Novu

Open SourceOtherSelf-hostable

Open-source notification infrastructure — one API and workflow engine for email, SMS, push, chat and in-app notifications, with user preferences handled for you. Self-host your whole notification stack.

Open source alternative to

Customer.io

Visit Novu View source

About Novu

Every product eventually reinvents notifications — templates scattered across code, per-channel providers, users begging for preference controls. Novu replaces all of that with one open-source layer: a single API that routes email, SMS, push, chat and in-app messages through visual workflows.

It ships the pieces teams always end up building by hand: digest batching, user preference management, a pre-built in-app inbox component, and provider integrations (SendGrid, Twilio, FCM, Slack and dozens more) you can swap without touching product code.

MIT-licensed with a huge developer community, Novu can be self-hosted for full data control or used via their cloud — either way it's the open standard for product notifications.

Key features

One API, every channel — Email, SMS, push, chat and in-app notifications through a single unified API.
Workflow engine — Visual, code-first workflows with digests, delays and per-user preference logic.
In-app inbox component — A drop-in notification center UI for your app, prebuilt and themeable.
Self-host or cloud — Run the full stack with Docker to keep notification data on your infrastructure.

The honest read

What we like

Kills per-channel notification spaghetti
Digest, preferences and inbox prebuilt
Provider-agnostic — swap SendGrid, Twilio, FCM freely
MIT licensed with strong community
Self-hostable for data control

Worth knowing

Overkill for a single email flow
Self-hosting means running several services
Workflow concepts take a little learning
In-app component styling has limits

FAQ

Is Novu free?

Yes — Novu is MIT-licensed open source and free to self-host. The hosted cloud has a generous free tier with paid plans for scale.

What providers does Novu support?

Dozens — SendGrid, Postmark, SES, Twilio, FCM, APNs, Slack, Discord and more. You can switch providers without changing product code.

How is Novu different from Customer.io?

Customer.io is closed marketing automation; Novu is open-source notification infrastructure for your product — transactional and workflow notifications with user preferences, self-hostable end to end.

Does Novu include an in-app notification center?

Yes — a prebuilt, themeable inbox component drops into React and other frameworks.

Can I self-host Novu?

Yes — official Docker setup runs the full stack (API, workers, web) on your own servers.