In this comprehensive guide, we compare SimplyRetrieve and Tidio 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 SimplyRetrieve and Tidio, 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 SimplyRetrieve if: you value completely free and open source
Choose Tidio if: you value exceptional ease of use: 4.7/5 g2 rating with 253 'ease of use' and 161 'easy setup' mentions
About SimplyRetrieve
SimplyRetrieve is lightweight retrieval-centric generative ai platform. SimplyRetrieve is an open-source tool providing a fully localized, lightweight, and user-friendly GUI and API platform for Retrieval-Centric Generation (RCG). It emphasizes privacy and can run on a single GPU while maintaining clear separation between LLM context interpretation and knowledge memorization. Founded in 2019, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.
Overall Rating
82/100
Starting Price
Custom
About Tidio
Tidio is no-code customer service automation with claude 3-powered ai chatbots. Customer service automation platform with Claude 3-powered Lyro AI achieving 67-90% resolution rates. Founded 2013 by Tytus Gołąs (Poland), serves 300,000+ businesses including Pizza Hut, Decathlon, Casio. NOT a RAG-as-a-Service platform—optimized for SMB/e-commerce no-code chatbot building with exceptional ease of use (4.7/5 G2, 1,600+ reviews). SOC 2 Type II + GDPR certified. Critical gaps: NO programmatic knowledge API, NO LLM model selection (Claude-only), NO cloud storage integrations. $0-$2,999+/month with per-conversation billing ($0.50/Lyro chat). Founded in 2013, headquartered in San Francisco, CA (offices in Szczecin and Warsaw, Poland), the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.
Overall Rating
87/100
Starting Price
$29/mo
Key Differences at a Glance
In terms of user ratings, both platforms score similarly in overall satisfaction. From a cost perspective, SimplyRetrieve starts at a lower price point. The platforms also differ in their primary focus: RAG Platform versus Customer Support. 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
SimplyRetrieve
Tidio
CustomGPTRECOMMENDED
Data Ingestion & Knowledge Sources
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.
Website URL crawling: Primary method scanning up to 500 URLs (expandable on Plus plans) with automatic Q&A pair extraction from web content
PDF uploads: Direct file upload support for PDF documents
CSV imports: Maximum 500 entries per file, 10,000 total Q&A limit across all sources
Manual Q&A creation: Admin panel configuration for custom question-answer pairs
Zendesk Help Center: Article import via API (closest to external knowledge integration available)
Automatic weekly re-sync: Website source updates available only on Plus/Premium plans
Continuous Q&A suggestions: System suggests new pairs from unanswered questions and historical conversations requiring manual review before activation
CRITICAL LIMITATION: No NO Word document (DOCX) support, No NO TXT files, No NO Excel files, No NO YouTube transcript processing, No NO audio/video file support, No NO code file ingestion
CRITICAL LIMITATION: No NO native cloud storage integrations - Google Drive, Dropbox, Notion connect via Zapier for workflows only (NOT as knowledge sources)
CRITICAL LIMITATION: No NO programmatic knowledge upload API - all data ingestion requires UI-based management, blocking automation workflows
Scaling constraint: 10,000 Q&A entry limit caps knowledge base size vs unlimited in RAG platforms
Per-conversation billing: Averaging $0.50 per AI conversation limits cost-effective scaling for high-volume use cases
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 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.
Omnichannel unified inbox: Website live chat, email ticketing, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp Business API managed in single dashboard
Zapier integration: Connects to 8,000+ apps, available free on all plans for workflow automation
CRM integrations: Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Pipedrive for customer data sync
E-commerce platforms: Shopify (deep integration with order management, cart preview, product recommendations), WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix
Webhooks: Require Plus subscription ($749/month) for bidirectional data sync via Tray.io with real-time event notifications
Marketing tools: Google Analytics, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign
CRITICAL GAPS: No NO native Slack integration (Zapier notifications only, not bidirectional chat), No NO Microsoft Teams integration, No NO Telegram native support (requires third-party Zapier/Make tools)
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.
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.
Lyro AI (Claude 3): 79-87% success rates (up from 50-70% pre-Claude 3 upgrade) with strict knowledge base boundaries preventing hallucinations beyond provided sources
Lyro Guidance (beta): Tone customization (Neutral/Friendly/Formal), emoji toggles, source link display, custom escalation rules, communication style instructions for brand voice consistency
Human Handoff Logic: Transfer to unassigned queue, keep conversation with rephrasing, or create ticket with email follow-up - preserves full chat history and context for seamless transitions
Smart Insights: AI-generated recommendations for improving metrics based on conversation pattern analysis - identifies optimization opportunities automatically
Live Visitor Tracking: Real-time monitoring with typing preview and conversation takeover capabilities for immediate human intervention when needed
45+ Language Support: Automatic browser-based detection with native multilingual processing (no internal English translation layer reduces accuracy loss)
Visual Flow Builder: Drag-and-drop interface for conversation flows with intent detection nodes, entity extraction, event triggers, variable management, memory retention
NO Anti-Hallucination Controls: Responses cannot be traced to source documents with citations - no citation attribution, source verification, or granular confidence scoring vs RAG platforms
NO Retrieval Parameter Configuration: Users cannot adjust similarity thresholds, implement hybrid search, configure confidence scoring, or tune retrieval mechanisms
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
Default Gradio interface is pretty plain, with minimal theming.
For a branded UI you’ll tweak source code or build your own front end.
UI customization: Visual live editor with theme presets, color pickers supporting custom hex codes, logo uploads, position controls (left/right), operating hours display automatically showing availability status
Branding control: Light/dark mode built-in theme switching with automatic user preference detection, custom CSS via JavaScript SDK for advanced styling beyond presets
White-labeling: $20/month addon on Growth tier OR included with Plus ($749+/month); not available on Free/Starter plans; custom branded agent avatars and logos require Plus plans minimum
Custom domain: Not explicitly documented in public materials; likely requires Plus or Premium plan with custom deployment infrastructure (specifics require sales engagement)
Design flexibility: Separate mobile widget settings with device-specific hiding options, mobile responsiveness with mobile-specific configuration separate from web widget
Mobile customization: Responsive widget adapts to mobile devices; mobile-specific branding controls inherit desktop configuration; mobile app functionality limitations noted in user reviews
Domain restrictions: Control which websites can embed widget through trusted domains configuration for security
Role-based access: Admin, Moderator, and Agent roles with configurable permissions on Growth+ plans; agent groups for departmental routing enabling organizational structure
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
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.
