Head to head
Amazon SNS vs Knock
As a push notification API, Amazon SNS rates higher on the APIbenchmarks Index, 84.1 to 83.6, a 0.5-point gap. Here is how they compare on each criterion.
Criterion by criterion
| Criterion | Amazon SNS | Knock |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation & DX | ||
| Reliability | ||
| Ecosystem & SDKs | ||
| Accessibility | ||
| APIbenchmarks Index | 84.1 | 83.6 |
Specifications
| Amazon SNS | Knock | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Hyperscale pub/sub + mobile push | Notification infra + in-app inbox |
| Free tier | 1M mobile push/mo free | 10k messages/mo |
| Pricing | Per million ($0.50/M push) | Per message (MAU/message tiers) |
| Official SDKs | 11 languages | 12 languages |
Is Amazon SNS better than Knock?
On the APIbenchmarks Index, Amazon SNS rates higher (84.1 vs 83.6). It leads on the four weighted criteria, but price is reported separately, so the best choice still depends on your budget.
Verdict in one line
Amazon SNS leads by 0.5 points (84.1 vs 83.6) and wins 2 of 4 criteria; Knock wins 2.
Winner by criterion
| Criterion |  Amazon SNS | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Documentation & DX | 78 | 90 | |
| Reliability | 95 | 80 | Amazon SNS |
| Ecosystem & SDKs | 90 | 76 | Amazon SNS |
| Accessibility | 72 | 88 |
Choose Amazon SNS if… / choose Knock if…
Choose Amazon SNS if- →reliability matters most to you (95 vs 80)
- →ecosystem & sdks matters most to you (90 vs 76)
- →your use case matches its focus: hyperscale pub/sub + mobile push
- →documentation & dx matters most to you (90 vs 78)
- →accessibility matters most to you (88 vs 72)
- →you need broad SDK coverage (12 official SDKs vs 11)
- →your use case matches its focus: notification infra + in-app inbox
Pricing side by side
Amazon SNS- Model
- Per million ($0.50/M push)
- Free tier
- 1M mobile push/mo free
- Free Tier (permanent)$0
- Mobile Push Notifications$0.50 / 1M
- API Requests (Standard topics)$0.50 / 1M
- HTTP/HTTPS Deliveries$0.60 / 1M
- Email/Email-JSON$2.00 / 100,000
- SMS (US)$0.0025 / message
- Model
- Per message (MAU/message tiers)
- Free tier
- 10k messages/mo
- Developer$0/month
- Starter$250/month
- EnterpriseContact sales
Vendor-published pricing, verified 2026-06-27 (Amazon SNS) and 2026-06-27 (Knock).
SDK and language coverage
Both · 0
None
Only Amazon SNS · 11
AWS SDK for Java (v1 & v2)AWS SDK for Python (Boto3)AWS SDK for JavaScript / Node.jsAWS SDK for .NETAWS SDK for GoAWS SDK for RubyAWS SDK for PHPAWS SDK for C++AWS SDK for KotlinAWS SDK for RustAWS CLI
Only Knock · 12
Node.js / TypeScriptPythonRubyGoJavaC# / .NETElixirPHPReactReact NativeiOS (Swift)Android (Kotlin)
Strengths and weaknesses
Amazon SNS- +Very low cost: mobile push at $0.50 per million with a permanent 1M/month free tier, cheaper than most dedicated push vendors
- +Deep native integration with the AWS stack (Lambda, SQS, CloudWatch, IAM, Kinesis Firehose, EventBridge)
- +Massive fanout scale: up to 12.5M subscriptions per topic and 100,000 topics per account
- –No message persistence or history, you cannot inspect, store, or replay sent notifications
- –No built-in analytics, audience segmentation, A/B testing, scheduling, or rich notification UI (AWS steers you to Pinpoint for these)
- –Hard throughput (messages/second) and 256KB message-size limits
- +Single API orchestrates email, push, SMS, in-app feed, and chat channels so teams stop building bespoke notification pipelines
- +Visual workflow builder with batching, delays, branching, and channel fallbacks out of the box
- +Production-ready front-end components (React, React Native, iOS, Android, Flutter, Expo) for real-time in-app feeds, badge counts, toasts, and preference centers
- –Steep price jump from free to the $250/month Starter plan can be hard to justify for small workloads
- –Key enterprise features (per-customer branding, i18n, SCIM, SAML, HIPAA/BAA, data-warehouse analytics) are locked behind Contact-sales Enterprise pricing
- –Reviewers note the lack of a declarative / Terraform-style way to define workflows as code
Amazon SNS vs Knock: questions
- Which has better documentation, Amazon SNS or Knock?
- Knock scores higher on documentation and developer experience: 90 vs 78 out of 100.
- Which is more reliable, Amazon SNS or Knock?
- Amazon SNS scores higher on reliability: 95 vs 80 out of 100.
- Do Amazon SNS and Knock have a free tier?
- Amazon SNS: yes (1M mobile push/mo free). Knock: yes (10k messages/mo).
- How are Amazon SNS and Knock priced?
- Amazon SNS: Per million ($0.50/M push). Knock: Per message (MAU/message tiers).
- Which has more official SDKs?
- Knock lists 12 official SDKs, Amazon SNS lists 11.