FastCron runs cronjobs at the scheduled times by default, regardless of ongoing executions. If a cronjob takes more time to run than its interval, it leads to overlapping executions.

Before, you could prevent cronjob executions from overlapping by enabling the Single instance feature.

Now, you can allow up to 5 overlapping executions by adjusting the Max instances:

The table below shows running executions when you allow up to 3 overlaps:

• When there are 3 running executions, new executions are skipped.
• When one execution is complete, another execution starts running.
• When you remove a running execution (visit the Running tab, delete a running execution), another execution starts running.

Please note that removing a running execution just deletes it from our database. The execution will continue to run until it's complete or timed out.

API function cron_add and cron_edit update: single is deprecated, please use instances instead.

Hi, here are some changes in this November:

Changes

• The Gold plan has been discontinued. Please upgrade your account before its expiry date.
• Recurring cronjob limit has been added to the Platinum and Diamond accounts. No action is required.
• The free account is now free forever. No action is required.
• You can now choose multiple servers to execute your cronjobs from. If you choose Any server, it'll be executed from any server.

Improvements

• The API rate limit has been removed. It's advised to send up to 5 API requests per second.
• The timezone select box is now searchable.
• Password field now can be toggled (show/hide password).
• After adding a new cronjob/group, scroll to the newly created item.
• Add links to upgrade your account to enable premium features (custom HTTP headers and user agent string, single instance, retry failures, output pattern matches).
• You can now prepay to renew your account for multiple years.
• You can now apply account settings (timezone, server list) and apply to all existing cronjobs.

Fixes

• Stop sending emails on payment of $0.00

The server cache stores the script output and sends it back to users. It'll make your website faster. But, it also stops FastCron from running your cronjobs.

To bypass the server cache, you can add the __random__ keyword to your cronjob URL like this https://example.com/cron.php?__random__
or
https://example.com/cron.php?name=value&__random__

FastCron can do it for you automatically.
Just visit the Account settings page, and check the box Automatically update cronjob URL with __random__ to bypass cache.

The next time your cronjob executes, FastCron will add the __random__ keyword if it detects a server cache.

Hi,

I've added a new tab to change the default cronjob settings.

You can now change:

• Default timezone, which is also account timezone.
• Cron server, if you'd like to run cronjobs from a specific server IP
• Auto delete stopped cronjobs
• Auto delete failed cronjobs
• Auto add __random__ to cron job URLs to bypass cache.

For new users only: FastCron will now automatically delete stopped cronjobs after 30 days, and failed cronjobs 365 days. You can change it on the account settings page.

Hi,

On November 19, 2023, I will add a recurring cronjob limit to the Platinum and Diamond accounts.

No action is required. Your existing cronjobs will continue to work fine.

Recurring cronjobs are cron jobs that run repeatedly. Disabled and one-time cron jobs don't count.

It'll be 1% of your current daily execution limit. For example, if your account has a 50k daily execution limit, you can add up to 500 recurring cronjobs.

If you already have more than 416 recurring cronjobs, it'll be 120% of your current recurring cronjobs.

If you need more recurring cronjobs, you can get a special deal on the Billing page.

If you're setting cronjobs to run once at a specific time, please ensure that it's at least 15 seconds into the future.

In the background, FastCron generates queued executions every 5 seconds. It also loads your cronjobs 3-5 seconds before the scheduled time to send to the cron servers and execute at the exact time.

For example, if it's 09:01:33, please set it to run after 09:01:47.

FastCron will now automatically adjust the scheduled time by 15 - 20 seconds if you set it to run too close to the present.

Also, as FastCron loads cronjob every 5 seconds, the scheduled time will be changed to the nearest available second value. In the example above, your cronjob will be scheduled to run at 09:01:50 instead of 09:01:47.

I hope this helps.

By default, the crontab uses OR when the day of the week and day of the month are specified.

For, example, 7 0 12 * Fri will run your cronjob at 00:07 on Friday OR on day 12 of each month.

It would be impossible to require matching of both the day of the week and the day of the month using either crontab syntax or time expression.

For example, run cronjobs on Friday the 12th, or run on Tuesday and Wednesday from day 10 to day 20.

