncron

What are go-crond and Ofelia?

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

Ofelia

Ofelia is a modern, lightweight job scheduler for Docker environments, intended as a replacement for cron. It can run jobs inside containers, in new containers or on the host on a schedule.

  • Cron replacement for Docker
  • Run jobs in existing or new containers
  • Configuration via labels or INI
  • Slack and email notifications

Read the full Ofelia guide →

go-crond vs Ofelia: key differences

Both projects are written in Go. Ofelia has the considerably larger community, at 3,996 GitHub stars versus 143.

Why pick each one

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
go-crond details

Choose Ofelia if…

  • Very lightweight
  • Docker-native scheduling

Watch out for

  • No web UI
Ofelia details

Frequently asked questions

Is go-crond or Ofelia better?

Neither is universally better. Ofelia has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are go-crond and Ofelia free and open-source?

Yes. go-crond is licensed under MIT and Ofelia under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run go-crond and Ofelia with Docker?

go-crond: yes. Ofelia: yes.

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