Knez completed over 5,300 ascents, pioneering almost 800 of them. With his pioneer routes in Eiger (his extremely quick solo-ascent on the northern wall in 1982, for which he needed just six hours, was simply incredible), at Matterhorn and the Grandes Jorasses, he became one of the rare mountaineers to leave a mark on all of the "three problems of the Alps".

Mountaineer Viki Grošelj labeled him as one of the greats of Slovenian and world climbing, as he completed so many ascents and pioneered so many routes, that it would be extremely difficult to even count all his achievements.

In 2010, Slovenia's then president Danilo Türk decorated Franček Knez with the Order of Merit for his achievements and contribution to Slovenia's reputation as a mountaineering nation.