CRITICAL LIMITATION: No Claude 3 LLM ONLY - NO model selection or routing available
Proprietary implementation: Tidio uses Claude 3 combined with proprietary control mechanisms (not publicly documented architecture)
Fixed processing: Cannot switch between GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Gemini, Llama, or custom models based on query complexity or cost optimization
NO BYOLLM: No No bring-your-own-model capabilities for enterprise customization or fine-tuning
Response personalization: Limited to Lyro Guidance instructions (tone, emoji, escalation rules) rather than direct prompt engineering
Competitive gap: Eliminates LLM flexibility entirely vs RAG platforms offering multi-provider model selection (rated 3/10 for model flexibility - major architectural limitation)
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)
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.
Three API tiers: Widget SDK (tidioChatAPI - free), OpenAPI REST (Plus $749/month), Webhooks (Plus $749/month)
Widget SDK (free): Controls widget open/close, user identification, event tracking via JavaScript tidioChatAPI interface
OpenAPI (REST): Manages contacts, tickets, conversations, operators with 10-120 requests/minute based on plan (Starter/Growth: 10/min, Plus: 60/min, Premium: 120/min)
Webhooks (Plus+): Real-time event notifications for conversations, tickets, customer satisfaction with 10-second response timeouts
Mobile SDKs: iOS and Android with full Lyro AI support and 15-30 minute implementation time, customizable UI styling within apps
Documentation: developers.tidio.com (beta status) with code snippets and interactive testing but limited depth for advanced use cases
CRITICAL LIMITATION: No NO official SDKs for any programming language (Python, JavaScript, Node.js) - requires direct HTTP calls to REST API
CRITICAL LIMITATION: No NO programmatic knowledge management endpoints - cannot upload documents, manage Q&A pairs, or configure knowledge base via API
CRITICAL LIMITATION: No NO Lyro AI querying API - cannot trigger AI responses or access retrieval endpoints programmatically
CRITICAL LIMITATION: No NO RAG-specific APIs for semantic search, embedding management, chunking configuration, or retrieval parameters
Support gap: Tidio explicitly states 'cannot provide direct assistance with API implementations' - developer support severely limited
Ships a well-documented REST API for creating agents, managing projects, ingesting data, and querying chat.
API Documentation
Backs you up with cookbooks, code samples, and step-by-step guides for every skill level.
Performance & Accuracy
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.
Response time: Real-time chat delivery optimized for sub-second messaging; exact latency benchmarks not publicly disclosed but consistently praised for responsiveness in G2 reviews (4.7/5, 1,600+ reviews)
Accuracy metrics: 79-87% Lyro AI success rate after Claude 3 upgrade (up from 50-70% pre-upgrade); customer case studies report 89-90% automation rates for well-configured implementations (Pizza Hut, Decathlon, Casio)
Context retrieval: Q&A extraction from URLs/PDFs/CSVs with automatic knowledge base building; strict knowledge base boundaries prevent hallucinations; no configurable similarity thresholds or hybrid search strategies exposed
Scalability: 300,000+ businesses served globally demonstrating SMB/e-commerce market fit; infrastructure supports high-volume deployments but per-conversation pricing model ($0.50/Lyro chat) constrains cost scaling vs unlimited usage platforms
Reliability: SLA guarantees on Premium tier ($2,999+/month) with 50% resolution guarantee and uptime commitments; platform stability consistently praised in reviews with "reliable" as common theme
Benchmarks: No published performance benchmarks comparing retrieval speed, accuracy, or latency against competitors; Claude 3 upgrade validation through customer case studies (89-90% automation rates)
Quality indicators: G2 rating 4.7/5 (1,600+ reviews, 68% five-star ratings); users praise ease of use, Shopify integration, visual Flow Builder, but note analytics depth limitations and per-conversation pricing at 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.
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.
Knowledge Base Building: URL crawling (500 URLs expandable on Plus), PDF uploads, CSV imports (max 500 entries/file, 10,000 total Q&A limit), manual Q&A creation, Zendesk Help Center article import
Automatic Weekly Re-Sync: Website source updates available on Plus/Premium plans ensuring knowledge stays current without manual refresh
Continuous Q&A Suggestions: System suggests new pairs from unanswered questions and historical conversations requiring manual review before activation
Behavior Customization: Lyro Guidance enables tone (Neutral/Friendly/Formal), emoji toggles, escalation rules, communication style instructions without coding requirements
Visual Flow Builder: No-code workflow creation with real-time testing simulator, one-click deployment, automatic versioning with rollback capabilities for rapid iteration
HTTP Request Support: GET, POST, PATCH, PUT, DELETE within chatbot automation supporting JSON, Text, GraphQL formats with multiple authentication methods
40+ Pre-Built Templates: Sales, lead generation, support scenarios reduce time-to-deployment with industry-specific conversation flows
Widget Customization: Visual live editor with theme presets, color pickers (custom hex), logo uploads, position controls (left/right), operating hours display
CRITICAL LIMITATION - Opaque Q&A Extraction: Knowledge processing methodology not publicly documented - no transparency into chunking strategies, embedding models, or retrieval mechanisms
CRITICAL LIMITATION - NO Programmatic Knowledge API: Cannot upload documents, manage Q&A pairs, or configure knowledge base via API - all data ingestion requires UI-based management
CRITICAL LIMITATION - 10,000 Q&A Entry Limit: Hard cap on knowledge base size vs unlimited in RAG platforms constrains large-scale deployments
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
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.
