Coveo vs SimplyRetrieve

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

More about SimplyRetrieveMore about CoveoGet Started Today
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 Coveo 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 Coveo 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 Coveo if: you value comprehensive enterprise search capabilities
  • Choose SimplyRetrieve if: you value completely free and open source

About Coveo

Coveo Landing Page Screenshot

Coveo is ai-powered search and personalization for digital experiences. Coveo is an enterprise AI platform that delivers intelligent search, recommendations, and personalization across commerce, customer service, workplace, and website applications using machine learning and behavioral analytics. Founded in 2005, headquartered in Quebec City, Canada, the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.

Overall Rating
82/100
Starting Price
Custom

About SimplyRetrieve

SimplyRetrieve Landing Page Screenshot

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, both platforms score similarly in overall satisfaction. From a cost perspective, pricing is comparable. The platforms also differ in their primary focus: Enterprise Search 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

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Coveo
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SimplyRetrieve
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Data Ingestion & Knowledge Sources
  • 100+ Native Connectors – SharePoint, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Confluence, databases, file shares, Slack, websites merged into one index
  • OCR & Structured Data – Indexes scanned docs, intranet pages, knowledge articles, multimedia content
  • Real-Time Sync – Incremental crawls, push APIs, scheduled syncs keep content fresh
  • 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
  • Atomic UI Components – Drop-in components for search pages, support hubs, commerce sites with generative answers
  • Native Platform Integrations – Salesforce, Sitecore with AI answers inside existing tools
  • REST APIs – Build custom chatbots, virtual assistants on Coveo's retrieval engine
  • 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
  • Uses Relevance Generative Answering (RGA)—a two-step retrieval plus LLM flow that produces concise, source-cited answers.
  • Respects permissions, showing each user only the content they’re allowed to see.
  • Blends the direct answer with classic search results so people can dig deeper if they want.
  • 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
  • Atomic components are fully styleable with CSS, making it easy to match your brand’s look and feel.
  • You can tweak answer formatting and citation display through configs; deeper personality tweaks mean editing the prompt.
  • 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 – Primary models via Azure OpenAI for high-quality generation
  • Bring Your Own LLM – Relevance-Augmented Passage Retrieval API supports custom models
  • Auto-Tuning – Handles model tuning, prompt optimization; API override available
  • 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)
  • REST APIs & SDKs – Java, .NET, JavaScript for indexing, connectors, querying
  • UI Components – Atomic and Quantic components for fast front-end integration
  • Enterprise Documentation – Step-by-step guides for pipelines, index management
  • 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
  • Pairs keyword search with semantic vector search so the LLM gets the best possible context.
  • Reranking plus smart prompts keep hallucinations low and citations precise.
  • Built on a scalable architecture that handles heavy query loads and massive content sets.
  • 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)
  • Fine-tune which sources and metadata the engine uses via query pipelines and filters.
  • Integrates with SSO/LDAP so results are tailored to each user’s permissions.
  • Developers can tweak prompt templates or inject business rules to shape the output.
  • 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
  • Enterprise Licensing – Pricing based on sources, query volume, features
  • 99.999% Uptime – Scales to millions of queries, regional data centers
  • Annual Contracts – Volume tiers with optional premium support
  • 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
  • ISO 27001/27018, SOC 2 – Plus HIPAA-compatible deployments available
  • Permission-Aware – Granular access controls, users see only authorized content
  • Private Cloud/On-Prem – Deployment options for strict data-residency requirements
  • 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
  • Analytics Dashboard – Tracks query volume, engagement, generative-answer performance
  • Pipeline Logs – Exportable for deeper analysis and troubleshooting
  • A/B Testing – Query pipeline experiments to measure impact, fine-tune relevance
  • 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
  • Enterprise Support – Account managers, 24/7 help, extensive training programs
  • Partner Network – Coveo Connect community with docs, forums, certified integrations
  • Regular Updates – Product releases and industry events for latest trends
  • 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
  • Coveo goes beyond Q&A to power search, recommendations, and discovery for large digital experiences.
  • Deep integration with enterprise systems and strong permissioning make it ideal for internal knowledge management.
  • Feature-rich but best suited for organizations with an established IT team to tune and maintain it.
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
  • Admin Console – Atomic components enable minimal-code starts
  • ⚠️ Developer Involvement – Full generative setup requires technical resources
  • Best For – Teams with existing IT resources, more complex than pure no-code
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-powered search/discovery with RGA for large-scale knowledge management
