Reliable and simple Cron job monitoring.

A cron job is a scheduled task that runs automatically at a specific time or interval on a server. Teams often use cron jobs for database backups, SSL certificate renewals, report generation, log cleanup, and syncing data between systems.

The term comes from the Unix-based cron scheduler, while Windows uses a similar system called Task Scheduler. In both cases, the goal is to automate recurring tasks without manual input.

Monitor any scheduled task your users, application, or infrastructure depends on. That can include database backups, report generation, data syncs, SSL certificate renewals, email sending jobs, cache rebuilds, and cleanup scripts.

If a task failing for a day would create a real problem, it's probably worth monitoring.

Most monitor types work by having UptimeRobot send requests to your service and check the response. Cron job monitoring works in reverse. Your scheduled task sends a request to UptimeRobot, and an alert is triggered if the request stops arriving.

It's useful for monitoring background workers, scheduled scripts, data syncs, and other processes that don't have a public page or endpoint to check.

Website, ping, port, and keyword monitoring can confirm whether a service is reachable. Cron job monitoring confirms whether a task actually ran.

Yes, cron job monitoring works well for intranet devices and private network systems because the device sends requests outward to UptimeRobot instead of receiving incoming checks.

As long as the device can make outbound HTTP requests, it can send heartbeats to UptimeRobot even if it's behind a firewall or doesn't have a public IP address.

Teams often use this setup for office servers, internal tools, Raspberry Pi projects, and other private infrastructure. You can see a real-world example in our Stratosphere Laboratory case study.

UptimeRobot accepts both GET and POST requests to the heartbeat URL. Most teams send the request at the end of a cron job using tools like curl, wget, PowerShell, or an HTTP request from their application code.

Heartbeats can also be sent from CI/CD pipelines, serverless functions, and scheduled jobs running in languages like Node.js, Python, PHP, or Ruby.

You can find setup examples for crontab and Windows Task Scheduler in the heartbeat monitoring help guide.

UptimeRobot supports heartbeat intervals from 1 minute up to 31 days. That makes it suitable for everything from frequent background jobs to monthly tasks like billing exports, backups, or scheduled reports.

If the expected heartbeat doesn't arrive within the interval and grace period you configured, UptimeRobot sends an alert.

Create a cron job monitor in UptimeRobot, set how often the heartbeat should arrive, and copy the unique monitoring URL generated for the monitor.

Then add a GET or POST request to that URL at the end of your cron job or scheduled task. If the heartbeat stops arriving on time, UptimeRobot sends an alert.