Deepset vs SciPhi

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 Deepset and SciPhi 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 Deepset and SciPhi, 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 Deepset if: you value mature open-source framework (since 2020)
  • Choose SciPhi if: you value state-of-the-art retrieval accuracy

About Deepset

Deepset Landing Page Screenshot

Deepset is open-source framework and enterprise platform for llm orchestration. Deepset is the creator of Haystack, the leading open-source framework for building production-ready LLM applications, and offers an enterprise AI platform for developing and deploying custom AI agents and applications. Founded in 2018, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.

Overall Rating
83/100
Starting Price
Custom

About SciPhi

SciPhi Landing Page Screenshot

SciPhi is the most advanced ai retrieval system. R2R is a production-ready AI retrieval system supporting Retrieval-Augmented Generation with advanced features including multimodal ingestion, hybrid search, knowledge graphs, and a Deep Research API for multi-step reasoning across documents and the web. Founded in 2023, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.

Overall Rating
89/100
Starting Price
Custom

Key Differences at a Glance

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

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Deepset
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SciPhi
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CustomGPTRECOMMENDED
Data Ingestion & Knowledge Sources
  • Gives developers a flexible framework to wire up connectors and process nearly any file type or data source with libraries like Unstructured.
  • Lets you push content into vector stores such as OpenSearch, Pinecone, Weaviate, or Snowflake—pick the backend that fits best. Learn more
  • Setup is hands-on, but the payoff is deep, domain-specific customization of your ingestion pipelines.
  • Handles 40 + formats—from PDFs and spreadsheets to audio—at massive scale Reference.
  • Async ingest auto-scales, crunching millions of tokens per second—perfect for giant corpora Benchmark details.
  • Ingest via code or API, so you can tap proprietary databases or custom pipelines with ease.
  • 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
  • API-first approach—drop the RAG system into your own app through REST endpoints or the Haystack SDK.
  • Shareable pipeline prototypes are great for demos, but production channels (Slack bots, web chat, etc.) need a bit of custom code. See prototype feature
  • Ships a REST RAG API—plug it into websites, mobile apps, internal tools, or even legacy systems.
  • No off-the-shelf chat widget; you wire up your own front end API snippet.
  • 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
  • Builds RAG agents as modular pipelines—retriever + reader, plus optional rerankers or multi-step logic.
  • Multi-turn chat? Source attributions? Fine-grained retrieval tweaks? All possible with the right config. Pipeline overview
  • Advanced users can layer in tool use and external API calls for richer agent behavior.
  • Core RAG engine serves retrieval-grounded answers; hook it to your UI for multi-turn chat.
  • Multi-lingual if the LLM you pick supports it.
  • Lead-capture or human handoff flows are yours to build through the API.
  • 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
  • No drag-and-drop theming here—you’ll craft your own front end if you need branded UI.
  • That also means full freedom to shape the visuals and conversational tone any way you like. Custom components
  • Fully bespoke—design any UI you want and skin it to match your brand.
  • SciPhi focuses on the back end, so front-end look-and-feel is entirely up to you.
  • 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
  • Model-agnostic: plug in GPT-4, Llama 2, Claude, Cohere, and more—whatever works for you.
  • Switch models or embeddings through the “Connections” UI with just a few clicks. View supported models
  • LLM-agnostic—GPT-4, Claude, Llama 2, you choose.
  • Pick, fine-tune, or swap models anytime to balance cost and performance Model options.
  • 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)
  • Comprehensive REST API plus the open-source Haystack SDK for building, running, and querying pipelines.
  • Deepset Studio’s visual editor lets you drag-and-drop components, then export YAML for version control. Studio overview
  • REST API plus a Python client (R2RClient) handle ingest and query tasks
  • Docs and GitHub repos offer deep dives and open-source starter code SciPhi GitHub.
  • 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
  • Tune for max accuracy with multi-step retrieval, hybrid search, and custom rerankers.
  • Mix and match components to hit your latency targets—even at large scale. Benchmark insights
  • Hybrid search (dense + keyword) keeps retrieval fast and sharp.
  • Knowledge-graph boosts (HybridRAG) drive up to 150 % better accuracy
  • Sub-second latency—even at enterprise scale.
