Courier vs Pusher
Notification API with multi-channel orchestration, templates, and preferences
vs. Realtime pub/sub WebSocket Channels + programmatic push (Beams)
Pricing tiers
Courier
Free
Up to 10,000 notifications/month. All channels. Community support.
Free
Business
From $99/mo. Higher volumes, advanced routing, preference center, branding removal.
$99/mo
Enterprise
Custom. SOC 2, SSO, dedicated support, volume discounts, SLA.
Custom
Pusher
Beams: Sandbox
Free. 1K subscribers.
$0 base (usage-based)
Channels: Sandbox
Free. 100 concurrent conns, 200K msg/day.
$0 base (usage-based)
Beams: Startup
$29/mo. 10K subscribers.
$29/mo
Channels: Startup
$49/mo. 500 concurrent conns, 1M msg/day.
$49/mo
Channels: Pro
$99/mo. 2K concurrent conns, 4M msg/day.
$99/mo
Beams: Pro
$99/mo. 50K subscribers.
$99/mo
Beams: Business
$199/mo. 115K subscribers.
$199/mo
Channels: Business
$299/mo. 5K concurrent, 10M msg/day.
$299/mo
Beams: Premium
$399/mo. 250K subscribers.
$399/mo
Channels: Premium
$499/mo. 10K concurrent, 20M msg/day.
$499/mo
Channels: Growth
$699/mo. 15K concurrent, 40M msg/day.
$699/mo
Channels: Plus
$899/mo. 20K concurrent, 60M msg/day.
$899/mo
Channels: Growth Plus
$1,199/mo. 30K concurrent, 90M msg/day.
$1199/mo
Channels: Enterprise
Custom. 10M+ concurrent, 100B+ msg/day. SLA, dedicated support.
Custom
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.
- Send API — POST /send with template + recipients + data.
- SMS — Twilio, MessageBird, Vonage, Plivo, Telnyx.
- 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 | courier-go, courier-java, @trycourier/courier, trycourier (Python), @trycourier/react-inbox, trycourier (Ruby) | Pusher Beams Android, Pusher Beams iOS, Pusher Beams Web SDK, pusher-http-go, pusher-http-java, pusher-http-php, pusher-js (client), pusher (Node), pusher (Python), pusher (Ruby), PusherSwift, pusher-websocket-java (Android) |
| REST | Courier REST API | Beams Publish API, Pusher HTTP API |
| OTHER | Courier Studio, Outbound Webhooks | Channels Webhooks, Pusher WebSocket |
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