I love crontab.guru. I've used it hundreds of times. But it hasn't changed in years, and every time I use it, I think the same thing:
Why can't I just type what I want in English?
0 9 * * 1-5 — is that every weekday at 9am? Or every Monday through Friday at midnight? I always have to double-check.
So I built CronWords.
What Makes CronWords Different
1. English ↔ Cron Conversion
Type every weekday at 9am and get 0 9 * * 1-5.
Paste */15 * * * * and see "Every 15 minutes".
Bidirectional. No guessing.
2. Visual Calendar Preview
Crontab Guru shows you the next 5 run times as a list. CronWords shows you a calendar view — see exactly which days and times your job will fire over the next month. Patterns jump out immediately.
3. Timezone Support
Cron expressions don't encode timezones. But your server might be in UTC while you're thinking in CET. CronWords lets you pick a timezone and see run times adjusted accordingly. No more mental math.
4. Copy-Paste Ready
One click to copy the expression. One click to copy a full crontab line with a command template. Small things that save 10 seconds each time add up.
The Stack
Same philosophy as all my tools:
- Single HTML file
- Vanilla JavaScript
- Zero backend
- Hosted on GitHub Pages for free
No data leaves your browser. Your cron expressions aren't logged anywhere.
Try It
👉 CronWords — English ↔ Cron Converter
I'm not saying crontab.guru is bad — it's great for what it is. But if you've ever stared at 0 */4 * * 1,3,5 and gone blank, CronWords might save you a few minutes.
What's Next
I'm thinking about adding:
- Common presets ("every Monday at 9am", "first of the month", etc.)
- Slack/Discord webhook integration ("remind me when this job would fire")
- Diff mode (compare two cron expressions side by side)
What would you find useful? Drop a comment.
Part of my free tools collection. Also check out SigCraft for email signatures, TradeLog for trade journaling, and more on GitHub.
Top comments (0)