Frequently Asked Questions

About EasyCron

• What is EasyCron? What service does it provide?

EasyCron is a task scheduler which provides services of calling specified URLs at specified time or by time interval. Once register with us, you get abilities to:

• Manage cron jobs at your own user panel.
• Set cron job according to the date and time in your own account timezone.
• Get email notice about cron jobs' execution. (Applied to premium users)
• View last ten execution logs of each cron job. (Applied to premium users)
• Is EasyCron’s service free?

We offer a free plan which is free forever and several premium plans which have advanced features, such as execution log, email notice and longer timeout etc..

Account and Plans

• Will my free plan expire?

Your free plan will expire after 1 month since your last login, so if your login cycle is less than 1 month, your free plan will never expire.

• What will happen to my account if my plan expires?

After your plan expires, your cron jobs will be disabled. If you’re a premium plan user, your plan will be downgraded to free plan. All cron jobs settings (e.g. email notice and execution log) which are only available in premium plans will be disabled too.

• What can I do if my plan is about to expire?

If the auto-billing of your plan is valid and your paypal or credit card have enough money available, you don't have to do anything. We will charge you periodically, and your plan's expiry time will be extended automatically. If the auto-billing feature of your plan is terminated, please create a new order in your http://www.easycron.com/user/plan page to extend your plan's lifetime.

• What is renewal cycle?

Every kind of plans have expire time. Free plan’s expire time is after 1 month since last login, and premium plans’ expire time is 1 year after payment. These time spans are called renewal cycle. We will bill you when your plan is about to expire. If you have valid auto-billing method in our record and there is enough available money in your Paypal or credit card, you don't need to do anything to renew your plan, otherwise you need to create a new order in http://www.easycron.com/user/plan after logged in to pay the bill.

• Can I upgrade my plan?

Yes, you can upgrade your free plan to premium plan or change your premium plan to any plan at your “plan” page after logged in.

• What will happen after a plan change?

Your new plan's expiry time will be one year after the billing time. The new coin number will become the coin number of your new plan (plus extra coins if any). You can ask a refund on the old plan's unused months (only appliable if you're upgrading your plan).

• Can I downgrade my plan?

Yes, you can upgrade your free plan to premium plan or change your premium plan to any plan at your “plan” page after logged in.

• Why my cron jobs are disabled after I change my plan?

Because plan or extra coin number change may probably change coin number available, in order to make sure there is always enough coins for active cron jobs, we disable all cron jobs after plan or extra coin number change. You can simply enable the cron jobs you want to schedule.

• Can I cancel my account?

Yes, if you want to cancel your account, please include the username and password of your account in an email, and send this email via your registered email address to us.

Cron Job

• How to add a cron job?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose a time pattern, enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you’re done.

• When will my cron job exactly be executed?

Some examples are better than thousands of theoretic words. : )

Example 1:
The time pattern of your cron job is * * * * *,
Your cron job will be executed every minute.

Example 2:
If the time pattern is */8 * * * *,
Your cron job will be executed every 8 minutes in every hour. Please remember that the time calculating is not accumulative. In this example, if you create the cron job at 23:59:00, your cron job will be run at (theoretically, the actual run time could have some delay, same for below examples):
00:00:00
00:08:00
00:16:00
00:24:00
00:32:00
00:40:00
00:48:00
00:56:00
01:00:00
01:08:00
…
Your cron job will not be executed at 01:04:00, because another hour has started here and the time is not accumulative.

Example 3:
If the time pattern is */8 */3 * * *,
and you create the cron job at 23:59:00, your cron job will be run at:
00:00:00
00:08:00
00:16:00
00:24:00
00:32:00
00:40:00
00:48:00
00:56:00
03:00:00
03:08:00
…
Your cron job will not be executed at 01:08:00 anymore, because */3 means the hour number should be divisible by 3.

Example 4:
If the time pattern is 3 5 * * *,
your cron job will be run at 05:03:00 everyday.

• How many coins will my cron job occupy?