Plus: $749/month - Custom billable (2,000+ conversations), up to 5,000 Lyro conversations, API access, webhooks, white-labeling, Customer Success Manager
Premium: $2,999+/month - Unlimited billable conversations, up to 10,000 Lyro conversations, 50% resolution guarantee, SLAs, unlimited operators
Per-conversation billing: Lyro AI costs approximately $0.50 per conversation (1 conversation = 1 customer interaction with AI reply, auto-closes after 15 minutes inactivity)
10-operator cap: Note: All self-serve plans (Free through Plus) limited to 10 operators - unlimited seats require Premium tier ($2,999+/month)
API access locked: Note: OpenAPI and Webhooks require Plus plan minimum ($749/month) - unavailable on Free/Starter/Growth tiers
White-labeling cost: Note: $20/month addon on Growth tier OR included with Plus ($749+/month)
Annual savings: ~20% discount when paying annually vs monthly billing
Cost scaling concern: Per-conversation model at $0.50/Lyro chat escalates costs at high volume vs unlimited usage in RAG platforms
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
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.
SOC 2 Type II: Achieved October 2025 through A-LIGN audit covering Security, Availability, and Confidentiality trust criteria
GDPR Compliant: May 2018 certification with designated Data Protection Officer and full subject rights support (access, rectification, erasure, portability)
AWS infrastructure: All customer data resides on AWS in EEA member countries for European data sovereignty
Encryption: TLS 1.2+ with 256-bit SSL for transit, AES-256 for data at rest, irreversible password hashing (no plaintext storage)
Two-factor authentication: TOTP-based 2FA available on all plans for account security
Role-based access control: Admin, Moderator, and Agent roles with configurable permissions on Growth+ plans
SSO: Single sign-on on Enterprise plans for centralized identity management
30-day audit logs: Available on Business plan for compliance tracking and security monitoring
AI data privacy: Lyro conversations NOT used for training public AI models - Anthropic's Claude processes in-session only without persistent data storage
LIMITATION: No NO HIPAA certification - SOC 2 Type II + GDPR only (Tidio indicates working toward healthcare compliance but no timeline)
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
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.
Agent-level performance: Individual response times, handled conversation counts, workload distribution for team optimization
Real-time monitoring: Live visitor lists, typing preview, conversation takeover capabilities for immediate intervention
Lyro-specific analytics: Resolution rates, unanswered questions tracking, knowledge base gap identification for continuous improvement
Smart Insights: AI-generated recommendations for metric improvement based on conversation pattern analysis
Scheduled reports: Daily/weekly/monthly delivery via email with CSV export for custom analysis in external tools
LIMITATION: Note: Analytics depth falls short of enterprise expectations - users report 'helpful but not as detailed as enterprise tools' with limited funnel and flow-level analytics
LIMITATION: No NO AI performance metrics - no retrieval accuracy dashboards, semantic search performance tracking, hallucination rate monitoring (focuses on operational metrics)
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
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.
Live chat support: Available with faster response times on higher tiers (24/7 on Plus/Premium)
Email support: All plans with tier-based priority levels
Customer Success Manager: Dedicated CSM on Plus ($749/month) for onboarding and optimization guidance
SLA guarantees: Premium tier ($2,999+/month) with 50% resolution guarantee and uptime commitments
Knowledge base: Self-service articles and video tutorials for common setup and troubleshooting scenarios
User satisfaction: 4.7/5 G2 rating (1,600+ reviews) with support quality consistently praised
LIMITATION: No NO public community forums or user groups for peer support and knowledge sharing
LIMITATION: No NO phone support available on any tier (chat and email only)
Developer support gap: Tidio explicitly states 'cannot provide direct assistance with API implementations' - technical support severely limited for custom 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
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.
Platform Classification: CUSTOMER SERVICE AUTOMATION PLATFORM with AI assistance, NOT a RAG-as-a-Service platform - designed for no-code chatbot building and agent productivity
Target Audience Fit: SMBs and e-commerce businesses needing easy chatbot deployment without developer dependency vs enterprises requiring programmatic RAG control
Primary Strength: Exceptional ease of use (4.7/5 G2, 253 'Ease of Use' mentions) with Visual Flow Builder enabling non-technical teams to deploy chatbots in minutes vs hours/days in API-centric platforms
Claude 3 AI Performance: 79-87% success rates (up from 50-70% pre-Claude 3 upgrade) with customer case studies reporting 89-90% automation for well-configured implementations (Pizza Hut, Decathlon, Casio)
Multilingual Excellence: 45+ languages with native processing (no internal English translation layer) and automatic browser detection reduces accuracy loss vs translation-based competitors
Shopify Integration Depth: Order management, cart preview/recovery, product catalog access directly from chat interface - 60,000+ WordPress installations validate e-commerce market fit
CRITICAL LIMITATION - NOT a RAG Platform: Missing RAG foundations (NO vector database, NO embedding controls, NO LLM model selection, NO anti-hallucination mechanisms, NO retrieval configuration APIs)
CRITICAL LIMITATION - Knowledge Source Gap: Limited to URLs, PDFs, CSVs with 10,000 Q&A entry limit vs unlimited documents and 1,400+ formats in RAG platforms
CRITICAL LIMITATION - Fixed Claude 3 Model: NO model selection, routing, or BYOLLM capabilities - eliminates LLM flexibility entirely (rated 3/10 for model flexibility)
API Limitations: OpenAPI and Webhooks require Plus plan minimum ($749/month) - unavailable on Free/Starter/Growth tiers limiting integration options
Cost Scaling Concern: Per-conversation model at $0.50/Lyro chat escalates quickly at high volume (1,000 AI conversations = $500/month) vs unlimited usage platforms
10-Operator Cap: All self-serve plans limited to 10 operators until Premium tier ($2,999+/month) restricting team scalability for growing businesses
Use Case Mismatch: Excellent for SMB customer service automation and e-commerce support; inappropriate for enterprise-scale document retrieval requiring accuracy controls
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
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.
