head to head · open source
novu vs Ntfy
novu has 40,249 GitHub stars, 4,522 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ntfy has 35,241 stars, 1,692 forks, 393 open issues and last shipped yesterday. novu leads on adoption by 14% (40,249 vs 35,241 stars). novu is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Ntfy is written in Go under Apache-2.0. novu has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Ntfy 5%. Ntfy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (notifications, push-notifications), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| novu | Ntfy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 35K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.5K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick novu if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Ntfy if
- You want the Ntfy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Ntfy fits your workflow better
About novu
The open source communication infrastructure for agents and products One API and one unified conversation model to connect your products and your agents to every channel your users live on — Inbox, Email, SMS, Push, Chat, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, and more. Learn More » Report a bug · Docs · Website · Join our Discord · Changelog · Roadmap · X · Contact us Software is becoming more conversational, and user expectations are rising with it. People no longer want static, irrelevant notifications they glance at and forget, they want to engage, ask questions, and go deeper. Instead of a one way report dropped…
About Ntfy
Special thanks to: Warp, built for coding with multiple AI agents. Available for MacOS, Linux, & Windows ntfy.sh Send push notifications to your phone or desktop via PUT/POST ntfy (pronounced " notify ") is a simple HTTP based pub sub notification service. With ntfy, you can send notifications to your phone or desktop via scripts from any computer, without having to sign up or pay any fees . If you'd like to run your own instance of the service, you can easily do so since ntfy is open source. You can access the free version of ntfy at ntfy.sh . There is also an open source Android app available on Google Play or…
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Frequently asked questions
Is novu or Ntfy more popular?
novu has 40,249 GitHub stars and Ntfy has 35,241. novu has the larger community by that measure.
Are novu and Ntfy free?
Both are open source. novu has no licence declared in this registry, and Ntfy is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between novu and Ntfy?
novu is written in TypeScript and Ntfy in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, novu or Ntfy?
Choose novu if you want the larger community (40,249 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Ntfy if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.