Why teams look for a Dust alternative
Dust is a strong AI agent workspace that gives teams flexibility to build, share, and manage custom agents based on the company’s data and tools. If you're comfortable using a hosted product, Dust is still a strong choice. But a few reasons come up repeatedly when teams start comparing.
Usage-based pricing: Dust charges per seat with monthly credits. Pro costs $30 per seat per month ($24 billed annually) with 8,000 credits, while Max costs $150 per seat per month ($120 billed annually) with 40,000 credits. Credits cover both AI usage and tool actions. They reset each month and don’t roll over. For heavy users, costs depend on how much work the agents do, making them harder to predict than a flat seat fee. Dust pricing · credit documentation.
Dust hosting and deployment options: Dust offers US or EU data hosting, and its enterprise plan also offers single-tenant deployment. These options may not meet every company’s data, security, or compliance requirements. Dust’s open-source repository does not itself establish vendor-supported on-premises deployment. If you need vendor support and an SLA for running Dust on your own infrastructure, confirm this with Dust before committing.
Microsoft-first companies: If your company mainly uses Microsoft 365, you may prefer AI agents that already fit into that ecosystem.
Open-source preference: Some companies want AI tools they can inspect, customize, and modify themselves.
How we picked these Dust competitors
A lot of “Dust alternative” lists combine various tools that can't actually replace Dust's functionality: coding frameworks, single-purpose chatbots, and marketing tools. We limited this list to products an enterprise team could deploy for company-wide agent work and judged each on five things:
- Enterprise readiness: SSO, permissions, and customer support.
- Real connectors: How many integrations work in practice compared with the number of logos listed.
- Governance: Permissions, activity logs, and cost tracking.
- Deployment options: Hosted, self-hosted, or both.
- Pricing transparency: Whether you can see the price without talking to sales.
Consumer chatbots and general-purpose coding frameworks address different needs, so the list focuses on enterprise agent work. The final two entries are builder-route tools for teams who want to assemble their own stack.
Dust AI alternatives compared
| Tool | Category | Product type | Open source | Self-host / deployment | Pricing model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Omni | Open-source workplace AI agent | Ready-to-deploy product | Yes (Apache 2.0 core) | Yes | Free Community Edition (no SSO); Business $10/user/mo billed annually; Enterprise quote | Teams that want to self-host and audit the code |
| Glean | Enterprise search with agents | Ready-to-deploy product | No | Customer-hosted in your AWS or GCP, managed by Glean | Per-user seat with pooled usage credits; no published prices | Large enterprises prioritising search depth |
| Microsoft Copilot Studio | Agent builder inside Microsoft’s stack | Ready-to-deploy product | No | No (Microsoft cloud) | Consumption: $0.01/credit, or $200/mo per 25,000 credits | Microsoft 365-standardised companies |
| Onyx | Open-source search/chat platform with custom agents and actions | Ready-to-deploy product | Yes (MIT core; some enterprise features paid) | Yes | Free Community Edition; Business $20/user/mo billed annually; Enterprise custom | Search- and chat-first open-source deployments |
| Moveworks (ServiceNow) | ITSM and employee-support agents | Ready-to-deploy product | No | No (hosted) | Enterprise, quote only | IT and HR service-desk automation |
| Dify | Visual LLM app and workflow builder | Builder for teams creating their own product | Source-available (Apache 2.0 plus conditions) | Yes | Free Sandbox; Professional $59/workspace/mo; Team $159/workspace/mo | Teams building their own AI apps |
| CrewAI | Multi-agent framework | Builder for teams creating their own product | Yes (MIT) | Yes (a library you run yourself) | Free framework; AMP Basic free (50 executions/mo); Enterprise custom | Developers building multi-agent systems |
Pricing and license references: Dust, Glean, Microsoft, Onyx, Dify license, Dify plans, CrewAI license, CrewAI plans.
1. Omni: the open-source Dust alternative
Omni is an open-source, self-hosted AI agent for company-wide work. It connects with tools like Google Drive, Gmail, Slack, Confluence, Jira, HubSpot, and Microsoft 365. Employees can use one conversation to find information, analyze data, or perform supported actions. Connector permission handling is connector-specific; indexed retrieval is distinct from separately authorized MCP/action tools. Omni supports models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Gemini, as well as self-hosted models.
Omni is a good choice for teams that want to run their AI agent in their own cloud or on-premises and have the ability to check the code. Its core is licensed under Apache 2.0. It also gives teams one dashboard to track AI model usage, making costs easier to monitor.
