Coveo vs Supavec: A Detailed Comparison

Priyansh Khodiyar's avatar
Priyansh KhodiyarDevRel at CustomGPT
Comparison Image cover for the blog Coveo vs Supavec

Fact checked and reviewed by Bill. Published: 01.04.2024 | Updated: 25.04.2025

In this article, we compare Coveo and Supavec across various parameters to help you make an informed decision.

Welcome to the comparison between Coveo and Supavec!

Here are some unique insights on Coveo:

Coveo adds RAG features to its enterprise search platform, folding AI answers into a unified index of SharePoint, Salesforce, file shares, and more. It’s powerful, especially with built-in permission filters, but setup targets larger orgs that already rely on Coveo for search.

And here's more information on Supavec:

Supavec is an open-source RAG API for devs who want full control. Upload PDFs, Markdown, or raw text via REST and build your own connectors for other data. Flexibility is high, but you’ll write more code—there’s no one-click Google Drive or Notion sync.

The upside: you own the stack. The trade-off: extra scripting and a lack of a polished no-code UI.

Enjoy reading and exploring the differences between Coveo and Supavec.

Comparison Matrix

Feature
logo of coveoCoveo
logo of supavecSupavec
logo of customGPT logoCustomGPT
Data Ingestion & Knowledge Sources
  • Pulls content from a long list of enterprise sources—SharePoint, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Confluence, databases, file shares, Slack, websites—and merges it all into one index with native connectors.
  • Runs OCR and handles structured data, so it can index scanned docs, intranet pages, knowledge articles, and even multimedia.
  • Keeps the index fresh with incremental crawls, push APIs, and scheduled syncs—new or updated content shows up fast.
  • Drop content in via REST: upload PDFs, Markdown, or TXT [Upload File] or send raw text [Upload Text].
  • No one-click Google Drive or Notion connectors—you’ll script the fetch and hit the API yourself.
  • Because it’s open source, you can build connectors to anything—Postgres, Mongo, S3, you name it.
  • Runs on Supabase and scales sideways, chunking millions of docs for fast retrieval.
  • 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
  • Ships Atomic UI components you can drop into search pages, support hubs, or commerce sites to surface generative answers.
  • Connects natively to platforms like Salesforce and Sitecore, letting AI answers appear right inside tools your team already uses.
  • Need a custom channel? Its robust REST APIs let you build bespoke chatbots or virtual assistants on top of Coveo’s retrieval engine.
  • Pure REST for retrieval and generation—no built-in widget or Slack bot.
  • You code the chat UI or Slack bridge, calling Supavec for answers.
  • No Zapier—webhooks and automations are DIY inside your app.
  • If it speaks HTTP, it can talk to Supavec—you just handle the front-end.
  • Embeds easily—a lightweight script or iframe drops the chat widget into any website or mobile app.
  • Offers ready-made hooks for Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger. 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.
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.
  • Just the essentials: retrieve chunks + LLM answer. Calls are stateless, no baked-in chat history.
  • No lead capture or human handoff—add those in your own layer.
  • Pulls the right text fast, then lets your LLM craft the reply.
  • Perfect if you only need raw RAG and will build the conversation bits yourself.
  • Powers retrieval-augmented Q&A with GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 Turbo, keeping answers anchored to your own content.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • No pre-made UI, no theming—branding lives in whatever front-end you create.
  • Open source means zero “Supavec” label to hide—your app, your look.
  • Add domain checks or auth however you like in your code.
  • It’s “white-label” by default because Supavec is API-only.
  • 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.
LLM Model Options
  • Runs primarily on OpenAI GPT models via Azure OpenAI, delivering high-quality text.
  • If you prefer another model, the Relevance-Augmented Passage Retrieval API lets you plug in your own LLM.
  • Handles model tuning and prompt optimization behind the scenes, though you can override via API when needed.
  • Model-agnostic: defaults to GPT-3.5, but switch to GPT-4 or any self-hosted model if you’d like.
  • No fancy toggle—just change a config or prompt path in code.
  • No extra prompt magic or anti-hallucination layer—plain RAG.
  • Quality rests on the LLM you choose and how you prompt it.
  • Taps into top models—OpenAI’s GPT-4, GPT-3.5 Turbo, and even Anthropic’s Claude for enterprise needs.
  • 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 (API & SDKs)
  • Provides mature REST APIs and SDKs (Java, .NET, JavaScript) for indexing, connector management, and querying.
  • Ready-made Atomic and Quantic components help you add generative answers to the front end fast.
  • Docs are enterprise-grade, with step-by-step guides for pipelines and index management.
  • Straightforward REST endpoints for file uploads, text uploads, and search. [Examples]
  • No official SDKs—use fetch/axios or roll your own wrapper.
  • Docs are concise with JS snippets; Postman collection included.
  • Full source is on GitHub, welcoming community tweaks.
  • 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.
Integration & Workflow
  • Slots into enterprise workflows by indexing multiple systems without moving the data.
  • Incremental indexing and push updates mean new content is searchable almost immediately.
  • Generative answer widgets can be embedded wherever you need a unified search experience.
