Apprise vs ntfy

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureApprisentfy
CategoryAutomation & WorkflowsHome Automation
LicenseBSD-2-ClauseApache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM64 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 17,011★ 33,263
First released20172021
ReplacesPushoverPushover, Pushbullet

Why pick each one

Choose Apprise if…

  • Massive service coverage
  • Easy to embed
Apprise details

Choose ntfy if…

  • Extremely easy to use
  • Cross-platform apps
ntfy details

Frequently asked questions

Is Apprise or ntfy better?

Neither is universally better. ntfy has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Apprise and ntfy free and open-source?

Yes. Apprise is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and ntfy under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Apprise and ntfy with Docker?

Apprise: yes. ntfy: yes.

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