Ofelia 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 | Ofelia | Yacron |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 54 · Fair |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,996 | ★ 474 |
| First released | 2016 | 2017 |
| Replaces | cron | cron |
What are Ofelia and Yacron?
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
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
Ofelia vs Yacron: key differences
Ofelia is written in Go, while Yacron is built with Python. Ofelia is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 64 MB for Yacron. Ofelia has the considerably larger community, at 3,996 GitHub stars versus 474.
Why pick each one
Choose Yacron if…
- Clear configuration
- Good alerting
Watch out for
- No web interface
- Single-host scope
Frequently asked questions
Is Ofelia or Yacron 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 Ofelia and Yacron free and open-source?
Yes. Ofelia is licensed under MIT and Yacron under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ofelia and Yacron with Docker?
Ofelia: yes. Yacron: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Ofelia or Yacron?
Ofelia has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 64 MB for Yacron. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.