OneSignal is a popular push notification service. It’s also one of the oldest push notification services in the market. But is OneSignal the best service out there? Are there some OneSignal alternatives that are way better?
The question isn’t even if there ARE OneSignal alternatives. The real question is: there are so many different push notification services. Which one should you choose?
Push notifications are a great way to increase repeat traffic, engagement, and sales on your site. But you want to be super sure that you’re getting your money’s worth out of your push notification software.
In this article, we will check out the seven best OneSignal alternatives in the market.
Let’s dive in.
Top 7 OneSignal Alternatives for Push Notifications
Before we start things off, you should know that some free push notification services are listed here. But most of these services aren’t 100% free. They either have a free basic model to get you started or a free trial for a limited number of days.
Yes, we know. You want some free stuff too. But before investing in free push notification services, check out our article on whether the “free forever” push notification services are actually free.
Spoiler alert: Most free push notification tools aren’t free at all. They come at a high cost.
Now that we have clear expectations let’s dive right in.
#1. PushEngage
PushEngage is the best push notifications service in the world. You can get started with a free basic version to kickstart your business, but if you’re serious about growing, you should really get the paid plans. PushEngage allows you to connect with visitors after leaving your site with targeted and personalized notifications.
PushEngage is our first choice for push notification services and tools because it’s:
- Extremely beginner-friendly
- Got options to set up multiple push notification optins to test and grow your subscribers
- Powered by a simple dashboard with zero coding knowledge required
- Easy to set up automated push notification campaigns that are super powerful
- Got multiple options to send personalized push notifications for higher click rates
- Integrated with custom goal tracking, UTM parameters, and advanced analytics
And this is barely scratching the surface. Check out PushEngage’s full list of features before you go any further.
But the most attractive part about PushEngage is that you can get started with a forever-free plan. And you can use it to actually grow your business using multiple customization options.
The free version allows up to 200 subscribers and 30 lifetime notifications. That’s good enough to get your business to a point where you can easily afford the paid plans starting from $9/month for up to 50,000 subscribers.
NOTE: PushEngage is the only push notification service that comes with a fully functioning WordPress plugin to send push campaigns directly from your WordPress dashboard. With other solutions, you’ll have to go back and forth between multiple dashboards for each campaign.
And don’t worry if you know absolutely nothing about coding. You can install PushEngage using one of the many installation guides for any website and CMS.
#2. VWO Push Notification Services
VWO (formerly PushCrew) is one of the leanest OneSignal alternatives in the market.
Their core focus is on customizable triggered push notifications for any visitor activity on your site. The activity that triggers a notification could be literally anything from a button click or time spent on a page or even scrolling down to a percentage of any page. It’s entirely up to you to decide how you want your notifications to get triggered.
Full Disclosure: You’ll need some developer support here because the automated campaigns on VWO are pretty advanced and are mostly based on their API. VWO’s segmentation tools and engagement campaigns are pretty limited as well.
The upside is that you get detailed analytics, subscriber segmentation options, and A/B testing.
In short: VWO’s perfect for a large organization with a tech team that understands how to implement web push using code.
Also, no free version. You get a 14-day free trial (no credit card), and then you get charged $99/month for up to 10,000 subscribers and unlimited notifications.
#3. Webpushr
Webpushr is another straightforward but easy-to-use OneSignal alternative.
The dashboard is highly focused. So, if you’re not used to marketing software, you’re not going to get overwhelmed with this solution. You get standard targeting and personalization features along with powerful integrations with WordPress and WooCommerce.
So, your campaigns are going to be easy to deploy as well.
Webpushr gives you full access to all their features on all subscriptions, including their free tier. The only restriction is in how many subscribers you can have. The free plan supports up to 10,000 subscribers. So, if you’re just getting started with push notifications and you want to test things out, Webpushr’s a fairly good option.
The problem begins when you start paying for higher subscriptions. Webpushr’s paid plans start at $29/month for only 50,000 subscribers and can get pricey real fast.
#4. PushAssist
PushAssist gives you an interface that’s very similar to Firebase or Google Analytics. So, if you have some experience with either software, PushAssist will fit in nicely with your marketing team.