A simple formula to calculate the coin number is,
Ceil(Number of execution times of your cron job per year / 1000) = occupied coin number.
The formula above calculates a base number. If your cron job is with “email me after execution” on, the final occupied number will be base number x 2, and if your cron job is also with “log” on, the final occupied number will be base number x 3.
Some typical coin occupied numbers are as below:


Execution interval	Without email notification and log	With email notification	With log	With email notification and log
every day	1	1	1	2
every hour	9	18	18	27
every 10 minute	54	108	108	161
every minute	536	1,072	1,072	1,608

• How to edit a cron job?

After logging in, find the cron job you want to edit, click on “edit” link, reconfigure your cron job, and click “Save” button, wait until the confirmation notice popups, done.

• How to disable a cron job?

After logging in, find the cron job you want to disable, click on “disable” link (only available if the current cron job is active), wait until the confirmation notice popups, done.

• How to enable a cron job?

After logging in, find the cron job you want to enable, click on “enable” link (only available if the current cron job is inactive), wait until the confirmation notice popups, done.

• How to delete a cron job?

After logging in, find the cron job you want to delete, click on “delete” link, confirm deleting, wait until the confirmation notice popups, done.

• How to view the execution logs of a cron job?

After logging in, find the cron job you want to view log, click on “view logs” link.

• Does EasyCron limit the number of cron jobs which I can add?

No, EasyCron doesn’t limit the number of cron jobs you can add if you have enough coins.

• What protocols and ports does EasyCron support?

EasyCron supports HTTP and HTTPS on all ports. EasyCron also supports HTTP Authentication.

• What is cron job timeout limit?

After a cron job is triggered, EasyCron starts connecting the server of this cron job's URL and then receiving data from the server. Generally, these actions can be done soon if the network between servers of EasyCron and yours is good and the script of your URL does not process a big task. But if the network is not good or your script is handling a big task, the time that the cron job costs could be long, and once it's longer than a specific time period, EasyCron will abort the current execution of this cron job. This "specific time period" is called cron job timeout limit. Different plans have different timeout limits. To make sure your scripts have enough time to perform, you can choose higher configuration plan.

• What is minimum interval?

Minimum interval is the minimum time span you can set between two executions of one cron job.

• What’s the "email notification" feature of EasyCron?

Email notification is, after a cron job is done or failed EasyCron will send an email to let you know. This feature has three options: "never", "after execution fails" and "after execution", which means "never send me email", "send me email only if the cron job' execution is failed" and "send me email after each execution".

• What’s the "log execution" feature of EasyCron?

After URLs are loaded, some outputs will be transferred to EasyCron. If you choose to log the executions of a cron job, EasyCron will save 10 KB ouput of each execution (together with the HTTP header and some execution stat.). For every cron job, 10 last executions will be logged.

• Why does EasyCron only log 10 KB outputs of my cron jobs?

As the main purpose of EasyCron is to trigger some tasks on your site, and is not to save ton of output of your tasks, further more, most of normal tasks should only output very little information. Considering these factors, we decide only to log 10 KB outputs of your cron jobs.

• What will happen if my cron job execution fails?

If your cron job fails and you have set up “Email me if execution fails” setting, you will get an email from EasyCron alerting you the failure. After 10 times of consecutive failures, your cron job will be disabled.

• Why can’t I set up “email me” and “log” settings of my cron jobs?

These two features are only available for premium plan users. Free plan user must upgrade his/her plan first to use them.

• Why my script on my website is not executed completely?

The reason could be your script is running beyond the timeout limit of your cron job at EasyCron.

• What user agent is EasyCron using?

EasyCron uses “EasyCron/1.0 (http://www.easycron.com/)” as our user agent.

Cron job examples

• How to set cron job which runs every minute?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: *
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be * * * * * after the cron job is added.
Note: Minimum interval of one minute is only available for premium users.

• How to set cron job which runs every two minutes?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: */2
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be */2 * * * * after the cron job is added.
Note: Minimum interval of two minute is only available for premium users.

• How to set cron job which runs every three minutes?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: */3
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be */3 * * * * after the cron job is added.
Note: Minimum interval of three minute is only available for premium users.

• How to set cron job which runs every four minutes?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: */4
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be */4 * * * * after the cron job is added.
Note: Minimum interval of four minute is only available for premium users.

• How to set cron job which runs every five minutes?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: */5
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be */5 * * * * after the cron job is added.
Note: Minimum interval of five minute is only available for premium users.

