Is Keycloak or Knack better?

Neither clearly leads. Keycloak starts at Free and Knack at $59/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Keycloak or Knack?

Keycloak has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Keycloak and $59/month for Knack.

Does Keycloak or Knack run on more platforms?

Keycloak runs on Self-hosted, Linux, Windows, API. Knack runs on Web.

Can I use Keycloak for free?

Yes. Keycloak has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Knack starts at $59/month.

What is Keycloak best used for?

Keycloak is most often used for organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency, companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication, open-source projects and communities requiring free iam without licensing costs, enterprises building custom identity workflows requiring fine-grained authorisation. Of those, organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency and companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication are not what Knack is typically brought in for.

What can Keycloak do that Knack cannot?

Knack covers Visual database builder, User logins and roles, Page builder, Unlimited users.

Developer Tools · head to head

Keycloak vs Knack

Keycloak

Developer Tools

Open-source identity and access management server.

From: Free
Free plan: Yes

Visit Keycloak Full review

Knack

Databases

Hosted no-code database and web app builder priced by stored records and storage, with unlimited user accounts on every plan.

From: $59/month
Free plan: No

Visit Knack Full review

The short version

Keycloak is an open-source IAM platform supporting OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.
Keycloak is free; Knack starts at $59/mo.
Where Keycloak falls short: requires self-hosted deployment and operational expertise to install, configure and maintain.
Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Keycloak and Knack actually diverge.

Attributes where Keycloak and Knack differ
Attribute	Keycloak	Knack
Starting price	Free	$59/month
Pricing model	Open-source	Subscription
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Self-hosted, Linux, Windows, API	Web
Category	Developer Tools	Databases

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Keycloak

Nothing recorded that Knack does not also cover.

Only in Knack

Visual database builder
User logins and roles
Page builder
Unlimited users
E-commerce
Automation flows
Scheduled tasks
REST API and webhooks

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Keycloak

Organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residencynot Knack
Companies with existing LDAP/Active Directory systems needing federated authenticationnot Knack
Open-source projects and communities requiring free IAM without licensing costsnot Knack
Enterprises building custom identity workflows requiring fine-grained authorisationnot Knack
Teams with sufficient operational expertise to manage infrastructurenot Knack

Knack

A member or client portal where thousands of external people need their own login and see only their own recordsnot Keycloak
Replacing a shared spreadsheet used by a team that has outgrown it but cannot justify a developer to build a bespoke internal toolnot Keycloak
Inventory, asset or case tracking for a small operations team that needs roles, forms and a record of who changed whatnot Keycloak
A registration or booking application for an association, school or non-profit where the user count is large and the record count stays modestnot Keycloak

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Keycloak

Requires self-hosted deployment and operational expertise to install, configure and maintain
No managed cloud option provided by Red Hat; organisations must operate infrastructure themselves or use third-party distributions
Clustering and high-availability configurations require additional operational knowledge
Community support only; commercial support requires third-party vendors or distributions

Knack

Plans are capped by stored records, so an application that logs events or keeps history rather than current state climbs tiers on data volume alone, and archiving old records becomes a permanent maintenance chore rather than a one-off
API access is capped per day, at 1,000 calls on the entry plan and 10,000 at the Corporate tier, so a scheduled sync or a busy automation can exhaust the day's quota before the working day ends and integrations then fail silently
The application itself cannot be exported or self-hosted; records can be downloaded but the pages, roles, flows and business logic exist only inside Knack, so outgrowing the platform means rebuilding the app rather than moving it
Customisation beyond the builder is limited to injected CSS and JavaScript that Knack's support does not cover, so any non-standard interface behaviour becomes yours to maintain against a DOM the vendor can change without warning
Compliance capabilities that regulated buyers assume are baseline, HIPAA and GovCloud options, advanced SSO, IP restrictions and private environments, are gated to the Corporate and Enterprise tiers, so a small regulated pilot cannot legitimately start on an entry plan

Pricing, plan by plan

Keycloak

Free

Open-sourceFree
- Full platform functionality
- Self-hosted deployment
- Community support

Knack

$59/month

Starter$59/mo
- 20,000 database records
- Unlimited users, tables, fields
- 25 AI credits
Pro$130/mo
- 50,000 database records
- Remove Knack branding
- E-commerce payments
Corporate$300/mo
- 125,000-2.5M database records
- App restore functionality
- Advanced SSO
EnterpriseOn request
- Dedicated account manager
- HIPAA/GovCloud-based options
- Custom pricing

Which should you pick?

Choose Keycloak if

You want to start without paying.
You work on Self-hosted, Linux, Windows, API.

Keycloak review

Choose Knack if

You need visual database builder.
You also want user logins and roles.

Knack review

Questions people ask

Is Keycloak or Knack better?: Neither clearly leads. Keycloak starts at Free and Knack at $59/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Keycloak or Knack?: Keycloak has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Keycloak and $59/month for Knack.
Does Keycloak or Knack run on more platforms?: Keycloak runs on Self-hosted, Linux, Windows, API. Knack runs on Web.
Can I use Keycloak for free?: Yes. Keycloak has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Knack starts at $59/month.
What is Keycloak best used for?: Keycloak is most often used for organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency, companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication, open-source projects and communities requiring free iam without licensing costs, enterprises building custom identity workflows requiring fine-grained authorisation. Of those, organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency and companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication are not what Knack is typically brought in for.
What can Keycloak do that Knack cannot?: Knack covers Visual database builder, User logins and roles, Page builder, Unlimited users.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Keycloak: What protocols does Keycloak support?

Keycloak supports OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0 and SAML 2.0 protocols for authentication and authorisation.

Source

Knack: Is Knack charged per user?

No. User accounts are unlimited on all plans. Plans are bounded by stored record count, file storage, API calls per day and automation transactions.

Keycloak: Can Keycloak integrate with existing user directories?

Yes. Keycloak supports user federation with LDAP and Active Directory systems, allowing organisations to leverage existing user directories.

Source

Knack: What happens when I exceed the record limit?

You move to a higher tier or reduce stored records. Because the limit is on data rather than people, apps that accumulate history hit it while apps that track a fixed set of entities generally do not.

Keycloak: Is Keycloak free?

Yes. Keycloak is fully open-source and free to deploy and use. No licensing fees are required.

Source

Knack: Can I export my application or self-host it?

You can export record data. The application itself, its pages, roles, permissions and flows, is not exportable and cannot be self-hosted, so leaving means rebuilding elsewhere.

Knack: Is it suitable for public-facing portals?

That is its strongest case, because logins are unlimited and role-based permissions are built in. The constraint is record volume and API throughput, not audience size.

Knack: Can I use it for regulated data?

HIPAA-aligned and government cloud options exist but only on the Enterprise tier, along with private server environments. Lower tiers should not be used for regulated workloads.

Keycloak vs Knack

Keycloak

Knack

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Keycloak

Only in Knack

What people use each for

Keycloak

Knack

Where each one falls short

Keycloak

Knack

Pricing, plan by plan

Keycloak

Knack

Which should you pick?

Choose Keycloak if

Choose Knack if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Keycloak

More on Knack

Keep looking

Other head to heads