Knock is developer-first messaging infrastructure that provides APIs and SDKs for engineering teams to build custom notification systems. CleverTap is a customer engagement platform designed for marketing teams to create campaigns and in-app messages without code.

Knock supports product, growth, and engineering-owned messaging driven by events, while CleverTap focuses on marketing-owned communication and user engagement campaigns.

While CleverTap can send transactional messages, it's primarily built for marketing campaigns and user engagement use cases. Developers often find CleverTap's visual workflow builder limiting for complex notification logic, whereas Knock provides granular, programmatic control through APIs and event-driven workflows designed specifically for transactional product and customer messaging use cases.

Yes, Knock supports both transactional and marketing messaging. Features like Broadcasts and Guides allow engineering, product, and growth teams to work collaboratively in Knock to send relevant lifecycle messaging and one-off promotional messages, just like CleverTap.

Unlike CleverTap, Knock is purpose-built for developers, so initial setup requires some technical involvement. However, once configured, non-technical users can easily create messaging workflows, manage notification templates, edit and send one-time messages, and view analytics without any developer involvement.

CleverTap offers extensive marketing analytics for campaign performance and user engagement. Knock also provides detailed engagement analytics across channels, plus end-to-end observability for delivery tracking, message debugging, and API logs that give you complete visibility into your messaging infrastructure.

Unlike CleverTap, Knock is purpose-built for developers, so initial setup requires some technical involvement. However, Knock's developer-first approach means you get more control and flexibility once configured, with features like infrastructure as code, version control, and programmatic management.

Knock is built as infrastructure to handle billions of notifications with guaranteed delivery and idempotency. While CleverTap can handle large volumes, it's optimized for scheduled campaigns rather than real-time, event-driven notifications at scale.

CleverTap supports email, SMS, push notifications, and in-app messaging. Knock supports all of these channels, plus native integrations with chat apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and WhatsApp, plus webhooks for custom channels.

Only Knock allows integration flexibility with 25+ messaging providers, allowing teams to take advantage of unique benefits of individual services. For example, AWS-native companies can save costs by using Amazon SES to send transactional emails or use Twilio's infrastructure to reach 180+ countries via SMS.

Yes, many companies use both platforms. It's common to see engineering teams using Knock to handle transactional messaging (alerts, updates, collaboration messages) while marketing teams use CleverTap to manage promotional messaging (lifecycle messaging, one-time broadcasts).

However, this separation can lead to inconsistent messaging over time, and using two systems ends up costing more than just using Knock to handle all product and customer messaging.

Knock typically offers more cost-effective pricing for teams building holistic messaging systems. While CleverTap requires tiered subscriptions based on seats and features, 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, and overages are only incurred by volume of sent messages.

Both platforms offer enterprise compliance features. Knock provides SOC 2 Type 2 certification and supports GDPR/CCPA requirements. CleverTap offers similar compliance but typically requires enterprise contracts.

Knock is designed for rapid implementation by developers, with most teams shipping notifications within hours using pre-built components. CleverTap typically requires weeks of migration, configuration, and training for marketing teams.

Most engineering teams migrate from CleverTap to Knock within 2-4 weeks, depending on notification complexity. Knock's developer-first approach and responsive support team help accelerate the process.