Best Dust Alternatives in 2026 for AI Agent Workflows

TL;DR

• Sim fits teams using Dust that need multi-step agent workflows with explicit branching, human review, and knowledge retrieval in one tool.
• n8n fits technical teams that want self-hosted automation with over 500 integrations and custom code, under a source-available license.
• Gumloop fits teams that want agents that use connected tools and run from schedules, app events, or webhooks.
• Relevance AI fits enterprise teams that want an AI workforce with agents and tools rather than building each workflow from scratch.
• Zapier Agents fits teams that already rely on Zapier and want agents that act across 9,000+ apps.
• Glean fits teams comparing enterprise search and knowledge assistants with Dust, rather than prioritizing workflow automation.

Why teams outgrow Dust for workflow automation

Dust works well when you need agents that answer questions across company material. Its Business plan connects Slack, Notion, GitHub, Drive, and more than 20 other sources, and agents combine instructions, skills, knowledge, and tools. Dust also runs agents on schedules and webhook triggers, so its agents can do more than answer questions. Business plan seats are Free with 500 lifetime credits, Pro at €24 per seat per month billed yearly (€30 monthly), and Max at €120 per seat per month billed yearly (€150 monthly), excluding VAT.

The difference is how the steps are defined. In Dust, the agent evaluates each request and picks a combination of tools to use. Dust's tools documentation does not describe explicit branches, loops, or a step-by-step visual builder. That model suits open-ended requests, but recurring tasks that must follow the same steps every time, with controlled tool access at each step, are easier to build and audit in a workflow builder. Our guide to AI agent workflow builders explains why this distinction matters for multi-step tasks.

The comparison below weighs pricing, hosting options, workflow depth, knowledge features, and integrations. Prices and product details are current as of October 2026. If Dust already handles your knowledge questions, focus on how each alternative defines workflow steps and controls access to external tools.

Comparison at a glance

Sim is listed first for custom agent workflows, while Dust provides the knowledge-assistant baseline. Listed prices are starting points, not comparable usage allowances.

Sim

Best for

Sim fits you if Dust handles your company knowledge questions but you need to build multi-step agent workflows with explicit branching. The Sim and Dust comparison covers the two approaches side by side.

What it is

Sim is an open-source AI workspace for teams. Its Workflows module is a visual builder, and it sits alongside Chat, Tables, Files, and Knowledge Base, whose knowledge bases agents can search for relevant document passages. You connect blocks, configure their inputs, and review each step of a run in the run logs, where a trace shows every block with its timing, status, inputs, and outputs.

Pros

Sim gives you direct control over how an agent proceeds. Agent, Condition, and Router blocks let you define different paths. Loop and Parallel blocks handle repeated or concurrent work. A Human in the Loop block pauses a run until a person submits input, such as an approval, and a downstream Condition can route on that answer. A Function block runs custom code. That structure makes a multi-step workflow easier to inspect than a single agent carrying a long set of instructions. For more design context, see AI agent orchestration frameworks explained.

Sim's Apache 2.0 core can be self-hosted with Docker Compose or Kubernetes, with enterprise-licensed features excluded. Its knowledge bases cover the retrieval use case you may already rely on Dust for, and Sim connects to 273 integrations. Sim can also deploy workflows as an MCP server (MCP, the Model Context Protocol, lets AI apps call tools), so compatible AI clients can call them as tools.

Cons

You have to design the workflow paths yourself, which takes more setup than a straightforward knowledge assistant. Enterprise features such as SSO (single sign-on), SCIM user provisioning, audit logs, and access control use the separate Sim Enterprise License, which requires an active Sim Enterprise subscription for production use.

Pricing

Sim's cloud plans are Free with 1,000 one-time credits (worth $5) and 30 days of log retention; Pro at $25 per user per month with 6,000 credits plus a 2,000-credit weekly refresh; Max at $100 per user per month with 25,000 credits plus a 4,000-credit weekly refresh; and Enterprise at custom pricing. Paid plans keep logs without a time limit. KB Live Sync starts on Max, while SSO requires Enterprise. Anyone can self-host Sim's Apache 2.0 core for free. The pricing table lists Self Hosting, meaning supported self-hosting, as an Enterprise feature alongside SSO and SOC 2, and enterprise features require an Enterprise subscription for production use. Any self-hosted Sim deployment can run local models through Ollama, vLLM, LM Studio, or LiteLLM.

n8n

n8n fits technical teams that want to self-host automations and connect a wide range of apps, even if building and maintaining workflows takes more work. n8n says it offers over 500 integrations, and you can host n8n on your own infrastructure rather than use its cloud service. For logic that the visual nodes do not cover, the Code node runs JavaScript or Python.

n8n's source code is public, but its Sustainable Use License limits permitted use and distribution. n8n describes its licenses as fair-code and source-available and does not call itself open source. By comparison, Sim's core uses Apache 2.0, with a separate license for enterprise code. Our Apache 2.0 versus fair-code guide explores the practical difference.

For cloud use, n8n charges by monthly workflow executions, regardless of complexity. Its pricing page lists Starter at €20 per month for 2,500 executions and Pro at €50 per month for 10,000, both billed annually. Business costs €667 per month billed annually for 40,000 executions and is currently self-hosted only, and Enterprise pricing is custom. If you self-host, you also run the infrastructure.

