StockPing Push Notifications — How They Work
Learn how StockPing delivers instant push alerts to your phone using ntfy. Setup takes 2 minutes, it's free, and your data stays private.
You opened StockPing’s push notification setup, saw “ntfy,” and paused. You’ve never heard of this app, and now you’re being asked to install it on your phone. Fair enough — you should know what you’re installing and why.
This post covers everything: what ntfy is, how StockPing uses it, what data gets sent, whether it’s safe, and how it compares to email and Slack. By the end, you’ll have a clear picture of exactly what’s happening when you tap “Set up push notifications.”
If you are comparing channels first, start with the StockPing low stock alerts for Shopify page for the full email, Slack, and push workflow.
What Is NTFY?
ntfy (pronounced “notify”) is a free, open-source push notification app available on both iPhone and Android. Think of it as a lightweight notification relay — an app sends a message to ntfy, and ntfy delivers it to your phone as a push notification. That’s it.
It was created by Philipp Heckel and has become one of the most widely used notification tools in the open-source world — over 29,500 GitHub stars, used by projects like Home Assistant and Grafana, and actively maintained with thousands of contributions.
The app itself is completely free. No in-app purchases, no ads, no subscription. You don’t even need to create an account.
If you visit the ntfy website, you’ll notice they offer paid plans. Those are for other app developers who want to use ntfy’s managed servers to send notifications from their own apps — it has nothing to do with you as a StockPing user. StockPing runs its own private notification server and handles everything for you. You just install the free app and scan a QR code. That’s it — no ntfy account, no ntfy subscription, nothing to pay.
Why Push Instead of Email or Slack?
Email gets buried. Slack requires your team to be active in Slack. Push lands directly on your lock screen — no app to open, no inbox to dig through.
Push notifications are the fastest channel StockPing offers. Alerts arrive in 1–2 seconds. If you want to know the moment stock drops below your threshold — not whenever you next check your inbox — push is the way to do it.
This doesn’t replace your other channels. You can run push alongside email and Slack. A common setup: push for instant awareness on your phone, and the email daily digest for a morning summary you can reference later. We covered the email vs. Slack tradeoffs in detail here — push adds a third option that works differently from both.
Push also supports the daily digest, so you can get a morning summary of open incidents delivered straight to your phone.
How Setup Works in StockPing
The entire process takes under two minutes. Here’s what to expect.
Step 1 — Install the ntfy app
StockPing shows you QR codes for both the App Store (iPhone) and Google Play (Android). Scan with your phone camera, install the app. It’s a small download — under 10 MB.
Step 2 — Connect to your store’s alerts
StockPing generates a second QR code that’s unique to your store. Scan it with your phone camera — it opens a setup page with step-by-step instructions to link the ntfy app to your store’s notification channel. Takes about 30 seconds.
Step 3 — Test the connection
Hit “Send test notification” in StockPing. A test alert should arrive on your phone within seconds. If it doesn’t, troubleshooting tips appear right in the setup wizard — no guesswork needed.
Step 4 — Done
Push notifications are now active. You’ll receive instant alerts whenever inventory drops below your thresholds, recovery notifications when stock comes back, and optionally a daily digest summary.
No account was created. No passwords to remember. No configuration files to edit.
What Data Does StockPing Send?
Push notifications contain only what you need to act on the alert: product name, variant, location, current stock level, and the threshold it crossed. Here’s what they actually look like:
Low stock alert:
Warning — 2 Low Stock Alerts
- Classic Cotton T-Shirt — Medium / Black @ Main Warehouse: 2 in stock (threshold: 5)
- Organic Face Cream — 50ml @ Downtown Store: 0 in stock (threshold: 10)
Recovery notification:
Stock Recovered Classic Cotton T-Shirt — Medium / Black at Main Warehouse is back in stock. Quantity: 12 (threshold: 5)
Daily digest:
Daily Report — 3 open incidents You have 3 active low-stock incidents. Check StockPing for details.
No customer data, no revenue data, no order information is ever included in a push notification. The only data sent is product inventory information — the same information visible on your Shopify Products page.
