Web Push Notifications vs Email Marketing: Which Drives More Traffic?

If you run a WordPress site, you've probably built an email list. It's the default growth strategy every marketing guide recommends. But there's a newer channel that most site owners are underutilizing — web push notifications.

Push notifications appear directly in a visitor's browser or device, even when they're not on your site. They're instant, hard to ignore, and surprisingly effective. The question isn't whether push works — it's how it stacks up against email, and whether you should be investing in one, the other, or both.

Let's break it down across every dimension that matters.

Open Rates: Push Notifications Win by a Landslide

The most striking difference between push and email is visibility. When you send an email, it competes with dozens of other messages in an inbox. It might land in the Promotions tab, get buried under unread threads, or end up in spam. The average email open rate across industries hovers around 20%, and for marketing emails specifically, it's often lower.

Web push notifications, on the other hand, appear as native system alerts on a subscriber's device. They show up on the desktop, lock screen, or notification tray — front and center. There's no inbox to compete with. Industry data consistently reports push notification open rates (also called "view rates") between 85% and 95%, with most benchmarks settling around 90%.

That's a 4.5x difference in visibility for every message you send.

This matters enormously for time-sensitive content. If you're publishing breaking news, running a flash sale, or announcing a live event, push ensures your audience actually sees the message. Email might get read hours later — or never.

Click-Through Rates: Push Delivers 7x More Clicks

Visibility is one thing. Action is another. Email click-through rates (CTR) average around 2% to 3% across industries. That means for every 1,000 emails you send, roughly 20-30 people click through to your site.

Push notification CTRs are significantly higher, typically landing between 12% and 20%, with well-crafted campaigns regularly hitting 15% or more. That's the same 1,000 subscribers generating 150 clicks instead of 25.

Why the massive gap? A few reasons:

• Fewer distractions. A push notification is a single message with a clear action. There's no email body to scan, no competing links, no footer to scroll past.
• Urgency. Push notifications feel immediate. They appear in real-time and naturally prompt quick action.
• Simplicity. A push notification is a headline and a link. There's no design to overthink, no template to build. The constraint forces clarity.

For WordPress publishers who measure success in pageviews and on-site engagement, push is a remarkably efficient traffic driver.

Delivery Speed: Instant vs Hours

Email delivery is not instant. Messages pass through SMTP servers, spam filters, throttling, and queuing. Even under ideal conditions, a campaign might take 30 minutes to an hour to reach all recipients. And there's no guarantee the recipient will open the email for hours — or days — after it lands.

Push notifications are delivered in seconds. Tap "Send" and subscribers see the alert within moments. For WordPress sites that need to drive immediate traffic — a new post, a product drop, a live event — this speed is a game-changer.

There's also no "delivery" ambiguity with push. If the subscriber's browser or device is online, the notification arrives. There's no spam folder, no deliverability reputation to maintain, no authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to configure.

The Spam Problem: Push Notifications Don't Have One

Email marketers spend enormous effort on deliverability. You have to warm up IP addresses, monitor bounce rates, avoid spam trigger words, authenticate your domain, and comply with CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and a growing list of inbox provider rules. Even then, marketing emails regularly end up in spam or promotion tabs.

Push notifications bypass all of this. They're delivered through the browser's native push API (via service workers and the Web Push Protocol). There's no middleman filtering your messages. If someone subscribes, they get your notifications — period.

This also means your push subscriber list never degrades the way email lists do. Email lists suffer from hard bounces, soft bounces, inactive addresses, and spam traps. Push subscribers either exist or they don't. When someone unsubscribes, their token is invalidated cleanly.

Subscriber Friction: One Click vs a Form

Building an email list requires visitors to type their email address, submit a form, and (often) confirm via double opt-in. Every step in that process creates friction and drop-off. Typical email opt-in rates on website popups range from 1% to 5%.

