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Cybersecurity · head to head

KnowBe4 vs Soketi

KnowBe4 logo

KnowBe4

Cybersecurity

World's largest security awareness training platform

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

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Soketi 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; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: KnowBe4 covers Security awareness training, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which KnowBe4 and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where KnowBe4 and Soketi differ
AttributeKnowBe4Soketi
Starting price$1/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Mobile, EmailLinux, macOS, Windows
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 Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

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 Soketi
  • Tracking employee susceptibility to phishing over timenot Soketi

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot KnowBe4
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot KnowBe4
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot KnowBe4
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot 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

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

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

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

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 Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is KnowBe4 or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. KnowBe4 starts at $1/month and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, KnowBe4 or Soketi?
Soketi has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $1/month for KnowBe4 and Free for Soketi.
Does KnowBe4 or Soketi run on more platforms?
KnowBe4 runs on Web, Mobile, Email. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Soketi for free?
Yes. Soketi 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 Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can KnowBe4 do that Soketi cannot?
KnowBe4 covers Security awareness training, Phishing simulation, Risk assessments, Compliance training. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

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
Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

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
Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

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
Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

KnowBe4: What currencies does KnowBe4 accept?

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

Source
Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

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