The self-hosted open-source version is free. Omni also lists a business plan at $10 per user per month, billed annually, with self-hosting and SSO included. Business adds SSO and admin controls; the free self-hosted version does not include them.
Omni has 25+ built-in sources, which is fewer than some established platforms. If you need many ready-made integrations, check whether Omni supports the tools your team uses. Browse the integrations directory. With self-hosting, you are also responsible for keeping the system running and updated.
Understand more about how Omni works.
2. Glean: enterprise search with agents
Glean is one of the strongest enterprise search platforms on this list, with AI agents built on top of its search system. If your main problem is that employees can't find information across many different tools, Glean is a strong choice and is already used by many large companies.
The main trade-offs are cost and control. Glean is closed source and doesn't publish its prices. Its Enterprise Flex plan charges a monthly fee per user that includes a shared allowance of credits. If an organization uses more than that allowance, it must buy additional credits. Agent runs use these credits, so costs increase with heavier usage. Glean also offers a customer-hosted option that runs inside your own AWS or GCP environment. Glean manages the customer-hosted service. Customers cannot deploy, update, or modify it themselves.
Choose Glean if powerful company-wide search matters more than price and deployment control. See Omni vs Glean for a detailed comparison.
3. Microsoft Copilot Studio: for M365-first companies
For companies that mainly use Microsoft 365, Copilot Studio is a natural choice. Its agents work within the same Microsoft identity, security, and compliance system as the rest of your tools.
Copilot Studio has no per-user fee. It uses Copilot Credits, costing $0.01 each on a pay-as-you-go basis, or $200/month for 25,000 credits. Microsoft 365 Copilot is separate and costs $30 per user/month on an annual plan, on top of an eligible Microsoft 365 plan. Depending on what you build, you may pay for both: Microsoft says licensed staff can use internal agents at no extra credit cost, while external-facing agents and unlicensed users draw on Copilot Credits. Credits are shared across the organisation, and unused credits in a monthly pack don’t roll over. Read Microsoft's Copilot Studio pricing.
The main downsides are Microsoft ecosystem lock-in and harder-to-predict costs until you know how much your agents will be used. It is best suited to companies whose tools primarily use Microsoft.
4. Onyx: open-source enterprise search and chat
Onyx is another strong open-source option. It can be self-hosted and offers a free Community Edition under an MIT license, along with paid Cloud and Enterprise plans. It has 40+ prebuilt connectors, while source permission syncing is available as a paid feature.
Onyx and Omni both support agent actions, with different areas of focus. Onyx combines enterprise search and chat with custom AI agents and actions through MCP and OpenAPI. Omni focuses more on workplace agents across connected tools, with permission controls included in its open-source connectors. Compare their search, connectors, permissions, and action requirements for your environment. See Onyx plans and features.
Onyx currently has more connectors. Omni’s Business plan is listed at $10 per user per month and Onyx’s Business plan at $20, both billed annually. Onyx’s is a managed cloud service, while Omni’s Business plan is a self-hosted licence, so the prices aren’t directly comparable. See Omni vs Onyx and Onyx pricing.
5. Moveworks: ITSM-first agents (now part of ServiceNow)
Moveworks is strong for IT and employee-support automation. If your main goal is to handle IT and HR requests through a chat-based system connected to existing workflows, it's a good choice.
ServiceNow completed its acquisition of Moveworks on December 15, 2025. ServiceNow now positions Moveworks as an AI-powered front door to its platform. So, when evaluating Moveworks, it's increasingly important to consider it alongside ServiceNow.
Moveworks is closed-source, hosted, and sales-priced. It's also less suited to being a general AI agent workspace for every team. See Omni vs Moveworks and ServiceNow's acquisition announcement.
6. Dify: builder-route option
Dify is a builder for teams that want to create their own AI agent apps. It requires more technical work than deploying Dust, Glean, or Omni.
Dify is a platform for building AI apps. It includes a visual workflow builder, built-in RAG/search, AI agents, model management, and monitoring tools. You can use it on Dify Cloud, in your own VPC, or self-host it. It's useful for building internal chatbots, workflows, and other AI-powered tools without creating everything from scratch.
The self-hosted Community Edition is free. Dify Cloud offers a free Sandbox and paid per-workspace Professional and Team plans. Monthly billing is listed at $59 and $159 per workspace; annual billing is $590 and $1,590 per workspace. See Dify Cloud pricing. Pricing is per workspace. Dify is source-available under its own modified Apache 2.0-based license, which includes additional conditions and restrictions on using it as a multi-tenant service. Review the license before using it commercially. Read Dify’s license.
