Azure AI vs Progress Agentic RAG

Make an informed decision with our comprehensive comparison. Discover which RAG solution perfectly fits your needs.

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Priyansh Khodiyar's avatar
Priyansh KhodiyarDevRel at CustomGPT.ai

Fact checked and reviewed by Bill Cava

Published: 01.04.2025Updated: 25.04.2025

In this comprehensive guide, we compare Azure AI and Progress Agentic RAG across various parameters including features, pricing, performance, and customer support to help you make the best decision for your business needs.

Overview

When choosing between Azure AI and Progress Agentic RAG, understanding their unique strengths and architectural differences is crucial for making an informed decision. Both platforms serve the RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) space but cater to different use cases and organizational needs.

Quick Decision Guide

  • Choose Azure AI if: you value comprehensive ai platform with 200+ services
  • Choose Progress Agentic RAG if: you value proprietary remi v2 model (30x faster inference) addresses hallucination problem with continuous quality monitoring - differentiated capability absent from most competitors

About Azure AI

Azure AI Landing Page Screenshot

Azure AI is microsoft's comprehensive ai platform for enterprise solutions. Azure AI is Microsoft's suite of AI services offering pre-built APIs, custom model development, and enterprise-grade infrastructure for building intelligent applications across vision, language, speech, and decision-making domains. Founded in 1975, headquartered in Redmond, WA, the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.

Overall Rating
88/100
Starting Price
Custom

About Progress Agentic RAG

Progress Agentic RAG Landing Page Screenshot

Progress Agentic RAG is enterprise application development and deployment platform. Enterprise RAG-as-a-Service platform launched Sept 2025 following Progress Software's acquisition of Barcelona-based Nuclia. Combines SOC2/ISO 27001 security with proprietary REMi evaluation model for continuous answer quality monitoring. Built on open-source NucliaDB (710+ GitHub stars) with Python/JavaScript SDKs. Starting at $700/month. Founded in 2019 (Nuclia), acquired 2025, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain (Nuclia) / Bedford, MA, USA (Progress), the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.

Overall Rating
82/100
Starting Price
$700/mo

Key Differences at a Glance

In terms of user ratings, Azure AI in overall satisfaction. From a cost perspective, Azure AI starts at a lower price point. The platforms also differ in their primary focus: AI Platform versus Enterprise Software. These differences make each platform better suited for specific use cases and organizational requirements.

⚠️ What This Comparison Covers

We'll analyze features, pricing, performance benchmarks, security compliance, integration capabilities, and real-world use cases to help you determine which platform best fits your organization's needs. All data is independently verified from official documentation and third-party review platforms.