Visual builder: Drag-and-drop Flow Builder for conversation automation with NLP intent recognition; no programming knowledge required (253 G2 'Ease of Use' mentions)
Setup complexity: 2-minute JavaScript snippet installation for website embedding; consistently praised in reviews for "easy setup" (161 G2 mentions) and rapid deployment
Learning curve: G2 rating 4.7/5 (1,600+ reviews) with "intuitive" interface for non-technical users; designed for business teams without developer resources vs API-centric platforms
Pre-built templates: 40+ pre-built templates for sales, lead generation, support scenarios reducing time-to-deployment; templates include common conversation flows and automation patterns
No-code workflows: Testing simulator validates flows before publishing with built-in emulation preventing production errors; export/import functionality for sharing flows between accounts or backup configurations
User experience: Lyro knowledge setup through simple URL or file upload with AI extracting Q&A pairs automatically - no technical skills required for configuration; HTTP request support (GET, POST, PATCH, PUT, DELETE) within chatbot automation supporting JSON, Text, GraphQL formats with multiple authentication methods
Competitive advantage: SMBs and non-technical teams deploy chatbots in minutes vs hours/days in API-centric platforms (9.5/10 rated differentiator for ease of use)
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: MIT-licensed open-source local RAG solution running entirely on-premises with open-source LLMs (no cloud dependency), designed for developers and tinkerers
Target customers: Developers experimenting with RAG locally, organizations with strict data isolation requirements (healthcare, government, defense), and teams wanting complete control without cloud costs or vendor dependencies
Key competitors: LangChain/LlamaIndex (frameworks), PrivateGPT, LocalGPT, and cloud RAG platforms for teams needing simplicity
Competitive advantages: Completely free and open-source (MIT license) with no fees or subscriptions, 100% local execution keeping all data on-premises, full control over model choice (any Hugging Face model), Python-based with full source code access for customization, "Retrieval Tuning Module" for transparency into answer generation, and zero external dependencies beyond local compute
Pricing advantage: Completely free with MIT license; only cost is GPU hardware or cloud compute; best value for teams with existing GPU infrastructure wanting to avoid subscription costs; requires technical expertise and hands-on maintenance
Use case fit: Ideal for offline/air-gapped environments requiring complete data isolation (defense, healthcare with strict PHI requirements), developers learning RAG internals and experimenting locally, and organizations with GPU infrastructure wanting zero cloud costs and complete control over LLM stack without vendor dependencies
vs CustomGPT: Tidio excels in no-code ease of use and e-commerce integration; CustomGPT excels in RAG architecture and programmatic control
vs Intercom/LiveChat/Zendesk: Tidio competes in customer service automation with comparable features, lower pricing, stronger Shopify integration
vs Drift: Both focus on conversational automation - Tidio emphasizes SMB/e-commerce support, Drift emphasizes enterprise sales teams
vs RAG platforms (Vectara, Pinecone Assistant, Ragie): Fundamentally different architecture - Tidio not designed for autonomous retrieval, lacks RAG infrastructure
Market niche: No-code customer service automation for SMBs and e-commerce with exceptional ease of use (4.7/5 G2), NOT a RAG alternative for knowledge retrieval
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
Hugging Face Compatibility: Swap in any Hugging Face model with sufficient GPU resources (Llama 2, Falcon, Mistral, etc.)
Full Local Control: Models run entirely on-premises with no external API calls or cloud dependencies
Embedding Model: Default multilingual-e5-base for retrieval with option to swap for other embedding models
Model Customization: Fine-tune or quantize models for specific use cases and hardware constraints
No Vendor Lock-In: Complete flexibility to use any open-source LLM without subscription fees or API limits
GPU Requirements: Smaller models may not match GPT-4 depth but enable complete data isolation and zero operational costs
Fixed Claude 3 implementation: Lyro AI exclusively powered by Anthropic's Claude 3 with proprietary control mechanisms - no model selection available
Model selection rationale: Claude chosen for being "developed with the goal of becoming helpful, honest, and harmless" - explicit decision prioritizing safety over GPT alternatives
Success rate improvement: 79-87% automation rate after Claude 3 upgrade (up from 50-70% with pre-Claude 3 models) demonstrating significant performance gains
Customer automation rates: Case studies report 89-90% automation for well-configured implementations (Pizza Hut, Decathlon, Casio validation)
CRITICAL LIMITATION: NO model switching: Cannot switch between GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Gemini, Llama, or custom models based on query complexity or cost optimization needs
CRITICAL LIMITATION: NO BYOLLM: No bring-your-own-model capabilities for enterprise customization or fine-tuning on proprietary data
CRITICAL LIMITATION: NO automatic routing: No intelligent model routing, fallback strategies, or load balancing across different LLM providers
Response personalization limits: Customization restricted to Lyro Guidance instructions (tone, emoji, escalation rules) rather than direct prompt engineering or system prompts
Competitive gap: Eliminates LLM flexibility entirely vs RAG platforms offering multi-provider model selection (rated 3/10 for model flexibility - major architectural limitation)
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
Retrieval-Centric Generation (RCG): Research-backed approach explicitly separating LLM roles from knowledge memorization for more efficient implementation
Retrieval Tuning Module: Transparency into answer generation showing which documents were retrieved and how queries were built
Mixtures-of-Knowledge-Bases (MoKB): Multiple selectable knowledge bases with intelligent routing between knowledge sources
Explicit Prompt-Weighting (EPW): Control over retrieved knowledge base weighting in final answer generation
FAISS Vector Search: Fast approximate nearest neighbor search using Facebook's FAISS library for efficient retrieval
On-the-Fly Knowledge Base Creation: Drag-and-drop documents in GUI to create knowledge bases without manual preprocessing
Analysis Tab: Visual debugging showing document retrieval process and query construction for transparency
Multiple Document Support: Handles PDFs, text files, DOCX, PPTX, HTML, and other common formats
CRITICAL ARCHITECTURAL GAP: NOT a RAG-as-a-Service platform: Lacks vector databases, embedding controls, and configurable retrieval pipelines found in true RAG systems
