Free Cron Job and Background Job Services
Which cron and background job services a startup can schedule tasks and run jobs with for free today, how many runs or executions the free plan allows, whether a card is needed and what the first paid plan costs, read from each provider's own page.
Free allowances read on each provider's own pages, all checked on or after . Job services change their free plans from time to time: confirm the terms on the provider's page before you rely on it.
Cron and background job services a startup can use for free today include cron-job.org (Entirely free of charge), Windmill (Free and open source, self-hosted), Inngest (50k executions a month, free), BullMQ (MIT licensed, no worker limits), and Hatchet (1M runs and 1M events a month). Each of the 10 free plans below links to the provider's page that states it, with its main limit, its run or execution caps, whether a card is needed and what the first paid plan costs.
Sending a daily digest, syncing data every hour or retrying a failed payment all need something to run a job on a schedule or in the background. Hosted cron services call your URL on a schedule, background job platforms run durable workflows, and open-source job queues run free on your own servers.
The headline rarely tells you how far it goes. Free plans cap runs or executions a month, set a minimum interval between runs, or limit concurrency and history, and some free allowances are credits that expire. Each service below shows what is free, its main limit, its run or execution caps, whether a card is needed and what the first paid plan costs, quoted from the provider's own page with the date we read it.
Which services we picked and the order they appear in are our editorial choices; the terms are the providers'. Some of these providers pay us a referral commission when someone signs up through our link: those links are labeled, and they play no part in which services are listed or where.
Cron and background job services with a free plan
Schedule URLs and run background jobs on a hosted service, free to start.
- 1
cron-job.org
Calling a URL or script on a schedule, for nothing
cron-job.org is entirely free of charge, and each job can run up to 60 times an hour, once a minute.
Start free at cron-job.orgTerms read on cron-job.org on cron-job.org: the free allowance and how to start - 2
Inngest
Multi-step background jobs with a free monthly quota
Inngest's free plan includes 50k executions a month and 5 concurrent steps, and no credit card is required. Its first paid plan starts at $99 a month.
- Main limit
- 5 concurrent steps (source: inngest.com)
- Runs and executions
- 50k executions a month (source: inngest.com)
- Payment card
- No card needed (source: inngest.com)
- First paid plan
- Pro: from $99 a month (source: inngest.com)
- 3
Hatchet
Background tasks and cron jobs with a monthly free tier
Hatchet gives 1M runs and 1M events free every month, and its hero says no card is needed. Its pricing table caps accounts without a card at 2,000 task runs a day.
- Runs and executions
- 1M runs a month (source: hatchet.run)
- Payment card
- No card needed to start (source: hatchet.run)
- First paid plan
- Then $30 per million runs (source: hatchet.run)
- 4
Trigger.dev
Scheduled and background tasks with monthly credits
Trigger.dev includes $5 of compute credits every month and 20 concurrent runs, with no credit card required. Its Hobby plan is $10 a month.
- Main limit
- 20 concurrent runs (source: trigger.dev)
- Payment card
- No card needed (source: trigger.dev)
- First paid plan
- Hobby: $10 a month (source: trigger.dev)
Start free at Trigger.devTerms read on trigger.dev on Trigger.dev: the free allowance and how to start - 5
FastCron
Up to 15 scheduled HTTP jobs at no cost
FastCron's Free plan is $0 a month for 15 cron jobs with a 5 minute interval, and no credit card is required. Its Starter plan is $6 a month.
- What's free
- Free plan, $0 a month (source: fastcron.com)
- Payment card
- No credit card required (source: fastcron.com)
- First paid plan
- Starter: $6 a month (source: fastcron.com)
- 6
EasyCron
A few scheduled jobs that run a few times a day
EasyCron's Free plan allows 200 executions a day across all your jobs, with a 20 minute minimum interval. Its first paid plan, Individual-1, is $24 a year.
- Runs and executions
- 200 executions a day (source: easycron.com)
- First paid plan
- Individual-1: $24 a year (source: easycron.com)
- 7
Temporal
Durable workflows, tried on $150 of credits
Temporal Cloud gives every new account $150 in free credits for 90 days. A credit card is required to sign up, and pay-as-you-go starts at $50 per million actions.
- Payment card
- Card required to sign up (source: temporal.io)
Start free at TemporalTerms read on temporal.io on Temporal: the free allowance and how to start Temporal Cloud for Startups: what startups get
Open-source job runners you can self-host
Run scheduled and background jobs on your own servers, free.
- 1
Windmill
Teams that want unlimited runs on their own servers
Windmill's Free and Open-source tier has unlimited executions and can be self-hosted in minutes, with up to 10 users on SSO. Its Enterprise plan starts at $120 a month.
- First paid plan
- Enterprise from $120 a month (source: windmill.dev)
- 2
BullMQ
Node.js teams that already run Redis
BullMQ is MIT licensed, without any artificial limitations on the number of workers or concurrency. It works with Redis, Valkey and other Redis-compatible servers.
- 3
Celery
Python teams with a message broker to run
Celery is open source under the BSD License. It needs a message broker, and the RabbitMQ and Redis broker transports are feature complete.
Developer startup programs
Programs from developer tool companies that give startups credits or discounts on paid plans.
Also useful for founders
Referral links, picked for fit and ordered by fit (70%) and what a signup earns us (30%), at no cost to you. They never change this page's ranking.
Compare the top options
How this comparison is built
The list covers cron and background job services a founder can use for free today without applying to a program. The order and the "best for" notes are our editorial reading of each service's terms. Every term comes from the service's own pricing or help page on the date shown, never from a third-party list; follow each link for the full conditions. A cap on runs, jobs or executions a month, a minimum interval between runs, retention of job history can matter more than the headline, so the comparison quotes them wherever the provider states them. Some of these services pay StartupPerks a referral commission, and their links are labeled as referral links; that decides neither whether nor where a service appears, and no service pays for a placement on this page.
Read the full methodologyCommon questions
What is the best free cron job service?
It depends on what you run. By the terms each provider states, cron-job.org is entirely free with up to 60 runs an hour per job, EasyCron's free plan allows 200 executions a day, and FastCron's 15 cron jobs at a 5-minute interval.
Is Inngest free?
Inngest's free plan includes 50k executions a month with 5 concurrent steps; its Pro plan starts from $99 a month.
Is Trigger.dev free?
Trigger.dev's free plan gives $5 of compute credits a month with 20 concurrent runs; its Hobby plan is $10 a month.
Is there a free open-source background job queue?
Yes. BullMQ is MIT licensed with no worker limits and needs a Redis-compatible server, Celery is open source under the BSD license, and Windmill is free and open source to self-host.
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