Detailed Feature Comparison

logo of azureai
Azure AI
logo of progress
Progress Agentic RAG
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CustomGPTRECOMMENDED
Data Ingestion & Knowledge Sources
  • Lets you pull data from almost anywhere—databases, blob storage, or common file types like PDF, DOCX, and HTML—as shown in the Azure AI Search overview.
  • Uses Azure pipelines and connectors to tap into a wide range of content sources, so you can set up indexing exactly the way you need.
  • Keeps everything in sync through Azure services, ensuring your information stays current without extra effort.
  • 60+ Document Formats: PDF, Word (.docx), Excel, PowerPoint, plain text, email formats with automatic parsing
  • Multimedia Processing: Automatic speech-to-text (MP3, WAV, AIFF), video transcript extraction (MP4, etc.), OCR for scanned documents/images
  • Cloud Connectors: SharePoint, Confluence, OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon S3 with direct integration
  • Sync Agent Desktop App: 60-minute automatic sync with content hashing to prevent redundant reindexing
  • Manual Upload Interface: Files, folders, web links, sitemaps, Q&A pairs via dashboard
  • Fast Deployment: 2-hour initial ingestion, 48-hour full deployment timeline
  • CRITICAL GAPS: NO Dropbox integration, NO Notion integration, NO explicit YouTube transcript extraction documented
  • Architecture Focus: Comprehensive knowledge retrieval vs lead conversion focus (unlike Drift)
  • Lets you ingest more than 1,400 file formats—PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, HTML, and many more—via simple drag-and-drop or API.
  • Crawls entire sites through sitemaps and URLs, automatically indexing public help-desk articles, FAQs, and docs.
  • Turns multimedia into text on the fly: YouTube videos, podcasts, and other media are auto-transcribed with built-in OCR and speech-to-text. View Transcription Guide
  • Connects to Google Drive, SharePoint, Notion, Confluence, HubSpot, and more through API connectors or Zapier. See Zapier Connectors
  • Supports both manual uploads and auto-sync retraining, so your knowledge base always stays up to date.
Integrations & Channels
  • Provides full-featured SDKs and REST APIs that slot right into Azure’s ecosystem—including Logic Apps and PowerApps (Azure Connectors).
  • Supports easy embedding via web widgets and offers native hooks for Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other channels.
  • Lets you build custom workflows with Azure’s low-code tools or dive deeper with the full API for more control.
  • Python SDK: pip install nuclia (Python 3.8+, ~21,000 weekly downloads)
  • JavaScript/TypeScript SDK: @nuclia/core on NPM (React, Next.js, Angular, Vue.js, Svelte)
  • CMS Plugins: WordPress, Strapi integrations
  • Workflow Automation: Pipedream official app, Zapier API-compatible
  • Chrome Extension: Web page indexing capability
  • Progress Ecosystem: OpenEdge database connector, Sitefinity CMS integration ('first Generative CMS')
  • CRITICAL LIMITATION: NO native Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, or Microsoft Teams integrations
  • Platform Design: RAG backend + embeddable widget, NOT omnichannel conversational AI platform
  • Custom Development Required: Messaging platform integrations need API-based custom builds
  • Embeds easily—a lightweight script or iframe drops the chat widget into any website or mobile app.
  • Offers ready-made hooks for Slack, Zendesk, Confluence, YouTube, Sharepoint, 100+ more. Explore API Integrations
  • Connects with 5,000+ apps via Zapier and webhooks to automate your workflows.
  • Supports secure deployments with domain allowlisting and a ChatGPT Plugin for private use cases.
  • Hosted CustomGPT.ai offers hosted MCP Server with support for Claude Web, Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT, Windsurf, Trae, etc. Read more here.
  • Supports OpenAI API Endpoint compatibility. Read more here.
Core Chatbot Features
  • Combines semantic search with LLM generation to serve up context-rich, source-grounded answers.
  • Uses hybrid search (keyword + semantic) and optional semantic ranking to surface the most relevant results.
  • Offers multilingual support and conversation-history management, all from inside the Azure portal.
  • AI Search & Generative Answers: Semantic search and Q&A across knowledge bases with trusted, source-linked answers
  • Multi-Turn Conversations: Context-aware dialogue with conversation history maintained for follow-up questions
  • Source Citations: Every answer includes citations linking to source documents for verification and transparency
  • Auto-Summarization: Automatic summarization of long documents for quick understanding
  • Entity Recognition: AI classification and entity extraction enriching corpus for better Q&A
  • Answer-Only Mode: Widget configuration for concise answers vs detailed responses based on use case
  • Multilingual Support: Nuclia multilingual embedding model handles multiple languages out-of-box
  • MISSING FEATURES: NO lead capture, NO human handoff/escalation workflows, NO chat history export for users
  • Reduces hallucinations by grounding replies in your data and adding source citations for transparency. Benchmark Details
  • Handles multi-turn, context-aware chats with persistent history and solid conversation management.
  • Speaks 90+ languages, making global rollouts straightforward.
  • Includes extras like lead capture (email collection) and smooth handoff to a human when needed.
Customization & Branding
  • Gives you full control over the search interface—tweak CSS, swap logos, or craft welcome messages to fit your brand.
  • Supports domain restrictions and white-labeling through straightforward Azure configuration settings.
  • Lets you fine-tune search behavior with custom analyzers and synonym maps (Azure Index Configuration).
  • Prompt Lab: Test LLMs side-by-side using actual customer data with real-time comparison
  • 30+ RAG Parameters: Custom chunking strategies, context size configuration, hybrid search weighting
  • Retrieval Strategy Customization: Agents autonomously select optimal approaches per query
  • Widget Customization: Visual editor for suggestions, filters, metadata, thumbnails, answer modes
  • Advanced CSS Styling: Shadow DOM with cssPath attribute for deep customization
  • White-Labeling Support: Full OEM deployments via API-first architecture
  • Role-Based Access Control: Account-level (Owners, Members), Knowledge Box-level (Manager, Writer, Reader) with cascading permissions
  • SSO Integration: Enterprise identity provider connectivity
  • Fully white-labels the widget—colors, logos, icons, CSS, everything can match your brand. White-label Options
  • Provides a no-code dashboard to set welcome messages, bot names, and visual themes.
  • Lets you shape the AI’s persona and tone using pre-prompts and system instructions.
  • Uses domain allowlisting to ensure the chatbot appears only on approved sites.
L L M Model Options
  • Hooks into Azure OpenAI Service, so you can use models like GPT-4 or GPT-3.5 for generating responses.
  • Makes it easy to pick a model and shape its behavior with prompt templates and customizable system prompts.
  • Gives you the choice of Azure-hosted models or external LLMs accessed via API.
  • Anthropic: Claude 3.7, Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2
  • OpenAI: ChatGPT 4o, 4o mini
  • Google: Gemini Flash 2.5, Palm2
  • Meta: Llama 3.2
  • Microsoft/Azure: Mistral Large 2
  • Cohere: Command-R suite
  • Nuclia Private GenAI: 100% data isolation for maximum security
  • Model Switching: Change providers without architectural changes via Prompt Lab
  • Embedding Flexibility: Configurable per Knowledge Box (Nuclia multilingual default + OpenAI embeddings)
  • Side-by-Side Testing: Compare responses across models using actual data in Prompt Lab
  • Taps into top models—OpenAI’s GPT-5.1 series, GPT-4 series, and even Anthropic’s Claude for enterprise needs (4.5 opus and sonnet, etc ).
  • Automatically balances cost and performance by picking the right model for each request. Model Selection Details
  • Uses proprietary prompt engineering and retrieval tweaks to return high-quality, citation-backed answers.
  • Handles all model management behind the scenes—no extra API keys or fine-tuning steps for you.
Developer Experience ( A P I & S D Ks)
  • Packs robust REST APIs and official SDKs for C#, Python, Java, and JavaScript (Azure SDKs).
  • Backs you up with deep documentation, tutorials, and sample code covering everything from index management to advanced queries.
  • Integrates with Azure AD for secure API access—just provision and configure from the Azure portal to get started.
  • Open-Source Foundation: NucliaDB (710+ GitHub stars, AGPLv3 license, Python/Rust) provides transparency into core retrieval mechanisms
  • Python SDK: pip install nuclia (Python 3.8+, ~21,000 weekly downloads) - full API coverage
  • JavaScript/TypeScript SDK: @nuclia/core (React, Next.js, Angular, Vue.js, Svelte support)
  • REST API: Regional endpoints https://{region}.rag.progress.cloud/api/v1/ with comprehensive documentation
  • Key Endpoints: /ask (generative answers), /find (semantic search), /upload (ingestion), /remi (quality evaluation)
  • Dual Documentation: docs.rag.progress.cloud (primary) + legacy docs.nuclia.dev (fragmentation concern)
  • RAG Cookbook: Downloadable comprehensive guide for developers
  • Code Example Simplicity: Upload and search in just a few Python lines with intuitive SDK design
  • API-First Design: Complete programmatic control over all platform capabilities
  • Ships a well-documented REST API for creating agents, managing projects, ingesting data, and querying chat. API Documentation
  • Offers open-source SDKs—like the Python customgpt-client—plus Postman collections to speed integration. Open-Source SDK
  • Backs you up with cookbooks, code samples, and step-by-step guides for every skill level.
Performance & Accuracy
  • Designed for enterprise scale—expect millisecond-level responses even under heavy load (Microsoft Mechanics).
  • Employs hybrid search and semantic ranking, plus configurable scoring profiles, to keep relevance high.
  • Runs on Azure’s global infrastructure for consistently low latency and high throughput wherever your users are.
