Firebase Cloud Messaging vs Gotify

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) delivers messages and notifications between servers and client devices over a reliable, battery-efficient connection. Senders can choose notification messages for display to users or data messages for an app to process. Messages can go to an individual device, groups of devices, or devices subscribed to topics; instant-messaging payloads can be up to 4096 bytes. Sending options include the Firebase Admin SDK, the FCM server protocol, and the Firebase console Notifications composer. Notification messages integrate with Google Analytics for engagement and conversion tracking, and A/B Testing with Remote Config supports testing notification variants. Setup guides cover Apple platforms, Android, web, Flutter, Unity, and C++. The JavaScript API works in browsers that support the Push API, including Chrome extensions using it. The web SDK requires HTTPS. FCM is free: its listed plan is free. Data in transit is protected with TLS, but FCM has no built-in end-to-end encryption; apps handling sensitive data must provide that protection themselves.

Gotify is free, open-source software for sending and receiving messages through a self-hosted server. The server includes a WebUI for managing users, clients, and applications. Messages can be sent through a REST API and received over a WebSocket connection; each includes content, a title, creation date, application ID, and priority. Priority can affect how clients present a message, including whether the Android app plays a notification sound. The Android client subscribes to the server’s message stream and displays push notifications. Optional plugins can add webhook reception, feed polling, WebUI extensions, or alarm notifications, but plugins are currently supported only on Linux and macOS due to a Go limitation. Gotify supports OpenID Connect single sign-on when the identity provider supports PKCE, as well as TLS configuration, secure session cookies, and bcrypt password hashing. Sensitive actions require session elevation. The server can run in Docker or from a platform-specific binary; Docker images support amd64, i386, arm64, armv7, and riscv64. An optional command-line client can push messages, though any HTTP client can do so. Its listed plan is free.