• How to set cron job which runs every ten minutes?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: */10
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be */10 * * * * after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every 15 minutes?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: */15
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be */15 * * * * after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every 20 minutes?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: */20
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be */20 * * * * after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every half an hour?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: */30
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be */30 * * * * after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every hour?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: *
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for the minute field) * * * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every two hours?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: */2
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for the minute field) */2 * * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every three hours?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: */3
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for the minute field) */3 * * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every four hours?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: */4
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for minute field) */4 * * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every five hours?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: */5
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for minute field) */5 * * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every day?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: any number from 0 to 23
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for minute field) (the number you set for hour field) * * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every two days?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: any number from 0 to 23
Day: */2
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for minute field) (the number you set for hour field) */2 * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every three days?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: any number from 0 to 23
Day: */3
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for minute field) (the number you set for hour field) */3 * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every five days?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: any number from 0 to 23
Day: */5
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for minute field) (the number you set for hour field) */5 * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every month?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: any number from 0 to 23
Day: any number from 1 to 28 (These dates will be always safe for all months including Feb)
Month: *
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for minute field) (the number you set for hour field) (the number you set for day field) * *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs every two months?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: any number from 0 to 23
Day: any number from 1 to 28 (These dates will be always safe for all months including Feb)
Month: */2
Weekday: *

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for minute field) (the number you set for hour field) (the number you set for day field) */2 *" after the cron job is added.


• How to set cron job which runs on specific weekday?

After logging in, click on “Add new cron job”, enter a cron job name (optional), choose following configurations in time setting dropdown boxes:
Minute: any number from 0 to 59
Hour: any number from 0 to 23
Day: *
Month: *
Weekday: from Mon to Sun

Enter the URL you want to call and choose the rest settings if necessary, click on “Create” button, wait until the notice popups, you're done.
The final time pattern will be "(the number you set for minute field) (the number you set for hour field) * * (the number which represents the weekday you set)" after the cron job is added.

Timezone

• What timezone is EasyCron in?

EasyCron uses UTC timezone by default, but user can set up his/her own timezone by clicking “timezone” link (only available after logged in) after the clock displayed on every page.

• Which timezone will my cron jobs be run in?

Your cron jobs will be run in the timezone of your own. So please always set the time pattern of the cron jobs comparing to the clock displayed on every page.

Coin

• What is coin?

Every cron job occupies some computing, bandwidth and storage resource. In order to indicate the amount of resource occupied, we "price" cron jobs with coins. Cron job which costs more resource occupys more coins. By doing this, we can also optimize resource use, and against abuse. Coins are returnable, that is to say, once a coin job is disabled or deleted, the coins that this cron job occupied will be returned to the coin balance of your account. You can then use them again for other cron jobs.

• What can I do if I need more coins?

You can buy more coins at http://www.easycron.com/user/plan by creating a new order of new plan or extra coin option. You can ask a refund on the old plan's unused months (only appliable if you're upgrading your plan). Please note that only premium can buy extra coins.

• Can I sell my coins?

No, EasyCron doesn’t allow user selling coins.

Payment

• What payment methods does EasyCron accept?

For online methods, EasyCron accepts Paypal, Credit card/debit card (processed via Paypal), Credit cards (processed via 2checkout.com). For offline methods, EasyCron accepts bank wire, West Union and xoom. You can contact us for beneficiary’s info if you want to use offline method to make the payment. If you want to pay via a method not listed here, please let us know.

We encourage you to use online method. Because it’s instant, and you will be able to use EasyCron’s service immediately after payment is done.

• Can I terminate the auto-billing of my order?

Yes, you can go to "plan" page after you logged in, find the order you want to terminate auto-billing, click on terminate link, follow the instructions to terminate the auto-billing.

• What should I do if I am having trouble with the payment?

Please let us know any problem you are encountering, we will try our best to solve it.

Refund

• Is my payment to EasyCron refundable?

Yes, under either of the following two conditions, your payment is refundable:
1. your first-time-pay money is full-amount refundable within 3 days after payment.
2. If you change your plan or extra coin option, you can ask a refund on unused months of the old plan (only appliable if you're upgrading your plan).