# ntfy vs Pushover

> ntfy has a score of 61.6 (C) against Pushover's 53.3 (D). Both do notify push. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 47 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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

ntfy has a score of 61.6 (C) against Pushover's 53.3 (D). Both do notify push. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 47 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
- Pushover: grade D, 53.3/100, rank #334 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pushover.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pushover.json

## Which one, for what

Pick ntfy for reliability (+21), payments & pricing (+20), maintenance & community (+47).

Pick Pushover for security & auth (+14), transparency & trust (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ntfy | Pushover | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 83 | 62 | ntfy +21 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 53 | 50 | ntfy +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 64 | ntfy +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 52 | Pushover +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 30 | ntfy +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 20 | ntfy +47 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 89 | Pushover +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.6 · C** | **53.3 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ntfy | Pushover |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | ntfy | Pushover |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://ntfy.sh` | `https://api.pushover.net/1/messages.json` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 and GPL-2.0 (dual) | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 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 | no | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-08-27 | 2026-06-23 |
| Popularity | 34k stars | none |
| 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.

**Pushover.** One POST with three required fields, form or JSON. Recipients need the app, $4.99 per platform after a 30-day trial.

## 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

### Pushover

1. Use priority 2 with `retry` (30 or more) and `expire` (10,800 or less) when a person must act, then poll the receipt
2. Don't retry a 4xx. Fix the parameter named in `errors`. Wait at least 5 seconds before retrying a 5xx
3. Read `X-Limit-App-Remaining` before a batch. Over the monthly quota every send returns 429
4. Keep messages to 1,024 characters and titles to 250
5. Send to a group key to reach several people in one call. Each person still counts against the quota

## Other comparisons with ntfy or Pushover

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