# ntfy vs OneSignal

> OneSignal has a score of 69.6 (B) against ntfy's 61.6 (C). Both do notify push. The largest gap is security & auth, 36 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ntfy-vs-onesignal
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ntfy-vs-onesignal.md (~1,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ntfy-vs-onesignal.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ntfy-vs-onesignal.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: 2026-10-05

OneSignal has a score of 69.6 (B) against ntfy's 61.6 (C). Both do notify push. The largest gap is security & auth, 36 points.

- 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
- 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 ntfy for reliability (+13), payments & pricing (+15).

Pick OneSignal for schema & documentation (+34), security & auth (+36), maintenance & community (+14).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ntfy | OneSignal | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 83 | 70 | ntfy +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 87 | OneSignal +34 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 64 | ntfy +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 74 | OneSignal +36 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 35 | ntfy +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 81 | OneSignal +14 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 76 | ntfy +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.6 · C** | **69.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ntfy | OneSignal |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | ntfy | OneSignal |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://ntfy.sh` | `https://api.onesignal.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 and GPL-2.0 (dual) | Modified MIT (Node SDK, use limited to OneSignal's services) |
| Tools exposed | none | 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 | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-08-27 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 34k stars | 52 stars, 231k npm/wk, 28k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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

### 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 ntfy or OneSignal

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