  • 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)
  • Build anything: multi-hop retrieval, custom logic, bespoke prompts—your pipeline, your rules.
  • Create multiple datastores, add role-based filters, or pipe in external APIs as extra tools. Component templates
  • Add new sources, tweak retrieval, mix collections—everything’s programmable.
  • Chain API calls, re-rank docs, or build full agentic flows
  • 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
  • Start free in Deepset Studio, then move to usage-based Enterprise plans as you scale.
  • Deploy in cloud, hybrid, or on-prem setups to handle huge corpora and heavy traffic. Pricing overview
  • Free tier plus a $25/mo Dev tier for experiments.
  • Enterprise plans with custom pricing and self-hosting for heavy traffic Pricing.
  • 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
  • SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA—you’re covered for enterprise compliance.
  • Choose cloud, VPC, or on-prem to keep data exactly where you need it. Security compliance
  • Customer data stays isolated in SciPhi Cloud; self-host for full control.
  • Standard encryption in transit and at rest; tune self-hosted setups to meet any regulation.
  • 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
  • Deepset Studio dashboard shows latency, error rates, resource use—everything you’d expect.
  • Detailed logs integrate with Prometheus, Splunk, and more for deep observability. Monitoring features
  • Dev dashboard shows real-time logs, latency, and retrieval quality Dashboard.
  • Hook into Prometheus, Grafana, or other tools for deep monitoring.
  • 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
  • Lean on the Haystack open-source community (Discord, GitHub) or paid enterprise support. Community insights
  • Wide ecosystem of vector DBs, model providers, and ML tools means plenty of plug-ins and extensions.
  • Community help via Discord and GitHub; Enterprise customers get dedicated support
  • Open-source core encourages community contributions and integrations.
  • 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
  • Perfect for teams that need heavily customized, domain-specific RAG solutions.
  • Full control and future portability—but expect a steeper learning curve and more dev effort. More details
  • Advanced extras like GraphRAG and agentic flows push beyond basic Q&A
  • Great fit for enterprises needing deeply customized, fully integrated AI solutions.
  • 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
  • Deepset Studio offers low-code drag-and-drop, yet it's still aimed at developers and ML engineers.
  • Non-tech users may need help, and production UIs will be custom-built.
  • No no-code UI—built for devs to wire into their own front ends.
  • Dashboard is utilitarian: good for testing and monitoring, not for everyday business users.
  • 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: Developer-first RAG framework (Haystack) with enterprise cloud offering (Deepset Cloud) for heavily customized, domain-specific RAG solutions
  • Target customers: ML engineers and development teams needing deep RAG customization, enterprises requiring domain-specific solutions with modular pipeline architecture, and organizations wanting future portability with open-source foundation
  • Key competitors: LangChain/LangSmith, Contextual.ai, Dataworkz, Vectara.ai, and custom implementations using Pinecone/Weaviate
  • Competitive advantages: Open-source Haystack framework for full portability, model-agnostic with easy model switching via Connections UI, Deepset Studio visual pipeline editor with YAML export for version control, modular components (retriever, reader, reranker) for maximum flexibility, wide ecosystem of vector DB integrations (OpenSearch, Pinecone, Weaviate, Snowflake), and SOC 2/ISO 27001/GDPR/HIPAA compliance with cloud/VPC/on-prem deployment
  • Pricing advantage: Free Deepset Studio for development, then usage-based Enterprise plans; competitive for teams wanting deep customization without vendor lock-in; best value comes from open-source foundation enabling future migration if needed
  • Use case fit: Perfect for teams needing heavily customized, domain-specific RAG with multi-hop retrieval and custom rerankers, organizations requiring modular pipeline architecture for complex workflows, and ML engineers wanting developer-friendly APIs with future portability through open-source Haystack foundation
  • Market position: Developer-first RAG infrastructure (R2R framework) combining open-source flexibility with managed cloud service, specializing in enterprise-scale performance and advanced RAG techniques
  • Target customers: Development teams building high-performance RAG applications, enterprises requiring massive-scale ingestion (millions of tokens/second), and organizations wanting HybridRAG with knowledge graph capabilities for 150% accuracy improvements
  • Key competitors: LangChain/LangSmith, Deepset/Haystack, Pinecone Assistant, and custom RAG implementations
