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SecuryBlack vs Healthchecks.io: Which to Use to Monitor Your Cronjobs

·7 min read
SecuryBlack vs Healthchecks.io: Which to Use to Monitor Your Cronjobs

If you're looking for a tool to monitor that your cronjobs and backups run correctly, sooner or later you arrive at two options: Healthchecks.io and SecuryBlack. Both solve the same central problem — knowing if a periodic script ran or failed — but with different approaches.

The quick answer: Healthchecks.io if you only need pure heartbeat monitoring and want a specialized tool with years of track record. SecuryBlack if you also need uptime monitoring and breach monitoring, or if you want everything in a dashboard without paying yet.

Comparison table

| | Healthchecks.io | SecuryBlack | |---|---|---| | Type | SaaS + self-hosted | SaaS | | Base price | Free (20 checks) | Free (3 heartbeats, beta) | | Heartbeats / cron monitoring | ✓ | ✓ | | Uptime monitoring | ✗ | ✓ | | Breach monitoring | ✗ | ✓ | | Server metrics | ✗ | ✓ (OxiPulse) | | Self-hosted | ✓ (open source) | ✗ | | Configurable grace period | ✓ | ✓ | | Notifications | Email, Slack, Telegram, PagerDuty, +50 more | Email | | Execution history | ✓ | ✓ | | Ping API | ✓ | ✓ | | Interface language | English | Spanish | | Open source | ✓ | Partial (OxiPulse) |

Healthchecks.io

Healthchecks.io has been around since 2015 and is the reference tool for monitoring cronjobs and backups through heartbeats. The concept is simple: your script makes an HTTP ping at the end of its execution, and if that ping doesn't arrive within the configured time, you receive an alert.

Its free plan includes 20 checks, 3 months of log history, and a generous number of integrations. If you need more, the paid plans are reasonable (from $20/month).

What distinguishes Healthchecks.io is the depth of its heartbeat implementation: you can configure start and end execution signals to measure exact duration, webhooks for custom integrations, and alert filtering by schedule (to avoid false positives during maintenance windows).

Strengths:

  • Total specialization in heartbeat monitoring — 10 years refining exactly this
  • More than 50 notification integrations (Slack, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, Discord, Telegram...)
  • Self-hosted open source version if you don't want to depend on an external SaaS
  • Free plan with 20 checks — sufficient for medium projects
  • Simple and well-documented API

Limitations:

  • Only heartbeats: it doesn't monitor if your website is down nor if your emails appear in leaks
  • Interface in English
  • If you need correlated context (backup failed because the server was down), you have to use another tool

For whom: Teams that need robust and specialized heartbeat monitoring, with many integrations, or who want a self-hosted solution. Also the most solid option if you already have uptime monitoring with another tool and only need to cover cronjobs.

SecuryBlack

SecuryBlack Heartbeats starts from the same principle: a curl at the end of your script confirms that everything went well. If the signal doesn't arrive, immediate alert by email.

The difference is in the context. SecuryBlack is not a pure heartbeat tool: it's a security and infrastructure dashboard where heartbeats coexist with uptime monitoring and data breach monitoring. When your backup doesn't arrive, you can see in the same panel if the server that makes the backup is also down, or if that alert is independent of your services' status.

Strengths:

  • Heartbeats + uptime + breaches in a single dashboard — context is the differentiating value
  • Free during the beta, no credit card
  • Interface in Spanish
  • Configurable grace period per heartbeat
  • No installation or maintenance

Limitations:

  • Fewer notification channels (email; Telegram on the roadmap)
  • Free plan limited to 3 heartbeats
  • Younger product than Healthchecks.io

For whom: Developers and small businesses that want complete visibility over their infrastructure and security from one place. If you already use Healthchecks.io and are happy, there's no reason to change. But if you're building your monitoring stack from scratch, SecuryBlack eliminates the need for three different tools.

In-depth comparison

The problem they solve

Both tools solve the silent backup: you set up a cronjob that makes a backup every night, everything seems to work, and you find out it's been failing for weeks when you try to restore.

The solution in both cases is the same: add an HTTP call at the end of the script.

Healthchecks.io:

# At the end of your backup script
curl -fsS https://hc-ping.com/YOUR-UUID > /dev/null

SecuryBlack:

# At the end of your backup script
curl -fsS https://securyblack.com/api/heartbeat/YOUR_ID > /dev/null

The integration is practically identical. The difference is in what happens after it fails.

Notifications and integrations

Healthchecks.io wins clearly on this point. If your team uses Slack, PagerDuty, or has on-call, Healthchecks.io has the integrations. SecuryBlack currently only sends alerts by email.

If multi-channel notifications are critical for you, Healthchecks.io is the best option.

Correlated context

Here SecuryBlack has a structural advantage. When you receive a failed heartbeat alert in Healthchecks.io, you have to open another tool to see if the server is also down. With SecuryBlack, the dashboard shows the status of heartbeats, uptime monitors, and breaches together — which at 3 in the morning is worth a lot.

Real price

Healthchecks.io is free up to 20 checks. If you need more or want premium integrations, paid plans start at $20/month.

SecuryBlack is completely free during the beta. When it comes out of beta, the Hobby plan will remain free with basic heartbeats, and the Pro plan ($12/month) will include unlimited heartbeats along with uptime monitoring, error detection logs, and auto-hardening firewall.

When to choose each one?

Choose Healthchecks.io if:

  • You only need heartbeat monitoring and have another tool for uptime
  • You need more heartbeats than the free plan includes
  • Your team uses Slack, PagerDuty, or other alert integrations
  • You want a self-hosted open source option
  • You already have a monitoring stack and are only adding the cronjobs piece

Choose SecuryBlack if:

  • You want heartbeats + uptime + breaches without managing separate tools
  • You're building your monitoring stack from scratch
  • You value the interface in Spanish
  • You want to start for free without committing to any paid tool yet
  • 3 heartbeats is enough to get started

Conclusion

Healthchecks.io and SecuryBlack are not mutually exclusive. If you already have Healthchecks.io running and it covers your needs, you can use SecuryBlack for uptime and breaches without touching your current heartbeats.

If you're starting from scratch, SecuryBlack gives you the three pillars of basic monitoring in one place, for free. When you grow and need more heartbeats or advanced integrations, Healthchecks.io will still be a solid option.

Try SecuryBlack Heartbeats for free — no card, no installation, in 5 minutes you have the first heartbeat configured.

Also want to monitor if your services are down? Read the comparison Uptime Robot vs Uptime Kuma vs SecuryBlack.