The Courier alternative on a flat monthly plan.
Courier is a hosted notification API. Its published pricing gives the Developer plan 10,000 sends a month free, then moves to pay as you go at $0.005 per send on Business, which bills every send, and where a notification counts as one send however many channels it reaches. The full bill, with worked totals up to 1,000,000 sends and the email and SMS provider costs that sit on top, is in Courier pricing in 2026. Role-based access control, observability integrations and the workspace audit trail are Enterprise items; Courier's own pages disagree on whether EU data residency sits on Business or Enterprise. Its docs keep message history for 30 days on Developer and Business and 365 days on Enterprise; its pricing matrix lists 7 days on Developer.
Notifly prices the same job in flat tiers instead: 10,000 events a month free, 50,000 at $19, 500,000 at $149, and higher volumes on request. One workflow trigger is one event whichever channels it reaches, and delivery runs through your own providers, whose keys you bring and whose invoices you already pay.
At a glance
Best for
Notifly
Engineering teams that want a flat monthly bill on workflow events, with roles and translations on a self-serve plan and delivery through their own providers.
Best for
Courier
Teams whose non-engineers design templates in a visual studio, or who want to embed a template designer in their own product for their customers.
| Capability | Notifly (hosted) | Courier (hosted plans) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model [source] | Flat plan, metered on trigger events | Pay as you go — $0.005 per send on Business, every send billed once past the 10,000 free tier |
| Free-plan volume [source] | 10,000 events/month | 10,000 sends per month on Developer |
| First paid tier [source] | $19/month (50,000 events) | Business — pay as you go at $0.005 per send, from the first send |
| Cost at 50,000 notifications/month [source] | $19 (Pro) | $250 on Business — 50,000 sends at $0.005 |
| Multi-channel notifications [source] | One event, every channel it routes to | One send, not one per channel |
| Message log retention [source] | 24h free, 7 days Pro, 90 days Team | 30 days Developer and Business, 365 days Enterprise per the docs; the pricing matrix lists 7 days on Developer |
| Role-based access control [source] | Team — $149/month | Enterprise only |
| SAML 2.0 SSO [source] | Enterprise — SAML, OIDC and SCIM sync | Custom SSO row in the matrix; Developer lists Google and GitHub only |
| Translations (i18n) [source] | Team — $149/month | Internationalization on every plan; AI Translations from Business |
| Audit log of account events [source] | Included, with CSV/NDJSON export | Enterprise — workspace changes such as key rotations, role changes and publishes |
| Channel coverage [source] | Email, SMS, push, chat, in-app inbox | Email, push, SMS, in-app and chat with no channel add-on fees |
| Billing basis for team size [source] | 3 members on Free and Pro, unlimited on Team | Billed on notifications sent, not team size |
The features that stay behind Enterprise
Courier lists role-based access control and observability integrations as Enterprise items, and its docs put the workspace audit trail there too. In Notifly, role-based access control arrives on the $149 Team plan alongside translations, custom environments, webhooks, and unlimited members — self-serve, with no call required (and a free 14-day Pro trial whenever you want it, no card) — and the audit log is on every plan. SAML SSO and SCIM directory sync remain Enterprise features on both products.
Pay as you go against a flat plan, worked through
Suppose a product sends 40,000 notifications a month and each one reaches two channels — an in-app message and an email. Courier counts each notification as one send, so that is 40,000 sends on Courier's Business plan: past the 10,000 free tier, every send costs $0.005, so $200 a month. On Notifly it is 40,000 events, inside the $19 Pro plan's 50,000. At 50,000 notifications the Courier bill is $250 and the Notifly one is still $19.
The comparison is not free of trade-offs. Up to 10,000 notifications a month both products are free, so a product that stays under that pays nothing on either. Notifly's plans step up in fixed tiers rather than scaling smoothly with usage, and a month well past the Team plan's 500,000 events means a conversation with us about volume rather than an automatic overage line. Some teams prefer a usage-based bill for exactly that reason.