  • Competitive advantages: Async ingest auto-scaling to millions of tokens/second, 40+ format support including audio at massive scale, HybridRAG with knowledge-graph boosting (up to 150% better accuracy), sub-second latency even at enterprise scale, LLM-agnostic with easy model swapping (GPT-4, Claude, Llama 2), open-source R2R core for transparency and portability, and self-hosting options for complete control
  • Pricing advantage: Free tier plus $25/month Dev tier for experiments; enterprise plans with custom pricing and self-hosting; open-source foundation enables cost savings for teams with infrastructure expertise; best value for high-volume applications requiring enterprise-scale performance
  • Use case fit: Perfect for enterprises processing massive document volumes requiring async auto-scaling ingestion, development teams needing advanced RAG techniques (HybridRAG, knowledge graphs) for accuracy improvements, and organizations wanting open-source foundation with option to self-host for complete control and cost optimization
  • 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
  • Model-agnostic architecture: Supports GPT-4, GPT-3.5, Claude (Anthropic), Llama 2, Cohere, and 80+ model providers through unified interface
  • Easy model switching: Change models via Connections UI with just a few clicks without code changes
  • Embedding models: OpenAI, Cohere, Sentence Transformers, and custom embedding models supported
  • Multiple LLMs per pipeline: Use different models for different pipeline components (retrieval vs generation)
  • Custom model fine-tuning: Fine-tune on proprietary data for domain-specific terminology and accuracy
  • Baseline models available: Pre-configured with common models for quick prototyping
  • LLM-Agnostic Architecture: Supports GPT-4, GPT-3.5-turbo, Claude (Anthropic), Llama 2, and other open-source models
  • Model Flexibility: Easy model swapping to balance cost and performance without vendor lock-in
  • Custom Model Support: Configure any LLM via API, including fine-tuned or proprietary models
  • Embedding Models: Supports multiple embedding providers for semantic search and vector generation
  • Model Configuration: Full control over temperature, max tokens, and other generation parameters
  • 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
  • Advanced RAG architecture: Multi-step retrieval, hybrid search (semantic + keyword), and custom rerankers for maximum accuracy
  • Modular pipeline design: Flexible retriever + reader + optional reranker components for customized workflows
  • Multi-hop retrieval: Chain multiple retrieval steps for complex queries requiring deep context
  • Vector database flexibility: OpenSearch, Pinecone, Weaviate, Snowflake, Qdrant, and more - choose your preferred backend
  • Benchmark-proven performance: Published performance metrics on MTEB and domain-specific benchmarks
  • Source attribution: Full citation tracking with document references and confidence scores
  • Haystack framework: Open-source foundation enables complete RAG customization and future portability
  • HybridRAG Technology: Combines vector search with knowledge graphs for up to 150% accuracy improvement over traditional RAG
  • Hybrid Search: Dense vector retrieval + keyword search with reciprocal rank fusion for optimal precision
  • Knowledge Graph Extraction: Automatic entity and relationship mapping enriches context across documents
  • Agentic RAG: Reasoning agent integrated with retrieval for autonomous research across documents and web
  • Multimodal Ingestion: Process 40+ formats including PDFs, spreadsheets, audio files at massive scale
  • Async Auto-Scaling: Millions of tokens per second ingestion throughput for enterprise document volumes
  • Sub-Second Latency: Fast retrieval even at enterprise scale with optimized vector operations
  • 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
  • Domain-specific Q&A: Enterprise knowledge bases with specialized terminology requiring fine-tuned models
  • Research and analysis: Multi-hop retrieval for complex research questions across large document corpora
  • Technical documentation: Developer-focused RAG for code documentation, API references, and technical guides
  • Compliance and legal: HIPAA/GDPR-compliant RAG systems for regulated industries requiring on-prem deployment
  • Custom AI agents: Build specialized agents with external API calls, tool use, and multi-step reasoning
  • Enterprise search: Large-scale search across millions of documents with hybrid retrieval and reranking
  • Future-proof AI: Migrate between LLM providers, vector databases, and hosting options without vendor lock-in
  • Enterprise Knowledge Management: Process and search across millions of documents with knowledge graph relationships
  • Customer Support Automation: Build RAG-powered support bots with accurate, grounded responses
  • Research & Analysis: Agentic RAG capabilities for autonomous research across document collections and web
  • Compliance & Legal: Search and analyze large document repositories with precise citation tracking
  • Internal Documentation: Developer-focused RAG for code documentation, API references, and technical knowledge bases