Gumloop

Gumloop fits teams that want a hosted platform for AI agents that work across their tools. Its pricing page lists the older workflow builder as "Workflows (Legacy)", so new work centers on agents. Agent triggers can run on a schedule, from an app event, or through a webhook, while its API can trigger automations programmatically.

Pro starts at $37 per month after a 14-day free trial and includes 20,000 credits per month, unlimited agents, BYOK (bring your own model API keys), and one hosted MCP server. Enterprise pricing is custom. The pricing page lists no self-hosted plan, though Enterprise offers an optional VPC, a private network in your own cloud account.

Relevance AI

Relevance AI fits enterprise teams that want specialist agents instead of building each workflow from scratch. Its Enterprise plan centers on agents, tools, Workforces, integrations, and governance features.

Relevance AI's two official pricing pages disagree. Its pricing page lists only an Enterprise plan at custom pricing, with 2,000+ integrations, unlimited agents and tools, SSO, RBAC (role-based access control), and audit logs. Its pricing documentation lists Pro from $19 per month billed annually ($29 monthly) and Team from $234 per month billed annually ($349 monthly), and says the Free plan is retired. Agents can use knowledge bases that retrieve relevant information, a RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) system, to ground their responses. Relevance AI runs on a multi-tenant architecture with a US, EU/UK, or AU data region chosen at signup, and its docs do not describe a self-hosted option. Confirm the current plan with Relevance AI and verify the specific apps your agents need.

Zapier Agents

Zapier Agents fits you if you already use Zapier and want AI agents to act through your existing app connections. Its main draw is access to more than 9,000 apps, and you can equip agents with company knowledge. If you need long, custom agent workflows, check the run limits before choosing it.

Agents use a separate billing unit called activities, which does not affect your Zapier task usage. The Free plan includes 400 activities per month, and Agents Pro includes 1,500 for $50 per month or $400 per year. A single agent run is capped at 10 activities on the Free plan or 40 on a paid plan, and at the cap the agent asks before continuing. Those caps can constrain a long multi-step run even when you have activities left for the month.

Glean

Glean fits teams whose primary need remains enterprise search and answers drawn from company knowledge, rather than custom multi-step automation. That makes it a closer alternative to Dust's knowledge-assistant use case than to a workflow builder.

Glean lists 275+ connectors, enterprise search, and agent orchestration. Contact Glean for pricing and plan on a demo using your own knowledge sources. For data control, Glean offers a Customer Hosted deployment that runs in your own GCP or AWS environment, with Glean responsible for infrastructure and application management.

How to choose

If you mainly need answers from company documents, Dust may still fit. Consider Glean if you want another knowledge-focused option, but expect to contact sales for pricing.

For lightweight automation, choose Zapier Agents if you already use Zapier's app connections, or Gumloop if you want a hosted agent platform with triggers and schedules. If you need custom workflows that branch, loop, and involve multiple agents, Sim lets you combine those steps with knowledge retrieval. That makes it a closer fit when Dust answers your questions but cannot easily carry out the work that follows. You can also compare broader licensing and deployment choices in our guide to open-source AI agent platforms.

Workflow depth and self-hosting may settle the choice. Compare Sim with n8n if you want to run workflows on your own infrastructure. Anyone can self-host Sim's Apache 2.0 core, while its enterprise features need an Enterprise subscription for production use; n8n uses a source-available license.

Conclusion

If Dust handles your company knowledge questions well, workflow depth should decide whether you add another tool or switch. Sim lets you build agents that branch, loop, and take actions across connected apps while still retrieving information from documents. If you need those workflows, use the Sim vs Dust comparison to assess which setup fits.

FAQ

Can Dust run multi-step automations?

Yes, within its agent model. Dust agents use tools that can take actions in third-party platforms, can call other agents, and can run on schedules or webhook triggers. The agent decides which tools to use for each request, so Dust is less suited to automations that must follow the same explicit sequence of steps every run.

Can Sim handle the knowledge Q&A we use Dust for?

Yes. Sim knowledge bases let agents retrieve relevant document passages, and you can use them inside workflows. If you need knowledge bases that sync automatically, KB Live Sync is included on Max and Enterprise.

Which tools can we self-host?

Anyone can self-host Sim's Apache 2.0 core for free with Docker Compose or Kubernetes. Sim's pricing table lists supported self-hosting as an Enterprise feature alongside SSO and SOC 2, and enterprise features such as SSO and audit logs require an Enterprise subscription for production use. n8n supports self-hosting under its source-available Sustainable Use License. Glean offers a Customer Hosted deployment in your own GCP or AWS account that Glean still operates. Dust's pricing page lists hosted plans with single-tenant deployment on Enterprise and no self-hosted plan. Gumloop's pricing page lists no self-hosted plan, with an optional VPC (a private network in your own cloud account) on Enterprise. Relevance AI's docs describe a multi-tenant hosted service with a US, EU/UK, or AU data region chosen at signup.

What does "workflow depth" mean here?

Workflow depth describes how much control you have over the steps an agent takes after receiving a request. For example, Sim lets you branch on conditions, repeat steps, run steps in parallel, and pause for human input.