Push notification opt-in is a single browser prompt: "Allow" or "Block." No form to fill out, no personal information to share, no confirmation email to find and click. Opt-in rates for well-timed push prompts range from 5% to 15%, with some sites reporting even higher.

This lower friction has a compounding effect. Over time, you'll build a push subscriber list faster than an email list from the same traffic volume. And because push doesn't require personal data, visitors who would never share their email might still tap "Allow."

Cost Comparison: Push Is Dramatically Cheaper

Email marketing costs add up quickly. Most email service providers (ESPs) charge based on subscriber count or send volume. At 10,000 subscribers, popular ESPs like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or ActiveCampaign charge anywhere from $50 to $150/month. At 50,000 subscribers, you're looking at $200 to $500/month or more.

Then there's the hidden cost of email design — templates, copywriting for long-form emails, A/B testing subject lines, and managing deliverability.

Push notifications are far cheaper to send. With a self-hosted solution like EasyPusher, you can reach 20,000 subscribers for free, and scaling to 50,000 costs just $4.99/month. There are no per-send fees, no design costs (push is text-only), and no deliverability management.

Even compared to SaaS push services, the cost per subscriber is a fraction of what email costs. And because push messages are short, the time investment per campaign is also lower.

Content Depth: Email's Real Advantage

This is where email shines. A push notification is limited to roughly 50-120 characters of body text. It's a headline and a call to action. You can't tell a story, share a tutorial, embed images, or nurture a lead through a complex funnel with a push notification alone.

Email allows rich, long-form content. Newsletters, product announcements with images, multi-step drip sequences, personalized recommendations — these are all email strengths. If your marketing strategy relies on education, storytelling, or relationship-building over multiple touchpoints, email is indispensable.

That said, push and email serve different purposes. Push drives immediate traffic and attention. Email builds longer-term relationships and delivers depth. They're complementary, not competing.

Use Cases: When to Choose Which

Push notifications excel at:

• New content alerts (blog posts, news articles, podcast episodes)
• Flash sales and limited-time offers
• Event reminders and countdowns
• Re-engaging inactive visitors
• Driving quick pageviews and traffic spikes
• Reaching users who won't share their email

Email excels at:

• Welcome sequences and onboarding flows
• Long-form newsletters and educational content
• Product recommendations with images
• Transactional messages (order confirmations, receipts)
• Multi-step nurture campaigns
• Audiences that check email frequently (B2B, professionals)

Use both when:

• You want maximum reach across your audience
• You publish time-sensitive AND evergreen content
• You run an eCommerce store (push for sales, email for post-purchase)
• You want to capture visitors who won't fill out a form

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Head-to-Head Comparison

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Why WordPress Sites Should Start with Push

If you already have an email list, great — keep it. But if you're looking for the fastest, cheapest way to drive repeat traffic to your WordPress site, push notifications should be your next investment.

Here's why the math works so well for WordPress publishers:

• You're already creating content. Every new post is a push notification waiting to happen. No extra copywriting needed — your post title and excerpt are the message.
• Your visitors are already on your site. The push opt-in prompt appears naturally during their visit. No landing page or lead magnet required.
• The ROI is immediate. Send a push when you publish, and traffic arrives within minutes. No nurture sequence, no subject line testing, no deliverability warmup.
• It costs almost nothing. With EasyPusher, you can grow to 20,000 subscribers without spending a cent. Try doing that with email.

The Smart Strategy: Use Both, But Lead with Push

The best-performing WordPress sites don't choose between push and email — they use both. Push captures the fast traffic. Email nurtures the deeper relationship. Together, they cover your audience at every stage of engagement.

But if you're forced to prioritize, start with push. It's faster to set up, faster to grow, and faster to see results. You can always add email later.

With a self-hosted solution like EasyPusher, getting started takes minutes. Install the plugin, configure your prompt, and you're live. Your subscriber data stays in your WordPress database — no third-party platform, no vendor lock-in, no surprise bills.

Ready to see what push notifications can do for your traffic? Start free with up to 20,000 subscribers — no credit card required.