diff --git a/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt b/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
index 80ddd33ceb..30443b417a 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-maintenance.txt
@@ -279,6 +279,55 @@ schedule to ensure you are executing the correct binaries in your
 schedule.
 
 
+BACKGROUND MAINTENANCE ON LINUX SYSTEMD SYSTEMD
+-----------------------------------------------
+
+While Linux supports `cron`, depending on the distribution, `cron` may
+be an optional package not necessarily installed. On modern Linux
+distributions, systemd timers are superseding it.
+
+If user systemd timers are available, they will be used as a replacement
+of `cron`.
+
+In this case, `git maintenance start` will create user systemd timer units
+and start the timers. The current list of user-scheduled tasks can be found
+by running `systemctl --user list-timers`. The timers written by `git
+maintenance start` are similar to this:
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+$ systemctl --user list-timers
+NEXT                         LEFT          LAST                         PASSED     UNIT                         ACTIVATES
+Thu 2021-04-29 19:00:00 CEST 42min left    Thu 2021-04-29 18:00:11 CEST 17min ago  git-maintenance@hourly.timer git-maintenance@hourly.service
+Fri 2021-04-30 00:00:00 CEST 5h 42min left Thu 2021-04-29 00:00:11 CEST 18h ago    git-maintenance@daily.timer  git-maintenance@daily.service
+Mon 2021-05-03 00:00:00 CEST 3 days left   Mon 2021-04-26 00:00:11 CEST 3 days ago git-maintenance@weekly.timer git-maintenance@weekly.service
+
+3 timers listed.
+Pass --all to see loaded but inactive timers, too.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+One timer is registered for each `--schedule=<frequency>` option.
+
+The definition of the systemd units can be inspected in the following files:
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+~/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.timer
+~/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.service
+~/.config/systemd/user/timers.target.wants/git-maintenance@hourly.timer
+~/.config/systemd/user/timers.target.wants/git-maintenance@daily.timer
+~/.config/systemd/user/timers.target.wants/git-maintenance@weekly.timer
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+`git maintenance start` will overwrite these files and start the timer
+again with `systemctl --user`, so any customization should be done by
+creating a drop-in file
+`~/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.service.d/*.conf`.
+
+`git maintenance stop` will stop the user systemd timers and delete
+the above mentioned files.
+
+For more details, see systemd.timer(5)
+
+
 BACKGROUND MAINTENANCE ON MACOS SYSTEMS
 ---------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/builtin/gc.c b/builtin/gc.c
index ef7226d7bc..913fcfc882 100644
--- a/builtin/gc.c
+++ b/builtin/gc.c
@@ -1872,6 +1872,25 @@ static int schtasks_update_schedule(int run_maintenance, int fd, const char *cmd
 		return schtasks_remove_tasks(cmd);
 }
 
+static int is_crontab_available(const char *cmd)
+{
+	struct child_process child = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
+
+	strvec_split(&child.args, cmd);
+	strvec_push(&child.args, "-l");
+	child.no_stdin = 1;
+	child.no_stdout = 1;
+	child.no_stderr = 1;
+	child.silent_exec_failure = 1;
+
+	if (start_command(&child))
+		return 0;
+	/* Ignore exit code, as an empty crontab will return error. */
+	finish_command(&child);
+
+	return 1;
+}
+
 #define BEGIN_LINE "# BEGIN GIT MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE"
 #define END_LINE "# END GIT MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE"
 
@@ -1959,10 +1978,164 @@ static int crontab_update_schedule(int run_maintenance, int fd, const char *cmd)
 	return result;
 }
 
