YouLMK vs Gotify

YouLMK or Gotify?

Gotify, in its own words: "a simple server for sending and receiving messages in real-time per WebSocket", MIT-licensed, built because "a requirement was that it can be self-hosted", with an Android app and a web UI (15,877 stars on GitHub on 12 September 2026). YouLMK is an inbox you let things interrupt you through: anything with an HTTP client sends into it, and you decide per sender how far a message may reach, whether quiet hours hold it and how repeats group. It can also watch a page, an endpoint, a status page, a feed, a number or a time, and send when the answer changes.

Every fact about Gotify below was read on its own pages on 12 September 2026. If one has changed since, write to hello@youlmk.com and it is corrected the same day.

Side by side

Gotify

YouLMK

What it is

A message server you run; applications post to it with a token, clients receive over WebSocket.

A hosted inbox: every sender has its own key and its own rules on your side.

Price

Free, open source; you provide the server.

Send $4 a month or $40 a year for unlimited notifications; Watch $12 or $120 adds watching. Trial: 10 notifications and 3 watches, no card.

Open source

Yes, MIT.

No. The libraries, the Claude Code plugin, the GitHub Action and the Apprise plugin are open source; the service is not.

Self-hosting

Only; there is no hosted Gotify.

No, hosted only.

Platforms

Android app and a web UI; the project's page names no iOS app.

iPhone and Apple Watch, Android, the browser, email, Slack, a signed webhook you own.

Sending

POST a message with an application token to your server.

POST text or JSON to your key, GET with query parameters, a bearer token door, a webhook URL that understands 21 services, an MCP server, libraries for Node, Python, Swift, Kotlin and React Native.

Rules on the receiving side

A priority per message; the phone's own settings.

Per sender: a Reach level (Silent, Badge, Banner, Break through), whether quiet hours hold it, grouping of repeats within a window, which destinations it reaches.

Watching

None; Gotify relays what it is given.

A sentence becomes a watch: a page, an endpoint, a status page, a feed, a number or a time, checked on a schedule.

Choose Gotify if

You run your own servers, your phones are Android, and nothing may leave your network.
You need open-source software end to end and you are fine hosting one more service.
Free matters more than the receiving side.

Choose YouLMK if

You have an iPhone, or a mix of phones, and do not want to run anything.
Several things send to you and they should not all be equally loud, decided once per sender.
You want email, Slack and a webhook of yours as destinations, and a watch on a page, a price or an endpoint.

What is the same

Both take a POST from a script with a token and put it on a phone, both are used from home servers, cron jobs and monitors, and both work with Apprise. Gotify is a server you own; YouLMK is a service you subscribe to.

Try it

The trial is 10 notifications and 3 watches, no card, no clock. Get your key, or read the docs first.

Sources

gotify.net, read 12 September 2026
github.com/gotify/server, read 12 September 2026