Ragie vs SimplyRetrieve: A Detailed Comparison

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

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

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

Welcome to the comparison between Ragie and SimplyRetrieve!

Here are some unique insights on Ragie:

Ragie.ai is built for developers who like options. Native connectors—from Google Drive to Notion—keep your data in sync, and extras like hybrid search and re-ranking let you fine-tune results.

That power comes with a bit more setup than pure “click-and-go” tools, so be ready to spend a little time dialing things in.

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 Ragie and SimplyRetrieve.

Comparison Matrix

Feature
logo of ragieaiRagie
logo of simplyretrieveSimplyRetrieve
logo of customGPT logoCustomGPT
Data Ingestion & Knowledge Sources
  • Comes with ready-made connectors for Google Drive, Gmail, Notion, Confluence, and more, so data syncs automatically.
  • Upload PDFs, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, or point it at a URL / sitemap to crawl an entire site and build your knowledge base.
  • Choose manual or automatic retraining, so your RAG stays up-to-date whenever content changes.
  • 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
  • Drop a chat widget on your site or hook straight into Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Microsoft Teams.
  • Webhooks and Zapier let you kick off external actions—think tickets, CRM updates, and more.
  • Built with customer-support workflows in mind, complete with real-time chat and easy escalation.
  • 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
  • Uses retrieval-augmented generation to give accurate, context-aware answers pulled only from your data—so fewer hallucinations.
  • Handles multi-turn chats, keeps full session history, and supports 95+ languages out of the box.
  • Captures leads automatically and lets users escalate to a human whenever needed.
  • 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
  • Tweak the widget’s look—logos, colors, welcome text, icons—to match your brand perfectly.
  • White-label option wipes Ragie branding entirely.
  • Domain allowlisting locks the bot to approved sites for extra security.
  • 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
  • Runs on OpenAI models—mainly GPT-3.5 and GPT-4—for answer generation.
  • Flip a switch between “fast” (GPT-4o-mini) and “accurate” (GPT-4o) depending on whether speed or depth matters most. Learn more
  • 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)
  • REST API covers everything—manage bots, ingest data, pull answers—with clear docs and live examples.
  • No-code drag-and-drop builder gets non-devs started fast; heavier lifting happens via API.
  • No official multi-language SDKs yet, but the plain-JSON API is easy to call from any stack.
  • 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
  • Built for support teams: embed on your site, plug into chat apps, and auto-escalate to agents.
  • Webhooks and the “Functions” feature let the bot do things like open tickets or update CRMs on the fly.
  • Retrain on a schedule or in real time through the API, so your answers stay fresh.
  • 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
  • Combines re-ranking, hybrid search, and smart partitioning for higher accuracy.
  • “Fast mode” skims essentials for speedy replies; flip to detailed mode when depth matters.
  • Fallback messages and human handoff keep users covered if the bot isn’t sure.
  • 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)
  • Update the KB anytime—just hit “retrain,” recrawl, or upload new files in the dashboard.
  • Set Personas and Quick Prompts to nail the bot’s tone and style.
  • Spin up multiple bots under one account—handy for different teams or domains.
  • 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
  • Three tiers: Growth (~$79/mo), Pro/Scale (~$259/mo), plus Enterprise for big deployments.
  • Costs scale with message credits, bots, pages crawled, and uploads—add capacity as you grow.
  • Designed to scale smoothly without costs ballooning linearly.
  • 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
  • Uses HTTPS/TLS in transit and encrypts data at rest—industry standard.
  • Data stays inside your workspace; formal SOC-2-style certifications are on the roadmap.
  • 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
  • Dashboard shows chat histories, sentiment, and key metrics.
  • Daily email digests keep your team in the loop without extra logins.
  • 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
  • Email support plus a “Submit a Request” form for new features or integrations.
  • Growing ecosystem—blog posts, Product Hunt launches, and a partner program for agencies.
  • 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
  • “Functions” feature lets the bot perform real actions (e.g., make a ticket) right in the chat.
  • Headless RAG API (SourceSync) gives devs a fully customizable retrieval layer.
  • 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
  • Guided dashboard: paste a URL or upload files and you’re up and running fast.
  • Pre-built templates, live demo, and a simple embed snippet make deployment painless.
  • Seven-day free trial lets teams test everything risk-free.
  • 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 Ragie vs SimplyRetrieve helpful.

If granular control tops your wish list, Ragie.ai delivers. Its toolkit rewards teams who don’t mind rolling up their sleeves for advanced configs.

Use the details that follow to see whether Ragie.ai’s flexibility lines up with your project—or if something simpler would do the trick.

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.