Best Self Hosted Alternatives to ntfy Cloud

Apprise is a Python-based notification library and CLI that pushes messages to a wide range of services using simple URLs. It is designed to unify cross-service notifications and run self-hosted. Written in Python and available as both a library and a command line tool, it supports configuring multiple destinations from a single configuration.

Key Features

• Simple API with URL-based configuration
• 120+ supported notification services
• CLI and API for Python apps; self-hosted
• Handles images and attachments; asynchronous sending
• Lightweight with minimal dependencies

Use Cases

• Centralized alert routing for systems and teams across multiple channels (Slack, Discord, Email, SMS, etc.)
• Automated notifications from scripts, CI pipelines, and monitoring dashboards
• Multi-channel incident alerts and status updates for operations teams

Conclusion

Apprise provides a practical, single solution to dispatch notifications across many services from Python apps or via its CLI, enabling self-hosted, multi-channel alerting.

PushBits is a relay server that accepts push notifications via a simple HTTP API and delivers them to recipients over the Matrix protocol. It aims to be a minimal alternative to services like Pushover/Gotify by using Matrix for delivery and avoiding a separate client app.

Key Features

• Gotify-compatible send API allowing existing Gotify clients/integrations to post messages.
• Delivers notifications to recipients using the Matrix protocol; supports text/plain, text/html and text/markdown message syntaxes.
• Multi-user and multi-channel (application) support with per-application tokens for message delivery.
• CLI tooling (pbcli) and HTTP API for administration (create users, applications, retrieve tokens).
• Passwords protected using Argon2 KDF and optional Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) weak-password checks.
• Message deletion support which triggers a notification informing recipients of deletions.
• Docker/Podman images for easy deployment; configuration via YAML or environment variables; supports SQLite and PostgreSQL backends.

Use Cases

• Relay notifications from CI/CD, monitoring, or home-server apps to your Matrix account.
• Replace or emulate a Gotify/Pushover endpoint for services that already support that API, while delivering to Matrix clients.
• Provide team or personal push channels (applications) for automated alerts (alerts, warnings, info) sent from scripts and services.

Limitations and Considerations

• Project is currently marked alpha and the repository indicates the original author is seeking maintainers; users should expect potential instability and intermittent maintenance gaps.
• There is intentionally no built-in graphical frontend; administration is API/CLI-first which may be inconvenient for users expecting a web UI.
• Some advanced features (two-factor authentication, bi-directional key verification) are noted as issues/roadmap items and may be incomplete or experimental.

PushBits is focused on a small, pragmatic feature set: accepting messages via a compatible HTTP API and reliably delivering them via Matrix. It is suitable for users who want a lightweight, API-driven notification relay integrated with Matrix clients and who can tolerate an alpha/maintainer-seeking project status.