  • Custom AI Applications: API-first architecture enables integration into any custom application or workflow
  • 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
  • SOC 2 Type II certification: Annual audits ensuring enterprise security standards
  • ISO 27001 certification: International information security management compliance
  • GDPR compliance: European data protection regulation adherence with data sovereignty options
  • HIPAA compliance: Healthcare data protection standards for sensitive medical information
  • Flexible deployment: Cloud, hybrid, VPC, or on-premises deployment for complete data control
  • Data residency options: Choose where data is stored and processed (US, EU, on-prem)
  • No model training on customer data: Customer data never used to train third-party models
  • Audit trails: Comprehensive logging of all queries, retrievals, and system access
  • Data Isolation: Customer data stays isolated in SciPhi Cloud with single-tenant architecture
  • Self-Hosting Option: Complete data control with on-premise deployment for regulated industries
  • Encryption Standards: Data encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest (AES-256)
  • Access Controls: Granular permissions down to document level with role-based access control
  • Audit Logging: Comprehensive logs for compliance tracking and security monitoring
  • Open-Source Transparency: R2R core is open-source enabling security audits and compliance validation
  • Custom Compliance: Self-hosted deployments can be tuned to meet specific regulatory requirements (HIPAA, SOC 2, etc.)
  • 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
  • Deepset Studio (Free): Development environment with unlimited files and core features for prototyping
  • Enterprise pricing: Custom usage-based pricing based on queries, documents indexed, and compute resources
  • Deployment options pricing: Cloud (managed SaaS), hybrid, or on-premises with separate pricing tiers
  • No per-seat charges: Usage-based model scales with actual platform usage, not team size
  • Professional services: Optional consulting, integration support, and custom pipeline development available
  • Scaling flexibility: Enterprise plans handle huge corpora (millions of documents) and heavy traffic loads
  • Open-source advantage: Haystack framework free forever - only pay for managed cloud services if needed
  • Free Tier: Generous free tier requiring no credit card for experimentation and development
  • Developer Plan: $25/month for individual developers and small projects
  • Enterprise Plans: Custom pricing based on scale, features, and support requirements
  • Self-Hosting: Open-source R2R available for free self-hosting (infrastructure costs only)
  • Managed Cloud: SciPhi handles infrastructure, deployment, scaling, updates, and maintenance
  • No Per-Request Fees: Flat subscription pricing without per-query or per-document charges
  • Cost Optimization: Self-hosting option enables cost savings for teams with infrastructure expertise
  • 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
  • Haystack community: Active Discord server and GitHub community (14,000+ stars) with responsive maintainers
  • Enterprise support tiers: Email, Slack Connect channels, and dedicated support engineers for paid customers
  • Comprehensive documentation: docs.cloud.deepset.ai with tutorials, API references, and integration guides
  • Video tutorials: YouTube channel with pipeline building guides and best practices
  • GitHub examples: Open-source example projects and starter templates for common use cases
  • Integration ecosystem: Wide community of vector DB providers, model vendors, and tool developers
  • Professional services: Custom development, architecture consulting, and hands-on implementation support available
  • Comprehensive Documentation: Detailed docs at r2r-docs.sciphi.ai covering all features and API endpoints
  • GitHub Repository: Active open-source development at github.com/SciPhi-AI/R2R with code examples
  • Community Support: Discord community and GitHub issues for peer support and troubleshooting
  • Enterprise Support: Dedicated support channels for enterprise customers with SLAs
  • Code Examples: Python client (R2RClient) with extensive examples and starter code
  • API Reference: Complete REST API documentation with curl examples and authentication guides
  • Developer Dashboard: Real-time logs, latency monitoring, and retrieval quality metrics
  • 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
  • Steeper learning curve: Developer-first platform requires ML/engineering skills - not ideal for non-technical users
  • Custom UI required: No drag-and-drop chat widget - must build production interfaces from scratch
  • Hands-on setup: More initial configuration effort compared to plug-and-play SaaS platforms
  • Deepset Studio limitations: Visual editor still aimed at technical users - requires understanding of RAG concepts
  • Production readiness: Moving from Studio prototype to production deployment requires additional DevOps work
