More features, lower price, same dead man's switch simplicity
Dead Man's Snitch is a straightforward cron monitoring service that uses the dead man's switch pattern. You create a snitch, add a ping URL to your cron job, and get alerted if the ping stops. It is simple by design but limited in features.
| Feature | CronPing | Dead Man's Snitch |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 3 monitors included | No free tier |
| Pricing model | Flat: $7/month for 20 monitors | Per-snitch: ~$5/month each |
| Cost for 10 monitors | $7/month | ~$50/month |
| Cost for 20 monitors | $7/month | ~$100/month |
| Public status pages | Included on all plans | Not available |
| SVG status badges | Included on all plans | Not available |
| REST API | Full CRUD API | Limited API |
| Webhook alerts | All plans | Available |
| Cron expression tools | Builder + reference library | Not available |
| Alert channels | Email + webhook | Email, Slack, PagerDuty |
CronPing is the better value for anyone monitoring more than 1-2 jobs. At $7/month for 20 monitors (vs $5/month per snitch), the cost savings are significant. Plus you get status pages, badges, and a full API that Dead Man's Snitch does not offer.
Dead Man's Snitch works if you only need to monitor 1-2 cron jobs and value extreme simplicity. Their PagerDuty integration is native, which matters for teams already deep in the PagerDuty ecosystem.
Add a single curl command to your crontab and get alerted when jobs fail. No credit card, no complex setup.
Start Monitoring — Free