Comparison
Crontap vs Vercel Cron
Vercel Cron is convenient if you already live on Vercel Pro and your schedules are simple. The wall most teams hit is sub-hour cadence on Hobby, the lack of per-schedule timezones, and the redeploy required for every cron change. Crontap removes all three.
At a glance
Vercel Cron vs Crontap, side by side.
| Dimension | Vercel Cron | Crontap |
|---|---|---|
| Cadence minimum, Hobby | 1 hour | 1 hour |
| Cadence minimum, Pro / Enterprise | 1 minute | 1 minute |
| Max cron jobs, Hobby | 5 | free tier available, unlimited paid |
| Per-schedule timezone | No (UTC only) | Yes (any IANA) |
| Change cadence | Redeploy vercel.json | Save in dashboard |
| Dashboard scope | Per-project | All projects + non-Vercel targets |
| Failure alerts | Minimal (Vercel logs) | email / webhook (Slack / Discord / Telegram) |
| Pricing | $20/mo per user | $0 free / $3.25/mo Pro |
How they work
The two approaches in one paragraph each.
Vercel Cron
Vercel Cron lives in your repo's vercel.json as a crons array. Each entry pairs a path (a route on your deployed app) with a schedule string. The Vercel platform fires that path on cadence after every deployment. Cadence changes require a redeploy of the project so the new vercel.json is read by the platform.
Crontap
Crontap is an external scheduler. You paste the URL of any HTTP endpoint, set the cadence (cron expression or plain English) and timezone, optionally add Authorization headers and a JSON payload. Crontap fires the endpoint on cadence; nothing about the schedule is bundled into your repo or your deploy.
Where each side wins
Honest broker, both columns.
Vercel Cron wins on
- One-click setup if your code already lives on Vercel.
- No new dashboard to learn.
- Tightly integrated with Vercel observability.
- If you already pay $20/mo per user, Vercel Cron is included.
Crontap wins on
- No deployment, no configuration
- Every 1 minute. Vercel can only do that with Pro.
- Per-schedule IANA timezones (UK customers fire at 5am Europe/London, US customers fire at 9am America/New_York, same account).
- Change cadence in the dashboard, no redeploy.
- Failure alerts to email or webhook (Slack, Discord, Telegram).
- One dashboard across multiple Vercel projects, plus non-Vercel targets like Cloud Run, Railway, or your own box.
The math
Cadence and pricing, worked out.
- Need every 5 minutes? Vercel Hobby cannot. Vercel Pro can, costs $20/month per user and ties cron to deployments. Crontap free runs every hour and Pro starts at $3.25/month annual for every 1 minute.
- Need 7 jobs? Vercel Hobby caps at 5. Add a job: upgrade to Pro at $20/month per user. Crontap has a free tier and Pro is unlimited at $3.25/month annual.
Moving from Vercel Cron
The migration, in 3 steps.
- Pick the API route currently driven by your vercel.json crons entry.
- Add Authorization-header verification on that route so it refuses unauthenticated calls.
- Create a Crontap schedule pointing at https://yourdomain/api/your-route with the header set. Delete the vercel.json cron entry on next deploy.
Decision
Which one fits.
Pick Vercel Cron if
You're on Vercel Pro, one UTC schedule is enough, and you don't mind a redeploy to change cadence.
Pick Crontap if
You need per-schedule timezones, more than 5 cron jobs, a dashboard across projects, or sub-hour cadence without paying $20/mo per user for Vercel Pro.
Pair both if
Keep your daily Vercel Cron build refresh and add Crontap for schedules that need per-IANA timezones or live across non-Vercel targets.
FAQ
Crontap vs Vercel Cron, in detail.
- Can Crontap call my Vercel function?
- Yes. Paste the deployment URL into Crontap and set an Authorization header on the schedule. Your route verifies the header and runs as normal.
- Will Vercel Cron and Crontap conflict?
- No. They run independently. Many teams pair them: keep Vercel Cron for tightly-coupled-to-deploy schedules and add Crontap for per-IANA timezone schedules or schedules that span multiple Vercel projects.
- How is this different from cron-jobs-for-vercel?
- That is a use-case-first guide for Vercel users wiring up cron. This is a head-to-head decision page comparing Crontap and Vercel Cron directly.
- What about timezone-aware Vercel Cron?
- Vercel Cron is UTC-only as of 2026 docs. Crontap supports any IANA timezone per schedule, set independently for each schedule on the same account.
Sources
Ready to fix it?
Point Crontap at any URL. Pick any cron. Done.
WordPress, Shopify, Railway, Cloud Run, Vercel, HubSpot, Ghost, your own box. If it answers HTTP, Crontap can drive it on a clock you can read, in the timezone that actually matters, and page you when something breaks.
Free forever tier ・ No credit card required
/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron=1
Schedule
"every 5 minutes"
Next
in 23s