#1 ONESIGNAL ALTERNATIVE
Messaging infrastructure built for developers.
Modern engineering teams choose Knock to ship dynamic, cross-channel product notifications and in-app messaging that drives engagement, growth, and retention.
Developer-first messaging engine
Trigger and cancel workflows via our API. Set a schema and enforce data validation to catch errors before they reach users. Deliver messages across multiple channels.
Branch • Throttle • Batch
Advanced functions to deliver messages when and where your users expect them.
Preference Management
Give users control of where and when they receive messages.
Production-Ready Observability
Debug notifications with ease. Stream logs to observability tooling for live monitoring.
Cross-Channel Analytics
Stream notification data to your tools. Learn and iterate.
In-app component library and SDKs
Power all of your in-app messaging. Native to your product. Built for production-level performance.
The top reasons leaders choose Knock over OneSignal
Built for scale and resiliency
Knock is trusted to power production notifications at scale for world-class teams such as Vercel, Webflow, and Zapier.
A developer-first platform
With automated recipient fanout, a flexible preferences model, and unlimited environments, Knock meets your developers where they work.
Best-in-class observability
Knock provides an end-to-end debugger so you can understand what happened from API request to workflow run to notification sent.
Knock vs. OneSignal feature comparison
| Feature | Knock | OneSignal |
|---|---|---|
| Visual and code-based template editor | ||
| Workflow builder functions: conditional branching, send windows | ||
| Separated environment for development, staging, and production | ||
| Full observability (API logs, message debugging) | ||
| Advanced workflow functions: batch notifications | ||
| Advanced workflow functions: send HTTP request and fetch data | ||
| Support for in-app feeds/inboxes and chat apps (Slack, Teams) | ||
| Flexible, cross-channel preferences model | ||
| Isolated environments with git-like version control | ||
| CLI support: manage workflows and templates from your IDE | ||
| Built-in tenancy support for feeds, branding, and preferences |
Frequently asked questions
What's the main difference between Knock and OneSignal?
Knock is developer-first messaging infrastructure that provides APIs and SDKs for engineering teams to build custom notification systems. OneSignal is a push notification platform designed primarily for mobile and web push notifications.
Knock supports product, growth, and engineering-owned messaging driven by events across multiple channels, while OneSignal focuses primarily on push notifications with limited cross-channel orchestration.
Can developers use OneSignal for transactional notifications?
While OneSignal excels at push notifications, it's primarily built for mobile push use cases. Developers often find OneSignal's workflow builder limiting for complex notification logic across multiple channels, whereas Knock provides granular, programmatic control through APIs and event-driven workflows designed specifically for transactional product and customer messaging use cases. Knock's flexible preference model also allows for deeper customization than OneSignal's subscription-based approach.
Does Knock support push notifications like OneSignal?
Yes, Knock provides robust push notification support for both iOS and Android platforms. Unlike OneSignal, Knock also provides native in-app messaging components, email, SMS, and integrations with chat apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams, enabling true cross-channel notification orchestration.
Which platform scales better for high-volume notifications?
Knock is built as infrastructure to handle billions of notifications with guaranteed delivery and idempotency. While OneSignal can handle large volumes, Knock's infrastructure approach gives engineering teams more control over delivery guarantees and message queuing.
Is Knock cheaper than OneSignal?
Knock typically offers more cost-effective pricing for teams building holistic messaging systems. Knock provides transparent usage-based pricing starting at $0 for the first 10,000 notifications, making it accessible for startups and growing companies, with volume discounts for larger enterprise organizations.
All plans include unlimited data ingestion and unlimited channels with no onboarding or service fees.