One-line push without the monthly cap.
Simplepush is about as small as a notification service gets: no sign-up, one key, one curl command. That minimalism is the appeal, and also the ceiling. Pocket Alert keeps the same one-line send and adds the parts you reach for once alerts come from more than one place: levels, webhook endpoints, history, and a dashboard to see it all.
Where Simplepush stops
Minimal is the point. It stops being an advantage when the alerts multiply.
The free plan is a demo
Ten notifications a month is enough to try it. One cron job that reports nightly runs out on the tenth.
No priority levels
Every notification lands with the same weight. There is no level that breaks through Do Not Disturb when it has to.
No inbound webhooks
You format the message before you send it, so a service with its own payload shape needs a script in between.
Nothing to look at afterwards
No web dashboard and no delivery statistics, so what happened after the request is out of view.
Pocket Alert vs Simplepush, feature by feature
The send is the same. The difference is what exists around it.
| Feature | Pocket Alert | Simplepush |
|---|---|---|
| Where you use it | ||
| iOS app | ||
| Android app | ||
| Web dashboard | Devices, keys, apps, webhooks | |
| Chrome extension | Send a link or note to your phone | |
| Command-line tool | Official binary for Linux, macOS, Windows | A curl one-liner |
| MCP server for AI agents | 10 tools | |
| Sending alerts | ||
| Send via HTTP API | ||
| Inbound webhook URL per source | One URL per service | |
| Payload mapping into the message | %field.path% into title, body and buttons | |
| Scheduled delivery | Up to 30 days, listable and cancellable | |
| Priority levels | Five, silent to critical | |
| Critical alerts that override Do Not Disturb | On paid plans | |
| Action buttons on the notification | Up to 3: open, HTTP request, copy | Feedback actions |
| Attachments | Images | |
| Grouping by source | Applications, filtered in the app | Events |
| Email delivery | ||
| SMS or phone-call delivery | ||
| Records and debugging | ||
| Message history | Account-wide, synced to app and web | Not documented |
| Webhook call log | Headers, payload, rendered message, result | |
| History retention | 7 days free, 365 on the top plan | Not documented |
| Delivery statistics | Per application and per device | |
| Account and data | ||
| Content encryption | At rest with a per-account key, secrets redacted | End-to-end on Android |
| Two-factor authentication | TOTP with recovery codes | No account to protect |
| Open source or self-hosted | Client libraries are open source | |
Simplepush data from simplepush.io, checked August 2026.
What you’ll pay
| Pocket Alert | Simplepush | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 50 messages a day, no card | 10 notifications a month |
| Entry paid plan | $6/month — 1,000 messages a day, 5 webhooks | $12.49/year, unlimited notifications |
| Highest tier | $25/month — unlimited messages, 365-day history | One paid tier |
Pocket Alert pricing as of August 2026. Simplepush figures from simplepush.io. See full pricing.
Coming from Simplepush
Install and get a key
Install the app, sign in, and copy your API key from the dashboard.
Swap the endpoint
Replace api.simplepush.io/send with the Pocket Alert endpoint. Key becomes a token header, msg becomes message.
Turn events into applications
Where you used events to separate sources, create an application per source and filter the feed by it.
Set the levels
Add a level to the calls that matter, so the important ones stop looking like the rest.
Questions, answered
Both turn a single HTTP request into a notification on your phone. Simplepush keeps the surface deliberately small: a key, a title, a message, an event. Pocket Alert adds the layer around it — priority levels, inbound webhook URLs with field mapping, a log of every call, message history, scheduling and a web dashboard.
Simplepush is free for 10 notifications a month, then $12.49 a year for unlimited. Pocket Alert is free for 50 a day and starts at $6 a month. For a handful of personal alerts a year Simplepush is cheaper; the free plans are the thing to compare if you are monitoring anything that fires daily.
Simplepush offers end-to-end encryption on Android, so the server cannot read the message. Pocket Alert does not do end-to-end; it encrypts content at rest with a key held per account, redacts authorization headers before storing webhook payloads, and offers TOTP two-factor on the account. If the server never being able to read a message is your requirement, Simplepush covers it and Pocket Alert does not.
Point the service at a Pocket Alert webhook URL and map its JSON into the title and body with %field.path%. Every call is then recorded with its headers, payload and result, so when an alert does not arrive you can see whether it was ever sent.
Keep the one-liner. Lose the monthly cap.
Fifty messages a day on the free plan, and everything around them recorded.