MOCA Platform allows the configuration of both services. But what are the differences between them? Let's take a look!

The notifications are divided in two components:

• The device token (APNS) and the Device ID (GCM).
• Payload

Within these two components we find various differences:

• GCM is sent as JSON payloads and APNS sends either string or dict.
• GCM has a payload of 2KB while APNS has a payload of 4KB.
• APNS saves 1 notification per App while GCM saves 100 notifications per device.
• GCM supports multiple platforms while APNS requires of their proprietary platform.
• Acknowledgement can be sent in GCM if using XMPP, but it's not possible on APNS.

Which is better?

No such answer exists. They both cater to specific environments so depending on your target platforms you'll need to configure one or more of these notification protocols.