// FAQ
Pushbrain is a Firebase push strategy layer for indie developers and small SaaS teams — campaigns, audience health, and AI-assisted messaging on top of your existing FCM project, without vendor lock-in.
Yes. Free is a permanent $0 plan for up to 3 apps and 5,000 devices. Pro is $10/month and Scale is $29/month for more capacity and automation.
Not if you already store their FCM tokens. Connect the same Firebase project, POST those tokens to /sdk/register-token from your backend, and send immediately — no App Store or Play update and no new opt-in prompt. Ship the Pushbrain SDK later for open/click tracking and automatic token refresh. Prefer recently active tokens; Android registrations older than ~270 days are often expired.
Yes — 2 Autopilot runs and 2 active scheduled jobs per month on Free. Pro raises that to 25 runs and unlimited jobs.
Yes. Pushbrain sits on top of your existing Firebase project — FCM remains the delivery transport. Upload your service-account JSON once; tokens register against your tenant and sends go through Firebase Admin. No migration to a new push vendor.
If you already send through Firebase Cloud Messaging, Pushbrain replaces the management layer OneSignal would provide — scheduling, dashboards, AI copy, audience health — while keeping tokens in your Firebase project instead of a third-party subscriber database.
Create a scheduled job in Pushbrain: pick a one-time send or recurring cron, choose your audience segment, and optionally enable AI Autopilot for fresh copy each run. Pushbrain handles timezone-aware delivery — no Cloud Functions, BullMQ, or self-hosted cron server required.
Tokens stay registered to your Firebase project. Pushbrain stores device metadata and health signals alongside each token, prunes stale entries from your audience, and sends through Firebase Admin using your encrypted service-account credentials.
Firebase Console sends messages. Pushbrain adds app-aware AI suggestions, AI recurring jobs, device health, send history, and a mobile-friendly dashboard on top of your FCM project.
No. Your Firebase project remains the transport. Pushbrain stores encrypted service-account credentials and uses Firebase Admin to send through your own FCM tenant.
We encrypt your service account JSON at rest using AES-256 encryption. We never log it, never display it again after upload, and it's only decrypted in memory at send time.
FCM is free transport — it delivers tokens to devices. A strategy layer adds campaigns, scheduling, segmentation, AI copy, audience health, and send history without replacing your Firebase project or forcing a new vendor SDK.
OneSignal stores tokens on its infrastructure and charges around subscriber volume. Pushbrain uses your own Firebase project for delivery, so tokens stay yours and FCM delivery stays free. You pay a flat rate for the management layer.
Yes. Pushbrain supports Android, React Native, Flutter, and Web through your existing Firebase project. Web uses the standard service worker + FCM web setup; mobile uses FCM through Firebase Admin.
It replaces the parts you would otherwise build: token storage, batching past the 500-token FCM limit, pruning stale tokens, scheduling, dashboards, and AI copy. FCM itself remains your delivery layer.
The run is marked failed and stale copy is not sent silently. That keeps Autopilot honest and makes failures visible in scheduled job history.
V1 stores device tokens and lightweight metadata, then reports aggregate health. It does not store permanent per-device delivery timelines, which keeps the model cheaper and simpler.
No. The Free plan requires no credit card. Sign up, connect Firebase, and send from the dashboard or API.
Yes. Because Pushbrain uses your existing Firebase project, FCM tokens remain valid. POST existing tokens to /sdk/register-token from your backend and users can receive notifications before they update the app — no new opt-in prompt. Ship the SDK in a later release for tracking and token refresh.
Android (native), React Native, Flutter, and Web are documented today. All routes through your Firebase project using FCM.
Yes — that is the primary audience. Connect Firebase once, skip enterprise onboarding, and get campaigns plus AI copy without a Braze-scale implementation project.
Free covers 3 apps and 5k devices. Pro ($10/mo) covers 10 apps and 50k devices. Scale ($29/mo) covers unlimited apps and 250k devices with overage at $10 per 50k devices. FCM delivery cost is always $0.
Yes. Expand any sent notification in the history tab and click "⏱ Auto follow-up". Set a delay (24 h, 48 h, 3 days, or 7 days) and an open-rate threshold — the follow-up only fires if fewer than that percentage of recipients opened the original. Scheduled in one click, managed in the Automations tab.
Yes. On Free you can use Integration → Test weather notification to fetch live weather, generate AI copy from your app brief, and send to devices marked as test. Production weather-gated Automations require Pro.
No. Scheduled jobs with weather conditions (only send when raining, clear, temperature thresholds, etc.) require Pro or Scale. Free keeps the Integration weather preview so you can try the flow before upgrading.
Enable Location collection in Integration, then include city and/or lat + lng when registering the device token (POST /sdk/register-token or your SDK init). Devices without location are skipped by weather-gated jobs but still receive other notifications. See /docs/weather-notifications.
Yes. Pushbrain runs two-proportion z-tests on A/B decisions and marks tests inconclusive when sample size is too small — it does not force a false winner.