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Novu vs. Knock: Best Knock alternative for customer engagement infrastructure

Build multi-channel workflows with routing, preferences, and <Inbox /> in Novu Notify. Add Novu Connect when users need to reply to your agent. Choose managed cloud or evaluate self-hosted deployment.

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  • Vitruvi
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Open Notification Infrastructure

Novu and Knock both support multi-channel workflows, user preferences, and in-app notifications. With Novu, you can build workflows in the dashboard or define them in code with Novu Framework. Our open-source core and deployment options give you control over how you build and run your notification system. Novu Connect adds conversation infrastructure for your agent.

Why teams switch to Novu:

Get Started
  • Open-source with self-host options
  • Dashboard workflows or code definitions
  • Notifications and agent conversations

When Novu fits your requirements

Choose Novu when deployment ownership, application logic, or agent conversations shape your notification system.

Choose where your infrastructure runs

Use Novu Cloud for managed infrastructure or evaluate self-hosted deployment. Features, licensing, and support differ by edition, so choose against your production requirements.

Start with a smaller paid plan

Novu Pro starts at $30 per month with 30,000 workflow runs. Knock Starter costs $250 per month with 50,000 messages. Compare included usage and features alongside the starting price.

Localize notification content

Manage translated notification content in Novu. Knock lists translation support on Enterprise. Compare translation management and current plan availability for the locales your product needs.

Continue from a user's reply

Assign an agent to a workflow so supported replies can continue as a conversation with notification context. Novu Connect handles communication while your agent controls its model and tools.

Run custom workflow logic from your codebase

Define TypeScript workflows with Novu Framework and retrieve content through a bridge endpoint in your application. Knock also supports source-controlled workflow definitions through its CLI. Compare the execution model your team needs.

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The Novu difference

Build delivery rules around your product. Control workflow steps, provider selection, and the in-app experience, with deployment options for your infrastructure requirements.

  • Notifications and preferences in one <Inbox />

    An in-app notification inbox wrapped in a single <Inbox />. Use the drop-in component or go headless and build your own UI.

  • Every step in one place

    Build workflows in the dashboard or define them with Novu Framework. Configure channel content, conditions, delays, and digests in the same workflow.

  • Self-host or use our cloud

    Use Novu Cloud or deploy Novu on your infrastructure. Compare Community Self-Hosted and commercial editions for the features, licensing, and support your team needs.

  • Data residency from day one

    Novu Cloud includes US and EU data residency on Free. Enterprise offers additional regional and self-hosted deployment options.

  • Ship tenant-aware experiences cleanly

    Contexts, topics, and Inbox scoping help map notification behavior to real B2B product structure.

  • Notifications users can act on

    Real-time delivery, unread counts, snooze controls, and preferences. Styled out of the box and customizable with the appearance prop.

Explore Novu

Just copy and ship

Add a powerful notification inbox to your app with 6 lines of code. It's that simple.

import React from 'react';
import { Inbox } from '@novu/nextjs';

export function NotificationInbox() {
  return (
    <Inbox />
  );
}

Novu vs. Knock comparison

Compare channel coverage, routing, failure behavior, and agent communication alongside deployment and pricing.

Feature
Novu
Knock
What this means for you
Notification channels
Inbox, email, SMS, push, chat, and Tool integrations for on-call services and webhooks. Chat integrations include Slack, Teams, WhatsApp Business, Telegram, and Discord.
Email, SMS, push, in-app feeds and guides, chat, and webhooks. Chat integrations include Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, and Discord.
Confirm the specific provider and message format your product needs. Both cover the core notification channels.
Provider routing
Email and SMS integration conditions select providers using subscriber, context, and workflow data. Chat and push have channel-specific routing behavior.
Channel groups combine providers of the same type. Ordered rules can route to the first matching channel or every matching channel.
Test provider-selection rules separately from the conditions that decide which workflow steps run.
Timing and conditional delivery
Workflow conditions, delay steps, and digests control when a notification step runs.
Workflow conditions, delays, and batching control when a notification step runs.
Both support timed and conditional workflows. Model your actual follow-up rules before choosing.
Provider retries and recovery
Standard provider sends receive one attempt, with provider-specific exceptions. No automatic provider failover.
Retryable provider and network failures are retried up to eight times over 30 minutes. Undelivered messages can also be retried manually in the dashboard.
Compare provider retries separately from workflow follow-ups. Review the Novu retry policy and Knock delivery policy.
Preferences experience
Global and per-workflow channel preferences, with notifications and preferences in the default Inbox UI.
Channel, category, and workflow preferences, with APIs and preference-center options.
Compare your notification categories, preference precedence, and user-facing controls. Availability of tenant-admin controls is a separate question.
Delivery observability
Activity Feed shows workflow runs, step outcomes, trigger data, and provider errors.
Workflow debugging, message logs, provider requests and responses, and delivery-status tracking where supported.
Check that your team can explain a skipped step, a failed provider request, and a later delivery outcome.
Agent communication
Novu Connect handles user-agent conversations and reply delivery. Supported workflow replies can carry the originating notification context.
Agent Toolkit exposes workflows as tools and supports human input and approvals. AI agent functions can enrich workflow data.
Evaluate ongoing conversations, notification-triggered replies, and approval flows against your actual agent use case.
Open-source availability
Open-source core, with commercially licensed enterprise modules.
Managed platform.
Novu's core can be inspected and extended. Review the license for the modules you intend to use.
Deployment model
Novu Cloud, Community Self-Hosted, and commercial self-hosted options.
Hosted platform, with dedicated infrastructure listed on Enterprise.
Novu offers self-hosted deployment. Features and support differ by edition.
Pricing metric
Novu Notify Cloud plans are based on workflow runs.
Developer and Starter plans count messages successfully sent. Enterprise can offer monthly notified-user pricing.
Estimate usage from complete workflows. In-app plus email counts as two messages on Knock. Provider charges remain separate.
Workflow authoring and source control
Dashboard workflows or TypeScript definitions with Novu Framework and a bridge endpoint for custom execution.
Dashboard workflows, CLI-managed local definitions and templates, and Management API support.
Both support developer-managed workflows. Compare custom execution, content retrieval, and your deployment process.
Tenant-aware notification experiences
Contexts scope Inbox feeds and subscriber preferences per tenant. Context data can personalize branding, and topics organize recipient groups.
Built-in multi-tenancy. Per-customer branding and tenant-admin preferences are listed on Enterprise.
Compare delivery and feed scoping separately from tenant-admin default or locked preferences. These are different capabilities.
Workflow translations
Translated notification content with locale-based rendering. Check current plan availability.
Translation support is listed on Enterprise.
Compare locale management, fallback behavior, and plan availability for your localization requirements.
In-app evaluation path
Inbox keyless mode for temporary evaluation, plus configured production setup.
Prebuilt feed components and APIs for a custom in-app experience.
Novu's keyless mode uses temporary data. Connect your environment and subscriber before using Inbox in production.

Don't just take our word for it...

Explore what developers and non-technical users say about why they're fans of our open-source notifications framework.

Frequently asked questions

Switch to Novu

Build one workflow from your product, connect your providers, and inspect the results. Talk to our team about deployment requirements or migration planning.

Novu Notify Free includes 10,000 workflow runs per month

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