# Novu vs ntfy

> Novu has a score of 77.4 (BB) against ntfy's 61.6 (C). Both do notify push. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 39 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-vs-ntfy
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-vs-ntfy.md (~1,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-vs-ntfy.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/novu-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: 2026-10-04

Novu has a score of 77.4 (BB) against ntfy's 61.6 (C). Both do notify push. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 39 points.

- 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
- ntfy: grade C, 61.6/100, rank #226 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ntfy.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ntfy.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Novu for reliability (+10), schema & documentation (+39), agent ergonomics (+18), security & auth (+25), maintenance & community (+25).

Pick ntfy for payments & pricing (+10), transparency & trust (+9).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Novu | ntfy | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 93 | 83 | Novu +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 53 | Novu +39 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 66 | Novu +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 38 | Novu +25 |
| 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) | 92 | 67 | Novu +25 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 79 | ntfy +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **77.4 · BB** | **61.6 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Novu | ntfy |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Novu | ntfy |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.novu.co/v1` | `https://ntfy.sh` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (core), commercial licence for the enterprise directories | Apache-2.0 and GPL-2.0 (dual) |
| Tools exposed | 30 | none |
| 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 | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-08-27 |
| Popularity | 40k stars, 135k npm/wk, 25k PyPI/wk | 34k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.4/5 (8) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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

### 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

## Other comparisons with Novu or ntfy

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