What is the use of wp_schedule_event hook?

Question

I want to do a cron(executes function at specific time, like email,db backup etc) job. I searched in wordpress, i got this wp_schedule_event Here they say it will execute job when someone visits wordpress site if the specified time is passed.

I have a doubt, it is doing this only when someone visits wordpress website. Is cron job same for normal php site without any framework.

If it runs only when user visits the site, then why not can i do it in init hook itself with a time if condition so i can achieve what wp_schedule_event is doing without it.Like below

function test(){
if($time_condition > 20 && $time_condition < 23){
//do stuff
}
}
add_action('init','test');

As init runs wordpress loaded, so every time user visits site this will be checked and executed.

can someone please give the difference and Which is useful for this kind of job?

I see both

wp_schedule_event and init are same except we need to add the condition in init because other than that wp_schedule_event also runs only when someone visits.

Answer 1

The point of the wp-cron is to spawn separate process to run events in.

It isn't quite perfect and sometimes spawning process slows down page view noticeably, however it is vastly better than executing some heavy operation at the start of random visitor's page load.