starter.wiki

Messaging

In-App Notifications

Choose the system that owns a product-resident inbox or feed, recipient state, preferences, actions, and notification workflow.

Recommendation

Choose the notification state owner before the inbox UI.

Knock represents managed product infrastructure, Novu adds open-source control, and Courier fits a multichannel workflow route.12

For: Product teams building a persistent notification center, inbox, or feed inside an application

Main trade-off

Notification infrastructure reduces state and UI assembly while adding workflow, recipient, retention, downstream-channel, data, deployment, and migration dependencies.123

Three ownership routes

Inbox state, workflow orchestration, and downstream channel delivery are related but distinct.

  1. State model

    Define recipients, notifications, read/unread, actions, preferences, archives, and retention.12

  2. Product integration

    Confirm SDK/UI ownership, theming, realtime updates, multitenancy, accessibility, and data access.1

  3. Workflow boundary

    Separate the stored inbox from orchestration and downstream email, SMS, or push providers.23

Route by state and workflow ownership

Select the route that owns the intended inbox without absorbing unrelated channel decisions.

Managed product notification infrastructure

Choose Knock

Managed inbox, preference, workflow, and application primitives fit the product's ownership model.

Verify: Confirm recipient/notification meters, retention, channels, data, regions, SDKs, and exit.1

Open-source and deployment control

Choose Novu

An embeddable inbox and workflow need open-source or deployment choice.

Verify: Confirm cloud versus self-host scope, operations, feature parity, retention, channels, and migration.2

Multichannel workflow-led inbox

Choose Courier

The inbox should participate in a broader provider-managed channel workflow.

Verify: Confirm inbox state, workflow runs, downstream provider fees, data, retention, and plan scope.3

Boundary: This Task excludes changelog publishing, activity-feed ranking, and cross-channel lifecycle strategy.

State, workflow, and transport

Do not buy a workflow suite when the product only needs a small inbox record.

Inbox versus push
In-app owns rendered state; push owns browser/device transport.13
State versus orchestration
A workflow may create notifications, but recipient state remains an independent product concern.13
Managed versus self-operated
Open-source control transfers reliability, storage, upgrades, and security operations to the team.2

Official resources

Verify current product scope, policy, data, retention, delivery, regional, pricing, and account boundaries in first-party material before implementation.

DocumentationNovu Inbox

Sources

Official product, standard, and policy sources supporting the bounded routes on this page.

  1. 1
    Knock in-app UI overview

    Knock · Accessed Official

  2. 2
    Novu Inbox

    Novu · Accessed Official

  3. 3
    Courier Inbox overview

    Courier · Accessed Official