  • Benchmark Leader: Nuclia with OpenAI embeddings achieved highest scores vs Vectara on Docmatix 1.4k dataset across answer relevance, context relevance, correctness
  • 100M Vectors: Fully ingested and optimized in ~20 minutes with sufficient worker allocation
  • REMi v2 Speed: 30x faster inference than original Mistral-based implementation (Llama 3.2-3B based)
  • Four-Index Hybrid Search: Document Index (property filtering), Full Text (keyword/fuzzy), Vector/Chunk (semantic), Knowledge Graph (entity relationships)
  • Dynamic Sharding: Automatic shard creation as vector counts grow with index node replication for fault tolerance
  • Fast Deployment: 2-hour initial ingestion, 48-hour full deployment timeline
  • ACID Compliance: TiKV key-value store (Tier 2) manages resource metadata with transaction guarantees
  • Three-Tier Storage: Tier 3 (S3/GCS blobs), Tier 2 (TiKV metadata), Tier 1 (sharded indexes)
  • Delivers sub-second replies with an optimized pipeline—efficient vector search, smart chunking, and caching.
  • Independent tests rate median answer accuracy at 5/5—outpacing many alternatives. Benchmark Results
  • Always cites sources so users can verify facts on the spot.
  • Maintains speed and accuracy even for massive knowledge bases with tens of millions of words.
Customization & Flexibility ( Behavior & Knowledge)
  • Gives granular control over index settings—custom analyzers, tokenizers, and synonym maps let you shape search behavior to your domain.
  • Lets you plug in custom cognitive skills during indexing for specialized processing.
  • Allows prompt customization in Azure OpenAI so you can fine-tune the LLM’s style and tone.
  • 30+ RAG Optimization Parameters: Fine-grained control over retrieval behavior
  • Custom Chunking Strategies: Configurable text segmentation for optimal context windows
  • Context Size Configuration: Adjust context sent to LLMs based on use case
  • Hybrid Search Weighting: Balance keyword vs semantic search relevance
  • Retrieval Agent Autonomy: Automatically select optimal strategies per query characteristics
  • Embedding Model Flexibility: Switch per Knowledge Box (Nuclia multilingual + OpenAI options)
  • Prompt Lab Experimentation: Test configurations with actual data before production deployment
  • LLM Provider Switching: Change models without architectural changes (7 providers supported)
  • Lets you add, remove, or tweak content on the fly—automatic re-indexing keeps everything current.
  • Shapes agent behavior through system prompts and sample Q&A, ensuring a consistent voice and focus. Learn How to Update Sources
  • Supports multiple agents per account, so different teams can have their own bots.
  • Balances hands-on control with smart defaults—no deep ML expertise required to get tailored behavior.
Pricing & Scalability
  • Uses a pay-as-you-go model—costs depend on tier, partitions, and replicas (Pricing Guide).
  • Includes a free tier for development or small projects, with higher tiers ready for production workloads.
  • Scales on demand—add replicas and partitions as traffic grows, and tap into enterprise discounts when you need them.
  • Fly Tier: $700/month - 10GB/15K resources, 750MB max file, 1 Knowledge Box, cloud only, 10K tokens/month
  • Growth Tier: $1,750/month - 50GB/80K resources, 1.5GB max file, 2 Knowledge Boxes, Prompt Lab, 10K tokens/month
  • Enterprise Tier: Custom pricing - Unlimited data/file size, 11 Knowledge Boxes, hybrid/on-prem deployment, 10K tokens/month
  • Token Consumption: $0.008/token beyond 10K/month included across all tiers
  • 14-Day Free Trial: Available without disclosed credit card requirement
  • AWS Marketplace: Simplifies enterprise procurement with existing cloud spend commitments
  • Competitive Entry Point: $700/month undercuts enterprise alternatives (Drift $30K+/year, Yellow.ai similar)
  • Scaling Consideration: Token-based consumption pricing requires careful usage forecasting for budget predictability
  • Runs on straightforward subscriptions: Standard (~$99/mo), Premium (~$449/mo), and customizable Enterprise plans.
  • Gives generous limits—Standard covers up to 60 million words per bot, Premium up to 300 million—all at flat monthly rates. View Pricing
  • Handles scaling for you: the managed cloud infra auto-scales with demand, keeping things fast and available.
Security & Privacy
  • Built on Microsoft Azure’s secure platform, meeting SOC, ISO, GDPR, HIPAA, FedRAMP, and other standards (Azure Compliance).
  • Encrypts data in transit and at rest, with options for customer-managed keys and Private Link for added isolation.
  • Integrates with Azure AD to provide granular role-based access control and secure authentication.
  • SOC2 Type 2 Certified: Annual audits for enterprise security assurance
  • ISO 27001 Certified: Annually audited information security management
  • GDPR Compliant: Built-in PII anonymization automatically detects and removes personal data
  • Encryption: AES-256 at rest, TLS in transit for comprehensive data protection
  • AI Risk Classification: Low to minimal AI risk category with policy-as-code guardrails
  • Human-in-the-Loop: Validation options for critical workflows
  • Tenant Isolation: Customer data separation ensures multi-tenant security
  • Audit Logs: Standard across all pricing tiers for compliance tracking
  • API Key Management: Temporal keys and rotation for security hygiene
  • CRITICAL: CRITICAL LIMITATION: NO HIPAA certification documented - healthcare organizations processing PHI must contact sales for compliance clarification
  • Data Governance: Enterprise tier supports complete on-premise deployment for 100% data control
  • Protects data in transit with SSL/TLS and at rest with 256-bit AES encryption.
  • Holds SOC 2 Type II certification and complies with GDPR, so your data stays isolated and private. Security Certifications
  • Offers fine-grained access controls—RBAC, two-factor auth, and SSO integration—so only the right people get in.
Observability & Monitoring
  • Offers an Azure portal dashboard where you can track indexes, query performance, and usage at a glance.
  • Ties into Azure Monitor and Application Insights for custom alerts and dashboards (Azure Monitor).
  • Lets you export logs and analytics via API for deeper, custom analysis.
  • REMi Real-Time Dashboard: Answer relevance, context relevance, groundedness, correctness (0-5 scale)
  • 7-Day Rolling Averages: Performance evolution graphs spanning 24 hours to 30 days
  • Health Displays: Quality metrics shown in real-time for immediate visibility
  • Four Quality Dimensions: Answer Relevance (query alignment), Context Relevance (passage quality), Groundedness (source derivation), Answer Correctness (ground truth alignment)
  • REMi v2 Performance: 30x faster inference (Llama 3.2-3B) vs original Mistral implementation
  • Benchmark Validation: Tested against Vectara on Docmatix 1.4k dataset with highest scores
  • Audit Logs: Standard across all tiers for compliance and security tracking
  • MISSING FEATURE: Proactive alerting not documented (monitoring exists, automated alerts unclear)
  • Comes with a real-time analytics dashboard tracking query volumes, token usage, and indexing status.
  • Lets you export logs and metrics via API to plug into third-party monitoring or BI tools. Analytics API
  • Provides detailed insights for troubleshooting and ongoing optimization.
Support & Ecosystem
  • Backed by Microsoft’s extensive support network, with in-depth docs, Microsoft Learn modules, and active community forums.
  • Offers enterprise support plans featuring SLAs and dedicated channels for mission-critical deployments.
  • Benefits from a large community of Azure developers and partners who regularly share best practices.
  • Dual Documentation Portals: docs.rag.progress.cloud (primary) + legacy docs.nuclia.dev (fragmentation concern)
  • RAG Cookbook: Comprehensive downloadable guide for developers
  • SDK Ecosystem: Python (~21K weekly downloads) + JavaScript/TypeScript with active developer usage
  • 14-Day Free Trial: Hands-on evaluation without credit card requirement
  • Progress Enterprise Support: Backed by 2,000+ employee parent company infrastructure
  • AWS Marketplace: Available November 2025 for streamlined enterprise procurement
  • Open-Source Community: NucliaDB 710+ GitHub stars with AGPLv3 license transparency
  • API-First Support: Comprehensive REST API documentation with regional endpoints
  • Supplies rich docs, tutorials, cookbooks, and FAQs to get you started fast. Developer Docs
  • Offers quick email and in-app chat support—Premium and Enterprise plans add dedicated managers and faster SLAs. Enterprise Solutions
  • Benefits from an active user community plus integrations through Zapier and GitHub resources.
Additional Considerations
  • Deep Azure integration lets you craft end-to-end solutions without leaving the platform.
  • Combines fine-grained tuning capabilities with the reliability you’d expect from an enterprise-grade service.
  • Best suited for organizations already invested in Azure, thanks to unified billing and familiar cloud management tools.
  • Recent Acquisition (June 2025): Progress Software acquired Nuclia for $50M - platform transitioning under new ownership with potential strategic direction changes
  • Genuine No-Code + Developer Appeal: Dual-track value proposition - non-technical teams use dashboard, developers leverage API/SDKs for custom builds
  • REMi Quality Differentiator: Proprietary continuous evaluation model (30x faster in v2) addresses hallucination problem absent from most RAG competitors
  • Open-Source Trust Factor: NucliaDB (710+ GitHub stars, AGPLv3) provides code transparency vs black-box platforms - security audits possible
  • Multimodal Strength: OCR for images, speech-to-text for audio/video creates comprehensive searchable corpus beyond text-only competitors
  • Enterprise RAG Focus: Platform optimized for knowledge retrieval and semantic search - not conversational marketing/sales engagement like Drift/Yellow.ai
  • Progress Ecosystem Integration: OpenEdge database connector, Sitefinity CMS integration provides distribution channels unavailable to standalone platforms
  • Documentation Fragmentation: Dual portals (docs.rag.progress.cloud + legacy docs.nuclia.dev) during transition may cause developer confusion
  • Competitive Pricing Entry: $700/month Fly tier undercuts enterprise RAG alternatives while providing genuine capabilities vs limited free tiers
