Softwr

Cybersecurity · head to head

KnowBe4 vs Restate

KnowBe4 logo

KnowBe4

Cybersecurity

World's largest security awareness training platform

From
$1/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Restate logo

Restate

Developer Tools

Durable execution engine in Rust with a free tier and low-latency workflows

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Restate has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: KnowBe4 published prices assume a three year term, so the quoted per seat rate depends on a long commitment; Restate the runtime is under a Business Source Licence rather than an open source licence, so building a competing managed offering on it is prohibited and some procurement functions will reject it on licence grounds alone.
  • They diverge on capability: KnowBe4 covers Security awareness training, Restate covers Durable execution.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which KnowBe4 and Restate actually diverge.

Attributes where KnowBe4 and Restate differ
AttributeKnowBe4Restate
Starting price$1/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer month by durable action count
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Mobile, EmailLinux, macOS, Web
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools
Founded2010Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

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 KnowBe4

  • Security awareness training
  • Phishing simulation
  • Risk assessments
  • Compliance training
  • Incident reporting
  • API access
  • Custom policies
  • Behavior analytics

Only in Restate

  • Durable execution
  • Virtual objects
  • Single binary runtime
  • Multi-language SDKs
  • Workflows and sagas
  • Restate Cloud

What people use each for

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

KnowBe4

  • Security awareness training and simulated phishing for staffnot Restate
  • Tracking employee susceptibility to phishing over timenot Restate

Restate

  • Payment or order flows where a crash between two external API calls must not double-charge or lose the ordernot KnowBe4
  • AI agent loops that call tools over minutes or hours and must survive a deployment mid-runnot KnowBe4
  • Replacing hand-rolled retry, idempotency key and outbox code across a set of microservicesnot KnowBe4
  • A small team that wants durable workflows without operating a Temporal cluster and its databasenot KnowBe4

Where each one falls short

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

KnowBe4

  • Published prices assume a three year term, so the quoted per seat rate depends on a long commitment
  • Pricing is banded by seat count, and the lowest band of 25 to 50 seats pays the highest rate
  • Accounts above 1,000 seats have no published price and require a custom quote
  • Third party integrations, Compliance Plus and PhishER Plus are all separately priced per seat add ons
  • The Foundation tier carries 200 training modules against more than 1,000 on Advanced, so content volume is the main gate

Restate

  • The runtime is under a Business Source Licence rather than an open source licence, so building a competing managed offering on it is prohibited and some procurement functions will reject it on licence grounds alone.
  • Restate Cloud jumps from a free fifty thousand actions straight to 300 US dollars a month for twenty million, so a workload sitting at a few hundred thousand actions pays enterprise-shaped money for hobby-shaped volume.
  • It is a young project against Temporal’s established base, so hiring engineers who already know it is unrealistic and the answer to most questions is in the docs rather than on Stack Overflow.
  • The programming model requires structuring code around durable handlers and virtual objects, which is a genuine rewrite for existing services rather than a library you add.
  • The single-binary simplicity that makes small deployments cheap also means fewer operational knobs at very large scale than a system designed as separable components.

Pricing, plan by plan

KnowBe4

$1/month
  • Basic$1/month
    • Per user
    • Training modules
    • Phishing templates
  • Advanced$2/month
    • All Basic features
    • Advanced phishing
    • Risk assessments
  • Pro$3/month
    • All Advanced features
    • API access
    • Custom content

Restate

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Fifty thousand durable actions per month
    • No credit card required
    • Community support
  • Starter$300/month
    • Twenty million actions per month
    • Two hundred actions per second, bursting to one thousand
    • Twenty GB storage
  • Pro$1000/month
    • Fifty million actions per month
    • Five hundred actions per second, bursting to two thousand
    • Fifty GB storage
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Negotiated volume
    • Twenty-four seven P0 support
    • 99.99 per cent SLA

Which should you pick?

Choose KnowBe4 if

  • You need security awareness training.
  • You work on Web, Mobile, Email.
  • You also want phishing simulation.
KnowBe4 review

Choose Restate if

  • You need durable execution.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Web.
  • You also want virtual objects.
Restate review

Questions people ask

Is KnowBe4 or Restate better?
Neither clearly leads. KnowBe4 starts at $1/month and Restate at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, KnowBe4 or Restate?
Restate has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $1/month for KnowBe4 and Free for Restate.
Does KnowBe4 or Restate run on more platforms?
KnowBe4 runs on Web, Mobile, Email. Restate runs on Linux, macOS, Web.
Can I use Restate for free?
Yes. Restate has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. KnowBe4 starts at $1/month.
What is KnowBe4 best used for?
KnowBe4 is most often used for security awareness training and simulated phishing for staff, tracking employee susceptibility to phishing over time. Of those, security awareness training and simulated phishing for staff and tracking employee susceptibility to phishing over time are not what Restate is typically brought in for.
What can KnowBe4 do that Restate cannot?
KnowBe4 covers Security awareness training, Phishing simulation, Risk assessments, Compliance training. Restate covers Durable execution, Virtual objects, Single binary runtime, Multi-language SDKs.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

KnowBe4: What does KnowBe4 cost per employee?

KnowBe4 charges per seat per month on a subscription basis. For 51-100 employees, SAT Foundation costs $2.13/month per seat and SAT Advanced costs $3.40/month per seat. Prices decrease with larger employee counts.

Source
Restate: Is Restate open source?

The SDKs are MIT. The runtime is under a Business Source Licence, which permits self-hosting but not offering it as a competing service.

KnowBe4: Does KnowBe4 offer a free trial?

KnowBe4 does not offer a full free version, but free tools are available separately including assessments and simulators.

Source
Restate: How does it compare with Temporal?

Same problem, different shape: one Rust binary with embedded storage instead of a server plus database plus workers, and lower per-step latency.

KnowBe4: Are there add-on costs beyond the base plan?

Yes, optional add-ons include Third-Party Integrations ($1.10-$1.20/seat/month), Compliance Plus ($0.82-$0.93/seat/month), PhishER Plus ($1.15-$1.50/seat/month), and Student Edition ($0.17/seat/month).

Source
Restate: Is there a free tier?

Yes, fifty thousand durable actions a month on Restate Cloud with no card required.

KnowBe4: What currencies does KnowBe4 accept?

KnowBe4 accepts pricing in USD, AUD, BRL, CAD, EUR, GBP, SGD, and ZAR.

Source
Restate: Which languages are supported?

TypeScript, Java, Kotlin, Go, Python and Rust.

Share

Related pages

More on KnowBe4

More on Restate

Keep looking

Other head to heads