JustRun vs Cronitor
Cronitor monitors. JustRun runs and monitors.
Cronitor is a mature monitoring platform popular with Laravel developers. It handles heartbeats and alerting well. JustRun both executes and monitors cron jobs, adding AI diagnostics, escalation policies, job chains, and an MCP server for AI agents.
9
JustRun wins
1
Cronitor wins
| Feature | JustRun | Cronitor |
|---|---|---|
| Job Execution | ✓Full HTTP execution on schedule | Monitoring only (heartbeats + HTTP checks) |
| AI Failure Diagnosis | ✓AI explains failures, in alert notifications | Not available |
| Alert Channels | Slack, Discord, Email, Webhook, PagerDuty | Slack, email, PagerDuty, Opsgenie, webhook |
| Alert Rules | ✓5 types: failure, consecutive failures, slow response, low uptime, body change | On failure, missed check-in, slow response |
| Escalation Policies | ✓Multi-phase, AI Wizard, 3-tier inheritance (global → space → job) | On-call schedules (basic) |
| Job Chains | ✓on_success, on_failure, on_status_code, on_body_contains | Not available |
| Dead Letter Queue | ✓Permanently failed jobs with Retry/Dismiss | Not available |
| Heartbeat Monitoring | Via ping-style jobs | ✓Core feature, excellent Laravel integration |
| Spaces | ✓Group jobs into projects, per-space policies | Environments (basic grouping) |
| Teams | Owner/admin/member roles, shared visibility | Team seats |
| MCP Server | ✓mcp.justrun.sh for Claude and AI agents | Not available |
| CLI | ✓npx @justrun/cli | Cronitor CLI (monitoring only) |
Pricing
Based on publicly-listed competitor pricing at time of writing. Check the vendor's website for current pricing.
JustRun
Free: 10 jobs. Hobby: $3/mo (25 jobs). Maker: $7/mo (100 jobs). Pro: $19/mo (1,000 jobs). Scale: $49/mo.
Cronitor
Free: 5 monitors. Developer: $29/mo (20 monitors). Startup: $79/mo (100 monitors). Business: $299/mo.
Switching is easy
Export your Cronitor monitors via their API (GET /v3/monitors). Map each monitor's schedule and URL to a JustRun job. The JSON importer handles bulk creation.
The verdict
Cronitor is excellent for heartbeat monitoring in Laravel apps. JustRun adds execution, AI diagnostics, escalation policies, and job chains at a significantly lower price point.
Try JustRun FreeNo credit card required. 10 free jobs forever.