What are the main differences between Azure AI and SimplyRetrieve?

Azure AI excels in Comprehensive AI platform with 200+ services and Deep integration with Microsoft ecosystem, scoring 88/100 in user ratings with 89% accuracy. SimplyRetrieve leads in Completely free and open source and Strong privacy focus - fully localized with 82/100 overall rating and 86% accuracy. Key technical difference: Azure AI focuses on Azure OpenAI Service while SimplyRetrieve emphasizes Retrieval-Centric Generation (RCG).

Which is better for enterprises: Azure AI or SimplyRetrieve?

Azure AI offers SOC 2 compliance for enterprise security. HIPAA compliance is available in Azure AI. For scalability, Azure AI supports on-premise deployment for maximum control. Azure AI leads with 88/100 enterprise readiness score (97/100 enterprise features).

How much does Azure AI cost vs SimplyRetrieve?

Azure AI starts at custom pricing/monthly (freemium model), while SimplyRetrieve begins at contact sales/forever (open-source model). Both offer free tiers to get started, and free trials are available. Pricing is relatively comparable. See our detailed pricing breakdown for complete tier comparisons.

Can I migrate from SimplyRetrieve to Azure AI?

Migration from SimplyRetrieve to Azure AI typically requires API-based data export/import, which Azure AI provides. Azure AI provides comprehensive API access excellent documentation for the migration process. Estimated migration time: 1-2 days for cloud setup. Contact Azure AI support for migration assistance and best practices.

What integrations do Azure AI and SimplyRetrieve support?

Azure AI integrates with Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, GitHub, Visual Studio (12 integrations total). SimplyRetrieve supports Hugging Face models, Gradio, PyTorch, FAISS, Various open-source LLMs (6 integrations available). Both offer REST APIs for custom integrations. Azure AI offers 100% more integrations, with webhook support for real-time data sync.

What are the main differences between Azure AI and SimplyRetrieve?

Azure AI offers strong capabilities, scoring 0/100 in user ratings. SimplyRetrieve provides unique strengths with 0/100 overall rating. Key technical difference: Azure AI focuses on advanced features while SimplyRetrieve emphasizes specialized capabilities.

Which is better for enterprises: Azure AI or SimplyRetrieve?

Both platforms provide enterprise-grade security. HIPAA compliance varies - contact vendors for details. For scalability, both offer cloud-based deployment options. SimplyRetrieve leads with strong/100 enterprise readiness score.

How much does Azure AI cost vs SimplyRetrieve?

Azure AI starts at custom pricing/month (subscription model), while SimplyRetrieve begins at contact sales/month (subscription model). Both require paid plans. Pricing is relatively comparable. See our detailed pricing breakdown for complete tier comparisons.

Can I migrate from Azure AI to SimplyRetrieve?

Migration from Azure AI to SimplyRetrieve typically requires manual data transfer since API access may be limited. SimplyRetrieve offers standard documentation for the migration process. Estimated migration time: 1-2 days for cloud setup. Contact SimplyRetrieve support for migration assistance and best practices.

What integrations do Azure AI and SimplyRetrieve support?

Azure AI integrates with (multiple platforms). SimplyRetrieve supports (various tools). API availability varies by plan. Integration coverage is comparable.

Azure AI vs SimplyRetrieve

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

More about SimplyRetrieve More about Azure AI Get Started Today

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 SimplyRetrieve 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 SimplyRetrieve, 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 SimplyRetrieve if: you value completely free and open source

About Azure AI

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 SimplyRetrieve

SimplyRetrieve is lightweight retrieval-centric generative ai platform. SimplyRetrieve is an open-source tool providing a fully localized, lightweight, and user-friendly GUI and API platform for Retrieval-Centric Generation (RCG). It emphasizes privacy and can run on a single GPU while maintaining clear separation between LLM context interpretation and knowledge memorization. Founded in 2019, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.

