Knock vs Novu: which notification platform fits?

Last updated: November 2026

Short answer

Knock vs Novu comes down to hosting and billing. Knock is a hosted platform that bills one message per user per channel, so an email plus an in-app notification to one person counts as two. Novu is Open Core: you can self-host the MIT-licensed core or use Novu Cloud, which bills one workflow run per subscriber and doesn't fall back to another provider when a send fails. Courier bills one send per template per recipient across channels, fails over automatically across 50+ providers, and includes translations and tenants without an Enterprise contract.

Knock vs Novu vs Courier at a glance

Pricing and billing units

Knock bills messages. One message is one notification to one user on one channel (Knock pricing). An email plus an in-app notification to the same person is two messages. Usage in every environment counts, including development (Knock plans). Guides and AI agent credits have their own meters: Starter includes 2,500 guide recipients, then $0.05 each. Enterprise adds volume discounts and the option to pay per monthly notified user instead of per message.

Novu bills workflow runs. A run is "one execution of a workflow for one subscriber," however many steps or channels it has (Novu billing). A trigger to a topic fans out to one run per matching subscriber. Digests don't reduce the count: if 15 events are digested into one notification, Novu bills 15 (Novu triggers). Runs from development, production, and custom environments pool into one monthly total. Team starts at $250 a month with 250,000+ runs (Novu pricing).

Courier bills sends. One template to one recipient through the Send API is one send, whatever channels it reaches (how sends are counted), and every channel costs the same (Courier pricing).

Worked example. You send 100,000 order updates a month, each as an email plus an in-app notification to one customer.

Roll those updates into a daily digest and Novu still bills every event, while a Courier digest that combines them is one send. In a Courier journey, each Send node delivers one channel, so the same email-plus-in-app flow built as a journey counts two sends.

Workflows

Both platforms give you a visual builder and workflows as code. Knock's workflow builder mixes channel steps with functions, including four kinds of delay and steps that trigger other workflows or update users and tenants. You pull and push workflows and templates as files with the Knock CLI and promote them between environments in CI. Every Knock plan includes unlimited workflows.

Novu's dashboard editor sits alongside Novu Framework, which defines workflows in TypeScript and exposes no-code controls to non-technical teammates. Step conditions skip a step when they evaluate to false. Novu caps workflows at 20 on Free and Pro and 100 on Team (Novu pricing).

Reliability and failover

Knock retries a failed provider send up to 8 times over 30 minutes with exponential backoff, and you can retry manually from the dashboard (Knock delivery docs). Channel groups pick a channel by rule or by percentage cohort, which helps with a gradual provider migration. Knock's docs don't describe switching to another provider when one fails.

Novu attempts each provider send once. Its docs say: "If that provider fails, Novu does not fall back to another configured integration for the same channel," and that "a transient provider outage results in permanently undelivered notifications" (Novu delivery retries). Integration conditions choose a provider up front from subscriber, context, or payload data.

Cross-channel fallback, like in-app first and email if it's still unread a day later, is something you build in both with a delay and a condition. Novu documents the recipe.

Hosting and compliance

Knock's docs don't describe self-hosting. Every plan is SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and CCPA compliant, and Knock signs HIPAA BAAs on Enterprise. Enterprise also adds SAML SSO, SCIM, custom roles, and audit logs (Knock pricing). Knock expects to support EU data residency by the end of 2026 (Knock plans).

Novu is Open Core. The core is MIT licensed, and the enterprise folder at the root of the repository is under a commercial license (GitHub). You can self-host the open-source core at no cost, and Enterprise on-premises is licensed separately (Novu billing). The Community edition leaves out translations, RBAC, SAML and OIDC SSO, a HIPAA BAA, and SOC 2 (self-hosted vs Cloud). Novu Cloud is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 compliant (Novu security), hosts in the US or EU on every plan, and adds the UK, Singapore, Australia, Japan, and South Korea on Enterprise.

In-app and preferences

Knock's in-app feed channel powers feeds, inboxes, and toasts, with a pre-built React inbox and SDKs for web and mobile. Preferences work per workflow, category, and channel, through a page Knock hosts and renders, a React preference center, or a headless hook. The hosted page doesn't support per-tenant preferences (Knock hosted preferences).

Novu ships <Inbox /> with Bell and Notifications components and a headless mode for React, JavaScript, and React Native. Inbox feed history lasts 30 days on Free and 90 on Pro and Team (Novu pricing). Preferences come as a <Preferences /> component and a usePreferences hook, at three levels: workflow defaults, subscriber per workflow, and subscriber global (Novu preferences).

Where Courier fits

• Billing that grows with channels or events. Courier counts one send per template per recipient through the Send API, at $0.005 on Business with no platform fee.
• Failover you don't write. Courier routes through 50+ providers, including Twilio, SendGrid, SES, FCM, and APNs, and fails over automatically when one is down. You swap providers without touching code.
• Enterprise gates on Knock. Courier includes translations, per-tenant branding and preferences, digests, and batches of up to 25 events on every plan, including the free Developer plan. AI Translations and EU data residency come with Business.
• Self-hosting work on Novu. Courier is fully managed and SOC 2 Type II, so nobody on your team runs the queue.

Your whole team works on the same objects. Marketers and product managers build in the Journeys canvas, run Experiments, and edit every channel in Design Studio. Engineers and AI agents reach the same journeys, templates, and preferences through the API, CLI, and MCP server. Courier Create embeds the editor, white-labeled, so your customers design their own messages.

Go deeper with Courier vs Knock, Courier vs Novu, Knock alternatives, and Courier vs SuprSend. Moving over? The migration guides map workflows, users, and preferences from Knock and from Novu.

Start free with 10,000 sends a month.