Gotify vs ntfy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted home automation options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Gotify
Simple self-hosted push notification server
VS
ntfy
Send push notifications to your phone via simple HTTP
| Feature | Gotify | ntfy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 98 · Excellent |
| Category | Home Automation | Home Automation |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 15,950 | ★ 34,377 |
| First released | 2018 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Pushover, Firebase Cloud Messaging | Pushover, Pushbullet |
What are Gotify and ntfy?
Gotify
Gotify is a self-hosted push notification server written in Go. Applications send messages through a REST API and users receive them via the web UI or the Gotify Android app. It ships as a single binary or Docker image with plugin support.
- Self-hosted push notifications
- REST API for sending
- Android app and web UI
- Plugin support
ntfy
ntfy is a simple, self-hostable pub-sub notification service that lets you send push notifications to phones and desktops via HTTP. It is widely used to deliver alerts from automation and scripts.
- HTTP-based notifications
- Android and iOS apps
- Topic-based pub-sub
- No account required
Gotify vs ntfy: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Gotify versus Apache-2.0 for ntfy. Gotify is the more established project (first released 2018), while ntfy arrived in 2021. Ntfy has the considerably larger community, at 34,377 GitHub stars versus 15,950.
Why pick each one
Choose Gotify if…
- Very lightweight
- Simple to integrate
Watch out for
- Android-focused apps
- No native iOS app
Choose ntfy if…
- Extremely easy to use
- Cross-platform apps
Watch out for
- Public instance has limits
- Self-hosting iOS needs config
Frequently asked questions
Is Gotify 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 Gotify and ntfy free and open-source?
Yes. Gotify is licensed under MIT and ntfy under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gotify and ntfy with Docker?
Gotify: yes. ntfy: yes.