  • Target Customers – Large enterprises with complex content (SharePoint, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Confluence) needing permission-aware search
  • Key Competitors – Azure AI Search, Vectara.ai, Glean, Elastic Enterprise Search
  • Competitive Advantages – 100+ connectors, hybrid search, permission-aware results, 99.999% uptime SLA
  • Pricing – Enterprise licensing higher than SaaS chatbots; best value for unified search across massive content
  • Use Case Fit – Knowledge hubs, support portals, commerce sites with generative answers
  • 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 – Primary models via Azure OpenAI for high-quality generation
  • Model Flexibility – Relevance-Augmented Passage Retrieval API supports custom LLMs
  • Auto-Tuning – Handles model tuning, prompt optimization automatically; API override available
  • Search Integration – LLM tightly integrated with keyword + semantic search pipeline
  • 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
  • RGA (Relevance Generative Answering) – Two-step retrieval + LLM producing source-cited answers
  • Hybrid Search – Keyword + semantic vector search for optimal LLM context
  • Reranking & Smart Prompts – Keeps hallucinations low, citations precise
  • Permission-Aware – SSO/LDAP integration shows only authorized content per user
  • Query Pipelines – Fine-tune sources, metadata, filters for retrieval control
  • 99.999% Uptime – Scalable architecture for heavy query loads, massive content sets
  • 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
  • Industries – Financial Services, Telecommunications, High-Tech, Retail, Healthcare, Manufacturing
  • Internal Knowledge – Enterprise systems integration, permissioning for documentation, knowledge hubs
  • Customer Support – Support hubs with generative answers from knowledge bases, ticket history
  • Commerce Sites – Product search, recommendations, AI-powered discovery features
  • Content Scale – Large distributed content across SharePoint, databases, file shares, Confluence, ServiceNow
  • Team Sizes – Large enterprises with IT teams, millions of queries
  • 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
  • ISO 27001/27018, SOC 2 – International security, privacy standards for enterprises
  • HIPAA-Compatible – Deployments available for healthcare compliance requirements
  • Granular Access Controls – Permission-aware search, SSO/LDAP integration
  • Private Cloud/On-Prem – Options for strict data-residency requirements
  • 99.999% Uptime SLA – Regional data centers for mission-critical infrastructure
  • 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
  • Enterprise Licensing – $600 to $1,320 depending on sources, query volume, features
  • Pro Plan – Entry-level with core search, RGA for smaller enterprises
  • Enterprise Plan – Full-featured with advanced capabilities, higher volumes, premium support
  • Annual Contracts – Volume tiers with optional premium support packages
  • ⚠️ Consumption-Based – Pricing model can make costs hard to predict
  • Best Value For – Unified search across massive content, millions of queries
  • 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 – Account managers, 24/7 help, guaranteed response times
  • Partner Network – Certified integrations via Coveo Connect community
  • Documentation – Step-by-step guides for pipelines, index management, connectors
  • Training Programs – Admin console, Atomic components, developer integration
  • Regular Updates – Product releases, industry events for latest trends
  • 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
  • ⚠️ Developer Involvement – Full generative setup requires technical resources
  • ⚠️ Cost Predictability – Consumption-based pricing hard to predict for enterprise scale
  • ⚠️ IT Team Needed – Best for organizations with established technical teams
  • ⚠️ Enterprise Focus – Optimized for enterprises vs. SMBs or startups
  • NOT Ideal For – Small businesses, plug-and-play chatbot needs, immediate no-code deployment
  • 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 AI Integration – Coveo for Agentforce, expanded API suite, Design Partner Program (2024-2025)
  • Agent API Suite – Search API, Passage Retrieval API, Answer API for grounding agents
  • Salesforce Agentforce – Native integration for customer service, sales, marketing agents
  • AWS RAG-as-a-Service – MCP Server for Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Agents, Quick Suite (Dec 2024)
  • Four Tools – Passage Retrieval, Answer gen (Amazon Nova), Search, Fetch
  • Security-First – Inherits document/item-level permissions automatically for trusted answers
  • 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
  • Platform Type – Enterprise search with RAG-as-a-Service, Relevance Generative Answering (RGA)
  • RAG Launch – AWS RAG-as-a-Service announced December 1, 2024 as cloud-native offering
  • 40% Accuracy Improvement – RAG increases base model accuracy according to industry studies
  • Hybrid Search – Keyword, vector, hybrid search with relevance tuning
  • 100+ Connectors – SharePoint, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Confluence, databases, Slack
  • Best For – Enterprises with distributed content needing permission-aware search, knowledge hubs, generative answers
  • 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: Coveo vs SimplyRetrieve

After analyzing features, pricing, performance, and user feedback, both Coveo and SimplyRetrieve are capable platforms that serve different market segments and use cases effectively.

When to Choose Coveo

  • You value comprehensive enterprise search capabilities
  • Strong e-commerce and B2B features
  • Deep Salesforce integration

Best For: Comprehensive enterprise search capabilities

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 Coveo 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

Coveo 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

  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 Coveo 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 26, 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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