Payload CMS vs Knock

TypeScript-first open-source headless CMS — code-first, config-driven
vs. Notifications-as-a-service: in-app feeds, email, push, SMS, chat via one API

Payload CMS website ↗Knock website ↗

Pricing tiers

Payload CMS

Open Source (self-host)

MIT license. Run free on any Node host. Full admin + APIs.

$0 base (usage-based)

Cloud — Standard

$35/month. 3 GB DB storage, 30 GB file storage, 40 GB bandwidth.

$35/mo

Cloud — Pro

$199/month. Higher resources + priority support.

$199/mo

Cloud — Enterprise

Custom cloud hosting with dedicated support.

Custom

Payload CMS website ↗

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

Knock website ↗

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing oss on Payload CMS vs starter on Knock.

Metric	Payload CMS	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

Payload CMS · 18 features

Access Control — Function-based per-collection/field access rules.
Admin UI — React admin — fully customizable components + views.
Authentication — Built-in JWT + HTTP-only cookies + API keys.
Blocks — Flexible page-builder pattern via block field.
Collections — Schema-defined content types with fields, hooks, access control.
Drafts & Versions — Version every change. Autosave, drafts, scheduled publish.
Field Types — Rich field library: text, textarea, richText (Lexical), upload, relation, blocks…
Form Builder Plugin — Dynamic forms with submissions storage.
Globals — Single-instance documents (site settings, header, footer).
GraphQL API (auto) — Full schema auto-generated.
Hooks — Lifecycle hooks: beforeChange/Read/Delete, afterChange, etc.
i18n — Multi-locale field values + admin UI translations.
Live Preview — Side-by-side editor + iframe preview of Next.js site.
Local API (zero latency) — Direct in-process data access. Ideal for Next.js server components.
Multi-Tenancy Plugin — Multi-tenant content isolation via plugin.
@payloadcms/plugin-seo — Built-in SEO meta fields.
Plugins — Official + community plugins (SEO, Stripe, Form Builder, multi-tenant, etc.).
REST API (auto) — Auto-generated REST endpoints for every collection.

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	Payload CMS	Knock
CLI	create-payload-app	Knock CLI
SDK	@payloadcms/next (Node)	knockapi (Python), knockapi (Ruby), knock-elixir, knock-go, knock-java, @knocklabs/node, @knocklabs/react
REST	Payload REST API	Knock REST API
GRAPHQL	Payload GraphQL API	—
MCP	—	Knock MCP Server
OTHER	Admin UI, Local API (Node.js direct)	Outbound Webhooks

Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Payload CMS and Knock may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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