Azure Notification Hubs vs Google Cloud Messaging

Overview

Azure Notification Hubs

Stacks21

Followers156

Votes0

Google Cloud Messaging

Stacks88

Followers247

Votes22

Azure Notification Hubs vs Google Cloud Messaging: What are the differences?

1. Scalability: Azure Notification Hubs is designed to handle massive scale and can send millions of push notifications per second. It allows developers to easily scale their notification delivery to meet the needs of their application. On the other hand, Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) offers high scalability as well, but it is limited to a maximum of 4,000 messages per second for normal priority messages and 1,000 messages per second for high priority messages.
2. Cross-platform support: Azure Notification Hubs supports a wide range of platforms including iOS, Android, Windows, and Kindle. It provides a single API to send push notifications to all these platforms, simplifying the development process. In contrast, GCM is mainly focused on sending push notifications to Android devices. Although it has Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) that supports sending notifications to iOS and web platforms as well, the support for these platforms is not as extensive as Azure Notification Hubs.
3. Device registration: Azure Notification Hubs provides a flexible device registration model that allows multiple devices to be associated with a single registration. It also supports tags and templates that facilitate targeting specific devices or groups of devices. In comparison, GCM uses a different registration model where each device is registered individually. This can be a more time-consuming process when dealing with a large number of devices.
4. Retry mechanism: Azure Notification Hubs has a built-in retry mechanism that automatically retries sending notifications if there are temporary failures. This ensures that notifications are delivered even in case of intermittent network issues. GCM also has a retry mechanism, but it is limited to a maximum of 4 retries. If the notification still cannot be delivered after the retries, it will be discarded.
5. Message expiration: Azure Notification Hubs allows developers to set an expiration time for notifications, after which the notification will not be delivered to the device. This allows developers to avoid delivering outdated notifications. GCM does not have a built-in message expiration feature, so developers need to handle this on their own.
6. Azure infrastructure: Azure Notification Hubs is part of the larger Azure infrastructure and integrates seamlessly with other Azure services, such as Azure Functions, Azure Logic Apps, and Azure App Service. This allows developers to easily leverage the power of these services in combination with Notification Hubs. GCM, on the other hand, is primarily focused on providing push notification services and does not have the same level of integration with other Google Cloud services.

In Summary, Azure Notification Hubs offers greater scalability, cross-platform support, a flexible device registration model, a robust retry mechanism, message expiration feature, and integration with other Azure services compared to Google Cloud Messaging.

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CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Detailed Comparison

Azure Notification Hubs	Google Cloud Messaging
Tutorials, API references, and other documentation show you how to set up and send push notifications from any backend to any mobile device	Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is a free service that enables developers to send messages between servers and client apps. This includes downstream messages from servers to client apps, and upstream messages from client apps to servers.
Reach all major platforms—iOS, Android, Windows, Kindle, Baidu; Use any back end, in the cloud or on-premises; Fast broadcast push to millions of mobile devices with single API call; Tailor push notifications by customer, language, and location; Dynamically define and notify customer segments; Scale instantly to millions of mobile devices; Get started	Versatile Messaging Targets: Distribute messages to your client app in any of three ways — to single devices, to groups of devices, or to devices subscribed to topics.; Downstream Messaging: For purposes such as alerting users, chat messaging or kicking off background processing before the user opens the client app, GCM provides a reliable and battery-efficient connection between your server and devices.; Upstream Messaging: Send acknowledgments, chats, and other messages from devices back to your server over GCM’s reliable and battery-efficient connection channel.;
Statistics
Stacks 21	Stacks 88
Followers 156	Followers 247
Votes 0	Votes 22
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet	Pros 9 Free 6 Scalable 4 Easy setup 2 Easy iOS setup 1 IOS Support Cons 1 Reliability
Integrations
.NET PHP Windows Node.js Java iOS Android OS	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Azure Notification Hubs, Google Cloud Messaging?

OneSignal

OneSignal is a high volume push notification service for websites and mobile applications. OneSignal supports all major native and mobile platforms by providing dedicated SDKs for each platform, a RESTful server API, and a dashboard.