As with all other top-tier push notification tools, PushAssist comes with segmentation tools, push notification scheduling tools, personalization options, support for most popular browsers, and detailed analytics.
Like PushEngage, you can also sign up to be a publisher partner to show ads using push notifications and monetize your blog. PushAssist’s free plan gets you 3,000 subscribers and unlimited notifications.
The only downside is for the free plan is that you can’t get rid of the PushAssist branding from your push notifications unless you buy the Business plan that starts from $25/month for up to 3,500 subscribers.
Side note: While we haven’t found anything unethical in PushAssist’s software, we’d ask you to be a little bit wary of any OneSignal alternative that offers unlimited notifications. Sustaining a server that runs push notification software can be pretty expensive. So, using a service without a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) can be very dangerous. That’s why we don’t recommend using Firebase Cloud Messaging, even though it’s free.
#5. iZooto
iZooto is a popular push notification service. Like all the other big players in the industry, iZooto offers real-time push notifications, recurring notifications, and scheduled notifications.
What we loved about iZooto was that they focused heavily on personalization. Their optins are built to capture visitor attributes and interests (a fancy way of saying that they store personal details to personalize their campaigns).
Pro Tips: Don’t go overboard with the customer data you collect. And if you do, make sure that your push notifications are 100% GDPR compliant.
The flip side of using iZooto is that it doesn’t work on sites without an SSL certificate.
iZooto costs from $85/month, which gives you up to 30,000 subscribers and unlimited notifications. Considering the plan’s pricing, we can safely say that it is pricey. But with that pricing model, they can actually support sending unlimited notifications.
The best part is that you can take a 14-day free trial (no credit card required).
#6. Pushnami
Pushnami isn’t your average OneSignal alternative.
Yes, you can use Pushnami to send push notifications. But their model is mostly meant for big publishers. So, if you have a ton of traffic and are looking for a way to increase your revenue from your existing content, Pushnami is perfect for you.
Pushnami finds big publishers to partner with and they offer their push notification service in exchange for sending ads via push notifications. The revenue that these ads make is then split between the publisher and Pushnami.
Like PushEngage, they have active partnerships with advertising platforms such as Taboola and Outbrain to serve relevant ads using push notifications. Unlike PushEngage, Pushnami’s not meant to support small to mid-tier businesses.
They have a pretty dynamic pricing model, too. You either pay $0.01 per subscriber/month with a discount on a high volume of subscribers, or you pay nothing and become a partner!
#7. Wonderpush
Wonderpush comes with all the standard features as the other push notification apps on this list.
The core focus of Wonderpush seems to be eCommerce push notification campaigns. It’s effortless to set up a cart abandonment campaign. It’s also fairly easy to personalize your push notifications.
Wonderpush allows you to add unlimited members to your dashboard as well. So, if you’re looking for a OneSignal alternative for eCommerce sites, this is a good pick.
Like Webpushr, Wonderpush also gives you full access to all their features, but you can collect only a limited number of subscribers. They offer a 14-day free trial (no credit cards needed) for their paid plan.
The plan itself is straightforward. Pricing starts at €1 per month for up to 1,000 subscribers. After that, it’s an extra €1 for every 1,000 subscribers. The only thing that puts us off about Wonderpush is that it’s costly after a point because they don’t seem to offer bulk discounts.
Final Verdict
PushEngage is the best OneSingal alternative in the market.
In terms of features, there’s little to no contest. PushEngage has a full range of automation, personalization, targeting, and scheduling features that make it a great fit for all types of businesses.
We recommend using PushEngage. PushEngage is the #1 push notification software in the world. It’s also the only push notification service with a WordPress plugin that allows you to send and manage push campaigns directly from your WordPress dashboard and post editor.
There’s no switching cost involved if you want to move from OneSignal to PushEngage either. You get a super supportive Customer Success team to help you migrate your push subscriber list. After that, the dashboard itself is built to help you get a good return on your investment.
And the best part is that PushEngage is priced in a way that makes it a good fit at every stage of growth, whether you’re looking to start, grow, or scale your business. The philosophy behind PushEngage is to empower small businesses to compete with big brands.
So, if you haven’t already, get started with PushEngage today to get to the next level!