Overall Rating

82/100

Starting Price

Custom

Key Differences at a Glance

In terms of user ratings, Azure AI in overall satisfaction. From a cost perspective, pricing is comparable. The platforms also differ in their primary focus: AI Platform versus RAG Platform. 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

Azure AI	SimplyRetrieve	CustomGPTRECOMMENDED
Data Ingestion & Knowledge Sources
✅ Multi-Source Support – Databases, blob storage, PDF, DOCX, HTML via Azure pipelines ✅ Auto-Sync – Azure services keep indexed information current automatically	File-Based Workflow – Drop PDFs, DOCX, PPTX, HTML into folder and embed via script GUI Knowledge Editor – Add documents on-the-fly through basic interface Manual Processing – ⚠️ No web crawler or automatic refresh capabilities Local Storage – ✅ All data stays on your machine for air-gapped deployments	1,400+ file formats – PDF, DOCX, Excel, PowerPoint, Markdown, HTML + auto-extraction from ZIP/RAR/7Z archives Website crawling – Sitemap indexing with configurable depth for help docs, FAQs, and public content Multimedia transcription – AI Vision, OCR, YouTube/Vimeo/podcast speech-to-text built-in Cloud integrations – Google Drive, SharePoint, OneDrive, Dropbox, Notion with auto-sync Knowledge platforms – Zendesk, Freshdesk, HubSpot, Confluence, Shopify connectors Massive scale – 60M words (Standard) / 300M words (Premium) per bot with no performance degradation
Integrations & Channels
✅ Azure Ecosystem – SDKs, REST APIs, Logic Apps, PowerApps (connectors) ✅ Native Channels – Web widgets, Slack, Microsoft Teams integration ✅ Low-Code Options – Custom workflows via low-code tools or full API	Local Gradio GUI – Python scripts for queries with no pre-built channels No Native Integrations – ⚠️ No Slack, Teams, or website widgets out-of-box Custom Wrappers Required – Build your own connectors to forward messages	Website embedding – Lightweight JS widget or iframe with customizable positioning CMS plugins – WordPress, WIX, Webflow, Framer, SquareSpace native support 5,000+ app ecosystem – Zapier connects CRMs, marketing, e-commerce tools MCP Server – Integrate with Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT, Windsurf OpenAI SDK compatible – Drop-in replacement for OpenAI API endpoints LiveChat + Slack – Native chat widgets with human handoff capabilities
Core Chatbot Features
✅ RAG-Powered Answers – Semantic search + LLM generation for grounded responses ✅ Hybrid Search – Keyword + semantic with optional ranking for relevance ✅ Multilingual – Conversation history management from Azure portal	Open-Source RAG Bot – Runs on local LLMs with streaming responses Single-Turn Q&A – ⚠️ Limited multi-turn conversation and long-term memory Retrieval Tuning Module – Transparency layer showing answer construction process Basic Interactions – No lead capture or human handoff features	✅ #1 accuracy – Median 5/5 in independent benchmarks, 10% lower hallucination than OpenAI ✅ Source citations – Every response includes clickable links to original documents ✅ 93% resolution rate – Handles queries autonomously, reducing human workload ✅ 92 languages – Native multilingual support without per-language config ✅ Lead capture – Built-in email collection, custom forms, real-time notifications ✅ Human handoff – Escalation with full conversation context preserved
Customization & Branding
✅ Full UI Control – Custom CSS, logos, welcome messages for branding ✅ White-Labeling – Domain restrictions via Azure configuration ✅ Search Behavior – Custom analyzers, synonym maps (config options)	Plain Gradio Interface – Minimal theming with developer-focused design Source Code Customization – Tweak code or build custom front-end for branding	Full white-labeling included – Colors, logos, CSS, custom domains at no extra cost 2-minute setup – No-code wizard with drag-and-drop interface Persona customization – Control AI personality, tone, response style via pre-prompts Visual theme editor – Real-time preview of branding changes Domain allowlisting – Restrict embedding to approved sites only
L L M Model Options
✅ Azure OpenAI – GPT-4, GPT-3.5 via native Azure integration ✅ Prompt Control – Customizable templates and system prompts ✅ Model Flexibility – Azure-hosted or external LLMs via API	WizardVicuna-13B Default – Instruction-tuned open-source model included Hugging Face Compatible – Swap any model with sufficient GPU resources Full Local Control – ✅ No external APIs or cloud dependencies Model Limitations – ⚠️ Smaller models won't match GPT-4 depth	GPT-5.1 models – Latest thinking models (Optimal & Smart variants) GPT-4 series – GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, GPT-4o available Claude 4.5 – Anthropic's Opus available for Enterprise Auto model routing – Balances cost/performance automatically Zero API key management – All models managed behind the scenes