  • Enterprise costs: Usage-based pricing can become expensive at high query volumes without careful optimization
  • Best for technical teams: Maximum value requires ML engineers and developers - not suited for business users seeking no-code solutions
  • Integration effort: Native integrations like Slack bots require custom code vs turnkey options from competitors
  • Developer-Focused: No no-code UI—requires technical expertise to build and wire custom front ends
  • Infrastructure Requirements: Self-hosting requires GPU infrastructure and DevOps expertise
  • Integration Effort: API-first design means building your own chat UI and user experience
  • Learning Curve: Advanced features like knowledge graphs and agentic RAG require understanding of RAG concepts
  • No Pre-Built Widgets: Unlike plug-and-play chatbot platforms, requires custom implementation
  • Community Support Limits: Open-source support relies on community unless on enterprise plan
  • Managed vs Self-Hosted Trade-offs: Cloud convenience vs self-hosting control requires careful evaluation
  • 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
  • AI Agents with Haystack: Build LLM-powered autonomous agents that can reason, reflect, and act using tools, data, and critical introspection into their own decision-making processes Building Agents
  • Spectrum Approach: Combines structured workflows with autonomous capabilities - AI systems exist on a spectrum between linearity and autonomy based on decision-making capability needs Agentic Spectrum
  • Planning Mechanisms: Agents break tasks into steps using chain-of-thought or tree-of-thought planning, enabling complex multi-step reasoning and execution
  • Dynamic Routing: LLMs serve as "brains" of decision systems, using reasoning capabilities to evaluate and choose among multiple tools, courses of action, databases, and resources based on context and goals
  • Reflection & Self-Correction: Agents analyze intermediate results through reflection mechanisms, improving accuracy and adapting strategies based on outcomes
  • Tool Integration: Modular pipeline design allows agents to use retriever, reader, reranker components, external API calls, and custom tools for richer autonomous behavior
  • Agentic RAG Enhancement: Build agentic RAG pipelines in Deepset Studio that combine graphs, agentic properties, multimodal capabilities, and innovations to significantly reduce inaccurate or misleading information Agentic RAG Guide
  • Custom Workflows: Create anything from multi-hop retrieval to custom logic to bespoke prompts - modular components enable building specialized agents for domain-specific autonomous workflows
  • Agentic RAG: Reasoning agent integrated with retrieval for autonomous research across documents and web with multi-step problem solving
  • Conversational Interface: Complex information retrieval maintaining context across multiple interactions via conversation_id for stateful dialogues
  • Multi-Turn Context Management: Agent remembers previous interactions and builds upon conversation history for follow-up questions
  • Advanced Toolset: search_file_knowledge (semantic/hybrid search), search_file_descriptions (metadata search), get_file_content (full document retrieval), web_search (live internet queries via Serper/Google), web_scrape (Firecrawl content extraction)
  • Deep Research API: Multi-step reasoning system fetching data from knowledgebase and/or internet for rich, context-aware answers to complex queries
  • Tool Orchestration: Dynamic tool invocation with intelligent routing based on query characteristics and context requirements
  • Citation Transparency: Detailed responses with citations to source material for fact-checking and verification
  • LIMITATION - No Pre-Built Chat UI: API-first platform requiring developers to build custom conversational interfaces - not a turnkey chatbot solution
  • LIMITATION - No Lead Capture/Analytics: Focuses on knowledge retrieval infrastructure - lead generation, dashboards, and human handoff must be implemented at application layer
  • 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: HYBRID RAG FRAMEWORK + CLOUD SERVICE - open-source Haystack foundation with enterprise Deepset Cloud offering for heavily customized, domain-specific RAG solutions
  • Core Architecture: Modular pipeline architecture with retriever + reader + optional reranker components, full control over embedding models, vector databases (OpenSearch, Pinecone, Weaviate, Snowflake), and chunking strategies
  • Agentic Capabilities: Build autonomous AI agents with planning, routing, reflection mechanisms using Haystack framework - supports agentic RAG pipelines with graphs and multimodal capabilities Agent Development
  • Developer Experience: Comprehensive REST API, open-source Haystack SDK, Deepset Studio visual pipeline editor with YAML export for version control - targets ML engineers and development teams Studio Overview
  • No-Code Capabilities: Deepset Studio offers drag-and-drop visual editor for pipeline building, but still aimed at developers and ML engineers - not accessible to non-technical users
