One curl command at the end of your script — no agent, no SDK, no overhead. If the ping stops arriving within the expected window, FoundersDeck alerts you within seconds.
Free tier included · No credit card · Cancel anytime
No agent. Works with any language, any platform, any infrastructure.
Configure name, expected interval (e.g. every 6 hours), and grace period
(e.g. 30 minutes). You receive a unique ping URL like https://foundersdeck.dev/ping/abc123def456
Append a single HTTP request at the end of your cron job, script, or worker. Pick your stack:
#!/bin/bash
pg_dump mydb > /backups/mydb_$(date +%F).sql
# Report success to FoundersDeck
curl -fsS --retry 3 https://foundersdeck.dev/ping/abc123def456If the ping does not arrive within the expected window, FoundersDeck opens an incident and alerts you via email, Slack, Discord, or webhook. Auto-resolves when the next ping arrives.
Any scheduled or recurring task that should run reliably. If it stops, you will know.
Database dumps, file backups, snapshot routines. Know instantly if last night's backup never completed.
Report generation, data syncs, scheduled emails. Catch silent crontab failures before your users notice.
Queue processors, Sidekiq / Celery workers, event handlers. Detect when a worker silently dies or gets stuck.
Webhook consumers, payment reconciliation, third-party API syncs. Ensure your integrations keep running.
Log rotation, temp file cleanup, expired session pruning. Prevent disk-full disasters before they happen.
Let's Encrypt renewals, certificate rotation scripts. Never get caught by an expired certificate again.
Two approaches, one goal: knowing when something breaks.
| Heartbeat monitoring | Uptime monitoring | |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | Your task pings FoundersDeck | FoundersDeck pings your service |
| Answers | "Did my job run on time?" | "Is my service responding?" |
| Best for | Cron jobs, scripts, workers | Websites, APIs, endpoints |
| Failure mode | Detects silent failures | Detects public outages |
Your website can return 200 OK while the nightly backup has silently failed for a week. Your cron job can run perfectly while your API is down. Real reliability means monitoring both directions. FoundersDeck gives you uptime monitoring and heartbeat monitoring in one tool — all hosted in Nuremberg, Germany. No CLOUD Act, no data leaving the EU, no second vendor.
Healthchecks.io is the most popular dedicated heartbeat tool — open source, EU-hosted, well-maintained. Here is an honest side-by-side so you can pick the right tool for your situation.
| FoundersDeck | Healthchecks.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Germany | Lithuania |
| Data residency | Germany only (Netcup, Nuremberg) | EU (Hetzner) |
| Heartbeat / cron monitoring | ● | ● |
| Uptime monitoring (HTTP / Ping) | ● | — |
| Public status pages | ● | — |
| Open source | — | ● |
| Self-hosted option | — | ● |
| Free tier | 5 monitors, 1 status page | 20 checks |
| Paid entry tier | €9 / month (Starter) | $5 / month (Hobbyist) |
You only need heartbeat monitoring, want open source, prefer self-hosting, or have a one-tool-per-job philosophy. Healthchecks does heartbeat extremely well and the codebase is solid.
You want heartbeat + uptime + status pages in one subscription, prefer a managed service over self-hosting, or your buyers care about German hosting (BSI-conscious enterprise, German public sector).
Flexible settings — fine-tune the balance between speed and noise.
Set the exact frequency your job runs on — every minute, hourly, daily, or weekly.
Allow natural variance in execution time without triggering false alarms.
Configure how many consecutive missed pings before an incident opens.
Create a free account, set up a heartbeat monitor, and add one line to your script. No credit card required.
HTTP checks every 30 seconds from EU infrastructure.
RelatedCookie-free public status pages. Show that your infrastructure is reliable.
Related100% German infrastructure, no CLOUD Act, GDPR-native.
Comparing heartbeat tools across the EU? See our roundup of GDPR-native monitoring platforms — Healthchecks.io, Oh Dear, and FoundersDeck side by side.