# Courier vs Novu

> Novu has a score of 77.4 (BB) against Courier's 70.5 (BB). Both do notify push. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 16 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-novu
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-novu.md (~1,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-novu.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-novu.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

Novu has a score of 77.4 (BB) against Courier's 70.5 (BB). Both do notify push. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 16 points.

- Courier: grade BB, 70.5/100, rank #96 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/courier.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/courier.json
- Novu: grade BB, 77.4/100, rank #19 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/novu.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/novu.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Courier for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick Novu for schema & documentation (+8), agent ergonomics (+16), security & auth (+7), payments & pricing (+5), maintenance & community (+6), transparency & trust (+5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Courier | Novu | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 92 | 93 | Novu +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 92 | Novu +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 84 | Novu +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 63 | Novu +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | Novu +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 92 | Novu +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 70 | Novu +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.5 · BB** | **77.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Courier | Novu |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Courier | Novu |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.courier.com` | `https://api.novu.co/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (Node SDK) | MIT (core), commercial licence for the enterprise directories |
| Tools exposed | 170 | 30 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.trycourier/courier` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-28 |
| Popularity | 63 stars, 189k npm/wk, 35k PyPI/wk | 40k stars, 135k npm/wk, 25k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3.4/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**Courier.** Free for 10,000 sends a month, then $0.005 a send with no platform fee. 170 MCP tools with no toolsets, filtering or read-only mode.

**Novu.** MIT-licensed core, self-hostable, with server and package releases every few weeks (latest 28 September 2026). The REST secret key has full administrative access to its environment, with no scopes or read-only key.

## Before you call either

### Courier

1. Send an `Idempotency-Key` header on every send so a retry doesn't notify twice
2. Set `routing.method` to `single` to stop at the first channel that works
3. Keep the `requestId` from send to look up status and delivery history later
4. Use a dedicated API key for the MCP server. Every one of the 170 tools runs with that key's full rights
5. Space resends at least 2 seconds apart per message or you get a 429

### Novu

1. Send `Authorization: ApiKey <key>` to the REST API. Bearer is for the MCP server
2. Ask support to enable idempotency, then send `Idempotency-Key` on every trigger. A 409 means the first call is still running
3. Use eu.api.novu.co and eu.mcp.novu.co for an EU account. A US key won't authenticate there
4. Pass `environmentId` from `get_environments` on MCP calls. OAuth sessions default to Development
5. Keep `limit` at 100 or below on list calls. Higher values return 422

## Other comparisons with Courier or Novu

- [Courier vs Knock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-knock.md)
- [Courier vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-ntfy.md)
- [Courier vs OneSignal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-onesignal.md)
- [Courier vs Pushover](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-pushover.md)
- [Courier vs SuprSend](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-suprsend.md)
- [Knock vs Novu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-novu.md)
- [Novu vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-vs-ntfy.md)
- [Novu vs OneSignal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-vs-onesignal.md)
- [Novu vs Pushover](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-vs-pushover.md)
- [Novu vs SuprSend](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-vs-suprsend.md)