Comparison

bonk vs Knockbox

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

bonk

Features
Read full description

bonk sends you a push notification when something on the internet needs your attention. You install the app, copy your private URL, and paste it anywhere that can make a web request. When that URL gets hit, your phone buzzes. No sign-up, no dashboard, no accounts to manage. HOW IT WORKS Open bonk. The app gives you a private URL that only you can see. Paste that URL into anything that can send a web request: a script, a build pipeline, a monitoring tool. When it runs, a notification lands on your device. WHO IT'S FOR Developers who want their own devices to know when something happened. A build finished. A server went down. A scheduled task ran. A long-running script needs a human. Anything on the internet that has news for you, for your own eyes. WHAT'S IN THE APP Your feed: every notification you've sent to yourself, newest first URLs: create, rotate, revoke; each is shown once at creation Settings: pair more of your devices, or delete your account ACROSS YOUR DEVICES Pair another iPhone, iPad, or Mac to the same account with a 6-digit code from Settings. Every notification arrives on all of them. PRIVACY No email, no password. Opening the app is the entire setup. No dashboard. Your notifications are the interface. We forward your notifications to Apple and don't store them. LIMITS 300 requests per minute per URL. Plenty for normal use. Email us if you need more.

About

Knockbox

Read full description

Knock once, and your phone buzzes. Knockbox turns one HTTP request into a push notification on your iPhone. Anything that can send a request can reach you: a deploy script, a cron job, a monitoring check, a CI pipeline, or a coding agent that has just finished a long task. If it needs your go-ahead before continuing, it can wait for your answer. curl -d "Build finished" https://your-server/api/v1/send/YOUR_TOKEN THE SERVER IS YOURS Knockbox is the client for a server you control. The server is open source and runs on a VPS, a NAS, or a Raspberry Pi at home. It holds its own Apple push key, so a notification goes from your machine to Apple and then to your phone, without passing through anyone in between. If you would rather not run anything, open knockbox.miramiao.com on your iPhone and you are connected — no sign-up, no password. WHAT A MESSAGE CAN CARRY • A Markdown body with headings, lists, links and syntax-highlighted code. • Images, shown in the notification and kept with the message. • Long text. The body is fetched as the notification lands rather than packed into it, so there is no length limit to work around. • A title, a channel, and an interruption level: quiet, normal, or time sensitive when it has to break through Focus. REPLIES • The sender can attach a set of options, or allow a free-text answer. • Answer from the message itself. Your server posts the reply back to the address the sender gave, signed, and the sender takes it from there. • The sender can set a deadline. After it passes the message reads "Reply window closed" and the server stops accepting — you are never left thinking an answer went through. • A message is answered once, and the answer is the same across your devices. CHANNELS • One token per channel, so a noisy monitor and a personal reminder stay apart. • Muting a channel truly stops it: the mute lives on the server, so nothing is sent at all. • Search your history, mark as read, delete a message, or clear a channel. Deletions are real, on the device and on the server. MORE THAN ONE DEVICE Pair a second iPhone or iPad from a device that is already connected. Both receive everything and share read state. TRY IT WITHOUT A SERVER Demo mode fills the app with example messages and sends a sample notification, so you can see how it works before setting anything up. FREE, AND THAT IS ALL No ads, no analytics, no account with us, no in-app purchase, no subscription. The app is free and the server is open source. Server source code: https://github.com/aichy126/knockbox Public server: https://knockbox.miramiao.com How to send: https://knockbox.miramiao.com/docs Questions: info@miramiao.com

Screenshots

bonk4 screens
Knockbox4 screens

Verdict

The call

bonk and Knockbox are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
bonk versus Knockbox: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterbonkKnockbox
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Daily
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB7 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperMagic Srl苗 苗

In-app purchases

None

bonk

No in-app purchases

None

Knockbox

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is bonk free?
bonk is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Knockbox free?
Knockbox is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do bonk or Knockbox have ads?
Neither bonk nor Knockbox shows ads.

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