Comparison

Playbook vs ByN

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Playbook

Access and manage your creative files from anywhere with this mobile app. Share your work, get feedback, and post to social media seamlessly. It offers beautiful organization and easy retrieval of all your projects on the go.

Highlights
  • Seamless cross-device file access
  • Share work and receive feedback
  • Post directly to social media
  • Beautifully organized creative storage
  • Easy retrieval of creative files
Read full description

You asked and we answered: it’s finally here! The Playbook Mobile App is now available on iOS so you can see everything and find anything, beautifully, anywhere. Share your work and receive feedback while you’re on the go, seamlessly access your creative files across devices, and even post to social media - all from your Playbook. Happy Playbookin’! Psst… tag us on social media at @playbook_hq to let people know that it’s time to make the switch to Playbook! Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula Privacy Policy: https://www.playbook.com/privacy

About

ByN

This app allows users to create custom push notification listeners that can be triggered remotely via simple HTTP requests. It's designed for developers and system administrators to receive instant alerts from their infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, servers, or IoT devices without complex SDK integration.

Highlights
  • Simple HTTP API for triggering notifications
  • Passwordless magic link authentication
  • Multiple custom notification listeners
  • Notification history with delivery status
  • Configurable notification priority levels
  • Mute individual listeners
  • Multi-device notification support
Features
Read full description

ByN — Build your Notification — lets you create your own custom notifications and send them from anything that can make a web request, and set up monitors that alert you the moment something stops working. Every alert can arrive as a push notification, a text message, or an email. CUSTOM NOTIFICATIONS Design a notification with your own title, message and priority (in the app, it's called a listener). Send it with one web request from a script, a server, a smart home automation, or even your browser. A door opens, a build finishes, a sensor trips: your phone knows right away. NEW: HEALTH MONITORS Some problems are silent. A monitor expects your server, website or device to check in on a schedule, and tells you when it doesn't. • Set check-ins from every 30 seconds to once a day or longer. • Add a grace period, so something running a little late doesn't page you. • Get a down alert when check-ins stop, and a recovery alert when they resume. • Each monitor has its own ping URL: no API key or setup needed. • See 30-day uptime, recent check-ins, and every outage with its duration. • Pause a monitor for maintenance, send a test alert, or change its ping URL anytime. NEW: SMS AND EMAIL ALERTS • Get alerts by text message and email, not just as push notifications. Choose the channels for each notification and monitor. • Verify your phone number once for SMS. Email goes to your sign-in address, or another address you verify. • Each month includes 10 SMS and 100 email alerts, and Settings shows how many are left. USE CASES • Smart Home & IoT — Door alerts, water leaks, temperature warnings, and sensor readings. • Home Servers & Websites — Know when one goes down, and when it's back. • Scheduled Tasks — Find out when a nightly task fails, or never runs at all. • Builds & Deployments — Get notified when builds finish, tests fail, or releases go out. • Home Automation — Connect Home Assistant, Node-RED, or anything that can make web requests. KEY FEATURES • Override Focus — Important alerts can arrive as Time Sensitive notifications that get through Focus and Do Not Disturb. • Ping URLs — Every notification and monitor has its own web address. Nothing else to set up. • Notification History — Every alert with its time, channel, and delivery status. • Priority Levels — Normal or high, for each notification and monitor. • Pause Per Device — Pause a notification or monitor on one phone without changing it anywhere else. • Multi-Device — All your phones and tablets get your alerts. • Passwordless Sign-in — Magic link login, no passwords to manage. • Developer Friendly — A simple HTTP API and an API key for curl, Python, Node.js, or any language. • Open & Lightweight — No vendor lock-in, no bloated SDKs. GETTING STARTED Send yourself a notification: 1. Download the app and sign in with your email — no password needed. 2. Create a listener, e.g. "Front door opened", and choose push, SMS, email, or all three. 3. Copy its ping URL from the web portal at buildyournotification.com. 4. Open that URL from anything that can make a web request — even your browser: https://api.buildyournotification.com/api/ping/YOUR_PING_TOKEN 5. Your phone buzzes. Done. Watch something that must stay on: 1. Create a monitor, e.g. "Home server", and choose how often it checks in, say every 5 minutes. 2. Have it open the monitor's ping URL on that schedule. The app shows the URL, ready to copy or share. 3. If the check-ins stop, ByN alerts you that it's down, and again when it's back up. Full guide and API docs: https://www.buildyournotification.com/docs

Screenshots

Playbook4 screens
ByN4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ByN at none against Playbook's 2. ByN also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Playbook's advantage is ratings volume (121 vs 2) and update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Playbook sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $18.00 per month. ByN asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ByN holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Playbook has 121 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Playbook ships an update weekly, ByN fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Playbook versus ByN: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlaybookByN
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (121 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews61.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings121 — better2
Update frequencyWeekly — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.1
Further details — not scored
Size63 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPlaybook.comAshwin Ashok

Customer experience

Playbook

All ratings121 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral1.7%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive61.3%
Neutral9.7%
Negative29.0%

ByN

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Playbook

Subscriptions2
  • Playbook Pro$18.001 Month
  • Playbook Team$250.001 Month
None

ByN

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Playbook free?
Playbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ByN free?
ByN is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Playbook or ByN?
ByN is rated higher. Playbook averages 4.8 out of 5 from 121 ratings, while ByN averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Playbook or ByN have ads?
Neither Playbook nor ByN shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Playbook or ByN?
Playbook ships an update weekly, and ByN fortnightly. Most recently, Playbook was updated on November 7, 2026 and ByN on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons