Cronjob.de – Reliable Cron

Description

WP-Cron only runs when someone visits your site. On quiet sites, at night or behind a page cache, scheduled posts are published late, WooCommerce and backup tasks pile up, and nobody notices. On busy sites the opposite happens: every page view checks for due tasks and adds load.

The usual fix is to switch off WP-Cron in wp-config.php and call wp-cron.php from a real cron job. Many shared hosting plans have no cron, and if the external call ever stops, WP-Cron stays switched off without anyone noticing.

This plugin does it safely:

• Set up in two minutes. The plugin shows your wp-cron.php address and opens a pre-filled cron job at Cronjob.de – you only click “save”. Five cron jobs are free, without time limit.
• Switches off the visitor trigger only while it is safe. Page views stop triggering WP-Cron as soon as external calls arrive. If they stop, WordPress goes back to the visitor trigger by itself. No editing of wp-config.php.
• Works with any external trigger. Calls from a server crontab or another service are detected as well.
• Shows the status. Last WP-Cron run, last external call and the number of overdue tasks, under Tools → Cronjob.de.
• Optional heartbeat. Every WP-Cron run checks in at a heartbeat address. If the check-ins stop – for whatever reason – Cronjob.de alerts you by email (included from the Plus plan, 17.88 € per year).

Cronjob.de is a cron service from Germany, running since 2003, with servers in the EU only. A data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR is available.

External services

This plugin works with the service Cronjob.de, operated by Joscha Schultze, Germany.

• Links to cronjob.de. The buttons “Create cron job at Cronjob.de”, “Sign up for free” and “Create a heartbeat” open cronjob.de in a new tab. The cron job link contains the address of your site’s wp-cron.php so that the form can be pre-filled. Nothing is transmitted unless you click one of these buttons.
• Heartbeat check-ins (optional, off by default). Only if you enter a heartbeat address, the plugin sends a GET request to that address at runcheck.de (a Cronjob.de domain) after WP-Cron runs, at most every 5 minutes. The request contains no data about your site or your visitors apart from what every HTTP request carries (IP address of your server, user agent “Cronjob.de WordPress plugin”).
• Calls to wp-cron.php. If you set up a cron job, Cronjob.de calls your site’s wp-cron.php on the schedule you choose.

Terms of service: https://www.cronjob.de/agb
Privacy policy: https://www.cronjob.de/datenschutz