Better Email vs. Knak
Both platforms solve the same problem: on-brand emails at scale, without bottlenecks. The difference is the approach. Knak is a no-code builder where marketers assemble emails from standard blocks inside brand guardrails. Better Email is built around a code-based Email Design System, where your team defines the modules, settings, and validations that become the editor marketers use.
Overview
Both platforms are built for enterprise teams that care about brand. The choice comes down to how much control you want over the foundation your team builds on.
Last updated July 2026
| Category | Better Email | Knak |
|---|---|---|
Email Design System | A code-based Email Design System. Modules are written in HTML and Liquid with typed settings and validations | Brand colors, fonts, and logos, plus reusable modules built in the same drag-and-drop builder |
Editor experience | You design the editor. Marketers only see the modules and inputs your design system exposes | One standard drag-and-drop editor with text, image, and button blocks, restricted through lock states |
Brand control | Structural. Validations and locked palettes make off-brand input impossible | Permission-based. Color kits and per-element locks limit what users may change |
AI | Betty builds campaigns from your approved modules and co-authors design system code | KnakAI generates on-brand, editable emails and landing pages from a brief |
Collaboration | Pinned comments, revision-tied approvals, and org-wide export gating | Pinned comments, review groups, and staged sequential approvals |
Sending | No sending. One-click export to your ESP in its native personalization syntax | No sending. One-way sync to 20+ marketing platforms and ESPs |
A design system in code vs. brand settings in a builder
This is the core difference between the two platforms. Knak gives you brand guardrails: colors, fonts, and lockable modules configured through the builder UI. Better Email gives you an actual design system in code: developers write modules in HTML and Liquid, define every setting marketers get, and validations enforce the rest.
Only in Better Email
HTML + Liquid modules
Your design system is real code you control, not builder settings
Global Script & shared inputs
Define brand tokens once. Every module stays in sync
Typed inputs with validations
Regex rules, must-change defaults, image dimensions, and more
You design the editor
Marketers get exactly the inputs you expose. Nothing else
Betty writes module code
AI co-authors HTML, Liquid, and settings with your developers
Built-in image pipeline
Crops, badges, and rounded corners baked into modules automatically
Email builder and editor
Marketers get a no-code, drag-and-drop experience in both platforms. The difference is where that experience comes from. In Knak, everyone works with the same standard blocks. In Better Email, the editor is generated from your design system, so every option marketers see is one your team designed.
An editor your team designed
Because the editor is generated from your Email Design System:
- • Every input marketers see is one your team chose to expose
- • Validations block off-brand content while people work
- • Content zones control which modules can go where
- • Publish a new module once and every campaign builder gets it
Full rendering control
Because your Email Design System is real HTML you control:
- • Guaranteed correct rendering across all email clients
- • Rounded buttons that actually work in Outlook
- • Custom layouts that standard content blocks can't express
Collaboration and approval flows
Both platforms take review seriously. Knak offers pinned comments, review groups, and staged approvals. Better Email works the same way on the surface and goes further underneath: approvals are tied to a specific revision, and one org setting stops any campaign from reaching your ESP before it is approved.
Betty vs. KnakAI
Both platforms have invested seriously in AI. KnakAI generates on-brand, editable emails and landing pages from a brief. Betty goes further in both directions: she builds campaigns from your approved modules in the Campaign Builder, and co-authors module code with your developers in the design system editor.
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Time to first production-ready draft with Betty AI
Integrations and sync
Neither Better Email nor Knak sends emails. Both connect to the platform that does. Knak covers a broad list of enterprise marketing platforms, with Marketo and Eloqua as its home turf. Better Email focuses on one-click export in your ESP's native personalization syntax, and builds custom connectors on request.
Neither platform sends emails
Better Email and Knak both focus on creation. Your ESP or marketing automation platform handles sending, whether that is Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze, Klaviyo, HubSpot, or something else.
Who is each platform for?
Both solve on-brand email production at scale. The choice comes down to how much control you want over the foundation.
Better Email is for you if...
- You want your design system in code: HTML and Liquid your team fully controls
- You want to design the editor experience with custom modules, settings, and validations
- Brand control should be structural, not just permission-based
- You want AI that builds campaigns from approved modules and writes module code
- You need export in your ESP's native personalization syntax, or a custom connector
- You manage multiple brands or organisations with separate design systems
Knak is for you if...
- You want a 100% no-code workflow with no developer involvement at any level
- You need landing pages in the same platform as your emails
- Standard content blocks with lock-based guardrails cover the designs you need
- You want admins to configure modules and guardrails visually, without code
Want to see Better Email in action?
Book a demo and see how Better Email and Betty AI can build your Email Design System and produce campaigns in under 2 minutes.