Developer Experience ( A P I & S D Ks)
✅ Multi-Language SDKs – C#, Python, Java, JavaScript (Azure SDKs) ✅ Documentation – Tutorials, sample code for index management and queries ✅ Azure AD Auth – Secure API access via Azure portal	Python Script Interface – No formal REST API or SDK Subprocess Integration – Call scripts directly or build custom wrapper Open Source Access – ✅ Full code access for modification	REST API – Full-featured for agents, projects, data ingestion, chat queries Python SDK – Open-source `customgpt-client` with full API coverage Postman collections – Pre-built requests for rapid prototyping Webhooks – Real-time event notifications for conversations and leads OpenAI compatible – Use existing OpenAI SDK code with minimal changes
Performance & Accuracy
✅ Enterprise Scale – Millisecond responses under heavy load (Microsoft Mechanics) ✅ High Relevance – Hybrid search, semantic ranking, configurable scoring ✅ Global Infrastructure – Low latency, high throughput worldwide	Slower Inference – ⚠️ 3-10+ seconds per reply on single GPU Decent Accuracy – Good when relevant docs found, struggles with complexity FAISS Vector Search – Fast retrieval using Facebook's library	Sub-second responses – Optimized RAG with vector search and multi-layer caching Benchmark-proven – 13% higher accuracy, 34% faster than OpenAI Assistants API Anti-hallucination tech – Responses grounded only in your provided content OpenGraph citations – Rich visual cards with titles, descriptions, images 99.9% uptime – Auto-scaling infrastructure handles traffic spikes
Customization & Flexibility ( Behavior & Knowledge)
✅ Index Control – Custom analyzers, tokenizers, synonym maps for domain-specific search ✅ Cognitive Skills – Plugin custom skills during indexing for specialized processing ✅ LLM Tuning – Prompt customization for style and tone control	Deep Parameter Control – Tweak retrieval params, system prompts, knowledge weighting Embedding Model Swap – Replace multilingual-e5-base with alternatives Pipeline Modification – ✅ Full source access for custom logic	Live content updates – Add/remove content with automatic re-indexing System prompts – Shape agent behavior and voice through instructions Multi-agent support – Different bots for different teams Smart defaults – No ML expertise required for custom behavior
Pricing & Scalability
✅ Pay-As-You-Go – Tier, partition, replica based (Pricing Guide) ✅ Free Tier – Development/small projects; production tiers available ✅ On-Demand Scaling – Add replicas/partitions; enterprise discounts available	MIT Licensed – ✅ Completely free with no subscription fees Infrastructure Costs – Pay only for GPU hardware or cloud servers Manual Scaling – ⚠️ Spin up and manage your own hardware	Standard: $99/mo – 60M words, 10 bots Premium: $449/mo – 300M words, 100 bots Auto-scaling – Managed cloud scales with demand Flat rates – No per-query charges
Security & Privacy
✅ Enterprise Compliance – SOC, ISO, GDPR, HIPAA, FedRAMP (Azure Compliance) ✅ Data Encryption – Transit/rest, customer-managed keys, Private Link isolation ✅ Azure AD RBAC – Granular role-based access control and authentication	100% Local Execution – ✅ Perfect for sensitive data and air-gapped environments No External Transmission – All processing stays on-premises DIY Security – ⚠️ No built-in auth, you implement access controls	SOC 2 Type II + GDPR – Third-party audited compliance Encryption – 256-bit AES at rest, SSL/TLS in transit Access controls – RBAC, 2FA, SSO, domain allowlisting Data isolation – Never trains on your data
Observability & Monitoring
✅ Portal Dashboard – Track indexes, query performance, usage at glance ✅ Azure Monitor – Custom alerts, dashboards (Azure Monitor) ✅ Export Logs – API-based log and analytics export for analysis	Analysis Tab – Shows retrieved docs and query construction process Console Logging – Basic logs printed to terminal No Dashboard – ⚠️ Add your own monitoring for stats	Real-time dashboard – Query volumes, token usage, response times Customer Intelligence – User behavior patterns, popular queries, knowledge gaps Conversation analytics – Full transcripts, resolution rates, common questions Export capabilities – API export to BI tools and data warehouses
Support & Ecosystem
