What is Novu? - Novu

Novu is open-source communication infrastructure for products that need to reach users reliably and hold conversations with them. It gives you two complementary capabilities on one platform:

Transactional notifications: Orchestrate multi-channel workflows for in-app, email, chat, push, and SMS with a unified API, drag-and-drop workflow builder, and customizable <Inbox /> component.
Agent conversations: Connect AI agents to Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, email, Telegram, and other channels through Agent Communication Infrastructure (ACI), without rebuilding webhooks, identity, and delivery for every platform.

Use either capability on its own, or connect them. Agents can trigger existing workflows from a conversation thread, workflows can send messages on behalf of an agent, and a user who replies to a workflow message can start an agent conversation.

<Columns cols={2}> <Card icon="bell" href="/platform" title="Notification platform"> Workflows, subscribers, channels, and the Inbox component for transactional and lifecycle messaging. </Card> <Card icon="bot" href="/agents" title="Agents overview"> Connect custom code or managed agents to messaging platforms with ACI for conversational use cases. </Card> </Columns>

Novu is designed to fit and scale with your existing system. Trusted by startups and enterprises for its developer-first design and cost-effective scalability, it delivers notifications and agent replies reliably without unnecessary complexity.

<Columns cols={2}> <Card icon="rocket" href="/platform/quickstart/nextjs" title="Notification quickstart"> Get started with workflows and the Inbox component in minutes. </Card> <Card icon="zap" href="/agents/managed-agent/quickstart" title="Agents quickstart"> Connect your first agent to Slack and send a message in under five minutes. </Card> </Columns>

Why use Novu for notification infrastructure?

Novu is designed to provide a powerful, flexible, and easy-to-use communication solution that helps teams save time, reduce complexity, and improve user engagement across multiple platforms. Here's what sets it apart from other notification and agent infrastructure solutions:

The only fully open-source notification infrastructure

Backed by a growing open-source community. Novu is 100% open-source, with a rich community of creative minds constantly contributing to improve its capabilities.
Built with an API-first approach. Developers can deeply customize workflows and automate notifications through Novu APIs.
Easily integrates with existing tools. Novu works with modern development stacks, enabling smooth adoption without disrupting workflows.

Agent communication infrastructure for conversational products

One agent, many channels. Connect the same agent brain to Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, email, Telegram, and other supported platforms through ACI.
Infrastructure separate from intelligence. ACI handles webhooks, identity, conversation state, and delivery so you can focus on your LLM, tools, and business logic.
Custom code or managed agents. Run your own agent with the agent SDK, or configure a managed agent without custom server code.

Best-in-class in-app notification inbox

Simplifies in-app notifications. Developers can integrate real-time notifications in any web or mobile app with six lines of code.
Offers full customization. Developers can use hooks and headless libraries to modify the look and feel of the inbox UI.
Empowers users with preferences. The <Inbox /> built-in preference management lets your users control how they receive notifications.

True omnichannel notification management

Unifies all notification channels. Developers can manage email, in-app, push, SMS, and chat notifications from a single API.
Optimizes delivery strategies. Novu enables multi-step workflows, ensuring users receive messages in the most effective channel.
Reduces notification overload. The digest feature consolidates updates (for example, "10 new likes on your post"), improving user experience.

Flexible workflow automation: no-code or code-first

No-code workflow automation. The drag-and-drop workflow builder makes notification automation accessible to your non-technical teams via the Novu's dashboard.
Provides ultimate control with code-first workflows. The Novu Framework SDK lets developers define workflows in code, integrate with CI/CD, and add custom automation logic.
Consistent notification experience across teams. Standardizes notification patterns, preventing each team from implementing separate, inconsistent solutions.

Advanced features for power users

Extends functionality with the Novu Framework SDK. Developers can integrate custom workflows beyond Novu's default capabilities.
Enhances real-time engagement. Subscriber presence tracking detects if a user is online before sending notifications.
Supports multi-tenancy. Ideal for SaaS businesses managing multiple customer accounts.

Cost-effective with clear, transparent pricing

Eliminates unpredictable costs. Fixed pricing ensures startups and enterprises can scale without hidden fees.
Offers a free tier for easy adoption. Independent developers and small businesses can get started at no cost.

Notifications and agents, together

Transactional workflows and agent conversations share the same Novu account, subscribers, and channels. ACI extends the workflow system; it does not replace it.

<Columns cols={2}> <Card icon="network" href="/agents/get-started/what-is-aci" title="What is ACI?"> Learn how Agent Communication Infrastructure connects agents to messaging platforms. </Card> <Card icon="brain-circuit" href="/agents/get-started/mental-model" title="Mental model"> See how inbound messages flow from a channel through Novu to your agent and back. </Card> </Columns>

Conversation to workflow

From an agent thread, your handler can call ctx.trigger() to start any existing workflow. For example, a user asks in Slack for a report by email, and the agent triggers a workflow that delivers it.

Workflow to conversation

Workflows can send messages on behalf of an agent across email, chat, and other channels. When a user replies to that message, Novu can open a new agent conversation and continue the thread in context.

One platform for both patterns

Escalation emails, CSAT surveys, and on-call alerts from inside a conversation.
Digest or notification replies that hand off to an agent for follow-up.
Shared subscriber identity across notifications and agent threads.

Learn more in Conversations and workflows and Signals.

Common Use Cases

Here is how developers, startups, and enterprises are currently using Novu in real-world projects:

Transactional notifications

Order confirmations and shipping updates for e-commerce.
Password reset emails and authentication alerts for SaaS platforms.
Payment failure or subscription renewal reminders.

Agent and conversational experiences

Support agents that answer questions in Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, or email.
Internal operations agents that triage requests, collect information, and route work.
Workflow agents that trigger notifications, approvals, or escalations from within a conversation.
Multi-channel agents that need one communication interface across several providers.

In-app notification feeds

Show unread notifications directly in the app using Novu's Inbox component.
Customize the notification UI with hooks and headless components.
Deliver updates, such as mentions, comments, or system alerts.

Digest and summary notifications

"10 people liked your post" (similar to Facebook).
A weekly report summarizing account activity.
A daily task reminder for productivity apps.

Multi-step notification workflows

Step 1: Send an in-app notification → Step 2: If unread in 24 hours, send an email → Step 3: If still unread, send an SMS reminder.
Delay and schedule notifications using Novu's workflow automation.

Multi-channel notification delivery

Notify VIP customers via SMS while sending regular users an email.
Route system alerts to Slack or Microsoft Teams for internal teams.
Let users opt-in to specific channels (for example, receive marketing updates via email but urgent alerts via push notifications).

Customizable notification management

Let users enable/disable notification channels (email, SMS, push).
Offer per-event notification settings (for example, only notify me when tagged in a comment).
Manage user preferences with Novu's built-in preference center.

Next steps

Choose where you want to start:

Frequently asked questions

<AccordionGroup> <Accordion title="What makes Novu different from other notification platforms?"> Novu is fully open source and unifies transactional notifications and agent conversations on one platform. It supports no-code workflows, code-first workflows with the Novu Framework, a drop-in Inbox component, and Agent Communication Infrastructure (ACI) for multi-channel agents. </Accordion> <Accordion title="Can I self-host Novu?"> Yes. Novu can be self-hosted for full control over your notification infrastructure. See the [self-hosting guide](/community/self-hosting-novu/overview) for deployment options. </Accordion> <Accordion title="Which channels can I send notifications through?"> Novu supports in-app (Inbox), email, SMS, push, and chat. Connect your preferred providers through the [Integrations store](/platform/integrations). </Accordion> </AccordionGroup>