  • Think of it as a Lego brick: upload content, query matches, feed results to your LLM.
  • No built-in triggers—external actions are on you.
  • Scale horizontally on Supabase when self-hosted, or use the hosted plan (with API-call limits).
  • Big orgs can chat about higher tiers or dedicated infra for heavy traffic.
  • Gets you live fast with a low-code dashboard: create a project, add sources, and auto-index content in minutes.
  • Fits existing systems via API calls, webhooks, and Zapier—handy for automating CRM updates, email triggers, and more. Auto-sync Feature
  • Slides into CI/CD pipelines so your knowledge base updates continuously without manual effort.
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.
  • Accuracy = GPT quality + standard RAG lift—no extra guardrails.
  • Postgres vector search keeps retrieval snappy, even with millions of chunks.
  • No public head-to-head benchmarks yet; expect “typical GPT-3.5/4 RAG” results.
  • If you want citations or extra checks, you’ll prompt-engineer them yourself.
  • 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)
  • 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.
  • Upload or overwrite docs any time—re-embeds almost instantly.
  • Behavior lives in your prompts; there’s no GUI for personas.
  • Multi-lingual works fine—just tell the LLM in your prompt.
  • Add metadata, tweak chunking—then build logic around it as needed.
  • 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
  • Sold under enterprise licenses—pricing depends on sources, query volume, and feature set.
  • Scales to millions of queries with 99.999 % uptime and regional data-center options.
  • Usually involves annual contracts with volume tiers and optional premium support.
  • MIT-licensed open source: self-host for free (pay your own infra).
  • Hosted plans: Free (100 calls/mo), Basic $190/yr (750 calls/mo), Enterprise $1,490/yr (5 k calls/mo). [Pricing]
  • Need more calls? Negotiate or self-host to ditch caps.
  • Storage isn’t metered—only query volume counts toward the plan.
  • 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
  • Holds ISO 27001/27018 and SOC 2 certifications, plus HIPAA-compatible deployments.
  • Granular access controls ensure users only see what they’re authorized to view.
  • Can run in private cloud or on-prem for organizations with strict data-residency needs.
  • Self-hosting keeps everything on your servers—great for tight compliance. [Privacy note]
  • Hosted Supavec runs on Supabase with row-level security—each team’s data is fenced off.
  • No training on your docs—data stays yours.
  • Enterprises can go dedicated or on-prem for HIPAA/GDPR peace of mind.
  • 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
  • Built-in analytics dashboard tracks query volume, engagement, and generative-answer performance.
  • Detailed pipeline logs can be exported for deeper analysis.
  • Supports A/B testing in the query pipeline to measure impact and fine-tune relevance.
  • No dashboard baked in—log requests yourself or use Supabase metrics when self-hosting.
  • Hosted plan shows basic call counts; no transcript analytics out of the box.
  • Need deep insights? Wire up your own monitoring layer.
  • Designed to play nicely with external logging tools, not ship its own.
  • 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
  • Comes with enterprise-grade support—account managers, 24/7 help, and extensive training programs.
  • Large partner network and the Coveo Connect community provide docs, forums, and certified integrations.
  • Regular product updates and industry events keep you ahead of the curve.
  • Community help via GitHub/Discord; paid plans unlock email or priority support. [Docs]
  • Open-source means forks, PRs, and home-grown connectors are welcome.
  • Docs are lean—mostly endpoint references rather than big tutorials.
  • Code samples pop up in the community, but it’s not a huge library yet.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Powerful but best suited for organizations with an established IT team to tune and maintain it.
  • No vendor lock-in: transparent code, offline option, host wherever you like.
  • Focuses on core RAG—no SSO, dashboards, or fancy UI included.
  • Great for devs who want full control or must keep data in-house.
  • Conversation flow, advanced prompts, fancy UI—all yours to build.
  • 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
  • Admin console and Atomic components let you get started with minimal code.
  • The end-user search UI is polished, but full generative setup usually calls for developer involvement.
  • Great for teams that already have technical resources or use Coveo today; more complex than a pure no-code tool.
  • No drag-and-drop dashboard—everything’s via API or CLI.
  • Meant for code-first teams who’ll bolt it into their own chat or workflow.
  • Self-hosters can craft custom GUIs on top, but Supavec keeps the slate blank.
  • If you want a business-user UI like CustomGPT, you’ll layer that yourself.
  • 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.

We hope you found this comparison of Coveo vs Supavec helpful.

If robust search plus AI answers across many touchpoints is your goal—and you have the resources for a fuller implementation—Coveo is worth exploring. For a quick standalone chatbot, its breadth could be more than you need.

Supavec is perfect when you value transparency and control over convenience. If you’d rather avoid extra coding and maintenance, a managed, plug-and-play platform may be a better fit.

Stay tuned for more updates!

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Priyansh Khodiyar's avatar

Priyansh Khodiyar

DevRel at CustomGPT. Passionate about AI and its applications. Here to help you navigate the world of AI tools.