Jobber 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 | Jobber | Supercronic |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ★ 2,651 |
| First released | 2015 | 2017 |
| Replaces | cron | cron |
What are Jobber and Supercronic?
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
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
Jobber vs Supercronic: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Supercronic is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 64 MB for Jobber. Jobber is the more established project (first released 2015), while Supercronic arrived in 2017. Supercronic 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
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 Jobber or Supercronic better?
Neither is universally better. Supercronic has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Jobber and Supercronic free and open-source?
Yes. Jobber is licensed under MIT and Supercronic under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Jobber and Supercronic with Docker?
Jobber: check the project docs for container support. Supercronic: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Jobber or Supercronic?
Supercronic 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.