✅ Microsoft Support – Docs, Microsoft Learn modules, active community forums ✅ Enterprise SLAs – Dedicated channels for mission-critical deployments ✅ Developer Community – Large Azure ecosystem sharing best practices	Community-Driven – GitHub issues and lightweight documentation Research Foundation – Academic paper (arXiv 2308.03983) on RCG approach No Paid Support – ⚠️ No SLA or enterprise help desk	Comprehensive docs – Tutorials, cookbooks, API references Email + in-app support – Under 24hr response time Premium support – Dedicated account managers for Premium/Enterprise Open-source SDK – Python SDK, Postman, GitHub examples 5,000+ Zapier apps – CRMs, e-commerce, marketing integrations
Additional Considerations
✅ Deep Integration – End-to-end solutions within Azure platform ✅ Enterprise-Grade – Fine-grained tuning with proven reliability ⚠️ Azure-First – Best for organizations already invested in Azure ecosystem	N/A	Time-to-value – 2-minute deployment vs weeks with DIY Always current – Auto-updates to latest GPT models Proven scale – 6,000+ organizations, millions of queries Multi-LLM – OpenAI + Claude reduces vendor lock-in
No- Code Interface & Usability
✅ Azure Portal – Create indexes, tweak analyzers, monitor performance intuitively ✅ Low-Code Tools – Logic Apps, PowerApps for non-developers ⚠️ Learning Curve – Advanced setups require technical expertise vs turnkey solutions	N/A	2-minute deployment – Fastest time-to-value in the industry Wizard interface – Step-by-step with visual previews Drag-and-drop – Upload files, paste URLs, connect cloud storage In-browser testing – Test before deploying to production Zero learning curve – Productive on day one
Competitive Positioning
Market Position – Enterprise AI platform with production-ready RAG at global scale Target Customers – Azure-invested orgs needing SOC/ISO/GDPR/HIPAA/FedRAMP compliance, 99.999% SLAs Key Competitors – AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, OpenAI Enterprise, Coveo, Vectara Competitive Advantages – Azure ecosystem integration, hybrid search, native OpenAI, global infrastructure Best Fit – Organizations using Azure/Office 365 requiring enterprise compliance and regional residency	Market Position – MIT open-source local RAG for on-premises deployment Target Customers – Developers experimenting locally, strict data isolation orgs Key Competitors – LangChain, LlamaIndex, PrivateGPT, LocalGPT Advantages – ✅ Free MIT license, 100% local, full model control Best For – Offline environments, GPU infrastructure teams, zero cloud costs	Market position – Leading RAG platform balancing enterprise accuracy with no-code usability. Trusted by 6,000+ orgs including Adobe, MIT, Dropbox. Key differentiators – #1 benchmarked accuracy • 1,400+ formats • Full white-labeling included • Flat-rate pricing vs OpenAI – 10% lower hallucination, 13% higher accuracy, 34% faster vs Botsonic/Chatbase – More file formats, source citations, no hidden costs vs LangChain – Production-ready in 2 min vs weeks of development
A I Models
✅ Azure OpenAI – GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-3.5 Turbo native integration ✅ Anthropic Claude – Available via Microsoft Foundry (late 2024/early 2025) ✅ Multi-Model Platform – Only cloud with both Claude and GPT models ✅ Model Flexibility – Azure-hosted or external LLMs via API ✅ Prompt Templates – Customizable prompts for specific use cases ✅ Enterprise Integration – Models integrated with Azure security/compliance/governance	WizardVicuna-13B – Default uncensored instruction-tuned model Any Hugging Face Model – Llama 2, Falcon, Mistral with GPU capacity No Vendor Lock-In – ✅ Complete flexibility without API limits Performance Trade-Off – ⚠️ Open models slower than managed cloud APIs	OpenAI – GPT-5.1 (Optimal/Smart), GPT-4 series Anthropic – Claude 4.5 Opus/Sonnet (Enterprise) Auto-routing – Intelligent model selection for cost/performance Managed – No API keys or fine-tuning required
R A G Capabilities
✅ Agentic Retrieval (2024) – LLM-powered query decomposition into parallel subqueries for chat ✅ Hybrid Search – Vector + keyword + semantic with relevance tuning ✅ Vector Store – Long-term memory, knowledge base for RAG apps ✅ Framework Support – Azure Semantic Kernel, LangChain for RAG workflows ✅ Import Wizard – Automates parsing, chunking, enrichment, embedding pipeline ✅ Query Enhancement – Rewriting, synonyms, paraphrasing, spelling correction	Retrieval-Centric Generation – Research-backed approach separating LLM from knowledge memorization Mixtures-of-Knowledge-Bases – Multiple knowledge bases with intelligent routing Explicit Prompt-Weighting – Control retrieved content influence on answers Retrieval Transparency – ✅ Visual debugging showing document selection FAISS Search – Fast approximate nearest neighbor retrieval	GPT-4 + RAG – Outperforms OpenAI in independent benchmarks Anti-hallucination – Responses grounded in your content only Automatic citations – Clickable source links in every response Sub-second latency – Optimized vector search and caching Scale to 300M words – No performance degradation at scale