Building a company-wide agent with Dify requires your team to configure workplace integrations and permissions, plus infrastructure if self-hosting.
7. CrewAI: builder-route option
CrewAI is an open-source Python framework for building teams of AI agents and automated workflows. Like Dify, it gives developers control over how agents plan tasks, share work, and use tools. Developers set up the integrations themselves. Dust, Glean, and Omni provide ready-made products that handle much of this work.
The framework is MIT-licensed and free to run on your infrastructure, but you pay for your own AI model usage. CrewAI's managed platform, CrewAI AMP, charges based on workflow executions. Its website lists two plans:
Basic (free): Includes a visual editor, GitHub integration, tracing, and guardrails. It's limited to 50 workflow executions per month, with no option to purchase extra executions.
Enterprise (custom pricing): Includes SSO, role-based access controls, enterprise connectors, and dedicated support. It offers flexible execution limits and can run on CrewAI's cloud, your own VPC, or your own infrastructure.
There is no published mid-tier price, so you'll need to contact sales if you need more than the free plan offers. CrewAI provides tools for building and managing AI agents. Building a workplace assistant with company-wide search and an employee-facing chat interface requires additional development. It's best suited to engineering teams building custom multi-agent systems. Most teams looking to replace Dust will find a ready-made product easier to use. See CrewAI plans and its MIT license.
Which Dust alternative fits your team
| If your situation is: | Consider |
|---|---|
| You want a managed, hosted product and are comfortable with credit-based pricing | Stay on Dust |
| Your company runs on Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Copilot Studio |
| Enterprise search across a large organization comes first | Glean |
| You need open source and self-hosting, with agent actions | Omni |
| You need open source and self-hosting, search-first | Onyx |
| Your main need is IT and HR service-desk automation | Moveworks |
| You want to build your own agents | Dify or CrewAI |
Open-source and self-hosted Dust alternatives
Teams searching for an open-source Dust alternative or a self-hosted Dust alternative usually want three things: the ability to review the code, control over where their data is stored, and predictable costs as agent calls increase.
Self-hosting keeps your deployment in your own cloud or on-premises setup, while open source lets your security team review the code. If you use your own model keys or run models locally, you also pay for AI usage directly instead of through a vendor's credit system.
Self-hosting shifts infrastructure costs and operational work to your team. You'll need to set up and secure the infrastructure, keep the system running, install updates, manage backups, and handle problems.
Budget for both hosting costs and the engineering time needed to maintain the system. Compare this total with the full cost of a managed plan, including the software license fee.
Two good options are Omni and Onyx. Omni emphasizes workplace agents across connected tools, while Onyx combines enterprise search and chat with custom agents and actions; compare their connector coverage and workflow fit for your needs. You can also explore the open-source AI agent platform page or the wider open-source AI agents roundup.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best open-source Dust alternative?
The two main options are Omni and Onyx. Onyx combines enterprise search and chat with custom AI agents and actions through MCP/OpenAPI, 40+ connectors, and a free MIT-licensed Community Edition. Omni emphasizes workplace agents across connected tools and has 25+ built-in sources under Apache 2.0. Compare connector coverage, permission requirements, and the workflows your team needs; both products offer agent capabilities. If you want to build your own system, Dify and CrewAI are builder options; Dify is source-available under its modified Apache 2.0-based license and additional conditions.
Why did Dust change its pricing?
Dust’s public pricing uses per-seat plans with monthly credits for AI usage and tool actions. Pro is $30 per seat per month, or $24 per seat per month billed annually, with 8,000 credits. Max is $150 per seat per month, or $120 per seat per month billed annually, with 40,000 credits. Credits reset monthly and do not roll over. Dust’s pricing and credit documentation describes the plans and usage. It gives no reason for the pricing model.
Is there a free Dust alternative?
Yes. Omni Community and Onyx Community Edition are free to self-host. Dify has a free self-hosted Community Edition under its modified license, and CrewAI’s framework is MIT-licensed. Budget for infrastructure, AI model usage, and the people needed to manage it.
Can any of these replace Dust for EU data residency?
Self-hosting Omni or Onyx lets you choose where those deployments run, but it does not guarantee that all data stays in the EU if connected model or embedding endpoints are elsewhere. Your team also operates the infrastructure. Dust offers EU hosting. For hosted options, check each vendor’s current residency terms; if Dust already meets your EU data requirements, you may not need to switch.