GravityKit
GravityKit ships weekly across a whole plugin suite, with an MCP server now part of the lineup.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
Incus vs Knock
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Incus and Knock — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Incus vs Knock: at a glance
| Feature | Incus | Knock |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Infra & APIs | Infra & APIs |
| Velocity score | 5.0 | 6.3 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 1 |
| Top themes | container manager, lts branch, live migration, qemu gating | notification-infrastructure, data-sources, agent-native, workflow-orchestration |
| Last editorial update | 2h ago | 11h ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is Incus?
Incus settled its 7.0 LTS, then went straight back to a monthly feature cadence.
7.0.0 LTS landed in early May and became the supported baseline, followed by 7.0.1 as its first patch. The feature branch has not paused: 7.1 in May cleaned up the issues the LTS surfaced, 7.2 in June added migration-compatible hypervisor flags for stateful migration and aligned node-specific network configuration, and 7.3 at the end of July added native Windows and macOS installers to the build workflow, a QMP command timeout, and /32 and /128 addresses for OCI containers. Underneath, QEMU capabilities like SPICE, 9p and virtio audio are increasingly gated on runtime detection rather than assumed.
What is Knock?
Knock is wiring both ends of the messaging data loop, then putting an agent on top
Knock has spent the last month building around its notification engine rather than inside it. Two new inbound data sources, Amplitude and Clay, let product events, cohorts, and enriched account rows land in Knock without customers writing sync code, while message and engagement events flow back out to the warehouse. The dashboard work alongside it, a rebuilt template editor, saved views and tags, schema management, and passkeys, reads as hardening for teams rather than individual developers.
Incus vs Knock: editorial side-by-side
Incus
5.0INFRA · APIS
Incus settled its 7.0 LTS, then went straight back to a monthly feature cadence.
◆ Current state
7.0.0 LTS landed in early May and became the supported baseline, followed by 7.0.1 as its first patch. The feature branch has not paused: 7.1 in May cleaned up the issues the LTS surfaced, 7.2 in June added migration-compatible hypervisor flags for stateful migration and aligned node-specific network configuration, and 7.3 at the end of July added native Windows and macOS installers to the build workflow, a QMP command timeout, and /32 and /128 addresses for OCI containers. Underneath, QEMU capabilities like SPICE, 9p and virtio audio are increasingly gated on runtime detection rather than assumed.
◆ Where it's heading
The rhythm is a monthly feature release running alongside a long-term branch, and the recent work leans toward reach rather than new primitives: clients built natively for Windows and macOS, translations updated in nearly every release, feature gating so the same daemon behaves correctly across host configurations. Stateful migration getting migration-compatible CPU flags is the most operationally significant item, since it is what makes live migration work across non-identical hosts.
◆ Prediction
The cadence in this window is a feature release roughly every four to six weeks with LTS patches interleaved, so a 7.4 is the expected next step. The entries give no indication of a headline feature queued for it.
Knock
6.3INFRA · APIS
Knock is wiring both ends of the messaging data loop, then putting an agent on top
◆ Current state
Knock has spent the last month building around its notification engine rather than inside it. Two new inbound data sources, Amplitude and Clay, let product events, cohorts, and enriched account rows land in Knock without customers writing sync code, while message and engagement events flow back out to the warehouse. The dashboard work alongside it, a rebuilt template editor, saved views and tags, schema management, and passkeys, reads as hardening for teams rather than individual developers.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is away from a notification API you call and toward the system that holds the messaging state. Ingesting cohort membership and enriched contact data is CDP-adjacent territory, and the wait-for-event function turns linear sequences into event-driven orchestration. The Knock agent then adds a natural-language layer over performance data, so the platform answers questions instead of only exporting rows.
◆ Prediction
Expect more data sources on the same pattern, warehouse and CRM-side connectors that keep audiences in sync without customer glue code. Whether the agent moves from reading analytics to editing workflows directly is the open question these entries do not yet answer.
Alternatives to Incus and Knock
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Incus or Knock.
LibreSpeed
After a two-year redesign, LibreSpeed is adding tests instead of polishing pixels.
Nautobot
A security advisory cycle forced Nautobot to break its REST API on both supported branches at once.
Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper grew a package manager for policies — and a benchmark to prove they are not too slow.
GoCD
GoCD's changelog is one maintainer keeping a 2010s CI server running on current runtimes.
Firecracker
Firecracker's microVMs can now grow and shrink devices while running.
Recent activity from Incus and Knock
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoKnockAmplitude data source
- 7d agoIncusNative Windows and macOS installers; QMP command timeouts
- 8d agoKnockAnalytics in the Knock agent ⚡
- 9d agoKnockWait for event function
- 10d agoKnockClay data source
- 15d agoKnockRedesigned template editor
- 22d agoKnockBranch rebasing
- 27d agoIncusFirst patch release on the 7.0 LTS branch
- 1mo agoIncusMigration-compatible hypervisor flags for stateful migration
- 2mo agoIncusFixes for issues surfaced by the 7.0 release
- 3mo agoIncusIncus 7.0 LTS, with runtime-detected QEMU feature gating
- 4mo agoIncusVolume snapshots while attached; OVN dhcp gateway option
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Incus and Knock?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Knock is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Incus better than Knock?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Knock is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Incus?
Top Incus alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Incus alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/incus for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Knock?
Top Knock alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Knock alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/knock for the full list with editorial commentary on each.