  • Best For: Organizations wanting model flexibility (7 providers), multimodal indexing, open-source transparency, and developer API access without managing infrastructure
  • Slashes engineering overhead with an all-in-one RAG platform—no in-house ML team required.
  • Gets you to value quickly: launch a functional AI assistant in minutes.
  • Stays current with ongoing GPT and retrieval improvements, so you’re always on the latest tech.
  • Balances top-tier accuracy with ease of use, perfect for customer-facing or internal knowledge projects.
No- Code Interface & Usability
  • Provides an intuitive Azure portal where you can create indexes, tweak analyzers, and monitor performance.
  • Low-code tools like Logic Apps and PowerApps connectors help non-developers add search features without heavy coding.
  • More advanced setups—complex indexing or fine-grained configuration—may still call for technical expertise versus fully turnkey options.
  • Target Users: Non-technical teams (marketing, HR, legal, customer support) with zero coding required
  • Visual Dashboard: Create Knowledge Box, upload documents, deploy search widget in single session
  • Point-and-Click Widget Editor: Configure suggestions, filters, metadata, thumbnails, answer modes visually
  • Pre-Built Ingestion Agents (Beta): Automated workflows for labeling, summarization, graph extraction, Q&A generation, content safety
  • Prompt Lab: Visual interface for side-by-side LLM testing with actual data
  • Role-Based Access Control: Visual permission management separating Account and Knowledge Box concerns
  • Rapid Deployment: Progress explicitly markets minutes-to-production capability for business users
  • Shadow DOM Architecture: Advanced users can apply CSS styling via cssPath attribute for customization
  • Offers a wizard-style web dashboard so non-devs can upload content, brand the widget, and monitor performance.
  • Supports drag-and-drop uploads, visual theme editing, and in-browser chatbot testing. User Experience Review
  • Uses role-based access so business users and devs can collaborate smoothly.
Competitive Positioning
  • Market position: Enterprise-grade cloud AI platform deeply integrated with Microsoft ecosystem, offering production-ready search and RAG capabilities at global scale
  • Target customers: Organizations already invested in Azure infrastructure, Microsoft enterprise customers, and companies requiring enterprise compliance (SOC, ISO, GDPR, HIPAA, FedRAMP) with 99.999% uptime SLAs
  • Key competitors: AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, OpenAI Enterprise, Coveo, and Vectara.ai for enterprise search and RAG
  • Competitive advantages: Seamless Azure ecosystem integration (Logic Apps, PowerApps, Microsoft Teams), hybrid search with semantic ranking, native Azure OpenAI integration, global infrastructure for low latency, and unified billing/management through Azure portal
  • Pricing advantage: Pay-as-you-go model with free tier for development; competitive for Azure customers who can leverage existing enterprise agreements and volume discounts; scales efficiently with consumption-based pricing
  • Use case fit: Best for organizations already using Azure infrastructure, Microsoft enterprise customers needing tight Office 365/Teams integration, and companies requiring global scalability with enterprise-grade compliance and regional data residency options
  • Market Position: Enterprise RAG-as-a-Service with genuine no-code accessibility + developer-first API design (dual-track appeal)
  • Pricing Advantage: $700/month entry undercuts enterprise competitors (Drift $30K+/year, Yellow.ai similar, CustomGPT varies)
  • REMi Differentiator: Proprietary continuous quality monitoring addresses hallucination problem - capability absent from most competitors
  • Benchmark Leadership: Achieved highest scores vs Vectara on Docmatix 1.4k dataset (answer relevance, context relevance, correctness)
  • Open-Source Trust: NucliaDB transparency (710+ GitHub stars) vs black-box competitors (Lindy.ai, Drift, Yellow.ai)
  • vs. CustomGPT: Similar RAG-as-a-Service category, Progress emphasizes REMi quality monitoring + open-source foundation differentiation
  • vs. Drift/Yellow.ai: TRUE RAG platform vs conversational marketing/sales engagement platforms (fundamentally different categories)
  • vs. Lindy.ai: Full API/SDK access vs NO public API (Progress developer-friendly, Lindy no-code only)
  • Integration Gaps: NO native messaging channels (Slack/WhatsApp/Teams) vs omnichannel competitors - requires custom development
  • HIPAA Gap: No documented certification creates healthcare trust gap vs compliant competitors (Drift has HIPAA)
  • Recent Acquisition Risk: June 2025 Progress purchase means platform still maturing under new ownership with potential direction changes
  • Progress Ecosystem Advantage: Integration with OpenEdge, Sitefinity CMS provides distribution channels unavailable to standalone competitors
  • Market position: Leading all-in-one RAG platform balancing enterprise-grade accuracy with developer-friendly APIs and no-code usability for rapid deployment
  • Target customers: Mid-market to enterprise organizations needing production-ready AI assistants, development teams wanting robust APIs without building RAG infrastructure, and businesses requiring 1,400+ file format support with auto-transcription (YouTube, podcasts)
  • Key competitors: OpenAI Assistants API, Botsonic, Chatbase.co, Azure AI, and custom RAG implementations using LangChain
  • Competitive advantages: Industry-leading answer accuracy (median 5/5 benchmarked), 1,400+ file format support with auto-transcription, SOC 2 Type II + GDPR compliance, full white-labeling included, OpenAI API endpoint compatibility, hosted MCP Server support (Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT), generous data limits (60M words Standard, 300M Premium), and flat monthly pricing without per-query charges
  • Pricing advantage: Transparent flat-rate pricing at $99/month (Standard) and $449/month (Premium) with generous included limits; no hidden costs for API access, branding removal, or basic features; best value for teams needing both no-code dashboard and developer APIs in one platform
  • Use case fit: Ideal for businesses needing both rapid no-code deployment and robust API capabilities, organizations handling diverse content types (1,400+ formats, multimedia transcription), teams requiring white-label chatbots with source citations for customer-facing or internal knowledge projects, and companies wanting all-in-one RAG without managing ML infrastructure
A I Models
  • Azure OpenAI Service: Access to GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-3.5 Turbo through native Azure integration
  • Anthropic Claude: Available through Microsoft Foundry, bringing frontier intelligence to Azure (late 2024/early 2025)
  • Multi-Model Platform: Azure is the only cloud providing access to both Claude and GPT frontier models to customers on one platform
  • Model Selection Flexibility: Choose between Azure-hosted models or external LLMs accessed via API
  • Prompt Templates: Customizable system prompts and prompt templates to shape model behavior for specific use cases
  • Enterprise Integration: All models integrated with Azure security, compliance, and governance frameworks
  • Anthropic Models: Claude 3.7, Claude 3.5 Sonnet v2 for safety-focused, high-quality generation
  • OpenAI Models: ChatGPT 4o, 4o mini for industry-leading language capabilities
  • Google Models: Gemini Flash 2.5, PaLM2 for multimodal and search-optimized tasks
  • Meta Models: Llama 3.2 for open-source flexibility and customization
  • Microsoft/Azure: Mistral Large 2 for enterprise deployments with Azure integration
  • Cohere Models: Command-R suite for retrieval-optimized generation
  • Nuclia Private GenAI: 100% data isolation mode for maximum security without third-party LLM exposure
  • Model Switching: Change providers without architectural changes via Prompt Lab for side-by-side testing
  • Embedding Flexibility: Configurable per Knowledge Box (Nuclia multilingual default + OpenAI embeddings)
  • Primary models: GPT-5.1 and 4 series from OpenAI, and Anthropic's Claude 4.5 (opus and sonnet) for enterprise needs
  • Automatic model selection: Balances cost and performance by automatically selecting the appropriate model for each request Model Selection Details
  • Proprietary optimizations: Custom prompt engineering and retrieval enhancements for high-quality, citation-backed answers
  • Managed infrastructure: All model management handled behind the scenes - no API keys or fine-tuning required from users
  • Anti-hallucination technology: Advanced mechanisms ensure chatbot only answers based on provided content, improving trust and factual accuracy
R A G Capabilities
  • Agentic Retrieval (New 2024): Specialized pipeline using LLMs to intelligently break down complex queries into focused subqueries, executing them in parallel with structured responses optimized for chat completion models
  • Hybrid Search: Combines vector search, keyword search, and semantic search in the same corpus with sophisticated relevance tuning
  • Vector Store Functionality: Functions as long-term memory, knowledge base, or grounding data repository for RAG applications
  • Semantic Kernel Integration: Supports Azure Semantic Kernel and LangChain for coordinating RAG workflows
  • Import Wizard Automation: Built-in Azure portal wizard automates RAG pipeline with parsing, chunking, enrichment, and embedding in one flow
  • Query Enhancement: Automatic query rewriting, synonym mapping, LLM-generated paraphrasing, and spelling correction
  • Enterprise Scale: Designed for millisecond-level responses under heavy load with global infrastructure (Microsoft Mechanics)
  • Agentic RAG Engine: Retrieval agents autonomously select optimal strategies based on query characteristics
  • Four-Index Hybrid Search: Document (property filtering), Full Text (keyword/fuzzy), Vector/Chunk (semantic), Knowledge Graph (entity relationships)
  • 30+ RAG Parameters: Custom chunking strategies, context size configuration, hybrid search weighting for fine-tuned optimization
  • REMi v2 Quality Monitoring: Continuous evaluation across Answer Relevance, Context Relevance, Groundedness, Correctness (30x faster inference)
