# Knock vs OneSignal

> OneSignal has a score of 69.6 (B) against Knock's 66.8 (B). Both do notify push. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 13 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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

OneSignal has a score of 69.6 (B) against Knock's 66.8 (B). Both do notify push. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 13 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
- OneSignal: grade B, 69.6/100, rank #110 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/onesignal.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/onesignal.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Knock for payments & pricing (+5), maintenance & community (+5).

Pick OneSignal for reliability (+12), transparency & trust (+13).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Knock | OneSignal | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 70 | OneSignal +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 87 | Knock +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 64 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 74 | OneSignal +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 35 | Knock +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 81 | Knock +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 76 | OneSignal +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.8 · B** | **69.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Knock | OneSignal |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Knock | OneSignal |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.knock.app/v1` | `https://api.onesignal.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (Node SDK) | Modified MIT (Node SDK, use limited to OneSignal's services) |
| Tools exposed | none | 43 |
| 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 | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 50 stars, 926k npm/wk, 234k PyPI/wk | 52 stars, 231k npm/wk, 28k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (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.

**OneSignal.** Runs push delivery itself, so there's no separate push provider to wire up. Three incidents on the API and SDK endpoints in September 2026.

## 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

### OneSignal

1. Use `Authorization: Key <key>`, not Bearer, and put `app_id` in the body
2. Send an `idempotency_key` UUID with every create call and reuse it on each retry
3. On 429, wait for `Retry-After`, then back off with jitter, up to 10 attempts
4. Stay under 10 sends per subscribed subscription in 15 minutes or the app is disabled
5. Target people with `include_aliases.external_id` and set `target_channel`

## Other comparisons with Knock or OneSignal

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