# Novu vs OneSignal

> Novu has a score of 77.4 (BB) against OneSignal's 69.6 (B). Both do notify push. The largest gap is reliability, 23 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- 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 OneSignal's 69.6 (B). Both do notify push. The largest gap is reliability, 23 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
- OneSignal: grade B, 69.6/100, rank #110 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/onesignal.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/onesignal.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Novu for reliability (+23), schema & documentation (+5), agent ergonomics (+20), payments & pricing (+5), maintenance & community (+11).

Pick OneSignal for security & auth (+11), transparency & trust (+6).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Novu | OneSignal | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 93 | 70 | Novu +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 87 | Novu +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 64 | Novu +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 74 | OneSignal +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 35 | Novu +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 92 | 81 | Novu +11 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 76 | OneSignal +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **77.4 · BB** | **69.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Novu | OneSignal |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Novu | OneSignal |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.novu.co/v1` | `https://api.onesignal.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (core), commercial licence for the enterprise directories | Modified MIT (Node SDK, use limited to OneSignal's services) |
| Tools exposed | 30 | 43 |
| 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 | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 40k stars, 135k npm/wk, 25k PyPI/wk | 52 stars, 231k npm/wk, 28k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.4/5 (8) | 3.5/5 (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.

**OneSignal.** Runs push delivery itself, so there's no separate push provider to wire up. Three incidents on the API and SDK endpoints in September 2026.

## 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

### OneSignal

1. Use `Authorization: Key <key>`, not Bearer, and put `app_id` in the body
2. Send an `idempotency_key` UUID with every create call and reuse it on each retry
3. On 429, wait for `Retry-After`, then back off with jitter, up to 10 attempts
4. Stay under 10 sends per subscribed subscription in 15 minutes or the app is disabled
5. Target people with `include_aliases.external_id` and set `target_channel`

## Other comparisons with Novu or OneSignal

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