Q&A extraction system: Automatic Q&A pair generation from URLs/PDFs/CSVs through opaque internal processing - methodology not publicly documented
Knowledge base boundaries: Strict knowledge base boundaries prevent hallucinations - Lyro answers only from provided sources and automatically escalates when uncertain
NO chunking parameters exposed: Chunk size, overlap strategy, and chunking methodology not accessible for optimization or tuning
NO embedding model selection: Cannot choose between OpenAI, Cohere, custom embedding models, or configure embedding dimensions
NO similarity threshold controls: Cannot configure cosine similarity thresholds, retrieval scoring, confidence levels, or top-k results
NO hybrid search: No combination of keyword (BM25) and semantic search strategies or configurable weighting between approaches
NO anti-hallucination mechanisms: No citation attribution, source verification, or granular confidence scoring - responses cannot be traced to specific source documents
NO retrieval APIs: No programmatic access to semantic search, embedding management, or retrieval endpoints - knowledge management UI-only
Competitive positioning: Customer service automation platform with AI assistance, NOT autonomous knowledge retrieval system - fundamentally different architecture from RAG platforms (rated 2/10 as RAG platform)
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
Air-Gapped Environments: Defense, classified research, and secure facilities requiring complete offline operation without external connectivity
Healthcare PHI Compliance: HIPAA-regulated organizations needing 100% data isolation for protected health information
RAG Research & Education: Developers learning RAG internals with full visibility into retrieval and generation processes
Local Experimentation: Prototype RAG applications locally before committing to cloud infrastructure and subscription costs
Data Sovereignty: Organizations with strict data residency requirements preventing cloud storage or processing
Zero-Cost RAG: Teams with existing GPU infrastructure wanting to avoid subscription fees for RAG capabilities
Custom Model Development: Research teams fine-tuning and testing custom LLMs and embedding models for specific domains
SMB customer service automation: Perfect for small-to-medium businesses needing easy chatbot deployment for basic support queries (4.7/5 G2 rating, 1,600+ reviews)
E-commerce support: Deep Shopify/WooCommerce integration for order management, cart recovery, and product recommendations - 60,000+ WordPress installations demonstrate e-commerce fit
Multi-channel support: Unified inbox for website live chat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp Business API, email ticketing (omnichannel deployment)
No-code chatbot building: Visual Flow Builder with 40+ templates enables non-technical teams to deploy chatbots in minutes without developer resources
Lead generation and qualification: Capture visitor information, qualify leads through conversation flows, sync to CRM platforms (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive)
NOT ideal for: Enterprise-scale document retrieval requiring accuracy controls, RAG applications needing semantic search and embedding configuration, or knowledge-intensive use cases requiring citation validation
NOT ideal for: Organizations requiring programmatic knowledge management APIs, LLM model flexibility (GPT-4/Gemini switching), or advanced RAG features (hybrid search, reranking, query expansion)
NOT ideal for: High-volume automation (per-conversation pricing at $0.50/chat escalates costs vs unlimited usage platforms), teams needing more than 10 operators (Premium tier required at $2,999+/month)
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)
Compliance Flexibility: Can be configured to meet HIPAA, FedRAMP, GDPR, or other regulatory requirements through deployment architecture
SOC 2 Type II certified: Achieved October 2025 through A-LIGN audit covering Security, Availability, and Confidentiality trust criteria - demonstrates enterprise-grade security controls
GDPR Compliant: May 2018 certification with designated Data Protection Officer and full subject rights support (access, rectification, erasure, portability, restriction)
AWS infrastructure: All customer data resides on AWS in EEA member countries for European data sovereignty and GDPR compliance
Encryption standards: TLS 1.2+ with 256-bit SSL for data in transit, AES-256 for data at rest, irreversible password hashing (no plaintext storage)
Two-factor authentication: TOTP-based 2FA available on all plans for account security hardening
Role-based access control: Admin, Moderator, and Agent roles with configurable permissions on Growth+ plans; agent groups for departmental routing
SSO: Single sign-on available on Enterprise plans for centralized identity management and authentication
30-day audit logs: Available on Business plan for compliance tracking, security monitoring, and incident investigation
AI data privacy: Lyro conversations NOT used for training public AI models - Anthropic's Claude processes in-session only without persistent data storage or model training
LIMITATION: NO HIPAA certification: SOC 2 Type II + GDPR only - Tidio indicates working toward healthcare compliance but no timeline or BAA availability
LIMITATION: Limited compliance scope: No ISO 27001, PCI DSS Level 1, or FedRAMP certifications limiting adoption in regulated industries beyond basic GDPR
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
Completely Free: MIT open-source license with no subscription fees, API charges, or usage limits
Infrastructure Costs Only: GPU hardware or cloud compute (AWS/GCP/Azure GPU instances) are the only expenses
No Per-Query Charges: Unlimited queries without per-request pricing or rate limits
No Vendor Fees: Zero payments to SaaS providers or LLM API vendors (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)
GPU Requirements: Single GPU sufficient for development; scale hardware based on throughput needs
Open-Source Ecosystem: Leverage free Hugging Face models, FAISS library, and PyTorch without licensing costs
Best Value For: Teams with existing GPU infrastructure or ability to provision cloud GPU instances economically
Growth: $59-$349/month - 250-2,000 billable conversations, Lyro separate addon, advanced analytics, Shopify actions, 10 operators, agent groups
Plus: $749/month - Custom billable (2,000+ conversations), up to 5,000 Lyro conversations, API access, webhooks, white-labeling, Customer Success Manager, 10 operators
Premium: $2,999+/month - Unlimited billable conversations, up to 10,000 Lyro conversations, 50% resolution guarantee, SLAs, unlimited operators, dedicated support
Lyro AI pricing: Approximately $0.50 per conversation (1 conversation = 1 customer interaction with AI reply, auto-closes after 15 minutes inactivity) - separate addon on Growth tier
10-operator cap NOTE: All self-serve plans (Free through Plus) limited to 10 operators - unlimited seats require Premium tier ($2,999+/month) blocking team scalability
