Playbook vs ByN
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Seamless cross-device file access
- Share work and receive feedback
- Post directly to social media
- Beautifully organized creative storage
- Easy retrieval of creative files
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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
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
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
Both are free to download. Playbook sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $18.00 per month. ByN asks for nothing beyond the download.
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.
Playbook ships an update weekly, ByN fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Playbook | ByN |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (121 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 61.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 121 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 63 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Playbook.com | Ashwin Ashok |
Customer experience
Playbook
ByN
In-app purchases
Playbook
- Playbook Pro$18.001 Month
- Playbook Team$250.001 Month
ByN
No in-app purchases