  • Benchmark Leadership: Highest scores vs Vectara on Docmatix 1.4k dataset (answer relevance, context relevance, correctness)
  • Pre-Built Ingestion Agents (Beta): Labeler (auto-classification), Generator (summaries/JSON), Graph Extraction (entities/relationships), Q&A Generator, Content Safety
  • Multimodal Processing: OCR for scanned documents/images, automatic speech-to-text for audio (MP3, WAV, AIFF), video transcript extraction
  • 60+ Document Formats: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, plain text, email formats with automatic parsing
  • Open-Source Foundation: NucliaDB (710+ GitHub stars, AGPLv3) provides transparency into retrieval mechanisms vs black-box platforms
  • Core architecture: GPT-4 combined with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology, outperforming OpenAI in RAG benchmarks RAG Performance
  • Anti-hallucination technology: Advanced mechanisms reduce hallucinations and ensure responses are grounded in provided content Benchmark Details
  • Automatic citations: Each response includes clickable citations pointing to original source documents for transparency and verification
  • Optimized pipeline: Efficient vector search, smart chunking, and caching for sub-second reply times
  • Scalability: Maintains speed and accuracy for massive knowledge bases with tens of millions of words
  • Context-aware conversations: Multi-turn conversations with persistent history and comprehensive conversation management
  • Source verification: Always cites sources so users can verify facts on the spot
Use Cases
  • Enterprise Search: Centralizes documents and policies into searchable repository, improving productivity by up to 40% (saving nearly 9 hours per week per employee)
  • Customer Service Automation: Powers self-service chatbots, real-time agent counsel, agent coaching, and automated conversation summarization
  • RAG Applications: Over half of Fortune 500 companies use Azure AI Search for mission-critical RAG workloads (OpenAI, Otto Group, KPMG, PETRONAS)
  • Knowledge Management: Enables employees to quickly find information in vast organizational knowledge bases with AI-driven insights
  • Personalized Customer Interactions: Delivers relevant, real-time responses through self-service portals and chatbots based on customer data
  • Content Discovery: Dynamic content generation through chat completion models for AI-powered customer experiences
  • Multi-Industry Applications: Proven across retail, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and government sectors
  • Enterprise Knowledge Management: Non-technical teams (marketing, HR, legal, customer support) deploying knowledge bases in minutes
  • Healthcare & Pharma: Althaia Hospitals medical protocol search for 5,000+ healthcare professionals with HIPAA-grade security needs
  • Financial Services: BrokerChooser replaced keyword search with generative AI for significant conversion increases
  • Education: Columbia Business School and Barry University for academic knowledge discovery and institutional knowledge management
  • Engineering & Research: NAFEMS knowledge discovery across thousands of technical publications for international membership
  • Trade Organizations: CCOO (Spain's largest union) serving 1M+ members with knowledge retrieval platform
  • Intelligent Document Processing: Automatic document classification, routing, extraction, risk identification, and summary generation
  • Dynamic Knowledge Management: Continuous updates, gap identification, and automatic documentation generation
  • Developer RAG Backend: API-first infrastructure for building custom AI applications with Prompt Lab experimentation
  • Customer support automation: AI assistants handling common queries, reducing support ticket volume, providing 24/7 instant responses with source citations
  • Internal knowledge management: Employee self-service for HR policies, technical documentation, onboarding materials, company procedures across 1,400+ file formats
  • Sales enablement: Product information chatbots, lead qualification, customer education with white-labeled widgets on websites and apps
  • Documentation assistance: Technical docs, help centers, FAQs with automatic website crawling and sitemap indexing
  • Educational platforms: Course materials, research assistance, student support with multimedia content (YouTube transcriptions, podcasts)
  • Healthcare information: Patient education, medical knowledge bases (SOC 2 Type II compliant for sensitive data)
  • Financial services: Product guides, compliance documentation, customer education with GDPR compliance
  • E-commerce: Product recommendations, order assistance, customer inquiries with API integration to 5,000+ apps via Zapier
  • SaaS onboarding: User guides, feature explanations, troubleshooting with multi-agent support for different teams
Security & Compliance
  • Comprehensive Certifications: SOC, ISO, GDPR, HIPAA, FedRAMP, and additional compliance standards (Azure Compliance)
  • Data Encryption: Data encrypted in transit (SSL/TLS) and at rest with options for customer-managed keys
  • Private Link Support: Additional isolation through Azure Private Link for enhanced security
  • Azure AD Integration: Granular role-based access control (RBAC) with secure authentication and authorization
  • Regional Data Residency: Global infrastructure supports data localization requirements across multiple regions
  • 99.999% Uptime SLA: Enterprise-grade reliability with comprehensive service level agreements
  • Security Monitoring: Integrated with Azure Monitor and Application Insights for continuous security oversight
  • SOC2 Type 2: Annually audited for enterprise security assurance
  • ISO 27001: Annually audited information security management certification
  • GDPR Compliant: Built-in PII anonymization automatically detects and removes personal data
  • Encryption: AES-256 at rest, TLS in transit for comprehensive data protection
  • AI Risk Classification: Low to minimal AI risk category with policy-as-code guardrails
  • Human-in-the-Loop: Validation options for critical workflows requiring human oversight
  • Tenant Isolation: Customer data separation ensures multi-tenant security with isolated Knowledge Boxes
  • Audit Logs: Standard across all pricing tiers for compliance tracking and security monitoring
  • API Key Management: Temporal keys and rotation for security hygiene
  • CRITICAL LIMITATION: NO HIPAA certification documented - healthcare organizations processing PHI must contact sales for compliance clarification
  • Data Governance: Enterprise tier supports complete on-premise deployment for 100% data control and sovereignty
  • Encryption: SSL/TLS for data in transit, 256-bit AES encryption for data at rest
  • SOC 2 Type II certification: Industry-leading security standards with regular third-party audits Security Certifications
  • GDPR compliance: Full compliance with European data protection regulations, ensuring data privacy and user rights
  • Access controls: Role-based access control (RBAC), two-factor authentication (2FA), SSO integration for enterprise security
  • Data isolation: Customer data stays isolated and private - platform never trains on user data
  • Domain allowlisting: Ensures chatbot appears only on approved sites for security and brand protection
  • Secure deployments: ChatGPT Plugin support for private use cases with controlled access
Pricing & Plans
  • Free Tier: Limited to 50 MB storage for development and small projects with shared resources
  • Basic Tier: Entry-level production tier with fixed storage and throughput (does not support partition scaling)
  • Standard Tiers: Multiple configurations delivering predictable throughput that scales with partitions and replicas
  • Storage Optimized: Significantly more storage at reduced price per TB for high-volume data scenarios
  • Billing Model: Fixed rate for minimum replica-partition combination (R × P) at prorated hourly rate plus pay-as-you-go for premium features
  • 2024 Capacity Increase: 5x to 6x storage and vector index size increase at no additional cost for services created after April 2024 (Pricing Guide)
  • Tier Changing: New capability (2024) to change service tier from Azure portal as simple scaling operation without downtime
  • Enterprise Discounts: Volume discounts and enterprise agreement pricing available for large-scale deployments
  • Fly Tier: $700/month - 10GB/15K resources, 750MB max file, 1 Knowledge Box, cloud only, 10K tokens/month included
  • Growth Tier: $1,750/month - 50GB/80K resources, 1.5GB max file, 2 Knowledge Boxes, Prompt Lab access, 10K tokens/month
  • Enterprise Tier: Custom pricing - Unlimited data/file size, 11 Knowledge Boxes, hybrid/on-prem deployment, 10K tokens/month
  • Token Consumption: $0.008/token beyond 10K/month included across all tiers for usage-based scaling
  • 14-Day Free Trial: Available without disclosed credit card requirement for hands-on evaluation
  • AWS Marketplace: Available November 2025 for simplified enterprise procurement with existing cloud spend commitments
  • Competitive Entry Point: $700/month undercuts enterprise alternatives (Drift $30K+/year, Yellow.ai similar, LiveChat per-agent scaling)
  • Scaling Consideration: Token-based consumption pricing requires careful usage forecasting for budget predictability beyond included tier
  • Best Value For: Organizations wanting to control costs through usage optimization vs fixed seat-based or per-project pricing models
  • Standard Plan: $99/month or $89/month annual - 10 custom chatbots, 5,000 items per chatbot, 60 million words per bot, basic helpdesk support, standard security View Pricing
  • Premium Plan: $499/month or $449/month annual - 100 custom chatbots, 20,000 items per chatbot, 300 million words per bot, advanced support, enhanced security, additional customization
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing - Comprehensive AI solutions, highest security and compliance, dedicated account managers, custom SSO, token authentication, priority support with faster SLAs Enterprise Solutions
  • 7-Day Free Trial: Full access to Standard features without charges - available to all users
  • Annual billing discount: Save 10% by paying upfront annually ($89/mo Standard, $449/mo Premium)
  • Flat monthly rates: No per-query charges, no hidden costs for API access or white-labeling (included in all plans)
