Pyx vs SimplyRetrieve: A Detailed Comparison

Priyansh Khodiyar's avatar
Priyansh KhodiyarDevRel at CustomGPT
Comparison Image cover for the blog Pyx vs SimplyRetrieve

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

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

Welcome to the comparison between Pyx and SimplyRetrieve!

Here are some unique insights on Pyx:

Pyx AI offers an internal knowledge search tool that employees can use right away—no APIs or code required. It’s great for quick wins inside the company but less flexible for external branding or deep integrations.

And here's more information on SimplyRetrieve:

SimplyRetrieve is an open-source RAG stack you run on your own hardware. It keeps data in-house and pairs with open-source LLMs, giving developers full visibility into the pipeline.

Expect hands-on setup—GPU drivers, Python deps, scripts—before you’re up and running.

Enjoy reading and exploring the differences between Pyx and SimplyRetrieve.

Comparison Matrix

Feature
logo of pyxPyx
logo of simplyretrieveSimplyRetrieve
logo of customGPT logoCustomGPT
Data Ingestion & Knowledge Sources
  • Focuses on unstructured data—you simply point it at your files and it indexes them right away. Appvizer mention
  • Keeps connected file repositories in sync automatically, so any document changes show up almost instantly.
  • Works with common formats (PDF, DOCX, PPT, text, and more) and turns them into a chat-ready knowledge store. Capterra listing
  • Doesn’t try to crawl whole websites or YouTube—the ingestion scope is intentionally narrower than CustomGPT’s.
  • Built for enterprise-scale volumes (exact limits not published) and aims for near-real-time indexing of large corporate data sets.
  • Uses a hands-on, file-based flow: drop PDFs, text, DOCX, PPTX, HTML, etc. into a folder and run a script to embed them.
  • A new GUI Knowledge-Base editor lets you add docs on the fly, but there’s no web crawler or auto-refresh yet.
  • 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
  • Comes with its own chat/search interface rather than a “deploy everywhere” model.
  • No built-in Slack bot, Zapier connector, or public API for external embeds.
  • Most users interact through Pyx’s web or desktop UI; synergy with other chat platforms is minimal for now.
  • Any deeper integration (say, Slack commands) would require custom dev work or future product updates.
  • Ships with a local Gradio GUI and Python scripts for queries—no out-of-the-box Slack or site widget.
  • Want other channels? Write a small wrapper that forwards messages to your local chatbot.
  • 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
  • Delivers conversational search over enterprise documents and keeps track of context for follow-up questions. Appvizer reference
  • Geared toward internal knowledge management—features like lead capture or human handoff aren’t part of the roadmap.
  • Likely supports multiple languages to some extent, though it’s not a headline feature the way it is for CustomGPT.
  • Stores chat history inside the interface, but offers fewer business-oriented analytics than products with customer-facing use cases.
  • Runs a retrieval-augmented chatbot on open-source LLMs, streaming tokens live in the Gradio UI.
  • Primarily single-turn Q&A; long-term memory is limited in this release.
  • Includes a “Retrieval Tuning Module” so you can see—and tweak—how answers are built from the data.
  • 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
  • Designed as an internal tool with its own UI, so only minimal branding tweaks (logo/colors) are available.
  • No white-label or domain-embed options—Pyx lives as a standalone interface rather than a widget on your site.
  • The look and feel stay “Pyx AI” by design; public-facing brand alignment isn’t the goal here.
  • Emphasis is on security and user management over front-end theming.
  • Default Gradio interface is pretty plain, with minimal theming.
  • For a branded UI you’ll tweak source code or build your own front end.
  • 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
  • Doesn’t expose model choice—Pyx likely runs GPT-3.5 or GPT-4 under the hood, but you can’t switch or fine-tune it.
  • No toggles for speed vs. accuracy; every query uses the same model configuration.
  • Focuses on its RAG engine with a single, undisclosed LLM—less flexible than tools that let you pick GPT-3.5 or GPT-4 explicitly.
  • No advanced re-ranking or multi-model routing options are mentioned.
  • Defaults to WizardVicuna-13B, but you can swap in any Hugging Face model if you have the GPUs.
  • Full control over model choice, though smaller open models won’t match GPT-4 for depth.
  • 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)
  • No open API or official SDKs—everything happens through the Pyx interface. No open API
  • Embedding Pyx into other apps or calling it programmatically isn’t supported today.
  • Closed ecosystem: no GitHub examples or community plug-ins.
  • Great for teams wanting a turnkey tool, but it limits deep customization or dev-driven extensions.
  • Interaction happens via Python scripts—there’s no formal REST API or SDK.
  • Integrations usually call those scripts as subprocesses or add your own wrapper.
  • 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
  • Intended for employees to log in and query knowledge—no default embedding into external apps or websites.
  • No automation triggers or webhooks; usage is manual: ask a question, get an answer.
  • Scales to large data sets and supports role-based access, but lacks concepts like multi-bot setups. User management note
