Why people look for Knock alternatives

Knock is excellent notification infrastructure, but it's not right for everyone. Here's why teams look elsewhere.

The pricing cliff

Knock's free tier is generous - 10,000 messages per month. But the next step is $250/month. There's no $50 or $100 plan for growing startups. If you've outgrown free but $250/mo feels steep, you're stuck. Read our Knock comparison page for a detailed breakdown.

You only need email

Knock shines with in-app notifications, push, and multi-channel orchestration. If you only need email, you're paying for capabilities you won't use. Email-focused platforms like Sequenzy, Resend, or Postmark are more affordable and purpose-built.

You want open-source

Knock is proprietary. If self-hosting or open-source matters to your team, Novu is the best alternative. Full control, no vendor lock-in, growing community. See our Novu comparison for details.

The alternatives, honestly

For SaaS email marketing: Sequenzy

If you don't need in-app notifications or push, why pay for them? Sequenzy is purpose-built for SaaS email marketing with AI-generated sequences and native Stripe integration. At $19/mo vs Knock's $250/mo, it's 5x cheaper for email-focused use cases.

The catch: email only. No in-app notification bells, no push. If you need those, Sequenzy isn't the answer.

For open-source control: Novu

Novu is the leading open-source notification infrastructure. Self-host for free, or use their cloud starting at $30/mo. Multi-channel support with in-app components.

The trade-off: less polished than Knock. Self-hosting requires DevOps resources. Documentation is still improving. But for teams wanting control, it's the best option.

For behavioral automation: Customer.io

If you need marketing automation with multi-channel, Customer.io is more powerful than Knock for marketing use cases. Complex behavioral workflows, event-driven campaigns, sophisticated segmentation.

The catch: $100/mo starting price, steep learning curve, no in-app notification UI like Knock.

For in-app focus: MagicBell

MagicBell is closest to Knock's in-app notification experience. Pre-built notification bell components for React, Vue, and vanilla JS. Multi-channel support with a modern developer experience.

Trade-off: smaller company, usage-based pricing can be unpredictable, fewer enterprise features than Knock.

The pricing comparison

At moderate volume:

• Knock Starter: $250/mo for 50k messages
• Sequenzy: $19/mo for 10k emails (email only)
• Novu Cloud Pro: $30/mo for 30k+ runs
• Customer.io: $100/mo for 5k profiles
• MagicBell: Usage-based, varies
• OneSignal: $9/mo for push-focused

Note: Different platforms count differently (messages, subscribers, runs). Compare based on your actual usage patterns. Check our pricing page for Sequenzy's simple per-subscriber model.

When Knock is still the right choice

Knock wins if:

• In-app notification UI is critical for your product
• You need sophisticated multi-channel orchestration
• The $250/mo price point works for your budget
• You want the most polished notification infrastructure

Don't switch just to save money if Knock's in-app components are core to your product experience. The time to rebuild that UI elsewhere isn't worth it. But if you're primarily using Knock for email, the alternatives are significantly cheaper. Use our email validator tool to ensure list quality when evaluating any platform.