Firebase Cloud Messaging vs Postmark
Firebase Cloud Messaging
firebase.google.com
Postmark
postmarkapp.comSide by side
| Figure | Firebase Cloud Messaging | Postmark |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $5/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 8 |
| Spec score · Notification Infrastructure Software | 8.5 (#2) | 8.4 (#3) |
| Spec score · Proactive Notification Software | 8.4 (#9) | 8.6 (#5) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Support | Firebase directs API coding questions to Stack Overflow, provides a Firebase community forum and Google Group, and offers support case submission. | Postmark offers support by email, live chat, and one-on-one calls and reports a 95% customer happiness rating. |
Plans
Firebase Cloud Messaging
- No-costPrice not published
- No-costPriced on request
- Firebase Cloud MessagingFree
Postmark
- FreeFree
- Basic$15 a month
- Pro$16.50 a month
- Platform$18 a month
- Custom activity retention$5 a month
- DMARC monitoring$14 a month
- Dedicated IP$50 a month
- High-volume plansPriced on request
In their own words
Firebase Cloud Messaging
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.
Postmark
Postmark delivers and tracks application email as an alternative to SMTP or Sendmail. It separates transactional and broadcast messages into different Message Streams and IP infrastructure. Developers can send through REST API, SMTP, or multi-region SMTP routing, with official libraries for Node.js, Python, Rails, Ruby, PHP, and.NET. Inbound messages can be converted to JSON and sent to a webhook URL. Tracking includes delivery, bounces, spam, opens, and links, with event webhooks. Editable responsive templates cover transactional messages such as password resets, receipts, and invitations. The free Developer plan costs nothing, provides 100 emails per month, permits no overages, and does not expire. Basic starts at $15 a month for 10,000 emails per month; extra emails cost $1.80 per 1,000 and are calculated at the end of the billing cycle. Unused emails do not roll over. Postmark lists API and web access. Its iOS app was sunset in June 2025 and is no longer supported.