# ntfy

41 Hacker News commenters recommended ntfy and 11 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Simple, reliable way to send push notifications from scripts and apps to your phone, self-hostable and free. Caveat: iOS notifications and battery use are the common complaints.

## Why people recommend it

- Easy to send scripted notifications (5 comments): "Incredibly useful to give any app the ability to send you a notification with a single line of code or shell" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49300178)) "I even get a ntfy notification when requests are made and fulfilled." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48991980)) "I have a ntfy topic to alert from Pi when it needs something." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50299346))
- Self-hosting option keeps data private (4 comments): "ntfy can help you manage notifications across devices on your own infrastructure, no 3rd parties." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46495806)) "Self-hosting UnifiedPush / ntfy drops FCM / Google Play Services as a requirement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47526321)) "notify me on my Android phone through a self-hosted https://ntfy.sh server" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48459621))
- Reliable, instant delivery (3 comments): "I use it and it's extremely consistently delivered instantly, which makes sense, it's a websocket." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46957669)) "Such a great, simple and reliable service" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49299324)) "it does its one thing well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49891895))
- Low battery use (2 comments): "which uses your browser's existing push notification service and should not consume any additional battery" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49300033)) "Doesn't chew my battery too much." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49300055))

## What people warn about

- iOS notifications unreliable (3 comments): "I had all sorts of nfty notification to ios issues despite lots of trial and error" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49300415)) "it doesn't break every other week on iOS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47449133)) "The iOS client had issue showing images" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49307901))
- Battery drain or delayed delivery (2 comments): "So it either drains battery and gets significant delays (as per ntfy's own docs), or it still uses Google's solution." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46956039)) "their Android app used to drain my battery fast" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49302873))
- Public server limits for some uses (2 comments): "I can't use it at all except for inconsequential notifications from my laptop (residential IP) or my phone (mobile IP)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49302739)) "Publicly hosted version is nearly useless if you'd like to use it to send notifications from your tiny workers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49302645))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Pushover](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pushover.md): 13 recommend
- [Firebase Cloud Messaging](https://hackerapproved.com/p/firebase-cloud-messaging.md): 8 recommend
- [Apprise](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apprise.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ntfy", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ntfy/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).