To solve this, FastCron now supports the Time filter.

To show the Time filter, click on the Filter button.

It supports simple expressions with 5 variables:

• minute: integer, from 0 to 59
• hour: integer, from 0 to 23
• day: integer, from 1 to 31
• month: integer, from 1 to 12
• weekday: string, including Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, and Sun

It supports a lot of operators. See the full list here.

Here are some examples for you:

• Run on Friday the 12th, at 8:00: set the expression to 1 day 8:00 (or 0 8 * * *) and the filter to day == 12 and weekday == 'Fri'
• Run only on Tuesday and Wednesday, from day 10 to 20: (weekday == 'Tue' or weekday == 'Wed') and day >= 10 and day <= 20 or weekday in ['Tue', 'Wed'] and day >= 10 and day <= 20

This feature is available for the Indie, Team, and Business plans.

If you need some custom time settings, comment below and I'll help.

Hi,

On November 12, 2023, I will discontinue the Gold plan. After that:

• You can no longer renew your Gold account.
• You can continue using your Gold plan until its expiry date.
• You must choose the special deal on the Billing page to upgrade and renew your account to the Indie plan before your account expiry date.

Compare the plans

Below is the comparison table of the Gold plan versus the new Indie plan.
It's for reference only. Please check your Billing page for your own special deal.

If you have a Gold plan with 8,000 daily executions at $24/year, it will be automatically converted to the new Indie plan with 8,000 daily executions at $24/year on Nov 12. No extra charge, no action is required.

What will happen?

• If you have a Paddle subscription (auto-renew): On your account expiration day, if you haven't updated your account, I will change your account to the new plan.
  For example, your Gold account is valid until June 25, 2024. It will be converted to the Indie plan on that day.
• If you don't have a subscription, then you can only choose the special deal to upgrade and renew your account.
• If your account expires, your cronjobs will be disabled. Your account will be downgraded to the free plan after one month. After that, the Gold plan and special deal will be gone. You can only choose the Indie plan at $5/month when your account is downgraded.

What should I do?

• To prevent service interruption, please upgrade and create a subscription as soon as possible.
• You can also downgrade to the free plan, which requires logging in with a Google account every 60 days.

Visit the Billing page to upgrade, downgrade, or cancel your subscription.

Hi,

Thank you for supporting SetCronJob (now FastCron) for several years.

Today, the Silver plan is discontinued. When clicking on the Renew button, you'll get to the special deal page. Please choose the discounted Indie plan to renew your account.

If you have a Paddle subscription (auto-renew), I will update your account a day before your account expiry date. You don't need to do anything.
For example, if your account is valid until October 8, it'll be updated on October 7. On October 8, you'll be charged $24 for a year of the Indie plan.

If you have any questions, please comment below or email me.

FastCron can now send cron notifications to both the account owner and other team members.

To select who will receive email notifications, update the Send cron notifications when adding/editing groups.

When adding/updating a team member, you can also select Update groups to send cron notifications to this member, and they'll receive cron notifications for cronjobs in their allowed groups.

You can now change the billing cycle from monthly to yearly and vice versa. On the Billing page, click the Update billing cycle button.

To change to annual billing, ensure the Billed annually check is on, then click the Select button.

If you change from monthly to yearly billing, an extra charge will be made to renew your account.

You can now remove your connected Google account at the Profile page. It'll be useful in case you want to connect to another Google account or transfer your account to another.

If you know a friend who may need FastCron service, please refer them. They'll get a 15-day free trial, and you'll get 20% of their payment forever.

To get your referral code and stats, visit the Refer a Friend page.

If you know their email address, you can invite them directly.

On October 6, 2023, I will discontinue the Silver plan.
You can no longer renew your Silver account.
You can continue using your Silver plan until its expiry date.
You must choose the special deal on the Billing page to upgrade and renew your account to the Indie plan before your account expiry date.

Special deal for existing Silver users

• $2 per month
• 5,000 daily executions
• 50 ¹ recurring cronjobs

This Indie plan is currently at $5/month for new users.

Compare the plans

What will happen?

