Jobber vs Ofelia
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Jobber | Ofelia |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,415 | ★ 3,996 |
| First released | 2015 | 2016 |
| Replaces | cron | cron |
What are Jobber and Ofelia?
Jobber
Jobber is an open-source replacement for cron written in Go, adding job execution history, automatic retries, and error notifications. It is self-hosted to run scheduled tasks more reliably.
- Cron with retries
- Job execution history
- Error notifications
- Lightweight
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
Jobber vs Ofelia: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Ofelia is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 64 MB for Jobber. Ofelia has the considerably larger community, at 3,996 GitHub stars versus 1,415. Ofelia lists first-class Docker deployment; Jobber does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Jobber if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Jobber 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 Jobber and Ofelia free and open-source?
Yes. Jobber is licensed under MIT and Ofelia under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Jobber and Ofelia with Docker?
Jobber: check the project docs for container support. Ofelia: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Jobber or Ofelia?
Ofelia has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 64 MB for Jobber. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.