ntfy vs Couchside
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ntfy
This app allows you to send push notifications to your phone from scripts or other applications using simple HTTP requests. It acts as a client for a free, open-source pub-sub service, enabling you to receive alerts and updates directly on your device.
- Send notifications via REST API
- Subscribe to topics
- Publish messages via HTTP
- Integrates with Bash/PowerShell
- Free and open source client
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Send push notifications to your phone from any Bash or PowerShell script, or from your own app using PUT/POST requests, e.g. via curl on Linux or Invoke-WebRequest. ntfy is a client for https://ntfy.sh, a free and open source HTTP-based pub-sub service. You can subscribe to topics in this app, and then publish messages via a simple HTTP API. Uses: * Notify yourself when a long-running process is done * Ping your phone when a backup has failed * Alerts when someone logs into your server Example: $ curl -d "Your backup is done" ntfy.sh/mytopic Find more examples and usage instructions here: https://ntfy.sh/docs
Couchside
Transform your iPhone into a remote console, game launcher, and controller for your Linux gaming PC. Monitor system health, fix issues without a keyboard, and launch games directly from your couch.
- Live system monitoring dashboard
- One-tap runbook actions for troubleshooting
- Browse system logs remotely
- Launch Steam games and custom applications
- Virtual Xbox 360 game controller
- Trackpad and swipe control modes
- Easy QR code pairing
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Couchside turns your iPhone into the monitor, remote console, game launcher, controller, and TV remote for your living-room Linux gaming PC — a SteamOS or Bazzite HTPC, a docked Steam Deck, or any systemd Linux box. When the TV shows a black screen and the box seems dead, Couchside is the screen. See what's actually happening, read the logs, restart the display session, launch a game, or pick up a virtual controller — all from the couch, entirely on your own home network. LIVE CONSOLE A real-time dashboard of your box: CPU temperature, load, memory, per-disk usage, uptime, and — on a handheld — battery and power profile, plus the health of the systemd services you care about. A "now playing" card shows what's on the TV, and when the box drops off the network a clear "unreachable" banner tells you when it was last seen. Running more than one box? The Fleet view watches your whole lineup and switches between them in a tap. FIX IT WITHOUT A KEYBOARD One-tap runbook actions, grouped by danger level, each confirmed before it runs (twice when it's destructive): • Restart the display session — the classic fix for a wedged gamescope black screen • Switch to Desktop / Return to Game Mode — no keyboard needed • Reboot or power off Browse recent journald logs for any watched service, right from your phone — no SSH, no laptop. LAUNCH GAMES FROM THE COUCH The agent finds the Steam games installed on the box and lays them out as cover art. Tap a cover and it launches on the TV. Add custom launchers — a label and a command — for anything else the box runs. Streaming from a gaming PC elsewhere in the house? Couchside lists your Steam Remote Play hosts and starts the stream on the box. VIRTUAL GAME CONTROLLER The agent creates a genuine virtual Xbox 360 controller on the box, so Steam, Big Picture, and your games see real gamepad input. Three modes, one tap apart: • Gamepad — dual sticks, D-pad, ABXY, bumpers, analog triggers • Swipe — an Apple-TV-remote-style surface: swipe to move, tap to select. Perfect for Kodi and Big Picture. • Trackpad — a real relative-mouse pad with tap-to-click, two-finger right-click, and two-finger scroll Plus an on-screen keyboard that types straight to the box. LIVING-ROOM REMOTE & TV CONTROL A proper remote for the whole setup — including the TV itself. Control an LG webOS or Google TV over your network: power, volume, and input, right beside the box's own controls. EASY PAIRING Install the open-source agent with one command. Scan the QR code it shows, or type the 6-digit PIN from the box's screen — either way the app connects with nothing to configure. If the box's .local name stops resolving (as it can in Game Mode), the app falls back to its last known IP automatically. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Couchside talks only to the agent on your own LAN. No cloud, no relay, no accounts, no analytics. Auth is a bearer token stored in the iOS Keychain; on the box, the agent's privileges are limited to an exact, audited allowlist of commands. The agent that runs on your box is open source (MIT); the app is source-available — read the code or build it yourself. TRY FREE FOR 7 DAYS, PAY ONCE Free to download with a full-featured 7-day trial — every screen, no account, no card. After the trial, a single one-time unlock keeps everything forever. No subscription, ever. Prefer to compile the app yourself from the public source? That's allowed and documented. REQUIREMENTS • A SteamOS, Bazzite, or other systemd-based Linux machine on your home network • The free open-source Couchside agent installed on it (one command, no dependencies) • iPhone and box on the same LAN
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ntfy at none against Couchside's 1. ntfy also leads on ratings volume (442 vs 7). Couchside's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs fortnightly) and review sentiment (100% vs 79%). On price, ads, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Couchside sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. ntfy asks for nothing beyond the download.
Couchside holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ntfy has 442 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of ntfy's written reviews are positive against 100% of Couchside's.
ntfy ships an update fortnightly, Couchside every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ntfy | Couchside |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (442 ratings) | 5.0 (7 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 442 — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 56 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Philipp Heckel | Taylor Emery |
Customer experience
ntfy
Couchside
Bugs and requests
ntfy
Reported bugs
3 issues- Notifications not working on iOS
- Broken click URLs in notifications
- Compatibility issues with iOS notification summarizing
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to change notification sounds
- Support for Apple Watch
- Customizable topic names/aliases
- Improved iOS notification handling
- All topics view and read/unread indicators
Couchside
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ntfy
No in-app purchases
Couchside
- Couchside Forever Unlock$4.99






