anypush, Pushover, ntfy and Healthchecks.io compared
Four ways to get alerts on your phone, and what each is best at. anypush puts a doorbell page, a daily check-in, email-to-push, a webhook and an alert on silence in one channel, on Android.
| anypush | Pushover | ntfy | Healthchecks.io | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone that receives | Android 7 and up | iPhone, Android and desktop | Android and iPhone | None of its own; it alerts through email and other services |
| A page anyone can tap, with a printable QR sign | Yes | No | No | No |
| A daily I'm OK check-in | Yes | No | No | No |
| An alert when a job goes quiet | Yes, on any channel | No | No | Yes, it is what it is for |
| A URL scripts can call | Yes | Yes, with an app token | Yes | Yes, to report in |
| Run it on your own server | No | No | Yes, open source | Yes, open source |
| Price | Free: 3 channels. Plus: €3.99 a month or €29.99 a year, a pass that never renews by itself | $4.99 once per platform, after a 30-day trial | Free on ntfy.sh, with paid plans | Free for up to 20 checks, with paid plans |
Which one fits
- anypush, when the alerts start with people as well as scripts: a doorbell sign, a daily check-in for someone who lives alone, forwarded emails, and a cron job that must not go quiet, all on one Android phone, with no app for whoever sends.
- Pushover, when you want one paid app on iPhone, Android and desktop for alerts from many apps and services.
- ntfy, when you want to run the server yourself, or need an iPhone app with an open-source server.
- Healthchecks.io, when you watch many cron jobs with a team, and want their alerts in the tools you already use.
None of these is an emergency service. Alerts are best effort, and for anything critical a second way of being told is wise.
See anypush at work: scripts and cron jobs, email to push, the QR doorbell and the daily check-in.
Get anypush
Free to start, no ads. Android 7 and up.