Courier vs Pusher: pricing, quotas & features (2025)
Notification API with multi-channel orchestration, templates, and preferences
vs. Realtime pub/sub WebSocket Channels + programmatic push (Beams)
Data sourced from vendor documentation · Last updated May 2026
Summary
Courier and Pusher are both notifications platforms, addressing the same core use case with different implementation philosophies and trade-offs. Both offer a free tier, making it easy to prototype without a credit card. Pusher's paid plans start at $29/month, lower than Courier's entry point at $99/month. Courier has a broader documented feature set (13 vs 11 features). Budget-sensitive teams will find Pusher easier to justify early on. All pricing and quota data below is sourced from Courier and Pusher's official documentation — not generated by AI or estimated.
Courier vs Pusher: Comparativa de precios, cuotas y características (2025)
En esta comparativa analizamos Courier y Pusher lado a lado — incluyendo precios mensuales, límites del tier gratuito, características técnicas, cuotas de uso (almacenamiento, transferencia, usuarios activos mensuales) y los interfaces de desarrollo disponibles. Todos los datos proceden de la documentación oficial de cada proveedor, no de respuestas generadas por IA.
Courier es una plataforma de la categoría notifications — Notification API with multi-channel orchestration, templates, and preferences. Ofrece 3 tiers de precio: Free gratuito, Business desde $99/mes, Enterprise (personalizado). Su catálogo en Staxly documenta 13 características y 10 interfazes para desarrolladores.
Pusher pertenece a la categoría notifications — Realtime pub/sub WebSocket Channels + programmatic push (Beams). Ofrece 14 tiers de precio: Beams: Sandbox gratuito, Channels: Sandbox gratuito, Beams: Startup desde $29/mes, Channels: Startup desde $49/mes. Su catálogo documenta 11 características y 16 interfazes para desarrolladores.
A continuación encontrarás los tiers de precio completos de ambas plataformas, una matriz de cuotas del tier gratuito (transferencia, almacenamiento, MAU, llamadas a la API y otros límites), el listado completo de características y los interfaces (CLI, SDKs, REST, GraphQL, MCP) disponibles para integrar cada servicio.
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Pricing tiers
Courier
Pusher
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on Courier vs be-sandbox on Pusher.
| Metric | Courier | Pusher |
|---|---|---|
| notifications monthly | 10000 notifications/mo | — |
| subscribers | — | 1000 subscribers |
Features
Courier · 13 features
- Chat — Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Mattermost.
- Email — SendGrid, Postmark, Mailgun, AWS SES, Resend, SMTP.
- Inbox (In-App) — React/JS drop-in in-app inbox component.
- Lists — Segment recipients for bulk notification sends.
- Logs + Analytics — Per-message delivery timeline + engagement.
- Multi-channel Routing — Provider failover + preferred channel per user.
- Notification Designer — Visual editor for templates across channels.
- Preferences — Per-user notification preferences hub.
- Push — APNs, FCM, Expo, OneSignal.
- SMS — Twilio, MessageBird, Vonage, Plivo, Telnyx.
- Send API — POST /send with template + recipients + data.
- Templates + Versioning — Template brands, variants, localization, version history.
- Webhooks — Delivery + engagement event webhooks.
Pusher · 11 features
- Beams — Push notifications for iOS/Android/Web with device interest groups.
- Beams Authenticated Users — Target users by auth user ID across devices.
- Channels — WebSocket pub/sub — realtime events, live updates, notifications.
- Channels Webhooks — Receive server-side notifications of channel activity.
- Client Events — Publish events from clients directly (triggered from browser).
- Debug Console — Live channel debugging dashboard.
- Encrypted Channels — End-to-end encrypted messages.
- Global Clusters — US, EU, AP-Southeast, etc. Pick nearest region.
- Presence Channels — Track who is online in a channel.
- Private Channels — Auth-required channels with server-signed tokens.
- Stats — Connection / message dashboards.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Courier | Pusher |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | Courier CLI | — |
| SDK | @trycourier/courier, @trycourier/react-inbox, courier-go, courier-java, trycourier (Python), trycourier (Ruby) | Pusher Beams Android, Pusher Beams Web SDK, Pusher Beams iOS, PusherSwift, pusher (Node), pusher (Python), pusher (Ruby), pusher-http-go, pusher-http-java, pusher-http-php, pusher-js (client), pusher-websocket-java (Android) |
| REST | Courier REST API | Beams Publish API, Pusher HTTP API |
| OTHER | Courier Studio, Outbound Webhooks | Channels Webhooks, Pusher WebSocket |
Key takeaways
- Both Courier and Pusher offer a free tier — Courier ("Free") and Pusher ("Beams: Sandbox") — with no credit card required to start.
- The entry-level paid plan is $99/month for Courier (Business) vs. $29/month for Pusher (Beams: Startup).
- Courier has a broader documented feature set (13 features) vs. Pusher (11 features) in Staxly's catalog.
- Developer integrations differ: only Courier offers CLI.
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