# What is Novu? (/platform/what-is-novu)

The open-source notification infrastructure that simplifies in-app, email, chat, and push notifications.

import { Rocket } from 'lucide-react';
import { ReactIcon } from '@/components/icons/react';
import { NextjsIcon } from '@/components/icons/nextjs';
import { RemixIcon } from '@/components/icons/remix';

Novu is an open-source notification infrastructure built for anyone who needs an easy way to implement, manage, and deliver notifications across multi-channels, including in-app, email, chat, push, and SMS.

Novu is designed to fit and scale with your existing system by providing a unified API, customizable Inbox component that can be integrated with six lines of code, a drag-and-drop workflow builder, and an intuitive dashboard for sending and managing notifications.

Trusted by startups and enterprises alike for its ease of use, developer-first design, and cost-effective scalability, Novu ensures that notifications are delivered reliably to users without complexity.

<Cards>
  <Card icon={<Rocket />} href="/quickstart/nextjs" title="Quickstart">Get started in minutes and focus on building, not maintaining notifications. </Card>
</Cards>

## Why Novu?

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

### 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 <Method href="/platform/inbox">{`<Inbox />`}</Method> 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](/platform/sdks) 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.

## 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.

### 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 (e.g., 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 (e.g., only notify me when tagged in a comment).
* Manage user preferences with Novu’s built-in preference center.

## Next steps

Get started with Novu in minutes! Choose a quickstart guide to integrate notifications into your application:

<Cards>
  <Card icon={<NextjsIcon />} title="Next.js" href="/platform/quickstart/nextjs" description="Get started with our pre-built UI component in Next.js" />

  <Card icon={<ReactIcon />} title="React" href="/platform/quickstart/react" description="Get started with our pre-built UI component in React" />

  <Card icon={<RemixIcon />} title="Remix" href="/platform/quickstart/remix" description="Get started with our pre-built UI component in Remix" />
</Cards>