# OneSignal vs Pushover

> OneSignal has a score of 69.6 (B) against Pushover's 53.3 (D). Both do notify push. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 61 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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

OneSignal has a score of 69.6 (B) against Pushover's 53.3 (D). Both do notify push. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 61 points.

- 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
- 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 OneSignal for reliability (+8), schema & documentation (+37), security & auth (+22), payments & pricing (+5), maintenance & community (+61).

Pick Pushover for transparency & trust (+13).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | OneSignal | Pushover | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 62 | OneSignal +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 50 | OneSignal +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 64 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 52 | OneSignal +22 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 30 | OneSignal +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 20 | OneSignal +61 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 89 | Pushover +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.6 · B** | **53.3 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | OneSignal | Pushover |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | OneSignal | Pushover |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.onesignal.com` | `https://api.pushover.net/1/messages.json` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Modified MIT (Node SDK, use limited to OneSignal's services) | none |
| Tools exposed | 43 | 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 | 2026-09-30 | 2026-06-23 |
| Popularity | 52 stars, 231k npm/wk, 28k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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`

### 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

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- [Pushover vs SuprSend](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pushover-vs-suprsend.md)