The ntfy alternative made for iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Pocketbell is a push notification app made only for Apple devices. If you publish to ntfy topics from scripts and servers, each topic becomes a Source with its own key, your headers become a few JSON fields, and every notification goes straight through Apple’s push service with its real text on the Lock Screen.
Free to start. Pro from $3.99 a month. For iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS 26.
What you keep
Everything you reach for in a curl command is here.
curl and done
One request from any shell, language or CI job, with a title, tags, markdown, a link and up to three buttons.
Webhooks and templates
Point a service at a webhook Source and turn its fields into a title and message with {{field}} templates.
Send it later
Schedule a notification with deliver_at, up to 30 days ahead.
Images
Attach an image by its link, shown right on the notification. Pro.
What’s new on Apple devices
Pocketbell is made only for Apple devices, so it uses everything they can do.
Straight through Apple
Every notification goes through Apple’s push service with your title and message inside it, so the Lock Screen shows your words even if the app hasn’t been opened in days.
Delivery you can see
Each device reports when a notification arrives, so your script knows it landed, and where.
Critical, until acknowledged
A critical notification repeats every few minutes until someone taps Acknowledge, the sender cancels it, or it expires.
Buttons that answer
Send Approve and Deny, tap one on any device, and the answer goes back to the script that asked.
Live Activities
Deploys, backups and builds as live progress on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.
A true Mac app
A menu bar icon for what needs acknowledgment, and a full window with a sidebar, shortcuts and right-click menus.
Switching
Switch in five minutes.
- 01
Get Pocketbell
Download it on your iPhone, iPad or Mac and sign in with Apple. It’s free to start, and one purchase covers all of them.
- 02
Turn each topic into a Source
Create a Source for each topic you publish to. Its key, shown once and stored only as a hash, keeps it private instead of the topic’s name.
- 03
Change the request
Send JSON to api.pocketbell.dev with the key as a bearer token, and move your headers into fields as the table shows.
curl \
-H "Title: api-2 is down" \
-H "Priority: 5" \
-H "Tags: warning" \
-d "Health check failed 3 times" \
ntfy.sh/mytopiccurl https://api.pocketbell.dev/v1/messages \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pb_live_…" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"title": "api-2 is down",
"message": "Health check failed 3 times",
"priority": "critical",
"tags": ["warning"]}'Field by field
| In ntfy | In Pocketbell | Notes |
|---|---|---|
ntfy.sh/<topic> | Authorization: Bearer | One key per Source, made in the app and shown once. |
body | message | Up to 4,096 characters. |
Title | title | Defaults to the Source’s name. |
Priority | priority | A name instead of a number. See below. |
Tags | tags | Up to 10, shown as written. |
Click | url | With url_title for the link’s label. |
Actions | actions | Up to three buttons that open links. |
Markdown | markdown: true | Bold, italic, code, links and lists. |
Attach | attachment | Pro. An https link to an image. |
Delay | deliver_at | A date and time, up to 30 days ahead. |
Icon | Not needed | Notifications carry Pocketbell’s icon. |
Priorities
| In ntfy | In Pocketbell | Notes |
|---|---|---|
1 (min) | silent | In the inbox, with nothing on screen. |
2 (low) | quiet | On screen, with no sound. |
3 (default) | normal | A standard notification. Arrives silently during quiet hours. |
4 (high) | important | Time Sensitive: it can break through a Focus. |
5 (max) | critical | Repeats until acknowledged, canceled or expired. Use important to ring once. |
Services that post to ntfy can post to a Pocketbell webhook Source instead. Events from Uptime Kuma, Grafana and Alertmanager arrive written out with no setup, and every other service has templates. See every integration guide.
Is Pocketbell right for you?
A great fit if
- Your devices are iPhone, iPad and Mac.
- You send alerts from servers, scripts, CI or monitoring.
- You want to know an alert arrived, not just that it was sent.
Not the right fit if
- You need notifications on Android, Windows, Linux or in a browser. Pocketbell is made only for Apple devices.
- You want to run the server yourself. Pocketbell is a hosted service.
Common questions
Is Pocketbell a good ntfy alternative for iPhone?
If your devices are Apple ones, yes. Pocketbell is made only for iPhone, iPad and Mac: every notification goes through Apple’s push service with its real text, each device reports when it arrives, and Critical notifications repeat until acknowledged. It doesn’t run on Android, and it isn’t self-hosted.
Can I keep my ntfy scripts?
With a few changes. Send to https://api.pocketbell.dev/v1/messages with the Source’s key in an Authorization: Bearer header, send JSON instead of headers, and turn the priority number into its name (5 is critical). Title, Tags, Click, Actions, Markdown, Attach and Delay all have a field.
Does Pocketbell use topics?
No. Each Source has its own key, shown once, stored only as a hash and replaceable in a tap. Nobody can send to you or read your notifications by guessing a name.
Can I self-host Pocketbell?
No. Pocketbell is a hosted service on a dedicated server, backed up continuously and watched by a monitor in another city. status.pocketbell.dev shows how it’s running.
How much does Pocketbell cost?
Pocketbell is free for 3 Sources, 1,000 notifications and 30 questions a month, Critical notifications included. Pro is $24.99 a year with a 14-day free trial, $3.99 a month, or $69.99 once, and adds unlimited Sources, 25,000 notifications a month, unlimited questions, 90 days of history, Live Activities, images and callbacks.
Is Pocketbell affiliated with ntfy?
No. Pocketbell is made by SR WORKS LLC and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by ntfy. The name is used only to show how to move over.
Put every alert in your pocket.
Free to start. Made for iPhone, iPad and Mac.