1v1 Pricing Showdown
Airship vs PushEngage
Side-by-side pricing breakdown for Push Notification & Mobile Messaging Platforms decision-makers
Prices in USD, verified from the United States. Regional pricing may vary.
When choosing between Airship and PushEngage for your push notification & mobile messaging platforms stack, the right answer depends on three things: your budget, the specific features you actually use day-to-day, and your tolerance for renewal-price increases. Below we lay out the prices each vendor advertises today (verified against their live pricing pages), the plan limits that decide whether they'll fit your team, and the features that differ between them.
Airship starts at custom pricing; PushEngage starts at $14/mo. The cheaper headline price isn't always the cheaper total cost — renewal pricing, per-user fees, and overage charges can shift the math. Use the plan-by-plan tables below to model your actual spend.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| mobile first dna | Founded as Urban Airship — mobile app engagement roots | — |
| channels | Push + SMS + RCS + MMS + email + mobile wallet + web | — |
| airship ai | Automated experience optimization | — |
| journey orchestration | Cross-channel journey builder | — |
| personalization | Dynamic content + predictive | — |
| mobile wallet | Apple + Google Wallet passes native | — |
| rcs support | Rich Communication Services — newer than SMS | — |
| customer data management | Built-in CDP | — |
| real time analytics | Included | — |
| native integrations | CRMs + CDPs + commerce platforms | — |
| pricing opacity | Quote-only — all plans | — |
| target customer | Mid-market to enterprise mobile apps | — |
| active subscriber pricing | — | Pay only for active subscribers |
| annual savings | — | Up to 50% vs monthly |
| wordpress woocommerce | — | Native plugin with deep integration |
| cart abandonment | — | Growth+ — smart cart + browse + back-in-stock + price-drop |
| ab testing | — | Premium+ |
| drip campaigns | — | Premium+ |
| timezone sending | — | Premium+ |
| sub accounts for agencies | — | 2 Premium / 4 Growth / Unlimited Enterprise |
| goal tracking | — | Premium+ |
| waterfall campaigns | — | Growth+ |
| web push first | — | Optimized for WordPress + WooCommerce publishers |
Affiliate links — you pay the same price
Dive Deeper
About the push notification & mobile messaging platforms category
Push notification platforms in 2026 split into four pricing philosophies. MAU/subscriber-based (OneSignal Growth $19 + $0.012/mobile MAU + $0.004/web subscriber; Pushwoosh $13/1K MAU omnichannel or $5/1K recipients email-only): scales precisely with audience, fair for growing apps. Subscriber-tier flat (PushEngage $8-$24 annual at 50K-250K subscriber tiers + Enterprise quote): predictable budgeting for web push publishers. Enterprise quote-only (Airship, Iterable): managed-service + AI + multichannel orchestration for mobile-first brands spending $50K+/year. Free-tier aggressive (OneSignal free unlimited mobile push, PushEngage free up to 200 subscribers, Pushwoosh free up to 1K MAU): every platform maintains a free tier to capture developer adoption, converting on either subscriber growth or premium features. The strategic shift since 2023: push-notification-only platforms (PushEngage) have lost share to omnichannel platforms (OneSignal, Pushwoosh) that bundle push + email + SMS + in-app at competitive rates, plus enterprise platforms (Airship, Iterable) consolidating push into broader customer engagement suites with AI-driven journey orchestration.
How to choose between push notification & mobile messaging platforms options
First: what channels do you actually need? Push-only (web or mobile): PushEngage Business $8/mo annual handles 50K web subscribers with rich notifications and drip campaigns — cheapest serious option. Push + email: OneSignal Growth ($19 + per-MAU) or Pushwoosh Omnichannel ($13/1K MAU) both bundle. Push + email + SMS + in-app + WhatsApp: Pushwoosh Omnichannel $13/1K MAU includes all channels in the unit price. Full cross-channel orchestration with AI journeys + customer data management: Airship or Iterable (quote-only, typically $50K-$500K+ ARR for mid-market+). Second: mobile app, web push, or both? Mobile app-first: Airship (mobile-first DNA), OneSignal (unified SDK). Web push-first: PushEngage (WordPress/WooCommerce depth), OneSignal web. Both: OneSignal is the unified default; Pushwoosh supports both as one platform. Third: what's your MAU or subscriber count? Solo/small (<1K MAU): Pushwoosh free, PushEngage Free (200 subs), OneSignal Free (unlimited mobile push). Growing (1K-50K MAU): PushEngage Business $8, OneSignal Growth ~$200/mo at 10K MAU + per-subscriber web, Pushwoosh $130/mo at 10K MAU. Mid-market (50K-500K MAU): OneSignal scaling + per-MAU pricing, Pushwoosh $650-$6,500/mo, PushEngage Growth $24/mo up to 250K subscribers, Airship Essentials quote or enterprise pricing starts. Enterprise (500K+ MAU): Airship AXP or Iterable enterprise quote. Fourth: WordPress/WooCommerce integration depth? PushEngage wins — native WordPress/WooCommerce plugin with smart cart abandonment, browse abandonment, back-in-stock, price-drop notifications out of the box. OneSignal has WordPress plugin but less depth. Fifth: need customer data platform (CDP) and journey orchestration? Iterable and Airship are built around CDP integration and journey orchestration. OneSignal Growth+ has basic journeys (3-6 message steps). Pushwoosh has campaign orchestration. PushEngage has drip campaigns + cart abandonment but lighter journey feature.
Building Your Business Stack?
Decision-makers comparing tools often need more than one category. Here are related comparisons:
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does Airship or PushEngage offer a free plan?
- PushEngage offers a free plan.
- Which is better, Airship or PushEngage?
- PushEngage scores 8.7/10 compared to Airship's 8.5/10 in our analysis. PushEngage ranks higher on features and value, but Airship may suit specific use cases — see the feature comparison above.
- Are there other push notification & mobile messaging platforms alternatives besides Airship and PushEngage?
- Yes. Our [Push Notification & Mobile Messaging Platforms pricing comparison](/pricing/push-notifications/) page covers all major providers with daily-verified prices. You can also see the [cheapest push notification & mobile messaging platforms](/pricing/push-notifications/cheapest/) for budget-focused options.