Base Captain and Knack
Written by Base Captain's founder. Checked on .
We build Base Captain, so we are not neutral. Every fact about Knack below is from its own pages, linked, on the date above; write to us if one is wrong.
In short
Knack is an app builder on its own database, with user logins and roles and no charge per user. Base Captain builds the software from what you tell it and changes it when you ask.
The difference that matters most: every change comes as a card to apply before it happens, and going back to an earlier version brings the data back with it.
What Knack does well
- No charge per user.
- Every plan includes unlimited users. Knack’s page
- Its own database.
- Relational data with a complete user system, roles and pages that show people the records connected to them. Knack’s page
- A choice of region.
- Data in the United States, Frankfurt or Sydney, and HIPAA options on its Enterprise plans. Knack’s page
- Imports that link.
- CSV, Excel and Google Sheets imports that can connect each row to a record of another table by a matching column. Knack’s page
Where Base Captain differs
- Every change shown first.
- You ask in plain words, and the change comes as a card that says what gets added, who sees it and how many records it touches, and any data it would drop. Nothing changes until you apply it. Knack lists “no staging area to test apps before going live” among its AI Builder’s limits.
- Going back includes your data.
- Before each change to how a base works, a copy of its data is saved. Within an hour the base can go back to it, data and all; later, a new change undoes it and keeps the records entered since. Knack takes daily backups of an app’s data and structure and restores them on request; its AI Builder has “no ability to revert apps to a previous state.”
- Rules the database enforces.
- Which records each role sees is enforced by the base’s own database, and a field hidden from a role, or one it may not change, stays that way everywhere: on the screens, in downloads, search and totals, and for the assistant and every agent.
- A history you can undo.
- Every change is recorded with who made it and how. A change can be undone from the history, and a deleted record restored.
- Everything out at once.
- Every list downloads as an Excel or CSV file, and a builder downloads all of the base’s data in one zip file, with its files, whenever they like. In Knack, “it is currently not possible to export all of the data in an app at once.”
- Going back
- Knack: A restore from daily backups, on request
- Base Captain: The same base, with its data, within an hour
- Everything out at once
- Knack: One table at a time
- Base Captain: One zip of all the data, with its files
Prices
- Starter
- $59 a month, or $49 a month billed yearly
- 20,000 records, 3 apps
- Pro
- $130 a month, or $110 a month billed yearly
- 50,000 records, unlimited apps
- Corporate
- From $300 a month, or $250 a month billed yearly
- From 125,000 records, unlimited apps
- Enterprise
- On request
- Set with Knack
Users are not counted. New customers pay $19 a month for Starter and $49 for Pro for their first three months, billed monthly, as the page offers today.
Knack’s pricing page, checked on .
Choose Knack if…
- You need HIPAA compliance, or to choose the region where your data is stored.
- You want to build the pages and views yourself, and many outside users will sign in.
- You need hundreds of ready integrations. Base Captain connects to other tools through webhooks, in and out, and through the MCP servers of services such as Notion, Linear or Stripe, which you or the assistant set up, and takes payments through Stripe and PayPal.
Moving over
- Out of Knack.
- Export each table as CSV, one table at a time. Knack’s page
- Into Base Captain.
- Put each table on a sheet of one workbook and give it to the assistant: it proposes the lists and the links between them, then brings the rows in.
- What stays behind.
- Pages, views, rules, tasks and roles; ask the assistant for the ones you need.