  • Managed infrastructure: Auto-scaling cloud infrastructure included - no additional hosting or scaling fees
Support & Documentation
  • Microsoft Support Network: Extensive support backed by Microsoft's enterprise support infrastructure with dedicated channels for mission-critical deployments
  • Enterprise SLA Plans: Dedicated support plans with guaranteed response times and uptime commitments
  • Microsoft Learn: Comprehensive in-depth documentation, Microsoft Learn modules, and step-by-step tutorials (Azure AI Search Documentation)
  • Community Forums: Active community of Azure developers and partners sharing best practices and solutions
  • Azure Portal Dashboard: Integrated monitoring and management through Azure portal for index tracking, query performance, and usage analytics
  • Official SDKs: Robust REST APIs and SDKs for C#, Python, Java, JavaScript with comprehensive sample code (Azure SDKs)
  • Azure Monitor Integration: Custom alerts, dashboards, and analytics through Azure Monitor and Application Insights (Azure Monitor)
  • Dual Documentation Portals: docs.rag.progress.cloud (primary) + legacy docs.nuclia.dev (fragmentation concern during transition)
  • RAG Cookbook: Comprehensive downloadable guide for developers with implementation patterns and best practices
  • SDK Ecosystem: Python (~21K weekly downloads via pip install nuclia) + JavaScript/TypeScript (@nuclia/core on NPM)
  • REST API: Regional endpoints https://{region}.rag.progress.cloud/api/v1/ with complete programmatic control
  • Key Endpoints: /ask (generative answers), /find (semantic search), /upload (ingestion), /remi (quality evaluation)
  • 14-Day Free Trial: Hands-on evaluation platform without credit card requirement
  • Progress Enterprise Support: Backed by 2,000+ employee parent company infrastructure with dedicated account management
  • Open-Source Community: NucliaDB 710+ GitHub stars with AGPLv3 license transparency and community contributions
  • Integration Examples: WordPress, Strapi plugins, Pipedream official app, Zapier API-compatible, Chrome extension for web indexing
  • Progress Ecosystem: OpenEdge database connector, Sitefinity CMS integration ("first Generative CMS") for distribution advantages
  • Documentation hub: Rich docs, tutorials, cookbooks, FAQs, API references for rapid onboarding Developer Docs
  • Email and in-app support: Quick support via email and in-app chat for all users
  • Premium support: Premium and Enterprise plans include dedicated account managers and faster SLAs
  • Code samples: Cookbooks, step-by-step guides, and examples for every skill level API Documentation
  • Open-source resources: Python SDK (customgpt-client), Postman collections, GitHub integrations Open-Source SDK
  • Active community: User community plus 5,000+ app integrations through Zapier ecosystem
  • Regular updates: Platform stays current with ongoing GPT and retrieval improvements automatically
Limitations & Considerations
  • Free Tier Constraints: 50 MB storage limit, shared resources with other subscribers, no fixed partitions or replicas
  • Tier Immutability (Legacy): Cannot change tier after creation on older services, though new 2024 feature allows tier changes
  • Vector Search Limitations: Vector index sizes restricted by memory reserved for service tier, some regions lack required infrastructure for improved limits
  • No Pause/Stop: Cannot pause search service - computing resources allocated when created, pay continuous fixed rate
  • Index Portability: No native backup/restore support for porting indexes between services
  • Query Complexity: Partial term searches (prefix, fuzzy, regex) more computationally expensive than keyword searches, may impact performance
  • Field Size Limits: Facetable/filterable/searchable fields limited to 16 KB text storage vs 16 MB for searchable-only fields; maximum document size ~16 MB; record limit 50,000 characters
  • Schema Flexibility: Updating existing indexes can be difficult and disrupt workflows in some cases, requiring workarounds
  • Learning Curve: Advanced customizations require steep learning curve with trial-and-error for fine-tuning search experience
  • Cost Considerations: Pricing structure restrictive for smaller teams/individual developers; costs quickly add up with higher usage tiers and complex pricing models
  • Latency Trade-offs: AI enrichment and image analysis computationally intensive, consuming disproportionate processing power
  • Language Support: Some features (speller, query rewrite) limited to subset of languages
  • Offline Documentation: Lack of offline documentation frustrating for limited internet environments
  • Azure Ecosystem Lock-In: Best suited for organizations already invested in Azure, less competitive for non-Azure customers
  • NO HIPAA Certification Documented: Healthcare organizations processing PHI must contact sales - major compliance gap vs competitors with documented HIPAA
  • NO Native Messaging Channels: No Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, or Microsoft Teams integrations - requires custom API-based development
  • Documentation Fragmentation: Dual portals (docs.rag.progress.cloud + docs.nuclia.dev) during Progress acquisition transition may cause confusion
  • Recent Acquisition Risk: June 2025 Progress purchase means platform still maturing under new ownership with potential direction changes
  • Scalability Concerns: Multiple problems limit scalability - hard to scale nodes up/down, write operations affect concurrent search performance
  • NO Dropbox Integration: Missing Dropbox connector vs competitors - limits cloud storage sync options
  • NO Notion Integration: Missing Notion connector - gap for knowledge management workflows
  • NO YouTube Transcript Extraction: Not explicitly documented vs competitors with video indexing features
  • Token-Based Billing Complexity: $0.008/token beyond 10K/month requires careful usage forecasting vs predictable seat-based pricing
  • Missing Features: NO lead capture, NO human handoff/escalation workflows, NO proactive alerting (monitoring exists, alerting undocumented)
  • Learning Curve: 30+ RAG parameters and Prompt Lab may feel technical for non-developer teams despite no-code dashboard
  • Best For: Development teams and technical users - powerful for experts but may overwhelm business users wanting simple deployment
  • Managed service approach: Less control over underlying RAG pipeline configuration compared to build-your-own solutions like LangChain
  • Vendor lock-in: Proprietary platform - migration to alternative RAG solutions requires rebuilding knowledge bases
  • Model selection: Limited to OpenAI (GPT-5.1 and 4 series) and Anthropic (Claude, opus and sonnet 4.5) - no support for other LLM providers (Cohere, AI21, open-source models)
  • Pricing at scale: Flat-rate pricing may become expensive for very high-volume use cases (millions of queries/month) compared to pay-per-use models
  • Customization limits: While highly configurable, some advanced RAG techniques (custom reranking, hybrid search strategies) may not be exposed
  • Language support: Supports 90+ languages but performance may vary for less common languages or specialized domains
  • Real-time data: Knowledge bases require re-indexing for updates - not ideal for real-time data requirements (stock prices, live inventory)
  • Enterprise features: Some advanced features (custom SSO, token authentication) only available on Enterprise plan with custom pricing
Core Agent Features
  • Agentic Retrieval (2024): Multi-query pipeline designed for complex questions in chat and copilot apps using LLMs to break queries into smaller, focused subqueries for better coverage (Agentic Retrieval)
  • Query Decomposition: Deconstructs complex queries containing multiple "asks" into component parts with LLM-generated paraphrasing and synonym mapping
  • Parallel Execution: Subqueries run in parallel with semantic reranking to promote most relevant matches, then combined into unified response
  • Performance Enhancement: Up to 40% improvement in answer relevance in conversational AI compared to traditional RAG approaches
  • Knowledge Base Integration: Knowledge bases ground agents with multiple data sources without siloed retrieval pipelines, available in Azure AI Foundry portal
  • Chat History Context: Reads conversation history as input to retrieval pipeline for contextually aware responses
  • Automatic Corrections: Corrects spelling mistakes and rewrites queries using synonym maps for improved retrieval accuracy
  • API Availability: Supported through Knowledge Base object in 2025-11-01-preview and Azure SDK preview packages (public preview)
  • Agent-to-Agent Workflows: Designed for RAG patterns and agent-to-agent communication in enterprise AI systems
  • Retrieval Agents: Autonomously select optimal retrieval strategies based on query characteristics
  • Pre-Built Ingestion Agents (Beta): Labeler (auto-classification), Generator (summaries/JSON/extraction), Graph Extraction (entities/relationships), Q&A Generator (automatic FAQ), Content Safety (inappropriate content flagging)
  • Web Components: <nuclia-search-bar> and <nuclia-chat> for website embedding
  • Widget Configuration: Point-and-click for suggestions, filters, metadata display, thumbnails, answer-only modes
  • CSS Customization: Shadow DOM architecture with cssPath attribute for advanced styling
  • White-Labeling: Full OEM deployment support via API-first design
  • MISSING FEATURES: NO lead capture, NO human handoff/escalation workflows, NO proactive alerting (monitoring exists, alerting undocumented)
  • Custom AI Agents: Build autonomous agents powered by GPT-4 and Claude that can perform tasks independently and make real-time decisions based on business knowledge
  • Decision-Support Capabilities: AI agents analyze proprietary data to provide insights, recommendations, and actionable responses specific to your business domain
  • Multi-Agent Systems: Deploy multiple specialized AI agents that can collaborate and optimize workflows in areas like customer support, sales, and internal knowledge management
  • Memory & Context Management: Agents maintain conversation history and persistent context for coherent multi-turn interactions View Agent Documentation
  • Tool Integration: Agents can trigger actions, integrate with external APIs via webhooks, and connect to 5,000+ apps through Zapier for automated workflows
