# Knock vs ntfy

> Knock has a score of 66.8 (B) against ntfy's 61.6 (C). Both do notify push. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 35 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-ntfy
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-ntfy.md (~1,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-ntfy.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/knock-vs-ntfy.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: 2026-10-04

Knock has a score of 66.8 (B) against ntfy's 61.6 (C). Both do notify push. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 35 points.

- 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
- ntfy: grade C, 61.6/100, rank #226 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ntfy.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ntfy.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Knock for schema & documentation (+35), security & auth (+33), maintenance & community (+19).

Pick ntfy for reliability (+25), payments & pricing (+10), transparency & trust (+16).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Knock | ntfy | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 83 | ntfy +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 53 | Knock +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 66 | ntfy +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 38 | Knock +33 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 50 | ntfy +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 67 | Knock +19 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 79 | ntfy +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.8 · B** | **61.6 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Knock | ntfy |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Knock | ntfy |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.knock.app/v1` | `https://ntfy.sh` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (Node SDK) | Apache-2.0 and GPL-2.0 (dual) |
| Tools exposed | none | 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 | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-08-27 |
| Popularity | 50 stars, 926k npm/wk, 234k PyPI/wk | 34k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**ntfy.** Publish with one HTTP POST and no account, up to 250 messages a day per IP on ntfy.sh. Unreserved topics on ntfy.sh can be read and written by anyone who knows the name.

## Before you call either

### 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

### ntfy

1. Use a long random topic name, or a reserved topic with a Bearer token
2. Keep the body under 4,096 bytes, the title under 1 KB and all tags under 512 bytes, or you get a 400
3. Don't blind-retry a publish. There's no idempotency key, so the person gets it twice
4. Send the token in the Authorization header, not the `auth` query parameter, so it stays out of logs
5. Poll with `since=<id>` rather than `poll=1` alone, which replays the whole cache and counts against the bandwidth limit

## Other comparisons with Knock or ntfy

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