I have build a notification sending service / gateway, and it is a pain to do. Just because Apple has no knowledge how to do proper web based apis. For small

I have build a notification sending service / gateway, and it is a pain to do. Just because Apple has no knowledge how to do proper web based apis. For small apps, that's another service to build and maintain. Airship serves well that purpose. Now, if you are a large company, and have a large volume of pushes, then it doesn't makes sense to pay Airship, but build a service yourself, and have a team to maintain it. Usually, even the smallest service, if you are doealing with Apple's (and Google's) external APi, will have trouble time to time, and you will have to have a team to 'passively' monitor and maintain it. For a company with less than 100 people, that doesn't really make sense. But with a later stage company, it totally makes sense to have your own service. Anwyay, just my 2cents, as I have done both, build my own Notification service for a startup, and used Urban Airship for my own personal projects.