Two push notification providers, compared on price, features and ratings, so you can pick fast.
Updated September 2026
THE VERDICT
Firebase FCM wins on price and reach. OneSignal wins on features and ease.
FCM is Google's free push transport, unlimited and reliable, but bare-bones: no segmentation UI, journeys, or delivery webhooks. OneSignal builds a full engagement layer on top, advanced segmentation, in-app, journeys, A/B testing, geofencing, and dashboards, with a generous free tier and paid plans from ~$9/mo. Pick FCM if you want free, code-level control; OneSignal if you want marketing features without building them.
Winner cells are tinted, green where Firebase FCM leads, violet where OneSignal Push does.
FAQ
Firebase FCM starts at Free versus OneSignal Push's $9. Compare your expected monthly volume against the per-message rates above.
FCM has no per-message cost. Push notification sending is free and unlimited on all Firebase plans, including the free Spark plan. You only pay if you use adjacent Firebase or Google Cloud services (such as Cloud Functions to trigger sends), which are billed separately under the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan.
Yes. OneSignal's Free plan offers unlimited mobile push sends at no cost, one of the more generous free tiers in the push notification market. It also includes up to 10,000 web push subscribers per send and 10,000 email sends per month, plus one journey and basic segmentation. Higher volumes and advanced features require a paid plan.
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 Firebase FCM, OneSignal Push, or both, and switch providers without changing your code. Courier sits in front of every channel.
Pricing, plans and feature availability as of September 2026 and may change. Ratings are aggregated from public review platforms. Firebase FCM is a Google product.