  • Hyper-Accurate Responses: Leverages advanced RAG technology and retrieval mechanisms to deliver context-aware, citation-backed responses grounded in your knowledge base
  • Continuous Learning: Agents improve over time through automatic re-indexing of knowledge sources and integration of new data without manual retraining
R A G-as-a- Service Assessment
  • Platform Type: TRUE RAG-AS-A-SERVICE - End-to-end RAG systems built for app excellence, enterprise-readiness, and speed to market with native Azure integration
  • RAG Performance Evaluation: Metrics cover prompt variations (tailored responses), retrieval evaluation (document accuracy/relevance), and response evaluation (LLM appropriateness)
  • AI-Assisted Metrics: 3 AI-assisted metrics in prompt flow requiring no ground truth - breaks queries into intents, assesses relevant information, calculates affirmative response fractions
  • Hybrid Search Optimization: Combines vector search, keyword search, and semantic search with sophisticated relevance tuning for improved retrieval performance
  • Answer Optimization: Built-in capabilities for retrieval steering, reasoning effort optimization, and answer synthesis for production RAG applications
  • Query Planning: Leverages knowledge bases and AI models for query planning, decomposition, reranking, and structured answer synthesis
  • Enterprise Scale Analytics: Insights into user search behavior, query performance, and search result effectiveness through built-in analytics and monitoring
  • Import Wizard Automation: Azure portal wizard automates RAG pipeline with parsing, chunking, enrichment, and embedding in single flow
  • Azure AI Studio Integration: Unified platform for exploring APIs/models, comprehensive tooling, responsible design, deployment at scale with continuous monitoring
  • 40% Accuracy Improvement: Studies demonstrate RAG can increase base model accuracy by 40% compared to standalone LLMs (RAG Performance)
  • Production-Ready Excellence: Rigorously tested AI technology with high-performance RAG applications without compromising scale or cost
  • Global Infrastructure: Designed for millisecond-level responses under heavy load with globally distributed infrastructure
  • Platform Type: TRUE RAG-AS-A-SERVICE PLATFORM - Core mission is retrieval-augmented generation backend with developer-first API access
  • Core Focus: Semantic search and generative Q&A across knowledge bases with transparent NucliaDB architecture
  • RAG Backend Design: Fully managed RAG infrastructure with embeddable widgets (NOT closed conversational marketing like Drift/Yellow.ai)
  • Programmatic Access: Complete REST API + dual SDKs (Python/JavaScript) for full knowledge base management
  • LLM Flexibility: 7 provider options switchable without architectural changes (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, Cohere, Azure, Nuclia)
  • Open-Source Transparency: NucliaDB foundation (710+ GitHub stars) provides visibility into retrieval mechanisms vs black-box platforms (Lindy.ai)
  • Comparison Alignment: Direct architectural comparison to CustomGPT.ai is valid - both are RAG-as-a-Service platforms with API-first design
  • Use Case Fit: Organizations prioritizing knowledge retrieval, semantic search, and generative Q&A over conversational marketing/sales engagement
  • Platform Type: TRUE RAG-AS-A-SERVICE PLATFORM - all-in-one managed solution combining developer APIs with no-code deployment capabilities
  • Core Architecture: Serverless RAG infrastructure with automatic embedding generation, vector search optimization, and LLM orchestration fully managed behind API endpoints
  • API-First Design: Comprehensive REST API with well-documented endpoints for creating agents, managing projects, ingesting data (1,400+ formats), and querying chat API Documentation
  • Developer Experience: Open-source Python SDK (customgpt-client), Postman collections, OpenAI API endpoint compatibility, and extensive cookbooks for rapid integration
  • No-Code Alternative: Wizard-style web dashboard enables non-developers to upload content, brand widgets, and deploy chatbots without touching code
  • Hybrid Target Market: Serves both developer teams wanting robust APIs AND business users seeking no-code RAG deployment - unique positioning vs pure API platforms (Cohere) or pure no-code tools (Jotform)
  • RAG Technology Leadership: Industry-leading answer accuracy (median 5/5 benchmarked), 1,400+ file format support with auto-transcription, proprietary anti-hallucination mechanisms, and citation-backed responses Benchmark Details
  • Deployment Flexibility: Cloud-hosted SaaS with auto-scaling, API integrations, embedded chat widgets, ChatGPT Plugin support, and hosted MCP Server for Claude/Cursor/ChatGPT
  • Enterprise Readiness: SOC 2 Type II + GDPR compliance, full white-labeling, domain allowlisting, RBAC with 2FA/SSO, and flat-rate pricing without per-query charges
  • Use Case Fit: Ideal for organizations needing both rapid no-code deployment AND robust API capabilities, teams handling diverse content types (1,400+ formats, multimedia transcription), and businesses requiring production-ready RAG without building ML infrastructure from scratch
  • Competitive Positioning: Bridges the gap between developer-first platforms (Cohere, Deepset) requiring heavy coding and no-code chatbot builders (Jotform, Kommunicate) lacking API depth - offers best of both worlds
R E Mi Evaluation Model ( Core Differentiator)
N/A
  • Proprietary Investment: Significant R&D differentiator addressing hallucination problem - absent from most competitors
  • REMi v2 (Current): Llama-REMi v1 based on Llama 3.2-3B with 30x faster inference vs original Mistral implementation
  • Continuous Quality Monitoring: Evaluates EVERY interaction across four dimensions (0-5 scale)
  • Answer Relevance: Measures how directly response addresses the query
  • Context Relevance: Assesses quality of retrieved passages relative to question
  • Groundedness: Evaluates degree to which answers derive from source context (hallucination detection)
  • Answer Correctness: Alignment with ground truth when available (optional dimension)
  • Benchmark Validation: Nuclia with OpenAI embeddings achieved highest scores vs Vectara on Docmatix 1.4k dataset across answer relevance, context relevance, correctness
  • Real-Time Visibility: Dashboard health displays with 7-day rolling averages and performance graphs (24h to 30d)
  • Competitive Advantage: Most RAG platforms lack continuous quality evaluation - Progress makes this core differentiator
N/A
Open- Source Nuclia D B Foundation
N/A
  • GitHub Presence: 710+ stars, AGPLv3 license provides full transparency into core retrieval mechanisms
  • Technology Stack: Python and Rust implementation for performance and reliability
  • Managed Infrastructure: Progress removes operational burden while maintaining technical transparency
  • Three-Tier Storage: Tier 3 (S3/GCS blob storage), Tier 2 (TiKV key-value with ACID), Tier 1 (sharded indexes)
  • Four Index Types: Document Index (property filtering), Full Text (keyword/fuzzy search), Chunk/Vector (semantic similarity), Knowledge Graph (entity relationships)
  • Dynamic Sharding: Automatic shard creation as vectors grow with index node replication for fault tolerance
  • Embedding Flexibility: Switchable per Knowledge Box (Nuclia multilingual + OpenAI options)
  • 100M Vector Performance: Full ingestion and optimization in ~20 minutes with sufficient worker allocation
  • Developer Trust: Open-source foundation allows code inspection and contribution vs black-box competitors
N/A
Multi- Lingual Support
N/A
  • Nuclia Multilingual Embedding Model: Default model supporting multiple languages out-of-box
  • 60+ Document Format Processing: Multi-language content across PDF, Word, Excel, PPT, text, email
  • Automatic Transcription: Multi-language speech-to-text for audio/video content
  • Configurable Embeddings: Per Knowledge Box language optimization
  • LLM Provider Flexibility: 7 providers with varying multilingual capabilities (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama, etc.)
  • Global Customer Base: Deployed across Spain, US, international markets indicating production multilingual usage
N/A
Deployment & Infrastructure
N/A
  • Fully Managed Cloud: EU (primary) and US data centers with regional API routing (https://{region}.rag.progress.cloud/api/v1/)
  • Hybrid Deployment: Cloud processing with on-premise NucliaDB storage for data sovereignty requirements
  • Complete On-Premise: Enterprise tier supports 100% on-premise deployment for maximum data governance
  • AWS Marketplace: Available November 2025 for streamlined enterprise procurement with existing cloud spend
  • Three-Tier Architecture: S3/GCS blob storage (Tier 3), TiKV metadata (Tier 2), sharded indexes (Tier 1)
  • Dynamic Scaling: Automatic shard creation as vector counts grow with index node replication
  • Web Component Embedding: <nuclia-search-bar> and <nuclia-chat> for website integration
  • Multi-Region Support: Regional data residency options (EU/US) for compliance requirements
N/A
Customer Base & Case Studies
N/A
  • SRS Distribution (Wholesale Building Materials): "Progress Agentic RAG has fundamentally changed how we access and act on information across our organisation. Its ability to deliver fast, accurate, and verifiable insights from our unstructured data has been a game-changer for productivity and decision-making."
  • BrokerChooser (Financial Services): Replaced keyword search with generative AI, reporting significant conversion increases and better user experience
  • NAFEMS (Engineering Simulation Association): Knowledge discovery across thousands of technical publications for international membership community
  • Althaia Hospitals (Spain's Largest Central Catalonia Hospital): Medical protocol search supporting 5,000+ healthcare professionals
  • Columbia Business School: Academic knowledge discovery and research support
  • Barry University: Education sector deployment for institutional knowledge management
  • CCOO (Spain's Largest Trade Union): 1M+ members served with knowledge retrieval platform
  • Buff Sportswear: Commercial deployment for product and customer knowledge management
  • Pre-Acquisition Scale: ~20 customers across healthcare, pharmaceutical, education, public administration sectors
N/A

