# Expo Push Notifications vs ntfy

> ntfy scores 61.5 (C) to Expo Push Notifications's 58.8 (C) for push notifications. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-ntfy
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-ntfy.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-ntfy.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-ntfy.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: 2026-10-09

ntfy scores 61.5 (C) on agent readiness against Expo Push Notifications's 58.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Expo Push Notifications leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do push notifications.

- Expo Push Notifications: grade C, 58.8/100, rank #571 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/expo-push-notifications.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/expo-push-notifications.json
- ntfy: grade C, 61.5/100, rank #464 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ntfy.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ntfy.json
- Best notification APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/notifications/index.md
- All 66 notifications comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notifications/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Expo Push Notifications (C)

Good for: An agent that must push to an app already built with Expo, at no cost and with one call for both platforms.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 60 against 53
- Security & auth, 48 against 38
- Maintenance & community, 74 against 67

Watch for: The send API needs no authentication by default, so anyone holding a push token can send to that device until the owner enables access tokens

### ntfy (C)

Good for: An agent that has to reach its own operator or a small team on their phones with no setup.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 83 against 65
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 68

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: Unreserved topics on ntfy.sh can be read and written by anyone who knows the name


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Expo Push Notifications | ntfy | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 83 | ntfy +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 53 | Expo Push Notifications +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 66 | ntfy +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 48 | 38 | Expo Push Notifications +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 50 | ntfy +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 67 | Expo Push Notifications +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 78 | ntfy +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58.8 · C** | **61.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Expo Push Notifications | ntfy |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Expo | ntfy |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://exp.host/--/api/v2/push/send` | `https://ntfy.sh` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Expo's terms of service. The Node.js server SDK is MIT | Apache-2.0 and GPL-2.0 (dual) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-08-24 | 2026-08-27 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-05-29 | 2026-01-26 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-10-21 | 2026-06-15 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1k stars, 1.3M npm/wk | 34k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Expo Push Notifications.** A free push relay with a small, well documented HTTP API, published limits of 600 notifications a second and written error codes. Sending needs no credential unless the owner turns on access tokens, there is no idempotency key or SLA, and the status page records three iOS push incidents since 4 August 2026.

**ntfy.** Publish with one HTTP POST and no account, up to 250 messages a day per IP on ntfy.sh. Unreserved topics on ntfy.sh can be read and written by anyone who knows the name.

## Before you call either

### Expo Push Notifications

1. Send an array of up to 100 messages per request, all for one project, and stay under 600 notifications a second
2. Keep each ticket `id` and POST them to `/--/api/v2/push/getReceipts` about 15 minutes later. Receipts are cleared after 24 hours
3. Stop sending to a token when a ticket or receipt returns `DeviceNotRegistered`
4. If the project has enhanced push security on, send `Authorization: Bearer <access token>` or the call fails with `UNAUTHORIZED`
5. Retry 429 and 5xx with exponential backoff, and expect an occasional duplicate because there is no idempotency key

### ntfy

1. Use a long random topic name, or a reserved topic with a Bearer token
2. Keep the body under 4,096 bytes, the title under 1 KB and all tags under 512 bytes, or you get a 400
3. Don't blind-retry a publish. There's no idempotency key, so the person gets it twice
4. Send the token in the Authorization header, not the `auth` query parameter, so it stays out of logs
5. Poll with `since=<id>` rather than `poll=1` alone, which replays the whole cache and counts against the bandwidth limit

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Expo Push Notifications or ntfy?

ntfy scores 61.5 (C) on agent readiness against Expo Push Notifications's 58.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Expo Push Notifications leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and maintenance & community.

### Do Expo Push Notifications and ntfy need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Expo Push Notifications and ntfy without installing anything?

Yes. Expo Push Notifications has a hosted endpoint at https://exp.host/--/api/v2/push/send and ntfy at https://ntfy.sh.

### Are Expo Push Notifications and ntfy open source?

No open-source release is listed for Expo Push Notifications. ntfy is open source (Apache-2.0 and GPL-2.0 (dual)).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-ntfy.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-ntfy.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "expo-push-notifications", "b": "ntfy"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare expo-push-notifications ntfy`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/expo-push-notifications.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ntfy.json

## Other comparisons with Expo Push Notifications or ntfy

- [Amazon SNS vs Expo Push Notifications](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-sns-vs-expo-push-notifications.md)
- [Amazon SNS vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-sns-vs-ntfy.md)
- [Courier vs Expo Push Notifications](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-expo-push-notifications.md)
- [Courier vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-ntfy.md)
- [Expo Push Notifications vs Firebase Cloud Messaging](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-firebase-cloud-messaging.md)
- [Expo Push Notifications vs Knock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-knock.md)
- [Expo Push Notifications vs MagicBell](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-magicbell.md)
- [Expo Push Notifications vs Novu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-novu.md)
- [Expo Push Notifications vs OneSignal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-onesignal.md)
- [Expo Push Notifications vs Pingram](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-pingram.md)
- [Expo Push Notifications vs Pushover](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-pushover.md)
- [Expo Push Notifications vs SuprSend](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expo-push-notifications-vs-suprsend.md)
- [Firebase Cloud Messaging vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firebase-cloud-messaging-vs-ntfy.md)
- [Knock vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-ntfy.md)
- [MagicBell vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/magicbell-vs-ntfy.md)
- [Novu vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-vs-ntfy.md)
- [ntfy vs OneSignal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ntfy-vs-onesignal.md)
- [ntfy vs Pingram](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ntfy-vs-pingram.md)
- [ntfy vs Pushover](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ntfy-vs-pushover.md)
- [ntfy vs SuprSend](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ntfy-vs-suprsend.md)