Urban Airship

We’ve built the smartest, most aware, precise, easy-to-use, scalable, secure and powerful push messaging platform on the planet. Our Push messaging platform leverages all that is unique about mobile as a channel, and that lights the spark to create meaningful and valuable mobile experiences. We help put your app in front of your users at the right time, and in the right place to drive usage and brand engagement.

Amazon SNS

Amazon Simple Notification Service makes it simple and cost-effective to push to mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, and internet connected smart devices, as well as pushing to other distributed services. Besides pushing cloud notifications directly to mobile devices, SNS can also deliver notifications by SMS text message or email, to Simple Queue Service (SQS) queues, or to any HTTP endpoint.

Firebase Cloud Messaging

It is a cross-platform messaging solution that lets you reliably deliver messages at no cost. You can notify a client app that new email or other data is available to sync. You can send notification messages to drive user re-engagement and retention. For use cases such as instant messaging, a message can transfer a payload of up to 4KB to a client app.

Amazon Pinpoint

Amazon Pinpoint makes it easy to run targeted campaigns to drive user engagement in mobile apps. Amazon Pinpoint helps you understand user behavior, define which users to target, determine which messages to send, schedule the best time to deliver the messages, and then track the results of your campaign.

Pusher Mobile Push Notifications API

Send push notifications to iOS and Android devices through one unified Push Notifications API for Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and Apple Push Notification Service (APNS).

PushCrew

PushCrew enables any website to send push notifications to their users (even when they are not on the website). A simple JavaScript code makes it working on any website in less than 2 minutes. It's a fantastic new alternative to email marketing.

ZeroPush

ZeroPush provides a clean web-friendly API to APNS and GCM for mobile push notifications.

PushBots

Reach all your customers on mobile or desktop. Send and manage push notification, in-app messages, or polls. Understand user behavior, retention and engagement.

saastoast

Saastoast sends real-time push notifications for key SaaS events, trial signups, upgrades, feature usage, churn risks, and more, keeping founders motivated and customer-centric by showing momentum as it happens.

Related Comparisons

Azure Notification Hubs vs Google Cloud Messaging: What are the differences?

1. Scalability: Azure Notification Hubs is designed to handle massive scale and can send millions of push notifications per second. It allows developers to easily scale their notification delivery to meet the needs of their application. On the other hand, Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) offers high scalability as well, but it is limited to a maximum of 4,000 messages per second for normal priority messages and 1,000 messages per second for high priority messages.
2. Cross-platform support: Azure Notification Hubs supports a wide range of platforms including iOS, Android, Windows, and Kindle. It provides a single API to send push notifications to all these platforms, simplifying the development process. In contrast, GCM is mainly focused on sending push notifications to Android devices. Although it has Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) that supports sending notifications to iOS and web platforms as well, the support for these platforms is not as extensive as Azure Notification Hubs.
3. Device registration: Azure Notification Hubs provides a flexible device registration model that allows multiple devices to be associated with a single registration. It also supports tags and templates that facilitate targeting specific devices or groups of devices. In comparison, GCM uses a different registration model where each device is registered individually. This can be a more time-consuming process when dealing with a large number of devices.
4. Retry mechanism: Azure Notification Hubs has a built-in retry mechanism that automatically retries sending notifications if there are temporary failures. This ensures that notifications are delivered even in case of intermittent network issues. GCM also has a retry mechanism, but it is limited to a maximum of 4 retries. If the notification still cannot be delivered after the retries, it will be discarded.
5. Message expiration: Azure Notification Hubs allows developers to set an expiration time for notifications, after which the notification will not be delivered to the device. This allows developers to avoid delivering outdated notifications. GCM does not have a built-in message expiration feature, so developers need to handle this on their own.
6. Azure infrastructure: Azure Notification Hubs is part of the larger Azure infrastructure and integrates seamlessly with other Azure services, such as Azure Functions, Azure Logic Apps, and Azure App Service. This allows developers to easily leverage the power of these services in combination with Notification Hubs. GCM, on the other hand, is primarily focused on providing push notification services and does not have the same level of integration with other Google Cloud services.

Azure Notification Hubs vs Google Cloud Messaging

Overview