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Final Thoughts

Final Verdict: Azure AI vs Progress Agentic RAG

After analyzing features, pricing, performance, and user feedback, both Azure AI and Progress Agentic RAG are capable platforms that serve different market segments and use cases effectively.

When to Choose Azure AI

  • You value comprehensive ai platform with 200+ services
  • Deep integration with Microsoft ecosystem
  • Enterprise-grade security and compliance

Best For: Comprehensive AI platform with 200+ services

When to Choose Progress Agentic RAG

  • You value proprietary remi v2 model (30x faster inference) addresses hallucination problem with continuous quality monitoring - differentiated capability absent from most competitors
  • Open-source NucliaDB transparency (710+ GitHub stars) with managed infrastructure removes operational burden while maintaining technical visibility
  • Genuine no-code accessibility: business users (marketing, HR, legal, support) can deploy functional RAG pipelines in minutes via visual dashboard

Best For: Proprietary REMi v2 model (30x faster inference) addresses hallucination problem with continuous quality monitoring - differentiated capability absent from most competitors

Migration & Switching Considerations

Switching between Azure AI and Progress Agentic RAG requires careful planning. Consider data export capabilities, API compatibility, and integration complexity. Both platforms offer migration support, but expect 2-4 weeks for complete transition including testing and team training.

Pricing Comparison Summary

Azure AI starts at custom pricing, while Progress Agentic RAG begins at $700/month. Total cost of ownership should factor in implementation time, training requirements, API usage fees, and ongoing support. Enterprise deployments typically see annual costs ranging from $10,000 to $500,000+ depending on scale and requirements.

Our Recommendation Process

  1. Start with a free trial - Both platforms offer trial periods to test with your actual data
  2. Define success metrics - Response accuracy, latency, user satisfaction, cost per query
  3. Test with real use cases - Don't rely on generic demos; use your production data
  4. Evaluate total cost - Factor in implementation time, training, and ongoing maintenance
  5. Check vendor stability - Review roadmap transparency, update frequency, and support quality

For most organizations, the decision between Azure AI and Progress Agentic RAG comes down to specific requirements rather than overall superiority. Evaluate both platforms with your actual data during trial periods, focusing on accuracy, latency, ease of integration, and total cost of ownership.

📚 Next Steps

Ready to make your decision? We recommend starting with a hands-on evaluation of both platforms using your specific use case and data.

  • • Review: Check the detailed feature comparison table above
  • • Test: Sign up for free trials and test with real queries
  • • Calculate: Estimate your monthly costs based on expected usage
  • • Decide: Choose the platform that best aligns with your requirements

Last updated: December 11, 2025 | This comparison is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the latest platform capabilities, pricing, and user feedback.

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Priyansh Khodiyar's avatar

Priyansh Khodiyar

DevRel at CustomGPT.ai. Passionate about AI and its applications. Here to help you navigate the world of AI tools and make informed decisions for your business.

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