Knack
No-code platform for building custom databases, portals and internal business apps
By Knack · 4.0/5 Value-Position score (estimate)
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Operations and business teams that need custom internal tools without hiring developers
- Customer and client portals with secure login, payments and automated communication
- Replacing spreadsheets or rigid tools such as Airtable and Quickbase with a hosted relational database
- Agencies that want to build and resell white-labelled apps to their own clients
- Healthcare and other regulated teams that need a configurable, compliance-oriented app platform
Ideal size: 5–500 people · Ops, IT or business team with no dedicated developers
Not for
- Teams that need full code-level control or their own front-end framework
- Consumer-scale web products with millions of external end users
- Data-warehouse-grade BI and analytics on very large datasets
- Buyers who want a finished vertical SaaS product rather than a configurable platform
- Organisations that require a guaranteed 24/7 support SLA on entry-level plans
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
Under 2 weeks; first app in minutes
~7 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$1,320/yr
Starts at $588 · Per app, not per seat, with unlimited app users; monthly or annual billing. Starter is listed at $49/month billed annually ($59 monthly).
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Value-Position score
out of 5 · model estimate
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
No per-seat pricing; unlimited app users on every plan. Limits are on apps, database records, file storage and AI credits.
Add-on costs
- Additional records and storage: $42/mo for 15,000 records and 5 GB on Starter; $90/mo for 40,000 records and 20 GB on Pro
- Scheduling add-on: $29/mo for unlimited bookings
- Advanced SSO on Pro: +$50–$55/mo
- Extra custom domains and Flow transactions: contact sales
Company & support
Who is behind Knack, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- 2010 · 16 yrs in business
- Headquarters
- Not recorded
How you get support
- PhoneNot listed
- EmailAll plans
- Live chatNot listed
- Support portal / ticketsPaid plans
- Community forumAll plans
- Help centre / docsAll plans
- Dedicated account managerEnterprise only
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Not recorded
- Response time
- 48-hour response on Pro; up to 24-hour on Corporate; emergency support on Enterprise
Pricing-page support table: Starter includes community support plus AI, knowledge base, forum and email; Pro adds case-based support with a 48-hour response; Corporate is 24-hour; Enterprise adds a dedicated account manager and emergency support.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Knack sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Knack
- Docusign
- monday.com
- Softr
- BetterCloud
- Vivantio
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Knack. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
Ships an official MCP server. Connects to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT connectors and Cursor out of the box.
AI & MCP readiness
What Knack ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
Knack's AI App Builder produces a first version of an app — tables, fields, pages, forms, charts and buttons — from a chat prompt, and each plan includes a monthly allowance of AI credits. Knack Flows also ships native connectors to external LLM services such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, so buyers should confirm model handling and data-use terms directly.
Your data & models
- Trains on your data
- Not recorded — ask the vendor
- Runs on
- OpenAI, Anthropic, Google
- AI pricing
- Included in the plan
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Official MCP server
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Not recorded
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Knack is a no-code application development platform for building custom databases, internal tools and client portals on a hosted relational database. Business teams assemble apps from pre-built components, and an AI app builder drafts a first version from a prompt. Plans start around $49 per month billed annually with unlimited users, and include workflow automation, 500+ integrations and monthly AI credits, with no setup fees or contracts. HIPAA/GovCloud, advanced SSO and private-server options sit on higher tiers.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly can we get a working app into production?
Knack positions itself as prompt-to-production: the AI App Builder generates a first version of an app from a chat prompt, and the platform assembles it from pre-built components rather than generated code. Vendor case studies describe building new sections in under an hour once teams know the platform. For planning purposes, expect days to a first usable internal app and a few weeks to a hardened production rollout with roles, workflows and integrations.
What does Knack cost, and do you charge per user?
Knack does not charge per app user. Published plans are Starter ($49/month billed annually, $59 monthly, 20,000 records, 25 AI credits), Pro ($110/month annual, 50,000 records), Corporate (from $250/month annual, up to 2.5m records) and Enterprise (contact for pricing). The pricing FAQ states there are no setup fees or contracts and that plans can be changed or cancelled. Optional add-ons cover extra records and storage, scheduling, advanced SSO and extra Flow transactions.
Can Knack meet our compliance and data-residency requirements?
Knack states on its site that HIPAA/GovCloud options, GDPR data-centre choice (US, Europe or Asia), SOC 2 report access and record change history are available, with HIPAA handled through its Knack Health configuration including BAA availability. These claims appear in marketing and pricing material rather than a dedicated trust centre in the pages reviewed, so regulated buyers should request the current SOC 2 report, BAA and sub-processor list directly before signing.
How much implementation effort is required, and do we need developers?
Little to none for standard builds. Knack is drag-and-drop plus AI-assisted, offers templates and a marketplace, and the vendor says there are no setup fees, no required contracts and no deployment pipeline. A developer is useful for custom JavaScript/CSS, API calls and complex data modelling, but day-to-day changes can be made by business or operations staff. Most friction comes from modelling your data correctly, not from deployment.
How does Knack fit with our existing stack and AI tooling?
Knack advertises 500+ native integrations through Knack Flows and its integrations directory, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Amazon S3, QuickBooks, Stripe and healthcare systems such as Epic and athenahealth. It also ships a native MCP server so AI coding tools like Claude Code, ChatGPT, Lovable and Replit can use Knack as a hosted backend, and Flows exposes native connectors to OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models.