Knock vs Pusher: pricing, quotas & features (2026)
Notifications-as-a-service: in-app feeds, email, push, SMS, chat via one API
vs. Realtime pub/sub WebSocket Channels + programmatic push (Beams)
Data sourced from vendor documentation · Last updated June 2026
Summary
Knock and Pusher are both notifications platforms, addressing the same core use case with different implementation philosophies and trade-offs. Both offer a free tier, making it easy to prototype without a credit card. Pusher's paid plans start at $29/month, lower than Knock's entry point at $250/month. Knock has a broader documented feature set (13 vs 11 features). Budget-sensitive teams will find Pusher easier to justify early on. All pricing and quota data below is sourced from Knock and Pusher's official documentation — not generated by AI or estimated.
Knock vs Pusher: Comparativa de precios, cuotas y características (2026)
En esta comparativa analizamos Knock y Pusher lado a lado — incluyendo precios mensuales, límites del tier gratuito, características técnicas, cuotas de uso (almacenamiento, transferencia, usuarios activos mensuales) y los interfaces de desarrollo disponibles. Todos los datos proceden de la documentación oficial de cada proveedor, no de respuestas generadas por IA.
Knock es una plataforma de la categoría notifications — Notifications-as-a-service: in-app feeds, email, push, SMS, chat via one API. Ofrece 3 tiers de precio: Developer gratuito, Starter desde $250/mes, Enterprise (personalizado). Su catálogo en Staxly documenta 13 características y 11 interfazes para desarrolladores.
Pusher pertenece a la categoría notifications — Realtime pub/sub WebSocket Channels + programmatic push (Beams). Ofrece 14 tiers de precio: Beams: Sandbox gratuito, Channels: Sandbox gratuito, Beams: Startup desde $29/mes, Channels: Startup desde $49/mes. Su catálogo documenta 11 características y 16 interfazes para desarrolladores.
A continuación encontrarás los tiers de precio completos de ambas plataformas, una matriz de cuotas del tier gratuito (transferencia, almacenamiento, MAU, llamadas a la API y otros límites), el listado completo de características y los interfaces (CLI, SDKs, REST, GraphQL, MCP) disponibles para integrar cada servicio.
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Pricing tiers
Knock
Pusher
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing starter on Knock vs be-sandbox on Pusher.
| Metric | Knock | Pusher |
|---|---|---|
| guide users | 2500 users | — |
| guide users overage | $0.05/user USD/user | — |
| messages monthly | 50000 messages/mo | — |
| messages overage | $0.005/message USD/message | — |
| subscribers | — | 1000 subscribers |
Features
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.
- 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).
- i18n / Localization — Translate templates by user locale.
Pusher · 11 features
- Beams — Push notifications for iOS/Android/Web with device interest groups.
- Beams Authenticated Users — Target users by auth user ID across devices.
- Channels — WebSocket pub/sub — realtime events, live updates, notifications.
- Channels Webhooks — Receive server-side notifications of channel activity.
- Client Events — Publish events from clients directly (triggered from browser).
- Debug Console — Live channel debugging dashboard.
- Encrypted Channels — End-to-end encrypted messages.
- Global Clusters — US, EU, AP-Southeast, etc. Pick nearest region.
- Presence Channels — Track who is online in a channel.
- Private Channels — Auth-required channels with server-signed tokens.
- Stats — Connection / message dashboards.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Knock | Pusher |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | Knock CLI | — |
| SDK | @knocklabs/node, @knocklabs/react, knock-elixir, knock-go, knock-java, knockapi (Python), knockapi (Ruby) | Pusher Beams Android, Pusher Beams Web SDK, Pusher Beams iOS, PusherSwift, pusher (Node), pusher (Python), pusher (Ruby), pusher-http-go, pusher-http-java, pusher-http-php, pusher-js (client), pusher-websocket-java (Android) |
| REST | Knock REST API | Beams Publish API, Pusher HTTP API |
| MCP | Knock MCP Server | — |
| OTHER | Outbound Webhooks | Channels Webhooks, Pusher WebSocket |
Key takeaways
- Both Knock and Pusher offer a free tier — Knock ("Developer") and Pusher ("Beams: Sandbox") — with no credit card required to start.
- The entry-level paid plan is $250/month for Knock (Starter) vs. $29/month for Pusher (Beams: Startup).
- Knock has a broader documented feature set (13 features) vs. Pusher (11 features) in Staxly's catalog.
- Developer integrations differ: only Knock offers CLI/MCP.
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