API access locked: OpenAPI REST endpoints and Webhooks require Plus plan minimum ($749/month) - unavailable on Free/Starter/Growth tiers limiting integration options
White-labeling cost: $20/month addon on Growth tier OR included with Plus ($749+/month) - not available on Free/Starter plans
Annual savings: Approximately 20% discount when paying annually vs monthly billing across all tiers
Cost scaling concern: Per-conversation model at $0.50/Lyro chat escalates costs significantly at high volume vs unlimited usage in RAG platforms - $500/month for 1,000 AI conversations
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
GitHub Repository: Open-source at github.com/RCGAI/SimplyRetrieve with code, documentation, and examples
Research Paper: Academic publication on arXiv (2308.03983) explaining RCG approach and architecture
Community Support: GitHub Issues for bug reports, feature requests, and community troubleshooting
Lightweight Documentation: README and docs directory with setup instructions and usage examples
No Paid Support: Community-driven support only; no SLAs or enterprise help desk available
Code Examples: Example scripts and Jupyter notebooks demonstrating core functionality
Academic Background: Built on established libraries (Hugging Face, Gradio, PyTorch, FAISS) with extensive external documentation
Live chat support: Available on all plans with tier-based response times (24/7 on Plus/Premium vs business hours on lower tiers)
Email support: All plans with priority levels based on subscription tier - fastest response on Premium
Customer Success Manager: Dedicated CSM on Plus ($749/month) for onboarding guidance, optimization strategy, and ongoing consultation
SLA guarantees: Premium tier ($2,999+/month) with 50% resolution guarantee and uptime commitments for mission-critical deployments
Knowledge base: Self-service articles and video tutorials for common setup scenarios, troubleshooting guides, and feature configuration
User satisfaction: 4.7/5 G2 rating (1,600+ reviews) with support quality consistently praised; 68% five-star ratings demonstrate high satisfaction
LIMITATION: NO public community forums: No user community, Slack workspace, or Discord server for peer support and knowledge sharing among users
LIMITATION: NO phone support: No phone support available on any tier (chat and email only) limiting support options for urgent issues
Developer support gap: Tidio explicitly states 'cannot provide direct assistance with API implementations' - technical support severely limited for custom integrations requiring code
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
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
Developer-Only Tool: Requires Python expertise, GPU knowledge, and technical setup—not suitable for non-technical users
GPU Infrastructure Required: Needs dedicated GPU hardware or cloud GPU instances with associated costs and management overhead
Basic UI: Gradio interface is functional but not polished—requires custom front-end development for production use
Limited Scalability: Scaling requires manual infrastructure management and load balancing vs auto-scaling cloud platforms
No Enterprise Features: Missing multi-tenancy, user management, advanced analytics, and production-grade monitoring
Slower Inference: Open-source models on single GPU (few to 10+ seconds per reply) vs sub-second cloud API responses
Manual Knowledge Base Updates: No automatic web crawling, syncing, or scheduled reindexing capabilities
No Pre-Built Integrations: Requires custom development to integrate with Slack, websites, or support platforms
Limited Context Memory: Primarily single-turn Q&A with minimal conversation history retention
Maintenance Burden: User responsible for updates, model management, troubleshooting, and infrastructure maintenance
NOT a RAG platform: Customer service automation platform, NOT RAG-as-a-Service - lacks vector databases, embedding controls, configurable retrieval pipelines (rated 2/10 as RAG alternative)
Limited knowledge sources: Restricted to URLs, PDFs, CSVs with 10,000 Q&A entry limit vs unlimited documents and 1,400+ formats in RAG platforms
No programmatic knowledge API: Cannot upload documents, manage Q&A pairs, or configure knowledge base via API - all knowledge management requires UI interaction
No Lyro AI querying API: Cannot trigger AI responses or access retrieval endpoints programmatically - API limited to chat operations (contacts, tickets, conversations)
Fixed Claude 3 model: NO model selection, routing, or BYOLLM capabilities - eliminates LLM flexibility entirely (rated 3/10 for model flexibility)
Analytics depth limitations: Users report analytics "helpful but not as detailed as enterprise tools" with limited funnel and flow-level analytics vs specialized platforms
No AI performance metrics: No retrieval accuracy dashboards, semantic search performance tracking, hallucination rate monitoring, or confidence scoring visibility
Per-conversation pricing scaling: $0.50/Lyro chat costs escalate quickly at high volumes (1,000 AI conversations = $500/month) vs unlimited usage competitors
10-operator cap constraint: Self-serve plans limited to 10 operators until Premium tier ($2,999+/month) restricting team scalability for growing businesses
No native Slack/Teams integration: Only Zapier notifications available - no bidirectional chat or native bot deployment in workplace messaging platforms
Knowledge Base accuracy concerns: Opaque Q&A extraction methodology without retrieval parameter controls or hybrid search capabilities limiting accuracy vs specialized RAG platforms
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
Retrieval-Centric Generation (RCG): Research-backed approach separating LLM reasoning capabilities from knowledge memorization—more efficient than traditional RAG architectures
Retrieval Tuning Module: Developer-focused transparency layer showing which documents were retrieved, how queries were constructed, and how answers were generated
Knowledge Base Mixing (MoKB): Route queries across multiple selectable knowledge bases with intelligent source selection and weighting
Explicit Prompt Weighting (EPW): Fine-grained control over retrieved knowledge base influence in final answer generation
Single-Turn Q&A Focus: Primarily designed for single-turn question answering—limited multi-turn conversation and context memory
Analysis Tab Transparency: Visual debugging interface showing document retrieval process and query construction for answer inspection
Local Agent Execution: All agent processing happens on-premises with zero external API calls—complete control over agent behavior and data
LIMITATION - No Chatbot UI: Gradio interface for developers only—no polished conversational interface for end users or production deployment
LIMITATION - No Lead Capture: No built-in lead generation, email collection, or CRM integration capabilities—manual implementation required
LIMITATION - No Human Handoff: No escalation workflows, live agent transfer, or fallback mechanisms for complex queries—developer must build these features