Use Cases
✅ Enterprise Search – 40% productivity boost (9 hours/week saved per employee) ✅ Customer Service – Self-service chatbots, real-time agent support, coaching, summarization ✅ RAG Applications – 50%+ Fortune 500 companies (OpenAI, Otto, KPMG, PETRONAS) ✅ Knowledge Management – AI-driven insights for organizational knowledge bases ✅ Multi-Industry – Retail, financial, healthcare, manufacturing, government sectors	Air-Gapped Environments – ✅ Defense, classified research requiring offline operation Healthcare PHI Compliance – HIPAA organizations needing 100% data isolation RAG Research – Developers learning internals with full transparency Zero-Cost RAG – Teams with GPU infrastructure avoiding subscriptions Data Sovereignty – Strict data residency preventing cloud processing	Customer support – 24/7 AI handling common queries with citations Internal knowledge – HR policies, onboarding, technical docs Sales enablement – Product info, lead qualification, education Documentation – Help centers, FAQs with auto-crawling E-commerce – Product recommendations, order assistance
Security & Compliance
✅ Certifications – SOC, ISO, GDPR, HIPAA, FedRAMP (Azure Compliance) ✅ Encryption – Transit (SSL/TLS) and rest with customer-managed keys ✅ Private Link – Enhanced isolation for security ✅ Azure AD RBAC – Granular access control with secure authentication ✅ 99.999% SLA – Enterprise reliability with regional data residency ✅ Security Monitoring – Continuous oversight via Azure Monitor	Complete Data Isolation – ✅ Ideal for classified, PHI, PII data No Third-Party APIs – Zero external calls to cloud providers Open-Source Auditing – Full code transparency for security reviews Self-Managed Security – ⚠️ You control all security layers	SOC 2 Type II + GDPR – Regular third-party audits, full EU compliance 256-bit AES encryption – Data at rest; SSL/TLS in transit SSO + 2FA + RBAC – Enterprise access controls with role-based permissions Data isolation – Never trains on customer data Domain allowlisting – Restrict chatbot to approved domains
Pricing & Plans
✅ Free Tier – 50 MB storage for dev/small projects ✅ Basic Tier – Entry production with fixed storage (no partition scaling) ✅ Standard Tiers – Scalable throughput via partitions and replicas ✅ Storage Optimized – High-volume data at reduced $/TB ✅ 2024 Capacity Boost – 5-6x storage increase free (Pricing) ✅ Tier Flexibility (2024) – Change tiers without downtime; enterprise discounts available	MIT License – ✅ Free with no subscription or API charges GPU Costs Only – Hardware or cloud compute are sole expenses Unlimited Queries – No per-request pricing or rate limits	Standard: $99/mo – 10 chatbots, 60M words, 5K items/bot Premium: $449/mo – 100 chatbots, 300M words, 20K items/bot Enterprise: Custom – SSO, dedicated support, custom SLAs 7-day free trial – Full Standard access, no charges Flat-rate pricing – No per-query charges, no hidden costs
Support & Documentation
✅ Enterprise Support – Microsoft infrastructure with dedicated mission-critical channels ✅ SLA Plans – Guaranteed response times and uptime commitments ✅ Microsoft Learn – Docs, tutorials, modules (docs) ✅ Community Forums – Active Azure developers sharing best practices ✅ Portal Dashboard – Integrated monitoring for indexes, queries, analytics ✅ Official SDKs – REST APIs, C#, Python, Java, JavaScript (SDKs)	GitHub Repository – Code, docs, and examples at RCGAI/SimplyRetrieve Academic Paper – arXiv 2308.03983 explaining RCG architecture Community Support – GitHub Issues for troubleshooting No Paid Support – ⚠️ Community-driven only, no SLAs	Documentation hub – Docs, tutorials, API references Support channels – Email, in-app chat, dedicated managers (Premium+) Open-source – Python SDK, Postman, GitHub examples Community – User community + 5,000 Zapier integrations
Limitations & Considerations