Is It Secure? Your Privacy Questions Answered
”Can someone else see my alerts?”
No. StockPing runs its own private notification server at push.selleazyy.com — it does not use the public ntfy.sh server that anyone can access.
Access to your store’s notification channel requires authentication through our API. Each store gets a unique, randomly generated channel name (a long string of random characters, not your store name or anything guessable). Even if someone tried random channel names on our server, they’d be denied access without valid credentials.
”Are notifications encrypted?”
All data is encrypted in transit using TLS/HTTPS — the same encryption standard used by banks and payment processors. Notifications are temporarily stored on our server for delivery (so your phone receives them even if it was briefly offline), then cleared.
The server is operated by SellEazyy — the same team that builds StockPing. Your notification data doesn’t pass through any third party’s infrastructure.
”Is my store data exposed to ntfy.sh?”
No. Your notifications go exclusively through push.selleazyy.com — infrastructure that we control.
There’s one small technical detail worth mentioning for full transparency: on iPhones, Apple requires all push notifications to route through Apple’s Push Notification Service (APNS). The ntfy app uses a minimal relay through ntfy.sh to trigger APNS — but this relay contains zero message content. It’s essentially a “wake-up” signal that tells the ntfy app on your phone to fetch the actual notification directly from our server. Your alert details never touch ntfy.sh.
”Why open source?”
Open source means the ntfy code is publicly available for anyone to inspect. Security researchers, developers, and the community can verify exactly what the software does — there’s no black box. It’s maintained by a large, active community and has been reviewed by thousands of developers worldwide.
Push vs. Email vs. Slack
Here’s how push compares to StockPing’s other notification channels:
| Push (ntfy) | Slack | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | 1–2 seconds | Seconds to minutes | Real-time |
| Where it appears | Phone lock screen | Inbox | Slack channel |
| Best for | Instant awareness on the go | Daily review, paper trail | Team coordination |
| Daily digest | Yes | Yes | No |
| Account required | No (just install the app) | Email address | Slack workspace |
| Cost | Free | Free | Free |
| Plan availability | Free + PRO | Free + PRO | Free + PRO |
Note: The ntfy app is free to install, and StockPing handles the server infrastructure — you’ll never be asked to pay ntfy for anything. StockPing’s Free plan includes 20 push notifications per month; PRO includes unlimited push notifications.
Common Questions
Do I need to create an ntfy account? No. Install the app, scan the QR code in StockPing, and you’re done. No signup, no login, no password.
Is the ntfy app really free? Yes. The app is open source — no in-app purchases, no premium tier, no ads. It’s free on both the App Store and Google Play. If you see pricing plans on the ntfy website, those are for app developers who want to use ntfy’s managed servers — not for StockPing users. StockPing includes everything you need at no extra cost.
Will it drain my battery? No. ntfy uses the same push notification infrastructure as every other app on your phone — Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android, Apple Push Notification Service on iPhone. There’s no background polling or constant connection draining your battery.
What if my phone is off or I lose internet? Notifications are cached on our server. When your phone comes back online, you’ll receive any missed alerts — they’re held for up to 12 hours.
Can I use it on multiple devices? Yes. Install ntfy on as many phones or tablets as you want and scan the same QR code on each. All devices receive the same alerts.
How do I turn it off? Two options: disable push in StockPing’s notification settings (this keeps your connection saved for later), or remove push entirely (deletes the connection). You can also unsubscribe directly inside the ntfy app at any time.
Can I still use email and Slack alongside push? Absolutely. Push is an additional channel — it doesn’t replace anything. Most merchants use push for instant awareness and email for the daily digest as a paper trail.
Get Push Alerts in Under 2 Minutes
Push notifications are available on all StockPing plans, including Free. Free includes 20 push notifications per month; PRO includes unlimited push notifications. No credit card, no developer, no configuration files — just scan two QR codes and you’re set.
Install StockPing free from the Shopify App Store to get started. If you’re already using StockPing, open your notification settings and tap “Set up push notifications.”
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