• If you have a Paddle subscription (auto-renew): On your account expiration day, if you haven't updated your account, I will change your account to the new plan.
  For example, your Silver account is valid until June 25, 2024. It will be converted to the Indie plan on that day.
• If you don't have a subscription, then you can only choose the special deal to upgrade and renew your account.
• If your account expires, your cronjobs will be disabled. Your account will be downgraded to the free plan after one month. After that, the Silver plan and special deal will be gone. You can only choose the Indie plan at $5/month when your account is downgraded.

What should I do?

• To prevent service interruption, please upgrade and create a subscription as soon as possible.
• You can also downgrade to the free plan, which requires logging in with a Google account every 60 days.

Visit the Billing page to upgrade, downgrade, or cancel your subscription now.

Hi there,

FastCron is on ProductHunt right now.

If you have an account at ProductHunt, please upvote and share your reviews.
Any support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Nguyen An Thuan.

Hi there,

Thank you for using FastCron 👍

I will launch FastCron on ProductHunt on August 28th, at 12:01 AM PDT. In case you don't know yet, ProductHunt is a platform to launch products, and consumers come to find the latest and greatest in tech.

If you have an account at ProductHunt, please upvote and share your reviews on that day.
Any support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Nguyen An Thuan.

I've added the instruction to set up Slack's incoming webhook on the Slack page, as well as fixed the Slack message to follow their markdown style.

The fail notification message should display correctly now.

I've found and fixed a bug that updated your account's member limit incorrectly.

It occurred in the legacy accounts with the team option (e.g. Platinum team, Diamond team). The affected accounts were already updated.

If you have a legacy team account and see a member limit of 1, please let me know and I'll check it.

Referral code is now available to both free and premium users.

Free users will be renewed for one month each time a new user signs up using their referral link.

The referral URL has been updated to use the r instead of the ref parameter.

The referrer will get a bonus of 20% from payments in the first year forever. The bonus will be listed on the Billing page. It will be used to renew your account immediately.

Free users who received the bonus will be renewed as if their account is at $12/year. For example, if you refer a customer who pays $25/month, you'll get a $5 bonus each month, which will renew your free account for 5 months.

You can now invite/add a team member with a Viewer role.

Viewers have read-only access. They can view cronjobs, but can NOT edit/delete/disable/run them.

A common brute-force attack against web applications consists of an attacker submitting a login form many times with the hope of eventually guessing the password of some user account.

One of the best countermeasures to these attacks is called "login throttling", which denies a user from attempting logins after a certain number of failed attempts.

From now on, FastCron allows only 5 login attempts per minute.

You can now run another cronjob after a cronjob's successful execution. You should also disable the target cronjob if you want it to completely depend on the source cronjob.

This will double the daily execution count in the source cronjob. The feature is available in the premium plans.

Your account will be automatically downgraded to free 1 month after its expiration.

You can also choose to downgrade your account when it expires or has less than 7 days remaining.

Please note that free account requires monthly renewal by logging in with your Google account.

Hello,

I've renamed SetCronJob to FastCron. The new homepage is now https://www.fastcron.com/.

The blog domain has been changed to blog.fastcron.com.

The help center is now at support.fastcron.com.

The default user agent has been changed to Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; FastCron/1.0; https://www.fastcron.com/).

Emails will be sent from support@fastcron.com and alert@fastcron.com.

The new API endpoint is now https://www.fastcron.com/api/v1/.

If you encounter any problem with this change, please let me know.

We are using several servers to process your cronjobs.

Here are our IP addresses:

64.225.48.218
134.209.39.102
143.198.114.177
138.197.75.231

Our IPv6 addresses:

2604:a880:800:10::7cf:5001
2604:a880:800:10::80b:e001
2604:a880:400:d0::98:3001
2604:a880:800:10::a78:c001

Please make sure that we can reach your script URL from these IP addresses. For Cloudflare, see How to whitelist FastCron's IP addresses in Cloudflare

If you want to receive email notifications when we update our IP list, please log in to FastCron, visit Account > My Profile, click Update profile, and check the box Receive FastCron server IP addresses notifications.

You can fetch our IP list at https://www.fastcron.com/ip.txt (all IP), https://www.fastcron.com/ipv4.txt (IPv4 only), https://www.fastcron.com/ipv6.txt (IPv6 only).