Difference between cron plugin and Timer.periodic in Flutter - flutter

Question

**every 5 seconds something will be called**
Timer.periodic(Duration(seconds: 5), (timer) {
//something();
});
**every 1 minute something() will be called.**
var cron = new Cron();
cron.schedule(new Schedule.parse('*/1 * * * *'), () async {
// something();
});
but both don't execute the job if is the app no longer in the memory.

Answer 1

The advantage of Cron over Timer is that with Cron Syntax you can specify complex time intervals and not only constant duration intervals.
For example it's difficult to execute a function every day at a specific time (e.g 6:05pm) with Timer because it depends on your start time to which it adds a constant duration, not like Cron you can just put:
var cron = new Cron();
cron.schedule(new Schedule.parse('5 6 * * *'), () async {
// something();
});
To sum up, if your goal is only to repeat a task over a constant interval use Timer, if you goal is more complex like repeating a task every 2 months in weekdays at 6pm you may need Cron.
var cron = new Cron();
cron.schedule(new Schedule.parse('0 6 * */2 MON-FRI'), () async {
// something();
});
Here is a link to know more about Cron syntax : corn syntax