DevVersus

Novu vs Knock(2026)

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

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

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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
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

How Do Novu and Knock Compare on Features?

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

Novu Pros and Cons vs Knock

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
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

Should You Use Novu or Knock?

Choose Novu if…

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

Choose Knock if…

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

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