LINE Notify is gone — an honest comparison of what to use instead

If you used LINE Notify to push server alerts, new orders or sensor readings to your phone, it's gone — the service was officially shut down at the end of March 2025, and LINE's answer is "move to the Messaging API".

This is written from the point of view of someone who depended on LINE Notify too and had to find a new home for those messages. I build Ting, which is one of the options below, so read that section with the appropriate scepticism. The other options I've tried to describe as straight as I can, because for some jobs they really are the better fit.

What LINE Notify gave you, and what disappeared

LINE Notify was loved for three reasons.

1. Nothing to build. Get a token once, send one HTTP POST, the message lands in LINE.
2. Free. No quota worth worrying about for everyday use.
3. Nothing for the recipient to do. If they were already in the LINE group, they got it.

Every option below gives up at least one of those three. The question is which one you're willing to lose.

Option 1: LINE Messaging API

LINE's own recommendation. Messages still arrive in LINE, recipients still use the app they already have.

What you have to build. A LINE Official Account, Messaging API enabled, and a bot that handles the webhook so you can capture the userId of everyone who adds it (without a userId you can't send to anyone). Only then can you call the push API. Sending to a group means inviting the bot in and storing the groupId.

Cost. The free tier is roughly 200 messages a month, which a single server's alerts will exhaust in week one. The next tier starts at around a thousand-plus baht a month for tens of thousands of messages. These numbers move — check LINE's current pricing page before deciding.

Good for a business that already runs a LINE OA, has a developer to look after the bot, and sends enough volume to justify the package.

Not good for internal alerts, personal IoT projects or small systems that just want a "ping" — the setup cost in time and money outweighs what you get.

Option 2: Telegram Bot

Free, no API quota, and the most straightforward of the lot. Create a bot through @BotFather, get a token immediately, send a message with a single GET.

curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/sendMessage?chat_id=<CHAT_ID>&text=server%20down"

The trade. Recipients need Telegram, which most people in Thailand don't use. If the recipient is you or your dev team, this is the best and cheapest answer there is. If the recipient is a customer or a shop-floor employee, asking them to install Telegram just to receive your notifications usually ends with them not installing it.

Message formatting supports a small HTML subset — bold, links, code. No cards, and no buttons that call back to your system without writing more bot code.

Option 3: Discord Webhook

Also free, and even simpler than Telegram because there's no bot at all — create a webhook URL in a channel and POST JSON to it.

The trade. Same as Telegram: recipients have to be on Discord. Great for a dev team or a community that already lives there. Not for the general public.

Option 4: ntfy (self-hosted or ntfy.sh)

Open source, and conceptually the closest thing to LINE Notify. Recipients install the ntfy app and subscribe to a topic; your system POSTs to that topic. Action buttons are supported. Free on the public ntfy.sh instance, or self-host it.

The trade. On the public instance anyone who guesses a topic name can read it, so you'll want to set up auth. The app is very much built for developers — no cards or message layouts for everyday customers — and there's no route into LINE. If you can run a server and your recipients are technical, this is a very strong choice.

Option 5: Ting

This one is mine, so here it is as honestly as I can put it.

The idea is "the notification app you don't have to build yourself". Your system makes one API call; recipients install the Ting app and scan a QR code to join your room, and the message shows up. Or, from that same call, Ting forwards to your LINE OA, Telegram or Discord.

curl -X POST https://api.mawin.one/api/apps/v1/notify \
  -H "X-Ting-Api-Token: tapp_xxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message":"<b>Order #1042</b> just came in <button href=\"https://your-system/confirm/1042\">Accept</button>"}'

What's different from the others:

• Write HTML once. In the Ting app you get a full card. For LINE it's converted to a Flex Message for you; for Telegram it's reduced to the HTML subset Telegram accepts. You never learn Flex JSON.
• Buttons that call back. A recipient taps a button on the card and your system receives an HTTP POST with an HMAC signature. No bot to write. Forms the recipient fills in work the same way.
• Edit a message after sending, with an edit history.
• A queue with retries built in. Send to a thousand people, restart the server halfway through, and nobody gets it twice.

The trade. Recipients need the Ting app unless you're sending into LINE (same as Telegram and ntfy). After the 14-day free trial it costs 300 baht per app per month with unlimited sends. If you route into a LINE OA through Ting, LINE's own message charges are still yours — Ting doesn't make LINE free.

iOS is on the App Store now; Android is in testing.

Summary table

	Reaches LINE	Recipient installs	Price	Buttons / forms that call back	Bot required
Messaging API	Yes	Nothing	LINE's packages	Yes	Yes
Telegram Bot	No	Telegram	Free	Build it yourself	A little
Discord Webhook	No	Discord	Free	No	No
ntfy	No	ntfy	Free / self-host	Partly	No
Ting	Yes (via your OA)	Ting, or nothing if going to LINE	300 THB / app / month	Yes	No

So which one?

• The recipient is you or your dev team → Telegram or Discord. Done, free, works today.
• You run your own servers and want full control → self-hosted ntfy.
• Recipients are customers or staff, and it has to be LINE → Messaging API, if you have a developer to maintain the bot and the volume to justify it.
• You have a system but no app, want ordinary people to receive it with tappable buttons, and don't want to write a bot → Ting.

None of them is a free lunch. LINE Notify ticked all three boxes because it was free and LINE carried the cost. Now that it's gone, everyone has to choose whether to pay with time, with money, or with the recipient's convenience.