OneSignal’s free tier got a cap.
Here’s the honest math on switching.
Short answer: on app push, PushEngage costs less than OneSignal once roughly 25 to 30% of your installs are active in a month, and it can cost less below that line too if you clean out dormant devices. On web push, PushEngage is cheaper from 20,000 to 100,000 subscribers. OneSignal is cheaper at 5,000 to 10,000, and again above 100,000.
OneSignal now caps free mobile push at 1,000 monthly active users. New accounts hit the cap from September 1, 2026, and existing accounts from October 1. Above that line the bill is $19 a month plus $0.012 for every monthly active user, and web push adds $0.004 per subscriber. Below: three worked examples, the full break-even ladder from 1,000 to 250,000 subscribers, and the cases where staying put is cheaper.
OneSignal rates checked on onesignal.com/pricing on October 6, 2026 (Growth plan). PushEngage prices are standard annual renewal rates of the lowest-priced public plan at each subscriber cap, not first-year promotional pricing.
How do the two pricing models differ?
OneSignal bills mobile push on monthly active users and web push on subscribers: two meters that move on their own every month. PushEngage bills active subscribers, web and app combined, in fixed tiers. Unsubscribed devices stop counting, and Inactive Subscriber Cleanup, included on every plan, removes the dormant devices you no longer want to pay for.
Published pricing, full SDK set
iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter SDKs at a public price. Braze, Airship, MoEngage and CleverTap put theirs behind a sales call.
One count to forecast
They meter mobile on MAU and web on subscribers. We count web and app subscribers together. One number, one line on the invoice.
A fixed tier, not a running meter
A good month does not raise your bill. You move tiers when your subscriber count crosses a cap, not when engagement spikes.
Cleanup changes the app math
Above roughly 25 to 30% active share, PushEngage is cheaper before you clean anything. Below it, the answer depends on how many dormant devices you remove.
What does each platform cost for a real app? Three worked examples
One “X% cheaper” headline would be wrong for half the apps reading this. The answer depends on install base, engagement and cleanup, so here are three profiles.
Profile 1: the engaged mid-size app. 20,000 installs, 60% active (12,000 MAU)
| Meter | Monthly | Yearly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| OneSignal | $19 + 12,000 × $0.012 | $163 | $1,956 |
| PushEngage | 20,000 subscribers · fixed tier | $85 | $1,020 · saves $936 a year |
Profile 2: the growing commerce app. 50,000 installs, 40% active (20,000 MAU)
| Meter | Monthly | Yearly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| OneSignal | $19 + 20,000 × $0.012 | $259 | $3,108 |
| PushEngage | 50,000 subscribers · fixed tier | $160 | $1,920 · saves $1,188 a year |
Profile 3: the big, quiet install base. 100,000 installs, 15% active (15,000 MAU)
| Meter | Monthly | Yearly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| OneSignal | $19 + 15,000 × $0.012 | $199 | $2,388 |
| PushEngage, no cleanup | all 100,000 kept as subscribers | $368 | $4,412 |
| PushEngage, after cleanup | 50,000 reachable subscribers kept | $160 | $1,920 · saves $468 a year |
Leave the dormant half on the books and OneSignal wins Profile 3 by about $2,000 a year. Clean it up, which every plan includes, and PushEngage wins by $468 a year.
Where is the break-even, from 1,000 to 250,000 subscribers?
Find your subscriber count. The web push columns compare subscriber for subscriber. The last column is the 30-day active share your app needs for PushEngage to cost less on app push before any cleanup.
| Subscribers | PushEngage renewal /mo | OneSignal web push /mo | Cheaper on web push | App push break-even active share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $14 | $23 | PushEngage, by $9 | Under 1,000 MAU their free tier applies |
| 2,500 | $29 | $29 | Even | 34% |
| 5,000 | $45 | $39 | OneSignal, by $6 | 43% |
| 10,000 | $60 | $59 | OneSignal, by $1 | 34% |
| 20,000 | $85 | $99 | PushEngage, by $14 | 28% |
| 30,000 | $110 | $139 | PushEngage, by $29 | 25% |
| 40,000 | $135 | $179 | PushEngage, by $44 | 24% |
| 50,000 | $160 | $219 | PushEngage, by $59 | 24% |
| 60,000 | $245 | $259 | PushEngage, by $14 | 31% |
| 70,000 | $275 | $299 | PushEngage, by $24 | 31% |
| 80,000 | $306 | $339 | PushEngage, by $33 | 30% |
| 90,000 | $337 | $379 | PushEngage, by $42 | 29% |
| 100,000 | $368 | $419 | PushEngage, by $51 | 29% |
| 150,000 | $752 | $619 | OneSignal, by $133 | 41% |
| 200,000 | $983 | $819 | OneSignal, by $164 | 40% |
| 250,000 | $1,214 | $1,019 | OneSignal, by $195 | 40% |
OneSignal web push = their Growth plan, $19 + $0.004 × subscribers (their free plan also covers web push; see below). App break-even = the active share where $19 + $0.012 × (share × installs) equals the PushEngage tier price, assuming every install stays a subscriber. That is the worst case for PushEngage: Inactive Subscriber Cleanup lowers your tier, so an app below the threshold can still come out cheaper once dormant devices are removed. Above 100,000 subscribers the lowest public PushEngage plan is Growth, which is why the price steps up. Above 250,000 we quote custom pricing, and OneSignal negotiates volume discounts too, so neither list price is the final word at that size.
What do you get at the PushEngage price?
The prices above are the Business plan up to 50,000 subscribers, Premium to 100,000 and Growth above that. Every plan includes web and app push on one subscriber count, in-app messages with app push, the chat widget (21 channels plus custom links), the visual workflow builder, segmentation, Inactive Subscriber Cleanup, and the MCP server, so AI assistants can run campaigns for you. Goal and revenue tracking start on Premium. Cart, browse, price-drop and back-in-stock automations are on Growth and Enterprise.
Retail brands can add WhatsApp automation on Shopify or WooCommerce through their own Meta Business account. Meta bills the messages directly, and WhatsApp contacts never count toward your subscriber number.
Switching: our SDKs install next to your current setup on iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter, so subscribers keep getting notifications during the move. Paid plans carry a 14-day money-back guarantee, so you can check the numbers on real traffic before the decision is final.
See the pricing tiers →- PushEngage vs OneSignal: the full comparison, a calculator with a cleanup slider, and the 20% invoice guarantee
- Best OneSignal alternatives: seven platforms compared, including the ones with a bigger free tier than ours
- Mobile app push notifications: SDKs, in-app messages and how app subscribers are counted
- In-app messaging and the chat widget, both included on every plan