LIMITATION - No Multi-Channel Support: No native integrations with Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, or website widgets—requires custom wrapper development
LIMITATION - No Session Management: Stateless interactions without conversation history tracking or multi-turn context retention
Lyro AI (Claude 3): 79-87% success rates (up from 50-70% pre-Claude 3 upgrade) with strict knowledge base boundaries preventing hallucinations
Lyro Guidance (beta): Tone customization (Neutral/Friendly/Formal), emoji toggles, source link display, custom escalation rules, communication style instructions
Human handoff: Transfer to unassigned queue, keep conversation with rephrasing, or create ticket with email follow-up - preserves full chat history and context
Smart Insights: AI-generated recommendations for improving metrics based on conversation analysis
Live visitor tracking: Real-time monitoring with typing preview and conversation takeover capabilities
45+ language support: Automatic browser-based detection with native multilingual processing (no internal English translation layer)
LIMITATION: No NO anti-hallucination controls beyond knowledge base boundaries - responses cannot be traced to source documents with citations (vs RAG platforms)
LIMITATION: No NO retrieval parameter configuration - users cannot adjust similarity thresholds, implement hybrid search, or configure confidence scoring
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: NOT A RAG-AS-A-SERVICE PLATFORM - Open-source academic research project for local Retrieval-Centric Generation experimentation and learning
Core Mission: Provide localized, lightweight, user-friendly interface to Retrieval-Centric Generation (RCG) approach for machine learning community exploration and research
Academic Foundation: Published research tool from RCGAI with arXiv paper (2308.03983) explaining RCG methodology and architectural design decisions
Target Market: Researchers, developers, and organizations experimenting with RAG locally without cloud dependencies—NOT commercial service users
Self-Hosted Infrastructure: MIT-licensed tool requiring user-managed GPU hardware or cloud compute—no managed infrastructure, APIs, or service-level agreements
Developer-First Design: Python-based with Gradio GUI and script execution—intended for technical users comfortable with GPU infrastructure and model management
RAG Implementation: Retrieval-Centric Generation (RCG) philosophy emphasizing retrieval over memorization—FAISS vector search with open-source LLMs (WizardVicuna-13B default, any Hugging Face model supported)
API Availability: NO formal REST API or SDKs—interaction via Python scripts and local Gradio interface requiring subprocess calls or custom wrappers
Data Privacy Advantage: 100% local execution with zero external transmission—ideal for classified, PHI, PII, or confidential data requiring air-gapped processing
Pricing Model: Completely free (MIT license) with no subscription fees—only cost is GPU hardware or cloud compute infrastructure
Support Model: Community-driven GitHub Issues and lightweight documentation—no paid support, SLAs, or customer success teams
LIMITATION vs Managed Services: NO managed infrastructure, automatic scaling, production-grade monitoring, enterprise security controls, or commercial support—users responsible for all operational aspects
LIMITATION - No Service Features: NO authentication systems, multi-tenancy, user management, analytics dashboards, or SaaS conveniences—pure research/development tool
Comparison Validity: Architectural comparison to commercial RAG-as-a-Service platforms like CustomGPT.ai is MISLEADING—SimplyRetrieve is open-source research tool for on-premises experimentation, not production service
Use Case Fit: Perfect for offline/air-gapped RAG research, developers learning RAG internals with full transparency, organizations with strict data isolation requirements (defense, healthcare PHI compliance), and teams wanting zero cloud costs with existing GPU infrastructure
Platform classification: CUSTOMER SERVICE AUTOMATION PLATFORM with AI assistance, NOT a RAG-as-a-Service platform
Architecture philosophy: Designed for no-code chatbot building and agent productivity enhancement, not autonomous knowledge retrieval
Target audience: SMBs and e-commerce businesses needing easy chatbot deployment vs developers requiring programmatic RAG control
Missing RAG foundations: NO vector database, NO embedding controls, NO LLM model selection, NO anti-hallucination mechanisms, NO retrieval configuration APIs
Knowledge source gap: Limited to URLs, PDFs, CSVs (max 10,000 Q&A entries) vs 1,400+ formats and unlimited scaling in RAG platforms
API focus: Chat operations (contacts, tickets, conversations) vs RAG operations (semantic search, retrieval, embeddings, chunking)
Use case fit: Excellent for SMB customer service automation and e-commerce support, inappropriate for enterprise-scale document retrieval requiring accuracy controls
Competitive positioning: Different category from CustomGPT - customer service automation vs RAG-as-a-Service (rated 2/10 as RAG platform - fundamentally different architecture)
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
Shopify Deep Integration ( Core Differentiator)
N/A
Order management: View customer order history, track shipments, process refunds directly from chat interface without leaving conversation
Cart preview and recovery: See abandoned carts, send automated recovery messages, provide product recommendations based on browsing
Product catalog access: Search and display products from Shopify store within chat with images, pricing, and direct purchase links
Customer data sync: Automatic synchronization of customer profiles, purchase history, preferences for personalized support
Competitive positioning: Deep Shopify/WooCommerce capabilities vs RAG platforms' generic web integrations position Tidio strongly for e-commerce use cases
No-code automation: Drag-and-drop interface for conversation flow creation without programming knowledge (253 G2 'Ease of Use' mentions)
40+ pre-built templates: Sales, lead generation, support scenarios reduce time-to-deployment for common use cases
Testing simulator: Validate flows before publishing with built-in emulation preventing production errors
Export/import functionality: Share flows between accounts or backup configurations for versioning
HTTP request support: GET, POST, PATCH, PUT, DELETE within chatbot automation supporting JSON, Text, GraphQL formats with multiple authentication methods
Target audience advantage: Non-technical business users can deploy chatbots in minutes vs developer-required platforms (9/10 rated differentiator for SMBs)
User feedback: G2 reviews cite 'Easy Setup' (161 mentions) and 'intuitive' workflow design as primary strengths
N/A
Claude 3 A I Performance ( Differentiator)
N/A
Model selection rationale: Anthropic's Claude chosen for being "developed with the goal of becoming helpful, honest, and harmless" - explicit decision over GPT
