COMPARISON
PostKnock vs Lob
Lob is a well-respected direct mail API built for engineering teams. PostKnock is a no-code app built for busy small business owners: sign up free, design a postcard, upload a CSV, send. When you're ready, ramp up to Pro ($99/mo) for phone follow-ups and multi-wave campaigns. Both are good tools. They just fit different setups.
| Feature | PostKnock | Lob |
|---|---|---|
| How you use it | No-code app: point & click | API-first (dashboard available) |
| Time to first postcard | Minutes. Sign up & send | Faster with an engineer integrating it |
| Free plan | ✓ $0/mo, no card, no monthly cap | ✓ Developer plan, capped at 6,000 mailings/mo |
| Entry monthly fee to unlock volume pricing | $99/mo (Pro) | $260/mo (Startup) |
| Phone follow-up calls | ✓ Built-in (Pro) | Not offered |
| Multi-wave campaign sequences | ✓ Unlimited waves, configured in-app | Build it yourself via API |
| Industry playbooks | ✓ 156 across 52 verticals | HTML templates (generic) |
| Visual postcard editor with brand kit | ✓ | HTML/CSS |
| AI background images | ✓ 10/mo Free, 50/mo Pro | Not offered |
| QR code tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Public, transparent pricing | ✓ | ✓ |
| HIPAA-aware mailings | ✓ | ✓ (Enterprise plan only) |
Lob pricing per lob.com/pricing at time of publish. Lob figures come from their public pricing page as of July 2026 and can change: confirm on their site. PostKnock figures are our own published prices.
No credit card. No API integration. Send your first postcard in minutes.
Why busy owners pick PostKnock as their starting point
Start small. Ramp up when it's working. The PostKnock Free plan is genuinely free, no credit card, no time limit. Send a small batch this week, see what comes back, and only move to Pro ($99/mo) once you've decided direct mail is worth doing at higher cadence. That low-commitment on-ramp is the whole point.
No engineering, no integration project. Lob is excellent if you have a developer ready to write code against an API. If you don't (and most small dental offices, HVAC shops, and vet clinics don't) PostKnock gets you sending without writing anything. Sign up, upload a CSV, design in a visual editor, click launch.
One simple monthly fee for the whole workflow. Lob's better per-piece pricing kicks in at the $260/month Startup tier. PostKnock's Pro is $99/month and includes things you'd otherwise build yourself: phone follow-up call queues, multi-wave campaigns, and industry playbooks for dental, HVAC, optometry, and more.
Postcards and phone calls in one place. A postcard warms the lead; a phone call closes it. PostKnock bundles both into a single Pro plan. Your front desk works through a call queue with scripts timed to postcard delivery. It's the workflow most small service businesses actually want.
When Lob is the right call
Lob is a great choice for engineering teams integrating direct mail into a product: transactional postcards, statements, identity verification letters, renewal notices, regulated communications. The API is well-built, HIPAA-capable on higher tiers, and supports specialty mailers and custom envelopes. If you have developers and you mail at meaningful volume (3,000+/mo), Lob's Startup and Growth plans deliver excellent per-piece economics.
When PostKnock is the right call
PostKnock is for the owner-operator who runs marketing on Tuesday afternoons. Dental practices, HVAC contractors, optometry offices, vets, med spas. The goal isn't to integrate direct mail into a product. It's to fill the schedule next month. Sign up free, pick an industry playbook (or design from scratch), upload your contacts, and click send. When you're ready for multi-wave campaigns and a phone follow-up queue, Pro is one click and $99/month.
Pricing side-by-side
Lob's free Developer plan is genuinely free up to 6,000 mailings/month at $0.905 per postcard, which is a lot of runway. Beyond that, Startup is $260/month with postcards at $0.645, and Growth is $550/month at $0.615.
PostKnock's Free plan is $0/month with no card required, postcards at $1.04 each, no monthly cap. Pro is $99/month (or $799/year), drops postcards to $0.91, and unlocks phone follow-up calls plus multi-wave campaigns.
Example: 1,500 postcards in a 3-wave campaign. Lob Startup: $260 + 1,500 × $0.645 = $1,227.50. PostKnock Pro: $99 + 1,500 × $0.91 = $1,464. Lob is cheaper on raw postcard cost at this volume; the gap is what it costs to get the phone follow-up workflow built in instead of built yourself on top of Lob's API.
Trying PostKnock alongside Lob
There's no migration to do. You can run both side by side, or just kick the tires on PostKnock without committing to anything:
- Export a contact list as CSV from wherever it lives
- Sign up for PostKnock, no credit card, no API keys
- Import your CSV: column auto-mapping
- Pick an industry playbook or design your own postcard in the visual editor
- Preview the print proof and launch. Decide if Pro is worth it once you've seen the results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I pick PostKnock or Lob?▼
It depends on the job. If you have engineering capacity and want to integrate direct mail into a product or CRM workflow, Lob's API is a strong choice. If you're a small business owner running recall, reactivation, or acquisition campaigns and you want to start free, point-and-click your way through it, and add phone follow-ups when you're ready, PostKnock is built for that.
Does Lob include phone follow-up calls?▼
Lob focuses on direct mail: postcards, letters, checks. Phone workflows aren't part of the product. PostKnock Pro includes a call queue, industry-specific scripts, and per-wave timing as a built-in feature.
Can I use PostKnock without writing code?▼
Yes. PostKnock is a fully no-code app: upload a CSV, design in a visual editor, click launch. No developers, no API keys, no integrations required.
Is PostKnock cheaper than Lob?▼
On raw per-piece postcards, Lob's $260/month Startup plan ($0.645/card) is cheaper than PostKnock Pro ($0.91/card at $99/month) once you're sending enough to amortize the bigger monthly fee. PostKnock's advantage is what's bundled in (phone follow-ups, multi-wave campaigns, industry playbooks) and the smaller $99 commitment to get going. For most small service businesses, that combination ends up cheaper overall.