DevVersus

Knock vs Novu(2026)

Knock is better for teams that need best-in-class notification workflows. Novu is the stronger choice if open source. Knock is freemium (from $100/month) and Novu is open-source (from $250/month (cloud)).

Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.

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Knock logo

Knock

freemium

Knock is a notification delivery platform for product teams to build and manage complex notification workflows across channels.

Starting at $100/month

Visit Knock
Novu logo

Novu

open-source

Novu is an open source notification infrastructure for managing in-app, email, SMS, push, and chat notifications via a single API.

Starting at $250/month (cloud)

Visit Novu

How Do Knock and Novu Compare on Features?

FeatureKnockNovu
Pricing modelfreemiumopen-source
Starting price$100/month$250/month (cloud)
Multi-channel workflows
In-app feeds
Digest notifications
Preferences API
Template management
Real-time delivery
Multi-channel notifications
In-app notification center
Workflow builder
Digest & batching
Subscriber management
Provider-agnostic

Knock Pros and Cons vs Novu

K

Knock

+Best-in-class notification workflows
+In-app notification component
+User preferences built-in
+Good docs
Expensive vs DIY
Less known than Twilio
Limited free tier
N

Novu

+Open source
+Multi-channel (email, SMS, push, in-app)
+Self-hostable
+Good workflow builder
Complex for simple use cases
Cloud pricing is high
Still maturing

Should You Use Knock or Novu?

Choose Knock if…

  • Best-in-class notification workflows
  • In-app notification component
  • User preferences built-in

Choose Novu if…

  • Open source
  • Multi-channel (email, SMS, push, in-app)
  • Self-hostable

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