  • Target Market: ML engineers and development teams needing deep RAG customization, enterprises requiring domain-specific solutions with modular pipeline architecture, organizations wanting future portability with open-source foundation
  • RAG Technology Leadership: Advanced RAG with multi-step retrieval, hybrid search (semantic + keyword), custom rerankers for maximum accuracy, model-agnostic support (GPT-4, Llama 2, Claude, Cohere, 80+ providers), and benchmark-proven performance on MTEB Benchmark Insights
  • Deployment Flexibility: Free Deepset Studio for development, usage-based Enterprise plans, cloud/VPC/on-prem deployment options, and SOC 2/ISO 27001/GDPR/HIPAA compliance with flexible data residency
  • Enterprise Readiness: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA compliance, cloud/hybrid/on-prem deployment, no model training on customer data, and comprehensive audit trails
  • Use Case Fit: Perfect for teams needing heavily customized domain-specific RAG with multi-hop retrieval and custom rerankers, organizations requiring modular pipeline architecture for complex workflows, ML engineers wanting developer-friendly APIs with future portability
  • Open-Source Advantage: Haystack framework (14,000+ GitHub stars) free forever with full portability - only pay for managed Deepset Cloud services if needed, avoiding vendor lock-in
  • NOT Suitable For: Non-technical teams seeking turnkey chatbots, business users wanting no-code deployment, organizations needing pre-built chat widgets or Slack/WhatsApp integrations
  • Competitive Positioning: Competes with LangChain/LangSmith, Contextual.ai, Dataworkz - differentiates through open-source Haystack foundation, model-agnostic flexibility, visual pipeline editor, and wide vector DB ecosystem
  • Platform Type: HYBRID RAG-AS-A-SERVICE - combines open-source R2R framework with SciPhi Cloud managed service for enterprise deployments
  • Core Mission: Bridge gap between experimental RAG models and production-ready systems with straightforward path to deploy, adapt, and maintain RAG pipelines
  • Developer Target Market: Built by and for OSS community to help startups and enterprises quickly build with RAG - emphasizes developer flexibility and control
  • Deployment Flexibility: Free tier + $25/month Dev tier, Enterprise plans with custom pricing and self-hosting options - unique among RAG platforms for offering both managed and on-premise
  • RAG Technology Leadership: HybridRAG (knowledge graph boosting for 150% accuracy improvement), async auto-scaling to millions of tokens/second, 40+ format support including audio at massive scale, sub-second latency
  • Open-Source Advantage: Complete transparency with R2R core on GitHub, enables customization and portability, avoids vendor lock-in while offering managed cloud option
  • Enterprise Features: Multimodal ingestion, agentic RAG with reasoning agents, document-level security, comprehensive observability, customer-managed encryption for self-hosted deployments
  • API-First Architecture: REST API + Python client (R2RClient) with extensive documentation, sample code, GitHub repos for deep integration control
  • LIMITATION vs No-Code Platforms: NO native chat widgets, Slack/WhatsApp integrations, visual agent builders, or pre-built analytics dashboards - developer-first approach requires technical resources
  • Comparison Validity: Architectural comparison to CustomGPT.ai is VALID but highlights different priorities - SciPhi developer infrastructure with self-hosting vs CustomGPT likely more accessible no-code deployment
  • Use Case Fit: Enterprises processing massive document volumes requiring async auto-scaling, development teams needing advanced RAG (HybridRAG, knowledge graphs) for accuracy improvements, organizations wanting open-source foundation with self-hosting for complete control
  • NOT Ideal For: Non-technical teams requiring no-code chatbot builders, businesses needing immediate deployment without developer involvement, organizations seeking turnkey UI widgets and integrations
  • 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

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Final Thoughts

Final Verdict: Deepset vs SciPhi

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

When to Choose Deepset

  • You value mature open-source framework (since 2020)
  • Production-ready from day one
  • Highly modular and customizable

Best For: Mature open-source framework (since 2020)

When to Choose SciPhi

  • You value state-of-the-art retrieval accuracy
  • Open-source with strong community
  • Production-ready with proven scalability

Best For: State-of-the-art retrieval accuracy

Migration & Switching Considerations

Switching between Deepset and SciPhi 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

Deepset starts at custom pricing, while SciPhi 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 Deepset and SciPhi 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 14, 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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