Cron was a calendar app acquired by Notion in 2022 and relaunched as Notion Calendar in 2024. Learn its history, features, and current status.
Category
Calendar
Pricing
Not applicable as a standalone product since 2024; its successor, Notion Calendar, is offered free and bundled with Notion accounts, from Not applicable (discontinued; successor Notion Calendar is free to use)
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 19, 2026
Founded
2019
Headquarters
Formerly San Francisco, California, United States (prior to its acquisition by Notion)
What the Cron Calendar App Was
Cron (cron.com) was a calendar application founded in 2019 by Raphael Schaad, built for professionals and teams who wanted a faster, more keyboard-driven, and more visually polished alternative to default calendar apps like Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. It went through Y Combinator's 2020 batch, raised a 3.5 million dollar seed round, and launched publicly in 2021, earning recognition as Product Hunt's productivity app of the year that year.
The app offered features such as keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation and scheduling, support for multiple time zones and a world clock view, availability sharing, meeting templates, and integration with video conferencing tools, and it connected to Google Calendar accounts, drawing comparisons to the earlier, well-loved Sunrise Calendar app.
The Notion Acquisition and Rebrand to Notion Calendar
In June 2022, Notion Labs, Inc. announced its acquisition of Cron for a reported eight-figure sum, with founder Raphael Schaad and his team joining Notion while Cron initially continued operating as a standalone app.
In January 2024, Notion retired the separate Cron brand and relaunched the product as Notion Calendar, an integrated calendar app built on Cron's technology but now deeply connected to Notion's databases and documents, allowing calendar events to link directly to a user's broader Notion workspace.
Cron the Calendar App vs. Unix cron
It is important not to confuse the Cron calendar app with the Unix and Linux cron job scheduler, a long-standing, unrelated system utility used to automatically run scheduled commands or scripts on a server. Despite the shared name, they have no corporate, technical, or historical connection.
This profile covers only the Cron calendar app, cron.com, founded by Raphael Schaad, its acquisition by Notion, and its continuation as Notion Calendar, not the Unix cron scheduling utility.
Key Features
Keyboard-driven scheduling — Offered command-bar-style keyboard shortcuts for quickly creating, moving, and managing calendar events without touching a mouse.
Multiple time zone support — Included a world clock and multi-time-zone view aimed at distributed teams scheduling across regions.
Availability sharing and scheduling links — Let users share their availability and generate scheduling links for others to book time directly.
Meeting templates — Supported reusable meeting templates to speed up creating recurring or common meeting types.
Video conferencing integration — Connected with video conferencing tools to streamline joining and scheduling virtual meetings.
Google Calendar sync — Synced with users' existing Google Calendar accounts rather than requiring a separate calendar data source.
Continuation as Notion Calendar — After the Notion acquisition, Cron's underlying technology now powers Notion Calendar, which adds deep integration with Notion pages and databases.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Was widely praised for its speed, keyboard-first design, and visual polish compared to default calendar apps
Its technology and design did not disappear; it lives on as the actively maintained Notion Calendar
Founder-led acquisition by a well-resourced company gave the product long-term development resources it may not have had as an independent startup
Won Product Hunt's productivity app of the year in 2021, reflecting strong early product-market fit
Deep integration with Notion workspaces after the rebrand added capabilities the original standalone Cron app did not have
Cons
No longer available as an independently branded, standalone app as of 2026, which can confuse users searching for Cron specifically
Users who wanted to keep using Cron independently of Notion's ecosystem lost that option after the January 2024 rebrand
Historical Cron-specific support resources and documentation are largely superseded by Notion Calendar's own documentation
Its name collides with the completely unrelated Unix cron job scheduler, creating potential search and comparison confusion
As a discontinued brand, there is no current pricing, roadmap, or company information to evaluate under the Cron name itself
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cron still available as its own app?
No. Cron was retired as a standalone, separately branded app in January 2024 after Notion acquired the company in 2022; its technology continues as Notion Calendar.
What is the difference between Cron and Notion Calendar?
Notion Calendar is the direct successor to Cron, built on the same underlying technology after Notion's 2022 acquisition, but integrated into the broader Notion productivity suite with links to Notion pages and databases.
Who founded Cron?
Cron was founded in 2019 by Raphael Schaad, a Swiss-born software engineer and designer, and the company went through Y Combinator's 2020 batch.
When did Notion acquire Cron?
Notion announced its acquisition of Cron in June 2022, in a deal reported to be worth an eight-figure sum.
Is the Cron calendar app the same as the Unix cron command?
No, they are completely unrelated. The Unix and Linux cron utility is a decades-old system tool for scheduling automated command-line tasks, while Cron, cron.com, was a consumer and team calendar application.
Can I still download the original Cron app?
No, the standalone Cron app was retired in January 2024; users were transitioned to Notion Calendar, which continues to be actively developed.
Was Cron free or paid?
As a standalone product, Cron's exact historical pricing details are not the focus of current documentation since it was retired; its successor, Notion Calendar, is offered free as part of the Notion ecosystem.
Where was Cron headquartered?
Cron was based in San Francisco, California, prior to its 2022 acquisition by Notion.