proactive-gate vs Novu, Knock and Courier
Novu, Knock and Courier are notification platforms. This page quotes what their own documentation
says, as read on 20 October 2026. It is not measured: docs/COMPARISON.md has no rows for these
products, so this page carries no comparison numbers and makes no claim that one tool does better.
What their documentation says
Section titled “What their documentation says”- Novu describes itself as “The open-source communication infrastructure for agents and products” (github.com/novuhq/novu). Its throttle step “lets you limit the number of workflow executions within a specified time window”, counted per subscriber. The page we read has no quiet-hours or send-window setting.
- Knock documents send windows. “Send windows are evaluated in the recipient’s timezone (when set)”. “Messages generated outside of this window will be queued until the next open window.”
- Courier documents a throttle node that “limits how many automation-triggered messages a user or group receives within a set timeframe”. “Events that exceed the configured limit are dropped and do not pass to the next node.” It also has a blog post, How Top Notification Platforms Handle Quiet Hours & Delivery Windows in 2026, which we did not measure.
How the shape differs
Section titled “How the shape differs”- proactive-gate runs inside your process and needs no account.
- proactive-gate decides and never sends. Every refusal names the check that refused and why, and a
held message carries
nextAllowedAtwhen the check can name the time.
When to choose which
Section titled “When to choose which”If your sends already go through one of these platforms, check its throttle or send window first. Use proactive-gate when your own code sends and you want a decision with its reason, in TypeScript, Python or Go.