+static int is_systemd_timer_available(const char *cmd)
+{
+	struct child_process child = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
+
+	strvec_split(&child.args, cmd);
+	strvec_pushl(&child.args, "--user", "list-timers", NULL);
+	child.no_stdin = 1;
+	child.no_stdout = 1;
+	child.no_stderr = 1;
+	child.silent_exec_failure = 1;
+
+	if (start_command(&child))
+		return 0;
+	if (finish_command(&child))
+		return 0;
+
+	return 1;
+}
+
+static char *systemd_timer_timer_filename()
+{
+	const char *filename = "~/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.timer";
+	char *expanded = expand_user_path(filename, 0);
+	if (!expanded)
+		die(_("failed to expand path '%s'"), filename);
+
+	return expanded;
+}
+
+static char *systemd_timer_service_filename()
+{
+	const char *filename =
+		"~/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.service";
+	char *expanded = expand_user_path(filename, 0);
+	if (!expanded)
+		die(_("failed to expand path '%s'"), filename);
+
+	return expanded;
+}
+
+static int systemd_timer_enable_unit(int enable,
+				     enum schedule_priority schedule,
+				     const char *cmd)
+{
+	struct child_process child = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
+	const char *frequency = get_frequency(schedule);
+
+	strvec_split(&child.args, cmd);
+	strvec_push(&child.args, "--user");
+	if (enable)
+		strvec_push(&child.args, "enable");
+	else
+		strvec_push(&child.args, "disable");
+	strvec_push(&child.args, "--now");
+	strvec_pushf(&child.args, "git-maintenance@%s.timer", frequency);
+
+	if (start_command(&child))
+		die(_("failed to run systemctl"));
+	return finish_command(&child);
+}
+
+static int systemd_timer_delete_unit_templates()
+{
+	char *filename = systemd_timer_timer_filename();
+	unlink(filename);
+	free(filename);
+
+	filename = systemd_timer_service_filename();
+	unlink(filename);
+	free(filename);
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static int systemd_timer_delete_units(const char *cmd)
+{
+	return systemd_timer_enable_unit(0, SCHEDULE_HOURLY, cmd) ||
+	       systemd_timer_enable_unit(0, SCHEDULE_DAILY, cmd) ||
+	       systemd_timer_enable_unit(0, SCHEDULE_WEEKLY, cmd) ||
+	       systemd_timer_delete_unit_templates();
+}
+
+static int systemd_timer_write_unit_templates(const char *exec_path)
+{
+	char *filename;
+	FILE *file;
+	const char *unit;
+
+	filename = systemd_timer_timer_filename();
+	if (safe_create_leading_directories(filename))
+		die(_("failed to create directories for '%s'"), filename);
+	file = xfopen(filename, "w");
+	free(filename);
+
+	unit = "[Unit]\n"
+	       "Description=Optimize Git repositories data\n"
+	       "\n"
+	       "[Timer]\n"
+	       "OnCalendar=%i\n"
+	       "Persistent=true\n"
+	       "\n"
+	       "[Install]\n"
+	       "WantedBy=timers.target\n";
+	fputs(unit, file);
+	fclose(file);
+
+	filename = systemd_timer_service_filename();
+	if (safe_create_leading_directories(filename))
+		die(_("failed to create directories for '%s'"), filename);
+	file = xfopen(filename, "w");
+	free(filename);
+
+	unit = "[Unit]\n"
+	       "Description=Optimize Git repositories data\n"
+	       "\n"
+	       "[Service]\n"
+	       "Type=oneshot\n"
+	       "ExecStart=\"%1$s/git\" --exec-path=\"%1$s\" for-each-repo --config=maintenance.repo maintenance run --schedule=%%i\n"
+	       "LockPersonality=yes\n"
+	       "MemoryDenyWriteExecute=yes\n"
+	       "NoNewPrivileges=yes\n"
+	       "RestrictAddressFamilies=AF_UNIX AF_INET AF_INET6\n"
+	       "RestrictNamespaces=yes\n"
+	       "RestrictRealtime=yes\n"
+	       "RestrictSUIDSGID=yes\n"
+	       "SystemCallArchitectures=native\n"
+	       "SystemCallFilter=@system-service\n";
+	fprintf(file, unit, exec_path);
+	fclose(file);
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+static int systemd_timer_setup_units(const char *cmd)
+{
+	const char *exec_path = git_exec_path();
+
+	return systemd_timer_write_unit_templates(exec_path) ||
+	       systemd_timer_enable_unit(1, SCHEDULE_HOURLY, cmd) ||
+	       systemd_timer_enable_unit(1, SCHEDULE_DAILY, cmd) ||
+	       systemd_timer_enable_unit(1, SCHEDULE_WEEKLY, cmd);
+}
+
+static int systemd_timer_update_schedule(int run_maintenance, int fd,
+					 const char *cmd)
+{
+	if (run_maintenance)
+		return systemd_timer_setup_units(cmd);
+	else
+		return systemd_timer_delete_units(cmd);
+}
+
 #if defined(__APPLE__)
 static const char platform_scheduler[] = "launchctl";
 #elif defined(GIT_WINDOWS_NATIVE)
 static const char platform_scheduler[] = "schtasks";
+#elif defined(__linux__)
+static const char platform_scheduler[] = "crontab_or_systemctl";
 #else
 static const char platform_scheduler[] = "crontab";
 #endif
@@ -1986,6 +2159,15 @@ static int update_background_schedule(int enable)
 		cmd = sep + 1;
 	}
 
