# Knock vs Pushover

> Knock has a score of 66.8 (B) against Pushover's 53.3 (D). Both do notify push. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 66 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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

Knock has a score of 66.8 (B) against Pushover's 53.3 (D). Both do notify push. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 66 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
- Pushover: grade D, 53.3/100, rank #334 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pushover.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pushover.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Knock for schema & documentation (+38), security & auth (+19), payments & pricing (+10), maintenance & community (+66).

Pick Pushover for transparency & trust (+26).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Knock | Pushover | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 62 | Pushover +4 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 50 | Knock +38 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 64 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 52 | Knock +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Knock +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 20 | Knock +66 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 89 | Pushover +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.8 · B** | **53.3 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Knock | Pushover |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Knock | Pushover |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.knock.app/v1` | `https://api.pushover.net/1/messages.json` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (Node SDK) | none |
| 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 | 2026-06-23 |
| Popularity | 50 stars, 926k npm/wk, 234k PyPI/wk | none |
| 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.

**Pushover.** One POST with three required fields, form or JSON. Recipients need the app, $4.99 per platform after a 30-day trial.

## 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

### Pushover

1. Use priority 2 with `retry` (30 or more) and `expire` (10,800 or less) when a person must act, then poll the receipt
2. Don't retry a 4xx. Fix the parameter named in `errors`. Wait at least 5 seconds before retrying a 5xx
3. Read `X-Limit-App-Remaining` before a batch. Over the monthly quota every send returns 429
4. Keep messages to 1,024 characters and titles to 250
5. Send to a group key to reach several people in one call. Each person still counts against the quota

## Other comparisons with Knock or Pushover

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