⚠️ Free Tier Limits – 50 MB storage, shared resources, no partitions/replicas ⚠️ No Pause/Stop – Pay continuous fixed rate; resources allocated when created ⚠️ Vector Limitations – Index sizes restricted by tier memory; regional infrastructure gaps ⚠️ Learning Curve – Advanced customizations require trial-and-error, technical expertise ⚠️ Cost Structure – Restrictive for small teams; costs scale quickly with usage ⚠️ Azure Lock-In – Less competitive for non-Azure customers; best for Azure ecosystem	Developer-Only Tool – ⚠️ Requires Python, GPU, and technical expertise GPU Infrastructure Required – ⚠️ Dedicated hardware or cloud GPU needed Basic UI – Gradio interface needs custom front-end for production Manual Scaling – ⚠️ No auto-scaling, you manage load balancing No Enterprise Features – Missing multi-tenancy, user management, analytics Slower Inference – ⚠️ 3-10+ seconds vs sub-second cloud APIs	Managed service – Less control over RAG pipeline vs build-your-own Model selection – OpenAI + Anthropic only; no Cohere, AI21, open-source Real-time data – Requires re-indexing; not ideal for live inventory/prices Enterprise features – Custom SSO only on Enterprise plan
Core Agent Features
✅ Agentic Retrieval (2024) – Multi-query pipeline for complex chat questions (docs) ✅ Query Decomposition – LLM breaks complex queries into focused subqueries ✅ Parallel Execution – Subqueries run simultaneously with semantic reranking ✅ 40% Performance Boost – Improved answer relevance vs traditional RAG ✅ Knowledge Bases – Multi-source grounding without siloed pipelines (Azure AI Foundry) ✅ Chat History – Contextually aware responses from conversation history	Retrieval-Centric Generation – Research approach separating reasoning from knowledge Retrieval Tuning Module – ✅ Developer transparency showing document selection Knowledge Base Mixing – Route queries across multiple sources Single-Turn Focus – ⚠️ Limited multi-turn conversation memory No Chatbot UI – ⚠️ Gradio for developers only No Production Features – ⚠️ No lead capture, handoff, or multi-channel support	Custom AI Agents – Autonomous GPT-4/Claude agents for business tasks Multi-Agent Systems – Specialized agents for support, sales, knowledge Memory & Context – Persistent conversation history across sessions Tool Integration – Webhooks + 5,000 Zapier apps for automation Continuous Learning – Auto re-indexing without manual retraining
R A G-as-a- Service Assessment
✅ TRUE RAG-AS-A-SERVICE – End-to-end enterprise RAG with native Azure integration ✅ Performance Metrics – Prompt variations, retrieval accuracy, response evaluation ✅ AI-Assisted Metrics – 3 metrics requiring no ground truth for evaluation ✅ Hybrid Optimization – Vector + keyword + semantic with relevance tuning ✅ Import Wizard – Automates parsing, chunking, enrichment, embedding pipeline ✅ 40% Accuracy Boost – vs standalone LLMs (study)	NOT RAG-AS-A-SERVICE – Open-source research project for local experimentation Academic Foundation – Published research tool from RCGAI (arXiv 2308.03983) Self-Hosted Only – ⚠️ No managed infrastructure, APIs, or SLAs Developer-First Design – Python with GPU infrastructure requirements 100% Local Execution – ✅ Perfect for air-gapped and classified environments No Service Features – ⚠️ No auth, multi-tenancy, analytics, or SaaS conveniences	Platform type – TRUE RAG-AS-A-SERVICE with managed infrastructure API-first – REST API, Python SDK, OpenAI compatibility, MCP Server No-code option – 2-minute wizard deployment for non-developers Hybrid positioning – Serves both dev teams (APIs) and business users (no-code) Enterprise ready – SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, WCAG 2.0, flat-rate pricing

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Final Thoughts

Final Verdict: Azure AI vs SimplyRetrieve

After analyzing features, pricing, performance, and user feedback, both Azure AI and SimplyRetrieve 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 SimplyRetrieve

You value completely free and open source
Strong privacy focus - fully localized
Lightweight - runs on single GPU

Best For: Completely free and open source

Migration & Switching Considerations

Switching between Azure AI and SimplyRetrieve 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 SimplyRetrieve begins at custom pricing. 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

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

For most organizations, the decision between Azure AI and SimplyRetrieve 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 31, 2025 | This comparison is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the latest platform capabilities, pricing, and user feedback.

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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.

Azure AI vs SimplyRetrieve