SendPulse Web Push Notification for WordPress Review

Today I am going to do a review on SendPulse Web Push Notification, a cloud service offered by SendPulse that can be easily integrated to any WordPress blogs with the help of their WordPress integration plugin.

The web push notification technology has actually been around for a few years already, but I haven’t really looked into it until a couple of weeks ago when a representative from SendPulse asked me if I can try their service, and me being really curious about this technology, I said why not.

About SendPulse

To give you a brief background about SendPulse, the company has actually been around since 2015, with their main office situated in New York.

Their primary objective in starting the company is for them to provide a service with simpler interface, less learning curve, have more functionality with lesser restrictions, and at the same time, with a price tag that is relatively cheaper compared to existing services.

Initially, SendPulse only provides email, SMS, and SMTP services but it has now already expanded to include web push notification and viber marketing. They also recently developed an artificial intelligence functionality that is integrated to their email service for it to optimize email sending parameters to maximize open rates.

Even though the company is relatively young, SendPulse has actually able to attract around 500,000 (and increasing!) users who trust their services. This really speak a lot about the company considering that they just started around two years ago.

What is a Web Push?

So what really is a Web Push notification? A Web Push Notification is actually a browser feature that can allow websites to send messages to their subscribers even when the website has not been loaded, as long as the visitor has subscribed to that notification.

This technology has actually been around for a few years now, and this feature can easily be spotted when you visit a certain website with a notification that appears on the upper left screen of your browser similar to the screenshot below:

What you see above is an example of a web push notification, and whenever you see this, you have the option to subscribe to the web push notification of that website by selecting “Always Receive Notifications”

Now, in order to use this service, you need to subscribe to a web push service provider, and there are actually several services available out there but they do charge a subscription fee, unlike SendPulse, wherein their Web Push Notification is free to use, and I will show you how to set it up properly below so you can take advantage of this feature.

Software Setup and Usage

Step 1: Signup at SendPulse

The first thing to do is to sign up at SendPulse. Signing up is free anyway and you’ll also be able to access some of their free services including the email, SMS, and SMTP

Once you’re inside, click the “Push” icon to go the Web Push Notification dashboard

Step 2: Add Your Website

Once you’re in the Web Push Notification dashboard, click “Add Website”

Then fill out the details for your website. See screenshot below for example.

Once you’re done, click “Next step”

On the next page, you will be given a script that you need to add in your website, and two files that you need to put in your website’s server.

And if you don’t want to do this manually (a little bit harder to do) you can do it easily by installing the SendPulse WordPress Web Push Integration plugin (refer to Step 3)

Step 3: Download and Install the WordPress plugin

Get the web push notification plugin from the WordPress official plugin directory: https://wordpress.org/plugins/sendpulse-web-push/

Once the plugin is installed, you can access the SendPulse settings page at the left admin menu by going to Settings > Sendpulse webpush

Step 4: Script Setup

You will see a script text box and what you just need to do is to copy and paste the code there and press “Save Changes”

After that go back to the SendPulse user account and press “Check the Settings”.

If everything went right, you will see the confirmation just like the one you see in the screenshot below

Click “Finish” afterwards

And that’s it! You now have a web push notification functionality for your website. I tried to visit my website and below is what welcomed me.

What I didn’t like in my setup is the prompt message, which I find too obtrusive, so I edited the settings and unchecked the “Add a prompt message” to disable it

Sending Push Notification

To send a push notification, just click the “Send Push” button that you can see on the upper left screen of your Push Notification dashboard

Next is to set up your notification message as you can see below. You can see the preview of your notification at the right hand side of the screen

Once you’re satisfied with your message, just press the “Send” button.

After the message is sent, just wait for a while and you will see that a notification will appear at the lower left corner of your browser. All your subscribers who subscribed to your push notification will be able to receive this.

For testing purposes, I tried to subscribe to my push notification, and you can see below that I received the notification that I sent earlier, which also means that the software is working indeed.

And below is the screenshot as seen on the Chrome mobile browser

And that’s basically how you setup and use the Web Push Notification by SendPulse.

What I Like about This Service

Below you can see the things that I like about the Web Push Notification

Ease of Use

One of the things I like about this is its ease of use. As you can see, setting up is not complex, the interface is very intuitive, and with the help of the plugin, it makes the setup a lot faster and easier.

Non Obtrusive

Unlike the usual pop-up optin forms that surprises you and blocks your viewing screen, push notifications are very subtle and just appears at the upper right corner of your screen, which makes it ideal for webmasters who likes to build subscribers in a discreet manner

Free

Unlike other web push notification service providers, this one offered by SendPulse is free of charge, and although its free, it does not lack the features that is only accessible to paid platforms such as analytics and segmentation functionalities

Includes Other Free Services

Once you’ve signed up with SendPulse, you are not just bound to use the Web Push notification as you’ll also get several cool services for free such as the following:

• Email: With the free account, you can build an email list up to 2500 subscribers and can send 15,000 emails for free every month
• SMS: With the free account, you can send 10 free SMS message to all mobile numbers across the globe

Try SendPulse Today For Free

What I Don’t Like about This Service

Although the service is really good, I found some things that I think they can still improve on, which I listed below

Not Compatible to All Mobile Browsers

At the moment, the push notification by SendPulse only works on Chrome mobile, and it will actually be great if they will be able to make it compatible with other mobile browsers such as Firefox mobile, Safari, and other default mobile browsers

Lacks The Option to Send Notifications On The Same Time of Subscription

This feature is not yet available as of the time I tested the app, but is actually a nice feature that they can add in the future (hopefully!). Like for example, if a user subscribed at 9:25am, I will be able to send a message on the same time in the future. I believe this will increase open rates knowing that the subscriber is active on that specific time of the day and will be able to see the notification immediately

Pricing

The SendPulse Web Push Notification service actually have 2 price plans, the first one is free (which I am currently using), and the other one is the White Label option where the “Powered by SendPulse” text is removed. Their white label plan costs $59.85 per month

Wrapping Up

I guess that wraps up my review of the SendPulse Web Push Notification. If you’re looking for a way to build your list and engage to your subscribers in a non-obtrusive way, then I highly recommend using the Web Push Notification by SendPulse. Though there are already other available services like this today, I would still suggest you try the one offered by SendPulse because for one, it’s absolutely free of charge, and aside from that, you’ll also get to try other cool services for email, SMS, and SMTP, which also comes free of charge with their free plan.

So what are you waiting for? Try it today for free by clicking the button below. Also, if you signed up thru my link and decided to subscribe to their paid monthly services, you’ll get $10 deducted to your subscription fee for the first 5 months, which gives you a total of $50 off on your subscription.

Try SendPulse Today For Free