Inngest vs Knock
Durable functions + event-driven workflows for modern apps
vs. Notifications-as-a-service: in-app feeds, email, push, SMS, chat via one API
Pricing tiers
Inngest
Free
$0. 50K steps/mo + 1K concurrent executions. 7-day log retention. 1 environment.
Free
OSS (self-host)
Free forever. Inngest Dev Server + self-hosted Inngest runtime. Apache 2.0.
$0 base (usage-based)
Starter
$20/mo. 250K steps/mo. 5K concurrency. 14-day retention. 3 envs.
$20/mo
Pro
$75/mo. 1M steps/mo. 10K concurrency. 30-day retention. Priority support.
$75/mo
Enterprise
Custom. SSO, HIPAA, dedicated clusters, self-host with Inngest Enterprise.
Custom
Knock
Developer
Free forever. 10K messages, 500 guide users, 500 AI credits/month.
$0 base (usage-based)
Starter
$250/mo. 50K messages, 2.5K guide users, 2K AI credits. Remove branding.
$250/mo
Enterprise
Custom pricing. White-label, i18n, data warehouse, Datadog, SCIM, SAML, HIPAA/BAA.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing free on Inngest vs starter on Knock.
| Metric | Inngest | Knock |
|---|---|---|
| guide users | — | 2500 users |
| guide users overage | — | $0.05/user USD/user |
| messages monthly | — | 50000 messages/mo |
| messages overage | — | $0.005/message USD/message |
Features
Inngest · 14 features
- AgentKit — Build AI agents as durable Inngest functions.
- Auto Retries — Configurable retries with exponential backoff.
- Concurrency Controls — Per-function and per-user concurrency limits.
- Cron Triggers — Scheduled functions via cron syntax.
- Debounce — Coalesce rapid-fire events into one execution.
- Dev Server — Local Inngest runtime for dev.
- Durable Steps — step.run, step.sleep, step.waitForEvent.
- Event System — Typed events with schemas.
- Fan Out / Batching — Process many events in parallel with batch control.
- Priority Lanes — Route premium customers to faster execution.
- Rate Limiting — Throttle events per key.
- Realtime — Stream function output to clients.
- Replay — Re-run past functions with new code.
- Self-Host — OSS runtime — run your own Inngest.
Knock · 13 features
- AI Agents — Autonomous notification drafting & workflow generation.
- Batch + Digest — Group notifications into digests on schedule or window.
- Chat — Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord.
- Email — Send via SendGrid/Postmark/Resend/Mailgun/AWS SES as relays.
- Guides — In-product messaging, announcements, modals, banners.
- i18n / Localization — Translate templates by user locale.
- In-App Feed — Notification inbox with React/Vue/iOS/Android drop-in components.
- Multi-tenancy — Per-tenant branding, preferences, quiet hours.
- Outbound Webhooks — Subscribe to delivery events.
- Preferences — User + tenant preference center with granular controls.
- Push — iOS (APNs), Android (FCM), Expo, Web Push.
- SMS — Twilio, MessageBird, Telnyx, Vonage as providers.
- Workflows — Visual notification orchestration (branch, batch, delay, throttle).
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Inngest | Knock |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | inngest-cli (dev server) | Knock CLI |
| SDK | inngestgo, inngest (Python), inngest (TS/Node) | knockapi (Python), knockapi (Ruby), knock-elixir, knock-go, knock-java, @knocklabs/node, @knocklabs/react |
| REST | Inngest REST API | Knock REST API |
| MCP | Inngest MCP | Knock MCP Server |
| OTHER | Inngest Cloud Dashboard | Outbound Webhooks |
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