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Setting up a Hetzner cronjob: Cron Job Manager or a call from outside

On Hetzner web hosting you set up cron jobs in konsoleH under Einstellungen › Cronjob Manager (Settings › Cron Job Manager). According to Hetzner the shortest gap is one minute. How many cron jobs you may create depends on the package: web hosting S includes one, M five, L ten and XL twenty (as of October 2026). The old Level 1 package includes none. With Cronjob.de you call your script's address from outside. That uses none of your Hetzner cron job allowance, so you do not need to change packages for it.

Updated: · by Joscha Schultze, operator of Cronjob.de
Written with AI assistance, provider details checked against their official pages.

Why at all

What the Hetzner Cron Job Manager requires

Number per package: According to the Hetzner product page, the current packages include one cron job in web hosting S, five in M, ten in L and twenty in XL. For the old packages, which only existing customers still have, the Hetzner docs list no cron jobs for Level 1, ten for Level 4, twenty for Level 9 and unlimited for Level 19 (as of October 2026).

Interval and runtime: According to the Hetzner docs the shortest gap between two runs is one minute. Cron jobs less than two hours apart run exclusively, so only one instance may run at a time. Cron jobs that need too many system resources are ended automatically.

What you enter: you pick an interpreter such as PHP, Bash, Wget or cURL and enter the command with an absolute path. Hetzner recommends storing cron scripts outside public_html. The script has to be executable (at least permissions 705) or be started via an interpreter.

If you run WordPress, a shop and a backup, you often need more than one cron job. With Cronjob.de the script's address is all it takes. You create as many calls as your Cronjob.de plan allows, regardless of your Hetzner package and without a command line.

URL to call
https://ihre-domain.de/ihr-skript.php
Recommended interval
every 5 minutes (or whatever your script requires)
Tested with
Hetzner Webhosting S, M, L, XL und Level 1, 4, 9, 19 (konsoleH)
Sufficient Cronjob.de plan
The free Cronjob.de plan covers five cronjobs on a five-minute grid, no payment details needed. Every minute, any number of cronjobs, a call log with the response and email error alerts start with Plus (€17.88 a year).

Setup

Step by step

The AI does it faster

You do not have to transfer any of this by hand. Paste this guide – or the one for your own system – into the assistant, and Cronjob.de fills in address, method, schedule and headers. Where something is unclear it asks instead of guessing. At the end you see what was entered and create the job with one click.

Included in the free plan at no extra cost. You will find it after signing in under "Cronjobs" → "Create with AI".

  1. Check your allowance in konsoleH

    Sign in to konsoleH, select your hosting and open Einstellungen › Cronjob Manager (Settings › Cron Job Manager). It lists your existing cron jobs, whether they are active and which command they run. If you still have a free slot and the command line route suits you, create the cron job there via “Add”.

  2. What the command in the Cron Job Manager looks like

    For orientation, the example from the Hetzner docs: FTP login user1, script in public_html/cron/script.php. You choose the timing from preset intervals, by clicking or as free text in the format minutes, hours, days, months, weekdays. For the call from outside you do not need this command.

    /usr/bin/php /usr/www/users/user1/cron/script.php

  3. Decide on your script address

    For the call from outside the script has to be reachable via your domain, so it must sit below public_html. Many systems use a fixed file for this, such as wp-cron.php for WordPress or cron.php for Nextcloud.

    https://your-domain.com/your-script.php

  4. Protect the address

    As the script is now publicly reachable, append a long random parameter and check it right at the start of the script. If it is missing or wrong, the script stops.

    https://your-domain.com/your-script.php?key=A-LONG-SECRET

  5. Open the address in a browser once

    A status 200 response without a login is correct. Mind the runtime: Cronjob.de waits 45 seconds for the response on the free plan and 60 seconds on the paid plans. Long running work is better split into smaller chunks.

  6. Create a Cronjob.de account and add the cronjob

    Signing up is free and needs no payment details. Enter the address and click the schedule together, or describe it in one sentence, such as “every 10 minutes”. You can also paste your plugin's instructions. The AI assistant picks out the address and schedule.

    */5 * * * *

    You can enter this expression at Cronjob.de exactly as it is – the schedule field understands crontab notation. But you do not have to know it: simply click the schedule together instead.

What the five fields of an expression like */5 * * * * mean is explained in the crontab reference – with examples and the most common pitfalls. You can build the expression in the crontab generator. Whether you need an outside service at all is shown in the comparison of the three ways.

Verification

Is it actually running?

Within a few minutes the Cronjob.de call log shows the first calls with status code and runtime, and from Plus also your script's response. For the first test have the script write date and time into a file. Then you can see on both sides that the call arrived. If you also have a cron job in the Hetzner Cron Job Manager, “Logdatei anzeigen” (show log file) lists its runs there.

Your host runs cron jobs itself? Then monitor them with a heartbeat.

One line at the end of your script reports every run to Cronjob.de. If the check-in is missing, you get a message – even if the host's cron never started. One heartbeat is free. Cron job monitoring

FAQ

Common questions about Hetzner Webhosting

How many cron jobs do I get with Hetzner web hosting?
According to the Hetzner product page, web hosting S includes one cron job, M five, L ten and XL twenty (as of October 2026). A call from outside with Cronjob.de does not count against this allowance.
My old Hetzner Level 1 package has no cron jobs. What can I do?
The Hetzner docs on the old packages list no cron jobs for Level 1, ten for Level 4, twenty for Level 9 and unlimited for Level 19. With Cronjob.de you can still have your script called regularly. All it needs is a reachable address.
Where do I find the Cron Job Manager in konsoleH?
Select your hosting in konsoleH and open the menu Einstellungen › Cronjob Manager (Settings › Cron Job Manager). There you create cron jobs via “Add”, edit them via the pencil icon and also start them by hand via the play icon.
How often can a cron job run at Hetzner?
According to the Hetzner docs at most once per minute. Cron jobs less than two hours apart run exclusively, so never several at once. At Cronjob.de every minute is available from the Plus plan, every five minutes on the free plan.
Which path do I enter in the Hetzner Cron Job Manager?
Always an absolute path. The Hetzner docs example for a script in public_html/cron/script.php with the FTP login user1 is /usr/bin/php /usr/www/users/user1/cron/script.php. For the call from outside you enter the address at which the script can be opened in a browser instead.
Does this work with WordPress at Hetzner too?
Yes. The details are in our WordPress guide: disable WP-Cron and have wp-cron.php called regularly.
Is your server rejecting our calls? Error 403 almost always comes from a firewall, a security plugin or directory protection – not from your script. All our calls carry the fixed identifier Cronjob.de in the user agent. Ask your host for an exception for it; that is more reliable than allowing IP addresses, because ours can change. Addresses and details in the FAQ. Other errors such as 401, 404 or 500 are explained in the troubleshooting guide.

Create your cronjob now

Create an account, enter the address, click the schedule. Five cronjobs are free forever, the first 14 days run on the Unlimited plan.

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More guides

Official documentation of Hetzner Webhosting

The details about Hetzner Webhosting come from their own documentation, as of October 2026. Please check there whether anything has changed since. Hetzner Webhosting is a trademark of its respective owner. This guide comes from Cronjob.de and has no business relationship with that provider.