  • For broader processes, each user still needs to open the Pyx app, limiting workflow integration.
  • Run it locally: prep a GPU box, drop data, run prepare.py to embed, then chat.py for the Gradio UI.
  • Updating content means re-running scripts or using the new Knowledge tab; scaling is a manual process.
  • 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
  • Aims to serve accurate, real-time answers from internal documents—though public benchmark data is sparse.
  • Likely competitive with standard GPT-based RAG systems on relevance and hallucination control.
  • No detailed info on anti-hallucination tactics or turbo re-ranking like CustomGPT touts.
  • Auto-sync keeps documents fresh, so retrieval context is always current.
  • Open-source models run slower than managed clouds—expect a few to 10 + seconds per reply on a single GPU.
  • Accuracy is fine when the right doc is found, but smaller models can struggle on complex, multi-hop queries.
  • 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)
  • Auto-sync keeps your knowledge base updated without manual uploads.
  • No persona or tone controls—the AI voice stays neutral and consistent.
  • Strong access controls let admins set who can see what, although deeper behavior tweaks aren’t available.
  • A closed, secure environment—great for content updates, limited for AI behavior tweaks or deployment variety.
  • Lets you tweak everything—KnowledgeBase weight, retrieval params, system prompts—for deep control.
  • Encourages devs to swap embedding models or hack the pipeline code 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
  • Uses a seat-based plan (~$30 per user per month). Per-user pricing
  • Cost-effective for small teams, but can add up if everyone in the company needs access.
  • Document or token limits aren’t published—content may be “unlimited,” gated only by user seats.
  • Offers a free trial and enterprise deals; scaling is as simple as buying more seats.
  • Free, MIT-licensed open source—no fees, but you supply the GPUs or cloud servers.
  • Scaling means spinning up more hardware and managing it yourself.
  • 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
  • Enterprise-grade privacy: each customer’s data is isolated and encrypted in transit and at rest.
  • Based in Germany, so GDPR compliance is implied; no data mixing between accounts.
  • Doesn’t train external LLMs on your data—queries stay private beyond internal indexing.
  • Role-based access is built-in, though on-prem deployment or detailed certifications aren’t publicly documented.
  • Entirely local: all docs and chat data stay on your own machine—great for sensitive use cases.
  • No built-in auth or enterprise security—lock things down in your own deployment setup.
  • 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
  • Admins get basic stats on user activity, query counts, and top-referenced documents.
  • No deep conversation analytics or real-time logging dashboards.
  • Useful for tracking adoption, but lighter on insights than solutions with full analytics suites.
  • Mostly “set it and forget it”—contact Pyx support if something seems off.
  • An “Analysis” tab shows which docs were pulled and how the query was built; logs print to the console.
  • No fancy dashboard—add your own logging or monitoring if you need broader stats.
  • 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
  • Offers direct email, phone, and chat support, plus a hands-on onboarding approach. Support info
  • No large open-source community or external plug-ins—it’s a closed solution.
  • Product updates come from Pyx’s own roadmap; user-built extensions aren’t part of the ecosystem.
  • Focuses on quick setup and minimal admin overhead for internal knowledge search.
  • Open-source on GitHub; support is community-driven via issues and lightweight docs.
  • Smaller ecosystem: you’re free to fork or extend, but there’s no paid SLA or enterprise help desk.
  • 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
  • Great if you want a no-fuss, internal knowledge chat that employees can use without coding.
  • Not ideal for public-facing chatbots or developer-heavy customization.
  • Shines as a single, siloed AI search environment rather than a broad, extensible platform.
  • Simpler in scope than CustomGPT—less flexible, but easier to stand up quickly for internal use cases.
  • Great for offline / on-prem labs where data never leaves the server—perfect for tinkering.
  • Takes more hands-on upkeep and won’t match proprietary giants in sheer capability out of the box.
  • 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
  • Presents a straightforward web/desktop UI: users log in, ask questions, and get answers—no coding needed.
  • Admins connect data sources through a no-code interface, and Pyx indexes them automatically.
  • Offers minimal customization controls on purpose—keeps the UI consistent and uncluttered.
  • Perfect for an internal Q&A hub, but not for external embedding or heavy brand customization.
  • Basic Gradio UI is developer-focused; non-tech users might find the settings overwhelming.
  • No slick, no-code admin—if you need polish or branding, you’ll build your own front end.
  • 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 Pyx vs SimplyRetrieve helpful.

If an easy internal search assistant is your goal, Pyx fits nicely. If you need full customization or external deployment, its closed approach could be limiting.

If local control and privacy outweigh convenience, SimplyRetrieve is a solid DIY route. Just be ready for the ongoing maintenance that comes with a self-hosted system.

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.