Is Knack or QuestDB better?

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

Which is cheaper, Knack or QuestDB?

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

Does Knack or QuestDB run on more platforms?

Knack runs on Web. QuestDB runs on Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP).

Can I use QuestDB for free?

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

What is Knack best used for?

Knack is most often used for a member or client portal where thousands of external people need their own login and see only their own records, replacing a shared spreadsheet used by a team that has outgrown it but cannot justify a developer to build a bespoke internal tool, inventory, asset or case tracking for a small operations team that needs roles, forms and a record of who changed what, a registration or booking application for an association, school or non-profit where the user count is large and the record count stays modest. Of those, a member or client portal where thousands of external people need their own login and see only their own records and replacing a shared spreadsheet used by a team that has outgrown it but cannot justify a developer to build a bespoke internal tool are not what QuestDB is typically brought in for.

What can Knack do that QuestDB cannot?

Knack covers Visual database builder, User logins and roles, Page builder, Unlimited users. QuestDB covers High Throughput Ingestion, SQL Support, Time-series Optimization, SIMD Vectorization.

Databases · head to head

Knack vs QuestDB

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
Rated: -

Full review Website

QuestDB

Databases

Fast open source time-series database for high throughput ingestion

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only QuestDB has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: 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.; QuestDB open-source edition lacks high-availability, distributed architecture, and enterprise security features
They diverge on capability: Knack covers Visual database builder, QuestDB covers High Throughput Ingestion.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Knack and QuestDB actually diverge.

Attributes where Knack and QuestDB differ
Attribute	Knack	QuestDB
Starting price	$59/month	Free
Pricing model	subscription	open-source
Free tier	No	Yes
Platforms	Web	Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Founded	Unknown	2014

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (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 Knack

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

Only in QuestDB

High Throughput Ingestion
SQL Support
Time-series Optimization
SIMD Vectorization
Column-oriented Storage
Built-in Web Console
InfluxDB Line Protocol
PostgreSQL

What people use each for

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

Knack

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

QuestDB

Time-series analytics ingesting up to 20M rows/second from IoT sensors or financial data feedsnot Knack
Real-time dashboarding with 32ms time-to-first-row latency for minute-level analyticsnot Knack
Applications requiring multi-tier storage (hot ingest, real-time SQL, cold Parquet archive)not Knack

Where each one falls short

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

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.

QuestDB

Open-source edition lacks high-availability, distributed architecture, and enterprise security features
Enterprise edition pricing not published; requires contacting sales for custom quote
Ingestion limit of 20M rows/sec platform-dependent; may not scale to extreme throughput requirements

Pricing, plan by plan

Knack

$59/month

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

QuestDB

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the QuestDB review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Knack if

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

Knack review

Choose QuestDB if

You need high throughput ingestion.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP).
You also want sql support.

QuestDB review

Questions people ask

Is Knack or QuestDB better?: Neither clearly leads. Knack starts at $59/month and QuestDB at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Knack or QuestDB?: QuestDB has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $59/month for Knack and Free for QuestDB.
Does Knack or QuestDB run on more platforms?: Knack runs on Web. QuestDB runs on Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Can I use QuestDB for free?: Yes. QuestDB has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Knack starts at $59/month.
What is Knack best used for?: Knack is most often used for a member or client portal where thousands of external people need their own login and see only their own records, replacing a shared spreadsheet used by a team that has outgrown it but cannot justify a developer to build a bespoke internal tool, inventory, asset or case tracking for a small operations team that needs roles, forms and a record of who changed what, a registration or booking application for an association, school or non-profit where the user count is large and the record count stays modest. Of those, a member or client portal where thousands of external people need their own login and see only their own records and replacing a shared spreadsheet used by a team that has outgrown it but cannot justify a developer to build a bespoke internal tool are not what QuestDB is typically brought in for.
What can Knack do that QuestDB cannot?: Knack covers Visual database builder, User logins and roles, Page builder, Unlimited users. QuestDB covers High Throughput Ingestion, SQL Support, Time-series Optimization, SIMD Vectorization.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

QuestDB: How much does QuestDB Enterprise cost?

QuestDB does not publish specific pricing for the Enterprise tier. Customers must contact QuestDB via their enterprise contact form to receive a custom quote.

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.

QuestDB: Does QuestDB offer a free version?

Yes, QuestDB Open Source is completely free and recommended for evaluation, prototyping, and pilot projects. Enterprise features, high availability, security, and dedicated support require the paid Enterprise tier.

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.

QuestDB: What deployment options does QuestDB offer?

QuestDB offers open source deployment, Enterprise deployment, and Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) deployment. Pricing details for BYOC and Enterprise tiers are not published and require direct contact with sales.

Source

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.

Knack vs QuestDB

Knack

QuestDB

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Knack

Only in QuestDB

What people use each for

Knack

QuestDB

Where each one falls short

Knack

QuestDB

Pricing, plan by plan

Knack

QuestDB

Which should you pick?

Choose Knack if

Choose QuestDB if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Knack

More on QuestDB

Keep looking

Other head to heads