Push notifications are one of the fastest-growing channels for re-engaging website visitors. For WordPress site owners, choosing the right push notification solution is a decision that affects your costs, your data privacy posture, and how deeply the tool integrates with your existing workflow.
OneSignal has been the go-to choice for years — it's well-known, feature-rich, and has a generous free tier. But EasyPusher offers a fundamentally different approach: your data stays on your server, pricing is flat instead of per-subscriber, and the entire experience lives inside WordPress.
In this article, we'll break down every meaningful difference between EasyPusher and OneSignal so you can make an informed choice.
Overview: Two Different Philosophies
Before diving into specifics, it helps to understand the core philosophy behind each product.
OneSignal is a multi-channel customer engagement platform. It supports web push, mobile push, email, SMS, and in-app messaging. It's designed for companies of all sizes across any tech stack — not just WordPress. The WordPress integration is handled via a community plugin that connects your site to OneSignal's cloud infrastructure.
EasyPusher is purpose-built for WordPress. It's a self-hosted plugin that stores all subscriber data in your own WordPress database. There's no external dashboard, no API keys to configure, and no third-party servers holding your audience data. Everything is managed from your WordPress admin panel.
This difference in philosophy ripples through every aspect of the comparison — from pricing to privacy to performance.
Pricing: Flat vs Per-Subscriber
Pricing is where EasyPusher and OneSignal diverge most dramatically.
EasyPusher Pricing
- Free: Up to 20,000 subscribers. All features included — unlimited campaigns, segmentation, scheduling, and analytics.
- Pro ($4.99/mo): Up to 50,000 subscribers.
- Business ($9.99/mo): Up to 100,000 subscribers.
- Agency ($19.99/mo): Unlimited subscribers.
Every paid plan includes every feature. The only variable is subscriber count. There are no per-message fees, no add-on charges, and no surprise overage costs.
OneSignal Pricing
- Free: Up to 10,000 web push subscribers. Includes OneSignal branding on prompts.
- Growth: Starts around $9/mo. Adds basic personalization, removes some branding limitations.
- Professional: Starts around $99/mo. Adds advanced segmentation, A/B testing, and priority support.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for large-scale deployments.
OneSignal's pricing scales with subscribers and features. Once you outgrow the free tier, costs can escalate quickly — especially if you need advanced features that are locked behind higher tiers.
The Bottom Line on Pricing
At 50,000 subscribers, EasyPusher costs $4.99/month with every feature unlocked. Reaching the same subscriber count on OneSignal's paid plans can cost $50 or more per month, depending on which features you need. At scale, EasyPusher's flat pricing model saves you hundreds of dollars per year.
Data Ownership and Privacy
This is EasyPusher's strongest differentiator — and arguably the most important factor for many WordPress site owners.
EasyPusher: 100% Self-Hosted
With EasyPusher, all subscriber data lives in your WordPress database. Subscription tokens, segment assignments, campaign history, and analytics — everything stays on your server. No third-party service ever touches your audience data.
This matters for several reasons:
- GDPR compliance: You are the sole data controller. There's no data processing agreement to negotiate with a third-party vendor.
- No vendor lock-in: Your subscriber list can't be held hostage if you decide to switch tools or if a service shuts down.
- Full control: You can query, export, or delete subscriber data directly from your database at any time.
OneSignal: Cloud-Hosted
OneSignal stores all subscriber data on its own infrastructure. Your audience data — subscription tokens, device information, tags, segments — lives on OneSignal's servers. You access it through their dashboard or API.
OneSignal does offer data export options and has a GDPR compliance program, but the fundamental reality is that a third party holds your data. If OneSignal changes its terms, raises prices, or experiences an outage, your push notification capability is affected.
For sites in the EU or those that serve EU visitors, having subscriber data stored on a third-party US-based platform introduces additional compliance considerations under GDPR and Schrems II.
WordPress Integration
How each tool integrates with WordPress is a major practical consideration.
EasyPusher: Native WordPress Plugin
EasyPusher installs like any other WordPress plugin — one click from your admin panel. There's no external account to create, no API keys to copy, and no separate dashboard to learn. Campaign creation, subscriber management, segmentation, scheduling, and analytics all happen inside your WordPress admin.
Because it's WordPress-native, EasyPusher also integrates naturally with your existing content workflow. You can trigger notifications when you publish a post, target specific categories or tags, and manage everything from the interface you already use every day.
OneSignal: External Platform with WordPress Plugin
OneSignal's WordPress integration requires creating an account on onesignal.com, generating an App ID and API key, and installing a community-maintained WordPress plugin that bridges your site to OneSignal's infrastructure.
Most campaign management happens in OneSignal's external dashboard. The WordPress plugin handles the opt-in prompt and basic integration, but for anything beyond the basics — advanced segmentation, automation, A/B testing — you'll be working outside WordPress.
This split workflow isn't a dealbreaker, but it adds friction. You're maintaining two systems instead of one, and your team needs to learn OneSignal's interface in addition to WordPress.