When to pick Courier instead
Pick Courier if designers or product managers own your notification templates. Its Design Studio and a drop-in template designer you can embed for your own customers have no Notifly equivalent — Notifly's editor is built for the team that owns the workflows, not for your end users.
Pick it, too, if you need EU data residency or data-warehouse integrations, neither of which Notifly offers: it runs as a single deployment with no region choice today. Courier's own pages disagree on the plan for EU data residency (the pricing card lists it under Business, its structured data under Enterprise), and data-warehouse integrations are Enterprise. The same goes if you want template internationalization or a longer delivery history on a free plan (at least seven days against Notifly's 24 hours), or a vendor whose bill never depends on how many teammates you invite.
Migrate from Courier
- Create a free Notifly workspace — no card — and copy the Development environment's secret key.
- Connect your email, SMS, push and chat providers as integrations.
- Rebuild each Courier notification as a workflow in the visual editor, with each template as a channel step.
- Sync recipients as subscribers over the API, including push tokens and chat credentials.
- Replace each send call in your backend with POST /v1/events/trigger, verify deliveries in Development, then switch to the Production key.
Frequently asked questions
Is Notifly a good Courier alternative?
It is if your Courier bill has grown past what a flat plan would cost, or if you need role-based access control without an Enterprise contract. Notifly's Pro plan covers 50,000 workflow events for $19 a month, where the same volume on Courier's pay-as-you-go Business plan comes to $250, and Notifly puts roles and translations on a $149 self-serve plan. If your team lives in Courier's Design Studio or hands its template designer to your own customers, Courier remains the better fit.
What does per-send pricing actually cost you?
Courier counts a notification as one send however many channels it reaches, and its Business plan charges $0.005 for every send, the first 10,000 included. At 50,000 notifications a month that is $250; at 100,000 it is $500. Notifly's Pro plan covers 50,000 events for a flat $19 and Team covers 500,000 for $149, with higher volumes sized on request rather than billed as an automatic overage. Up to 10,000 a month both products are free, because Courier's Developer plan is.
How do I migrate from Courier to Notifly?
Create a free workspace, connect your email, SMS, push and chat providers as integrations, and rebuild each Courier notification as a Notifly workflow in the visual editor, with its templates as channel steps. Then replace the send calls in your backend with POST /v1/events/trigger, sync recipients as subscribers over the API, and verify deliveries in the Development environment before switching to the Production key.
How does Notifly's pricing compare with Courier's?
Both start free at 10,000 a month — events on Notifly, sends on Courier — and both count a notification once however many channels it reaches. Above that, Courier's Business plan is pay as you go at $0.005 for every send, which is $250 at 50,000 a month. Notifly's Pro plan is $19 a month for 50,000 events and Team is $149 a month for 500,000 events with roles and translations; higher volumes are sized on request.
Which channels does Notifly support?
Email, SMS, mobile and web push, chat — Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp Business and more — and a real-time in-app inbox, across 70+ provider integrations on every plan. You connect your own provider accounts and their invoices stay with them.
Do I need to talk to sales for roles or SSO?
Not for roles: role-based access control, translations, custom environments and unlimited members are on the $149 Team plan. Start free, and try Pro free for 14 days whenever you’re ready — no card needed. SAML or OIDC single sign-on and SCIM directory sync are Enterprise features — email sales@notifly.io for those, or for volumes above the Team plan.
What does Courier do that Notifly doesn't?
Courier is a genuinely good product and some of it has no Notifly equivalent: the Design Studio template editor, a drop-in designer you can embed so your own customers edit and publish messages, and data-warehouse integrations and EU data residency on its higher plans. Its billing is also honest about seats — you pay for notifications, not team members, where Notifly caps Free and Pro at three members. Template internationalization is on every Courier plan, where Notifly's translations start on Team, and even Courier's free plan keeps message logs for at least a week against our free plan's 24 hours. Weigh those against where roles and the audit log sit on each price list.
See it on your own workflows.
One POST /v1/events/trigger — email, SMS, push, in-app, and chat. 10,000 events a month, free.