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Hush vs. Octobox for GitHub notifications

Octobox and Hush are both web apps for GitHub notifications. Octobox is a mature, self-hostable inbox with rich search; Hush sorts by whose turn it is and pushes what waits on you.

Summary

Octobox is a mature, open-source web inbox for GitHub notifications, with an archive state, rich search, Gmail-style keys, and a self-hosted option that works with GitHub Enterprise. Hush is a newer web app that decides whose turn it is on each thread, keeps a short "Needs you" list, and sends push alerts for it.

  • Choose Octobox to host your own copy, to use GitHub Enterprise, or for search over many fields.
  • Choose Hush for a "Needs you" list, push alerts with quiet hours, and pull request actions in place.

At a glance

Octobox Hush
Where it runs Web (octobox.io), or self-hosted (Docker, Heroku, OpenShift) Web app (installable), on Cloudflare; self-hosting possible
Price Free for open source; enhanced data for private repos from $10 per user per month Free in beta; planned $3 a month or $30 a year
Open source Yes (AGPL-3.0) Yes
Sort order Time, with search and filters Needs you, FYI, Muted, by whose turn it is
Filters Repo, org, type, reason, state, CI status, labels, author, assignee, bot, draft, and more Rules, a query language, saved views
Push alerts Not documented Web Push, quiet hours, digests, limits
Pull request actions Comment from the thread view (beta) Approve, request changes, comment, merge, close, re-run CI
GitHub Enterprise Yes, when self-hosted No (github.com only)
API Yes (REST, OpenAPI) Atom feeds; settings as JSON
Latest release "october-2026", 1 October 2026 Beta, updated continuously

How they sort

Octobox adds an archive state to GitHub notifications: you archive a thread when you finish, and Octobox brings it back to the inbox when new activity comes. You can also star and mute threads. Its search takes prefixes such as repo:, owner:, type:, reason:, state:, label:, author:, status: (CI), bot:, draft:, and assignee:, and combines them with free text. With its optional GitHub App, Octobox also gets the state, CI status, labels, and author of each item. The list is sorted by time; Octobox does not decide which threads need you.

Hush reads the pull request or issue behind each notification and decides if you are the next person who must act. Those threads go to Needs you; the rest go to FYI. When a thread stops needing you (you approved, CI passes now, it was merged), Hush moves it to Done with a note; if it needs you again, it comes back. Rules change where threads go and whether they push.

Both apps bring a finished thread back when there is new activity, and in both, Mute stops the notifications of that thread.

Pull requests

Octobox has a thread view, in public beta, that shows the comments of a notification inside Octobox. You can post a comment from it. Approve and merge are not documented.

Hush has Pull requests and Issues tabs grouped by Your turn, Your team's turn, and Waiting on others, also for items with no notification. The peek shows the description, comments, reviews, and checks, with Approve, Request changes, Comment, Merge, Close, and Re-run failed jobs. Hush does not show the diff.

Alerts

Octobox does not document push or desktop alerts. Its "live updates" setting refreshes the rows on screen. For a desktop app, the README suggests wrapping the site with Nativefier, or a community browser extension.

Hush sends Web Push to desktop and phone browsers, by default only for "Needs you". It has quiet hours, digests, a limit, and one alert per pull request, and private Atom feeds.

Hosting and privacy

Octobox runs as a hosted service at octobox.io, or on your own server. A self-hosted copy can point at GitHub Enterprise, can let in only one org or team, and can turn on personal access tokens. The hosted service stores your email address, page-visit data, basic data about notifications, and, with the GitHub App, authors, labels, comments, and status. Tokens are encrypted.

Hush is hosted on Cloudflare, with each user's data in storage of its own. It stores your encrypted token, your threads, and the facts of each pull request and issue; it has no analytics (see Privacy). The code is open, so you can run your own copy, but Hush calls only api.github.com, so a copy does not work with GitHub Enterprise Server.

Where Octobox is better

  • Self-hosting is documented, with Docker, Heroku, and OpenShift, and works with GitHub Enterprise.
  • Free for open-source work, with no account limit stated.
  • Search over many fields, including labels, assignees, CI status, and draft state.
  • A REST API for your notifications and pinned searches.
  • Mature: in development since 2016, with monthly releases and about 4,500 stars on GitHub.

Where Hush is better

  • It decides who must act next, and keeps one short "Needs you" list up to date.
  • Push alerts on desktop and phone, with quiet hours and digests.
  • Approve, request changes, merge, and re-run CI from the list.
  • Dashboards of pull requests and issues that involve you, also with no notification.
  • Rules that sort, push, mute, or snooze threads by themselves.

Choose Octobox if…

  • You must host the tool yourself, or you use GitHub Enterprise Server.
  • You maintain open-source projects and want a free inbox with strong search.
  • You want an API to build on.

Choose Hush if…

  • You want the app to tell you which threads wait on you, not only to filter them.
  • You want push alerts on your phone.
  • You review and merge many pull requests and want to do it from the inbox.

Sources

Last checked: 3 October 2026.