How much does Amazon SNS cost?

Amazon SNS uses pure usage-based pricing with no fixed plans or monthly minimums. After the free 1 million mobile push notifications per month, additional push notifications cost $0.50 per million. There is no separate subscription fee for the push capability itself.

Is Pusher Beams free to use?

Yes. Pusher Beams has a free Sandbox plan that supports up to 1,000 subscribers with standard support, full documentation access, and 24/7 platform monitoring. Beyond that, paid plans start at the Startup tier once you need more subscribers.

Can I use AWS SNS and Pusher Beams together?

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.

AWS SNS vs Pusher Beams

Two push notification providers, compared on price, features and ratings, so you can pick fast.

AWS SNS wins price and compliancePusher Beams wins platform coverage and features

Updated October 2026

At a glanceAWS SNSPusher Beams

Entry priceFreeFree

Free tierYesYes

G2 rating4.24.3

Trustpilot1.81.8

THE VERDICT

AWS SNS wins on price and compliance. Pusher Beams wins on platform coverage and features.

AWS SNS starts at Free versus Pusher Beams's Free. Pusher Beams rates higher with developers (4.3 vs 4.2 on G2). Pick based on volume and team, and the scorecard below breaks down where each one leads.

Which should you choose?

Pick AWS SNS

✓If you have a large contact base, Amazon SNS is a great option for sending notifications and messages.

Set up AWS SNS with Courier →

Pick Pusher Beams

✓You need a straightforward push notification API for iOS, Android, and web without a full engagement suite

✓Your team wants native SDKs plus server libraries across common backend languages

✓You want simple, flat, self-serve pricing tied to subscriber count

✓You do not need built-in in-app messaging, journeys, or audience segmentation

Feature by feature

Winner cells are tinted, green where AWS SNS leads, violet where Pusher Beams does.

capability

AWS SNS

Pusher Beams

Pricing

Starting paid plan

$0/mo

$29/mo

Free tier

1M mobile push/mo free (permanent)

Free Sandbox plan for up to 1,000 subscribers

Pricing model

Usage-based (AWS)

Flat monthly tiers by subscriber count ($29/10k, $99/50k, $199/115k, $399/250k), custom above that

Platforms

iOS

Yes

Android

Yes

Web push

Yes

Desktop

Yes

Capabilities

Segmentation

Yes

In-app messaging

Journeys / automation

A/B testing

Geofencing

Rich media

Yes

Developer experience

Official SDKs

AWS SDKs (Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, Go, Ruby, PHP, C++, Rust, Kotlin, Swift)

iOS (Swift/macOS), Android (Kotlin/Java), Web (JavaScript), Flutter; server: Go, PHP, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Java/Kotlin, Swift

REST API

Yes

Event webhooks

Yes

Compliance

SOC 2

Yes

HIPAA

BAA

Unknown

GDPR

Yes

Support

Support channels

AWS Support (free Basic; paid tiers add email/chat/phone)

Email/ticket support; docs and tutorials; standard tiers get best-effort response, Business/Premium tiers target 24-hour response

24/7 support

Yes

FAQ

Common questions

AWS SNS starts at Free versus Pusher Beams's Free. Compare your expected monthly volume against the per-message rates above.

Keep comparing

Related comparisons

Airship vs AWS SNSPush→AWS SNS vs Apple Push NotificationPush→AWS SNS vs BeamerPush→AWS SNS vs ExpoPush→AWS SNS vs Firebase FCMPush→AWS SNS vs MagicBellPush→

Why not both?

Use both behind one API.

Route AWS SNS, Pusher Beams, or both, and switch providers without changing your code. Courier sits in front of every channel.

Start building free Read the docs

Pricing, plans and feature availability as of October 2026 and may change. Ratings are aggregated from public review platforms.