What is our primary use case?
My main use case for OneSignal is for our mobile apps department, and it is a solution to manage our push notifications. Our application is developer-friendly, and many actions are provided by APIs through SDK, plus it provides a free service for a reasonable limit. OneSignal is able to handle multiple platforms, including iOS, which we know is complicated to set up APNS, and many more.
We also use OneSignal across our organization for push notifications on our website and mobile apps. For many years, we have used OneSignal to manage our push automations and push campaigns. I am very happy with the platform, how it works, and their pricing model is fair. Currently, we have around 250,000 push subscribers, and our campaigns perform great with OneSignal.
What is most valuable?
The best features OneSignal offers are push notifications, automations, and push campaigns, as it can send push notifications to all major browsers and devices. It is very fast and lightning-quick. It is very easy to set up and integrate with other third-party tools. It has a rich API for in-app messaging.
The automation and API features of OneSignal have helped my team, as it has REST API endpoints to support any technical stack integration, making it easy to streamline workflows.
There is also an intuitive user interface, in-app messaging, and segmentation in OneSignal. The capability enables businesses to deliver personalized messages to their audience effectively through the segmentation feature, and the in-app messaging enhances user engagement by providing visually appealing and interactive content within the mobile experience.
OneSignal has positively impacted my organization as it has been very easy to use, even for our marketing department. They find it very easy to use, and it has increased our engagement, user engagement, increased our user retention, and increased our brand awareness from 20 to 45%.
What needs improvement?
OneSignal can be improved as it is still in development, and it takes longer to create or fulfill certain features.
I would like to add that the user interface of OneSignal could be improved slightly, and the support could be more proactive.
Furthermore, I believe the in-app messaging should be improved.
OneSignal needs some improvements, such as scheduling to multiple mediums can be a bit difficult. For instance, we have to do separate notifications for our app and website, which is confusing and tiresome.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using OneSignal for the last six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
OneSignal is stable, as I have not noticed any downtime, so it is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
OneSignal's scalability is highly scalable, as it grows with my organization's needs.
How are customer service and support?
I have dealt with OneSignal's customer support on four to five instances over the years, and my issues were always resolved within a matter of a few business days, so they were great and responsive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign as different solutions.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment as we have seen direct purchase conversions on new offers, and it does a great job of driving traffic to off-site locations such as YouTube and Instagram for new videos.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the licensing is very affordable, and the price is very cost-effective.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing OneSignal, I evaluated other options such as Dropbox Business, Workplace by Facebook, and Shopify Plus.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using OneSignal is that it is a free push notification service that has great customer support and is very cost-effective. It values your money, so it is a great value for money and an added advantage, especially for the marketing department.
OneSignal is good when you need a one-stop solution for push notifications on your multiple platform apps. If you are developing your apps in Android, iOS, web, web view, and your back-end infrastructure that has push notifications for each app, it would be so complicated. OneSignal is the best solution. You just need to configure your apps and your settings from Firebase or APNS, and you are already ready to go.
I switched from Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign to OneSignal because it is a great tool. It is very cost-effective, easy to use, and has great customer support.
OneSignal is deployed in my organization as a hybrid solution. For our hybrid deployment, we use AWS as the cloud provider. I purchased OneSignal through the AWS Marketplace.
OneSignal helps us to keep our content engaging, which is a great way to build an organic audience in a world that relies on social media traffic to fuel web traffic, hence increasing our sales, engagement, and marketing. I can tell you that we measured the increase in conversion rate through the customers coming back after they receive our services, and that is how we gauge the retention rate.
I give this product a rating of 9 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.