How is Novu different from Knock?

Novu is open source (self-host option). Knock is cloud-only. Both provide multi-channel notification APIs with similar features. Choose Novu for open-source flexibility and self-hosting. Choose Knock for the best managed-cloud developer experience.

Can I self-host Novu?

Yes. Deploy Novu on your infrastructure via Docker. Self-hosting is free with full features.

Does Novu include an in-app notification component?

Yes. Embeddable React notification center component that renders in-app notifications inside your product.

Does Novu support user preferences?

Yes. Users choose which notification categories they receive on which channels.

What channels does Novu support?

Email, push (iOS, Android, web), SMS, in-app, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and custom webhooks.

Does Novu support digest notifications?

Yes. Batch multiple events into periodic digest notifications instead of sending individual alerts for each event.

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Novu Free Credits & Open-Source Notifications

Looking for Novu free credits or a promo code? Novu is open-source — self-host it for free with unlimited notifications. The cloud version offers $500 in credits to get started.

What Is Novu?

Novu is an open-source notification infrastructure platform for managing notifications across email, SMS, push, in-app, and chat channels. Instead of building separate notification logic for each channel, Novu provides one API that routes notifications to the right channel based on user preferences.

Novu Free Plan — What You Get

Self-hosted Novu is completely free with unlimited notifications, channels, and subscribers. Novu Cloud provides free credits for testing and early usage. The open-source model means you never hit a paywall for core functionality.

Key Features

Notification workflows define multi-step, multi-channel notification sequences. A new comment triggers: in-app notification immediately, email after 1 hour if unread, push notification after 4 hours if still unread. Each channel has its own template and delivery logic.

Subscriber preferences give users control. They choose which notifications to receive and through which channels — in-app only, email for important updates, push for urgent alerts. The preference management UI is pre-built.

Content management with a visual template editor creates notification content per channel. Email templates with HTML. Push with title/body. In-app with rich content. Each channel gets appropriate formatting.

Novu vs Knock

Knock is managed with polished preference UI and in-app feed components. Novu is open-source and self-hostable. Knock for teams wanting managed service. Novu for teams wanting self-hosting and open-source flexibility.

Novu vs Building Custom

Custom notification infrastructure requires email sending, push services, in-app feed, preference management, and channel routing. Novu provides all of this — saving months of engineering.