Knock vs Pusher: pricing, quotas & features (2025)
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 May 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 (2025)
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.
¿Necesitas estos datos en tu agente de IA (Claude Code, Cursor, Zed)? Instala gratis el servidor MCP de Staxly y tendrás acceso estructurado a Knock, Pusher y más de 130 plataformas para desarrolladores.
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.
Want this comparison in your AI agent's context? Install the free Staxly MCP server.