# Courier vs Knock

> Courier has a score of 70.5 (BB) against Knock's 66.8 (B). Both do notify push. The largest gap is reliability, 34 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-knock
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-knock.md (~1,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-knock.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-knock.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

Courier has a score of 70.5 (BB) against Knock's 66.8 (B). Both do notify push. The largest gap is reliability, 34 points.

- Courier: grade BB, 70.5/100, rank #96 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/courier.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/courier.json
- Knock: grade B, 66.8/100, rank #155 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/knock.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/knock.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Courier for reliability (+34).

Pick Knock for security & auth (+15), payments & pricing (+5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Courier | Knock | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 92 | 58 | Courier +34 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 88 | Knock +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 64 | Courier +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 71 | Knock +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | Knock +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 86 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 63 | Courier +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.5 · BB** | **66.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Courier | Knock |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Courier | Knock |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.courier.com` | `https://api.knock.app/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (Node SDK) | Apache-2.0 (Node SDK) |
| Tools exposed | 170 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.trycourier/courier` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-29 |
| Popularity | 63 stars, 189k npm/wk, 35k PyPI/wk | 50 stars, 926k npm/wk, 234k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Courier.** Free for 10,000 sends a month, then $0.005 a send with no platform fee. 170 MCP tools with no toolsets, filtering or read-only mode.

**Knock.** Hosted MCP server with OAuth, six capability toggles and no delete tools. Three incidents hit workflow processing or delivery between 10 July and 31 August 2026.

## Before you call either

### Courier

1. Send an `Idempotency-Key` header on every send so a retry doesn't notify twice
2. Set `routing.method` to `single` to stop at the first channel that works
3. Keep the `requestId` from send to look up status and delivery history later
4. Use a dedicated API key for the MCP server. Every one of the 170 tools runs with that key's full rights
5. Space resends at least 2 seconds apart per message or you get a 429

### Knock

1. Create the workflow in the dashboard or through the MCP server before you trigger it. Triggers reference it by key
2. Send an `Idempotency-Key` on every trigger. It holds 24 hours and only the trigger endpoint accepts it
3. Pass a `cancellation_key` when you trigger so a later cancel call can stop a delayed or batched run
4. Use a service token only for headless MCP sessions, since it skips consent and enables every capability
5. Keep test and production apart. Rate limits and keys are scoped to an environment

## Other comparisons with Courier or Knock

- [Courier vs Novu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-novu.md)
- [Courier vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-ntfy.md)
- [Courier vs OneSignal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-onesignal.md)
- [Courier vs Pushover](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-pushover.md)
- [Courier vs SuprSend](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/courier-vs-suprsend.md)
- [Knock vs Novu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-novu.md)
- [Knock vs ntfy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-ntfy.md)
- [Knock vs OneSignal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-onesignal.md)
- [Knock vs Pushover](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-pushover.md)
- [Knock vs SuprSend](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-suprsend.md)