Features Comparison
Both platforms are feature-rich, but they emphasize different capabilities.
Where EasyPusher Excels
- All features on all plans. Segmentation, scheduling, analytics, and unlimited campaigns are available even on the free tier. OneSignal gates some features behind paid plans.
- WordPress-native workflow. Everything from campaign creation to analytics lives inside your admin panel.
- Zero performance impact. The lightweight script loads asynchronously with negligible impact on Core Web Vitals.
- Simplicity. EasyPusher focuses on doing web push notifications well, without trying to be an all-in-one customer engagement platform.
Where OneSignal Excels
- Multi-channel support. OneSignal supports web push, mobile push, email, SMS, and in-app messaging from a single platform. If you need multiple channels, this is a significant advantage.
- Mobile app push. OneSignal supports iOS and Android push notifications. EasyPusher is focused on web push for WordPress sites.
- API and developer tools. OneSignal has a comprehensive REST API and SDKs for custom integrations beyond WordPress.
- Ecosystem maturity. OneSignal has been around longer and has more third-party integrations, documentation, and community resources.
Free Tier Comparison
Both tools offer free plans, but the terms differ significantly.
EasyPusher Free
- Up to 20,000 subscribers
- Unlimited campaigns
- Full segmentation and scheduling
- Complete analytics
- No branding or watermarks
- All features included
OneSignal Free
- Up to 10,000 web push subscribers
- Unlimited push sends
- Basic segmentation
- OneSignal branding on opt-in prompts
- Limited personalization options
- Advanced features require paid upgrade
EasyPusher's free tier is twice as generous on subscriber count and doesn't lock any features behind a paywall. For most WordPress sites, the free plan is all you'll ever need.
Ease of Use
EasyPusher is designed for WordPress users who want to add push notifications without becoming power users of yet another SaaS platform. Install the plugin, and you're ready to send your first notification in minutes. The learning curve is minimal because the interface follows WordPress conventions.
OneSignal is a powerful platform, but power comes with complexity. The dashboard has more options, more settings, and more concepts to learn. For a WordPress site owner who just wants to send push notifications when they publish new content, OneSignal can feel like overkill.
If you're a developer building a custom integration or managing push across multiple platforms (web, iOS, Android), OneSignal's depth is an asset. But for most WordPress site owners, EasyPusher's simplicity is a feature, not a limitation.
Performance Impact
Page speed matters. Any script you add to your site has the potential to affect Core Web Vitals and user experience.
EasyPusher loads a minimal, asynchronous script that registers the service worker for push notifications. It's designed to have zero measurable impact on page load times, Largest Contentful Paint, or Cumulative Layout Shift.
OneSignal loads its own JavaScript SDK, which is heavier. While OneSignal has improved its script size over the years, it's still a third-party resource that needs to be fetched from an external CDN. This adds a DNS lookup, a connection, and script execution time to your page load. For most sites, the impact is small, but it's not zero — and it can compound with other third-party scripts.
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Feature | EasyPusher | OneSignal |
|---|---|---|
| Free subscribers | 20,000 | 10,000 |
| Self-hosted data | Yes | No |
| WordPress-native | Yes | Via community plugin |
| All features on free plan | Yes | No (some gated) |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly | Per subscriber + feature tiers |
| Cost at 50K subscribers | $4.99/mo | ~$50+/mo |
| Multi-channel (email, SMS) | No (web push only) | Yes |
| Mobile app push | No | Yes |
| GDPR compliance | Built-in (self-hosted) | Via DPA agreement |
| Performance impact | Negligible | Low (external SDK) |
| Unlimited campaigns (free) | Yes | Yes |
| Segmentation (free) | Full | Basic |
| Analytics (free) | Full | Basic |
| Setup time | ~2 minutes | ~10 minutes |
When to Choose OneSignal
OneSignal is the better choice if:
- You need multi-channel messaging — web push, mobile push, email, and SMS — from a single platform.
- You're building a mobile app and need iOS/Android push notification support.
- You need a comprehensive API for custom integrations beyond WordPress.
- You're comfortable with your subscriber data being hosted by a third party.
When to Choose EasyPusher
EasyPusher is the better choice if:
- You run a WordPress site and want push notifications managed entirely from your admin panel.
- Data ownership and GDPR compliance are priorities — you want subscriber data on your server, not a third party's.
- You want a generous free tier (20K subscribers) with no feature limitations.
- You need predictable, flat pricing that doesn't punish you as your list grows.
- You value simplicity and don't need multi-channel messaging.
- Page performance is a concern and you want zero-impact push notification scripts.
Our Verdict
OneSignal is a solid platform with a strong feature set — especially for teams that need multi-channel messaging or mobile app push support. It's earned its popularity.
But for WordPress site owners who want web push notifications, EasyPusher is the better fit. It's simpler, cheaper, WordPress-native, and gives you something OneSignal never will: complete ownership of your subscriber data.
You get every feature on every plan — including the free tier. You never pay per subscriber. And your audience data never leaves your server.
Ready to try it? Start free with up to 20,000 subscribers — no credit card required.