Two push notification providers, compared on price, features and ratings, so you can pick fast.
Updated October 2026
THE VERDICT
Airship wins on developer experience and platform coverage. Apple Push Notification wins on native Apple delivery.
Airship and Apple Push Notification take different pricing approaches. Apple Push Notification rates higher with developers (4.3 vs 3.6 on G2). Pick based on volume and team, and the scorecard below breaks down where each one leads.
Winner cells are tinted, green where Airship leads, violet where Apple Push Notification does.
FAQ
Apple Push Notification rates higher on G2 (4.3 vs 3.6). Ratings are aggregated from public review platforms as of the date shown.
Airship does not publish list prices. Pricing is custom and usage-based, driven mainly by monthly active users (MAU), message volume, and the channels and features selected. Third-party and industry estimates commonly place annual deals starting around 25,000 to 30,000 USD for smaller deployments, scaling into the hundreds of thousands for large enterprises.
Yes. APNs itself is free and does not charge per notification or by volume. The only required Apple cost is the Apple Developer Program membership at 99 USD per year, which you need to generate the keys or certificates. You still pay for your own server infrastructure that maintains connections to APNs and sends the requests.
Yes. Many teams route different message types through different providers or fail over between them. Courier lets you send through both behind a single API and switch providers without changing your code.
Why not both?
Use both behind one API.
Route Airship, Apple Push Notification, or both, and switch providers without changing your code. Courier sits in front of every channel.
Pricing, plans and feature availability as of October 2026 and may change. Ratings are aggregated from public review platforms.