Dead Man's Snitch monitors cron jobs and scheduled tasks, alerting you when they fail to run. See its pricing plans, features, and how it works.
Category
DevOps
Pricing
Freemium subscription with a free single-job plan and paid monthly plans priced by number of monitored jobs (snitches), from Free plan available for one job; paid plans start at 5 US dollars per month
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 19, 2026
Founded
2012
Headquarters
Holland, Michigan, United States (Collective Idea)
How Dead Man's Snitch Works
Each monitored job is assigned a unique URL, called a snitch, that the job is configured to ping after it completes successfully. If the expected ping does not arrive within the configured time window, Dead Man's Snitch sends an alert.
This check-in model works for any process capable of making an outbound HTTP request on success, including traditional cron jobs, Heroku Scheduler tasks, CI/CD pipeline steps, and custom background workers, not just Unix cron specifically.
How Pricing Scales
Pricing is based primarily on the number of snitches, or monitored jobs, rather than the number of team members, with a free plan for a single job and paid plans ranging from 5 to 49 US dollars per month covering 3 to 300 snitches.
All paid plans include API access and unlimited team members, making the pricing model notably cost-effective for larger teams that need many people to have visibility into a moderate number of monitored jobs.
Company Background
Dead Man's Snitch was founded in 2012 and acquired by Collective Idea, a web development studio based in Holland, Michigan, on July 30, 2013, and has operated as one of Collective Idea's products since the acquisition.
The service has maintained a consistent focus on simple, reliable job check-in monitoring rather than expanding into a broader observability platform, which has helped it remain a straightforward, well-regarded tool among developers over more than a decade of operation.
Key Features
Simple check-in monitoring — Detects missed or failed scheduled jobs by watching for an expected HTTP ping after each successful run.
Works with any scheduler — Supports cron, Heroku Scheduler, CI/CD pipelines, and any custom process that can send an HTTP request.
Configurable check-in intervals — Lets teams define expected run frequency and grace periods per monitored job.
Error status detection — Smart Alerts and Error Notices on higher plans flag jobs that check in but report a failure rather than only detecting silence.
API access — Provides an API for programmatically creating and managing snitches, included on all paid plans.
Unlimited team members on paid plans — Scales pricing by number of monitored jobs rather than number of users.
Integrations — Routes alerts into common channels such as email and chat or webhook-based notification tools.
Field Agent feature — An additional monitoring capability included starting on the Little Birdy plan.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Very simple, focused setup that solves the specific problem of silently failing scheduled jobs
Pricing scales by number of monitored jobs rather than by seat, which favors larger teams
Works with virtually any scheduler or periodic process capable of an outbound HTTP ping
Free plan is available for monitoring a single job at no cost
Higher tiers add error-status detection, not just silence detection, via Smart Alerts
Long operating history since 2012 under a stable, established web development studio
Cons
Paid plan snitch limits (3, 100, or 300) may require jumping a tier as monitoring needs grow incrementally
Does not appear to publish a per-seat or usage-based enterprise pricing calculator online, requiring direct contact for custom needs
Company size and detailed internal metrics are not publicly disclosed
Focuses narrowly on check-in monitoring rather than broader application performance or infrastructure monitoring
Free plan is limited to a single monitored job, which is quite restrictive beyond personal projects
On-premise hosting is not offered as a standard published plan and requires a custom conversation with sales
Pricing
Lone Snitch Free N/A
Little Birdy 5 US dollars per month
Private Eye 19 US dollars per month
Surveillance Van 49 US dollars per month
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Dead Man's Snitch do
It monitors cron jobs and other scheduled tasks by watching for an expected check-in ping, alerting the team when a job fails to run or check in on time.
How much does Dead Man's Snitch cost
There is a free plan for one monitored job, with paid plans starting at 5 US dollars per month for 3 jobs up to 49 US dollars per month for 300 jobs.
Does Dead Man's Snitch work with Heroku Scheduler
Yes, it explicitly supports monitoring cron jobs, Heroku Scheduler tasks, and any other scheduled process capable of sending an HTTP check-in.
Who owns Dead Man's Snitch
It was founded in 2012 and acquired by Collective Idea, a web development studio based in Holland, Michigan, in July 2013.
Does Dead Man's Snitch charge per team member
No, paid plans include unlimited team members and instead scale pricing by the number of monitored jobs, called snitches.
Can Dead Man's Snitch detect a job that ran but failed
Yes, on higher plans Smart Alerts and Error Notices can flag jobs that checked in but reported an error, not just jobs that went silent.
Is there an API for Dead Man's Snitch
Yes, API access is included on all paid plans for programmatically managing snitches.
What integrations does Dead Man's Snitch support
It integrates with common alerting channels including email and chat or webhook-based notification tools on its higher plans.