Instead of asking for a ntfy alternative, could you tell what you want to achieve? Because ntfy has several functions, primarily that of carrying notifications. And it seems that's not what you want to achieve. Maybe you can find it here.
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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I want to send a file to an iPad from a cron script. Currently I'm attaching it to a mail, but if the file is bigger than the max attachment size it won't be sent. Also in this way I'm using an external service when it's not needed, since both source and destination are on my lan. I tried ntfy because I was already using it for other tasks, so the server was already in place, but then I realized that iPad app is very limited. I also considered to set up a mail server, reachable only within my lan, but since that seems an overkill I'd like to find an alternative.
I know your looking for self hosted, but I can recommend pushover. It's got a lot and the apps are amazing, for $5 for a life time license it's great.
I’ve already looked at pushover, but discarded it because it’s not self hostable.
For a giggle, what about home assistant?
I switched frigate to pushover b/c of the image, it was really disappointing that ntfy didn't supported it; pushover it works great at $5 is worth every penny
There is not alternative that is selfhosted to my knowledge. There is PushBullet with a free tier that allows for sending files. You could also use Discord and send messages via their API, and I assume that Matrix has something similar (but I have not looked).
You could also upload them to something else (Paperless or some web/file server) and send a link in your notification. A link can be displayed as a button with actions tag.
Thanks for the idea about sending a link, I'll try that