Apprise vs Ntfy: Push Notifications Compared
Quick Verdict
These tools solve different problems. Ntfy is a push notification server — it sends alerts directly to your phone via its Android/iOS app, with no third-party accounts needed. Apprise is a notification aggregator — it takes one API call and fans it out to 100+ services (Slack, Discord, Telegram, email, and more). Use Ntfy when you want phone notifications. Use Apprise when you want to notify multiple platforms simultaneously. Many homelabs run both.
What Each Tool Does
Ntfy is a pub/sub notification service. You publish messages to a topic, and anyone subscribed to that topic gets a push notification. It has dedicated Android and iOS apps, a web UI, and supports attachments, priority levels, and click actions. Think of it as your own private push notification service.
Apprise is a notification relay. You send it a message via REST API, and it forwards that message to whichever services you’ve configured — Discord webhooks, Telegram bots, Slack channels, email, Pushover, Gotify, and 90+ more. It has a web UI for managing configurations but no mobile app — it relies on the target services for delivery.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Apprise | Ntfy |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile app | No (uses target service apps) | Yes (Android + iOS + PWA) |
| Supported targets | 100+ services | Phone push + webhooks + email |
| Web UI | Config manager + test sender | Message feed + subscribe |
| REST API | Yes | Yes |
| Authentication | API key (optional) | Token-based + user accounts |
| Message priority | 4 levels (info/success/warning/failure) | 5 levels (min/low/default/high/urgent) |
| Attachments | Yes (configurable size limit) | Yes (up to 15 MB default) |
| Click actions | No | Yes (open URL, broadcast, HTTP request) |
| Scheduled delivery | No | Yes (delay messages) |
| Message persistence | No (fire-and-forget) | Yes (cached for offline delivery) |
| Docker containers | 1 | 1 |
| RAM usage | ~50 MB | ~50 MB |
| Language | Python | Go |
| License | BSD 2-Clause | Apache 2.0 + GPL 2.0 |
Architecture Differences
Ntfy works on a publish/subscribe model. Clients subscribe to named topics and receive push notifications when messages arrive. Messages are cached server-side so devices that were offline get them when they reconnect. The mobile apps maintain a persistent connection for real-time delivery.
Apprise works on a relay model. Each API call sends a message through configured notification URLs. There’s no subscription mechanism — Apprise is a stateless relay that receives a message and immediately dispatches it to configured targets. If a target service is down, the message is lost.
Ntfy: Monitoring → Ntfy Server → Ntfy App (phone push)
Apprise: Monitoring → Apprise → Slack + Discord + Email + TelegramWhen to Use Each
Choose Ntfy If…
- You want push notifications on your phone without installing Slack, Discord, or Telegram
- You need offline message delivery (messages wait for your device to reconnect)
- You want scheduled or delayed notifications
- You want click actions on notifications (open a URL, trigger an HTTP request)
- You only need to notify yourself or a small team
- You want a single, focused notification channel for homelab alerts
Choose Apprise If…
- You need to notify multiple platforms simultaneously (Slack + Discord + email from one API call)
- You’re connecting tools that already have webhook support (Uptime Kuma, Grafana, Prometheus)
- You want to centralize notification configuration across your entire homelab
- You need to reach people on different platforms (some on Slack, some on Telegram, some via email)
- You want to version-control your notification targets (Apprise configs are URL-based text files)
Run Both If…
Many homelabs benefit from running both. Use Apprise as the central notification hub, and include Ntfy as one of Apprise’s targets:
Monitoring → Apprise → Ntfy (phone) + Discord (team) + Email (archive)Apprise supports Ntfy natively — just add ntfy://your-ntfy-server/topic or ntfys://your-ntfy-server/topic to your Apprise configuration. This gives you phone push notifications AND multi-platform delivery from a single API endpoint.
Monitoring Integration
Both tools integrate well with self-hosted monitoring:
| Monitoring Tool | Apprise Integration | Ntfy Integration |
|---|---|---|
| Uptime Kuma | Built-in Apprise support | Built-in Ntfy support |
| Grafana | Webhook to Apprise API | Webhook to Ntfy API |
| Prometheus | Alertmanager webhook | Alertmanager webhook |
| Shell scripts | curl to REST API | curl to REST API |
| Portainer | Webhook | Webhook |
Uptime Kuma supports both natively — just pick which one fits your workflow.
Final Verdict
Ntfy and Apprise aren’t competitors — they’re complementary tools that solve different problems. Ntfy is for getting alerts on your phone. Apprise is for routing alerts to every platform your team uses. If you only run one, pick based on your primary need: Ntfy for personal phone notifications, Apprise for multi-platform team alerting.
For the most robust homelab notification setup, run both: Apprise as the central relay, with Ntfy as one of its configured targets for mobile push.
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