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Setting up a netcup cron job: Scheduled Tasks in Plesk

On netcup web hosting, cron jobs are called Scheduled Tasks (Geplante Aufgaben). You open them in the Customer Control Panel (CCP) via Produkte, the magnifier icon next to your web hosting and Plesk Panel-Links › Geplante Aufgaben. How many you get depends on the package: web hosting 1000 includes one cron job, 2000 ten, 4000 and 8000 25 each (as of November 2026). If you need more than your package provides, Cronjob.de calls your scripts from outside.

Updated:

Why at all

What Scheduled Tasks at netcup can do

How many: According to the product pages you can run cron jobs in all four web hosting packages. Web hosting 1000 includes one, web hosting 2000 ten, web hosting 4000 and 8000 25 each.

What you enter: According to the netcup documentation, Plesk lets you schedule three kinds of tasks: running commands, fetching URLs and running a PHP script. If you like, Plesk emails the result on errors or after every run. If the output is empty, netcup says no notification is sent in any case.

How long: For PHP, netcup lists a runtime of 180 seconds (PHP Execution Time) in all web hosting packages.

From web hosting 2000 Scheduled Tasks take you a long way. It gets tight on web hosting 1000: the one cron job is enough for WordPress, say, but not for a backup or a shop import on top. Cronjob.de then calls your script addresses from outside, without using the allowance in your package. You also get a call log and, from Plus, an email when a call fails.

URL to call
https://ihre-domain.de/ihr-skript.php
Recommended interval
every 5 minutes
Tested with
netcup Webhosting 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 (Plesk)
Sufficient Cronjob.de plan
The free Cronjob.de plan covers five cronjobs on a five-minute grid, no payment details needed. Every minute, 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

    Sign in to the Customer Control Panel, open Produkte and click the magnifier icon next to your web hosting. Under Plesk Panel-Links › Geplante Aufgaben you see the existing tasks in the Webhosting Control Panel. If your allowance has room and that is enough for you, add one there with Aufgabe hinzufügen.

  2. Decide on your script address

    For the call from outside you need the address that starts your script. Many systems use a fixed file, such as wp-cron.php for WordPress or cron.php for Nextcloud.

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

  3. Protect the address

    The address has to be reachable from outside. So that not just anyone can trigger it, append a long random parameter and check it right at the start of your script.

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

  4. 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.

  5. Create an account at Cronjob.de

    Signing up is free and needs no payment details. New accounts get all features for 14 days, after that the account simply continues on the free plan.

    Start for free 14 days of Unlimited included, no payment details

  6. Create a cronjob with that address

    Enter the address and click the schedule together. You can also describe the interval in one sentence, such as “every 10 minutes on weekdays”, or 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.

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 netcup

How many cron jobs do I get at netcup?
According to the netcup product pages, web hosting 1000 includes one cron job, web hosting 2000 ten, web hosting 4000 and 8000 25 each (as of November 2026). Calls from outside via Cronjob.de do not count, because they do not run in your package.
Where do I find cron jobs at netcup?
In the Customer Control Panel under Produkte, then the magnifier icon next to the web hosting and Plesk Panel-Links › Geplante Aufgaben. You land in the Webhosting Control Panel (WCP) and add a new task there with Aufgabe hinzufügen.
Can netcup call a URL itself?
Yes. According to the netcup documentation, fetching URLs is one of the task types in Plesk, next to commands and PHP scripts. Cronjob.de is worth it when the allowance is not enough or you want the log and error alerts for all jobs in one place.
Why do I not get an email from Plesk?
According to netcup, no notification is sent in any case if the output is empty. A script that fails without printing anything therefore goes unnoticed. For calls from outside, Cronjob.de evaluates the status code and emails you from Plus when a call fails.
Does this work with WordPress at netcup 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.

Start for free See pricing

More guides

Official documentation of netcup

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

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