Novu vs Knock
Open-source self-host versus polished hosted product.
What matters for SaaS product teams
A SaaS product sends on behalf of its customers, so the deciding factors are tenant isolation, whether suppressions can be scoped rather than global, and whether support can answer why one specific account did not receive one specific email. Lifecycle automation and transactional sending usually need to coexist.
| Priority | Novu | Knock |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-tenant | Yes | Yes |
| Event stream | Yes | Yes |
| Suppressions API | Yes | Yes |
| Operating since | 2021 | 2021 |
| Scheduling | Yes | Yes |
| Best published rate per 1,000 | Tiers not published in comparable form | Tiers not published in comparable form |
| Deliverability | BYO provider. | Inherits the deliverability of the provider you BYO (Postmark, SendGrid, Resend). |
| Webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Starts at | $250/mo (Business cloud) | $249/mo (Starter) |
For a multi-tenant SaaS product running trial expiry notices, dunning, onboarding sequences, and per-tenant transactional mail, the two are level on every priority that can be scored here, so the choice comes down to price and to which product your team would rather operate. On entry price, Novu offers $250/mo (Business cloud) against $249/mo (Starter) from Knock. That ordering reflects this audience. Weigh the same table differently and the answer changes.
Side by side
| Feature | Novu | Knock |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-tenant | Yes | Yes |
| Deliverability | BYO provider. | Inherits the deliverability of the provider you BYO (Postmark, SendGrid, Resend). |
| Webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Starts at | $250/mo (Business cloud) | $249/mo (Starter) |
| Tagline | Open-source notification infrastructure. | Notification infrastructure with workflow engine. |
| Free tier | 30,000 events/mo on cloud, free self-hosted | 10,000 notifications/mo |
| Pricing model | volume | volume |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| SMTP | No | No |
| SDKs | node, python, go, php, java, dotnet | node, python, go, ruby, php, elixir, java, dotnet |
| Templates | rich | rich |
| React Email | Yes | Yes |
| Inbound | No | No |
| Idempotency | Yes | Yes |
| Dedicated IP | No | No |
| DX score | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Best for | Teams that want self-hostable notification infrastructure. | Teams that need multi-channel product notifications with preferences. |
Novu
- ›Open source, MIT-licensed
- ›Self-hostable
- ›Active community
- ›Self-hosting takes effort
- ›Cloud pricing competitive only above 1M events/mo
Knock
- ›Strong workflow engine
- ›In-app feed component
- ›Deep SDK coverage
- ›Idempotency keys
- ›Pricier than running your own; entry plan is steep
- ›Bring your own delivery provider