+	if (!strcmp(scheduler, "crontab_or_systemctl")) {
+		if (is_systemd_timer_available("systemctl"))
+			scheduler = cmd = "systemctl";
+		else if (is_crontab_available("crontab"))
+			scheduler = cmd = "crontab";
+		else
+			die(_("Neither systemd timers nor crontab are available"));
+	}
+
 	if (hold_lock_file_for_update(&lk, lock_path, LOCK_NO_DEREF) < 0)
 		return error(_("another process is scheduling background maintenance"));
 
@@ -1995,10 +2177,14 @@ static int update_background_schedule(int enable)
 		result = schtasks_update_schedule(enable, get_lock_file_fd(&lk), cmd);
 	else if (!strcmp(scheduler, "crontab"))
 		result = crontab_update_schedule(enable, get_lock_file_fd(&lk), cmd);
+	else if (!strcmp(scheduler, "systemctl"))
+		result = systemd_timer_update_schedule(
+			enable, get_lock_file_fd(&lk), cmd);
 	else
-		die("unknown background scheduler: %s", scheduler);
+		die(_("unknown background scheduler: %s"), scheduler);
 
 	rollback_lock_file(&lk);
+	free(lock_path);
 	free(testing);
 	return result;
 }
diff --git a/t/t7900-maintenance.sh b/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
index 2412d8c5c0..dd281789f4 100755
--- a/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
+++ b/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
@@ -20,6 +20,20 @@ test_xmllint () {
 	fi
 }
 
+test_lazy_prereq SYSTEMD_ANALYZE '
+	systemd-analyze --help >out &&
+	grep -w verify out
+'
+
+test_systemd_analyze_verify () {
+	if test_have_prereq SYSTEMD_ANALYZE
+	then
+		systemd-analyze verify "$@"
+	else
+		true
+	fi
+}
+
 test_expect_success 'help text' '
 	test_expect_code 129 git maintenance -h 2>err &&
 	test_i18ngrep "usage: git maintenance <subcommand>" err &&
@@ -615,6 +629,43 @@ test_expect_success 'start and stop Windows maintenance' '
 	test_cmp expect args
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'start and stop Linux/systemd maintenance' '
+	write_script print-args <<-\EOF &&
+	echo $* >>args
+	EOF
+
+	rm -f args &&
+	GIT_TEST_MAINT_SCHEDULER="systemctl:./print-args" git maintenance start &&
+
+	# start registers the repo
+	git config --get --global --fixed-value maintenance.repo "$(pwd)" &&
+
+	test_systemd_analyze_verify "$HOME/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.service" &&
+
+	rm -f expect &&
+	for frequency in hourly daily weekly
+	do
+		echo "--user enable --now git-maintenance@${frequency}.timer" >>expect || return 1
+	done &&
+	test_cmp expect args &&
+
+	rm -f args &&
+	GIT_TEST_MAINT_SCHEDULER="systemctl:./print-args" git maintenance stop &&
+
+	# stop does not unregister the repo
+	git config --get --global --fixed-value maintenance.repo "$(pwd)" &&
+
+	test_path_is_missing "$HOME/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.timer" &&
+	test_path_is_missing "$HOME/.config/systemd/user/git-maintenance@.service" &&
+
+	rm -f expect &&
+	for frequency in hourly daily weekly
+	do
+		echo "--user disable --now git-maintenance@${frequency}.timer" >>expect || return 1
+	done &&
+	test_cmp expect args
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'register preserves existing strategy' '
 	git config maintenance.strategy none &&
 	git maintenance register &&