Success rate improvement: Jumped from 50-70% to 79-87% after Claude 3 upgrade demonstrating significant model advancement
Customer automation rates: Case studies report 89-90% automation for well-configured implementations (Pizza Hut, Decathlon, Casio use cases)
Hallucination prevention: Strict knowledge base boundaries - Lyro answers only from provided sources and automatically escalates when uncertain
Privacy advantage: Anthropic processes conversations in-session only without saving data unnecessarily vs competitors using data for training
LIMITATION: No Fixed Claude 3 implementation - NO model switching, NO automatic routing, NO GPT/Gemini/custom model options (7/10 rated as limitation vs flexible RAG platforms)
N/A
Widget Customization & White- Labeling
N/A
Visual customization: Live editor with theme presets, color pickers (custom hex supported), logo uploads, position controls (left/right)
Light/dark modes: Built-in theme switching with automatic user preference detection
Custom CSS: Advanced styling via JavaScript SDK for design control beyond presets
Operating hours display: Show availability status to visitors automatically
Mobile responsiveness: Separate mobile widget settings with device-specific hiding options
Domain restrictions: Control which websites can embed widget through trusted domains configuration
Role-based access: Admin, Moderator, and Agent roles with configurable permissions (Growth+ plans) plus agent groups for departmental routing
White-labeling pricing: Note: $20/month addon on Growth tier OR included with Plus ($749+/month) - not available on Free/Starter
Custom avatars: Branded agent avatars and logos require Plus plans minimum
N/A
R A G Implementation & Accuracy
N/A
CRITICAL ARCHITECTURAL GAP: No NOT a RAG-as-a-Service platform - lacks vector databases, embedding controls, and configurable retrieval pipelines
Knowledge processing: Q&A extraction from URLs/PDFs/CSVs through opaque internal system without transparency into methodology
NO chunking parameters: No Chunk size, overlap, and strategy not exposed for optimization or tuning
NO embedding model selection: No Cannot choose between OpenAI, Cohere, or custom embedding models for vector generation
NO similarity threshold controls: No Cannot configure cosine similarity thresholds, retrieval scoring, or confidence levels
NO hybrid search: No No combination of keyword and semantic search strategies or BM25 integration
NO anti-hallucination mechanisms: No No citation attribution, source verification, or granular confidence scoring - responses cannot be traced to source documents
Hallucination prevention: Relies solely on strict knowledge base boundaries - Lyro answers only from provided sources and escalates when uncertain
Competitive positioning: Customer service automation platform, NOT autonomous knowledge retrieval system - fundamentally different architecture from RAG platforms (rated 2/10 as RAG platform)
N/A
Ease of Use & No- Code Interface ( Core Differentiator)
N/A
User satisfaction: 4.7/5 G2 rating with 1,600+ reviews citing exceptional usability as primary strength
45+ languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, plus 35+ additional languages
Native processing: Lyro processes data sources directly in original language without internal English translation layer (reduces accuracy loss)
Automatic browser detection: Switches widget to visitor locale based on browser settings for seamless user experience
Multiple language packs: Allow department routing to language-specific teams for specialized support
Language limiting: Administrators can restrict which languages Lyro uses and set fallback behaviors for unsupported languages
20+ pre-translated packs: Chat widget language packs with manual translation options for additional coverage
Global reach advantage: Single knowledge base serves multiple languages vs competitors requiring separate configurations per locale (7.5/10 rated differentiator)
N/A
Customer Base & Case Studies
N/A
Scale: 300,000+ businesses served globally demonstrating SMB/e-commerce market fit
Named customers: Pizza Hut (89-90% automation rates), Decathlon, Casio (enterprise validation)
WordPress adoption: 60,000+ plugin installations demonstrate strong small business penetration
User satisfaction: 4.7/5 G2 rating (1,600+ reviews) with 68% five-star ratings
Review themes - Praise: Ease of use (253 mentions), easy setup (161 mentions), Shopify integration, visual Flow Builder, responsive support
Review themes - Criticisms: Analytics depth limitations, per-conversation pricing at scale, API access locked to Plus tier ($749/month), 10-operator cap on self-serve plans
Claude 3 upgrade impact: Success rates jumped from 50-70% to 79-87% with customer case studies reporting 89-90% automation after upgrade
N/A
Company Background
N/A
Founding: 2013 by Tytus Gołąs in Poland (12+ years of platform development and refinement)
After analyzing features, pricing, performance, and user feedback, both SimplyRetrieve and Tidio are capable platforms that serve different market segments and use cases effectively.
When to Choose SimplyRetrieve
You value completely free and open source
Strong privacy focus - fully localized
Lightweight - runs on single GPU
Best For: Completely free and open source
When to Choose Tidio
You value exceptional ease of use: 4.7/5 g2 rating with 253 'ease of use' and 161 'easy setup' mentions
Claude 3-powered Lyro AI achieving 79-87% success rates with customer case studies reporting 89-90% automation
300,000+ businesses served including Pizza Hut, Decathlon, Casio demonstrating SMB/e-commerce market fit
Best For: Exceptional ease of use: 4.7/5 G2 rating with 253 'Ease of Use' and 161 'Easy Setup' mentions
Migration & Switching Considerations
Switching between SimplyRetrieve and Tidio 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
SimplyRetrieve starts at custom pricing, while Tidio begins at $29/month. 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
Start with a free trial - Both platforms offer trial periods to test with your actual data
Define success metrics - Response accuracy, latency, user satisfaction, cost per query
Test with real use cases - Don't rely on generic demos; use your production data
Evaluate total cost - Factor in implementation time, training, and ongoing maintenance
Check vendor stability - Review roadmap transparency, update frequency, and support quality
For most organizations, the decision between SimplyRetrieve and Tidio 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 11, 2025 | This comparison is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the latest platform capabilities, pricing, and user feedback.
The most accurate RAG-as-a-Service API. Deliver production-ready reliable RAG applications faster. Benchmarked #1 in accuracy and hallucinations for fully managed RAG-as-a-Service API.
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.
People Also Compare
Explore more AI tool comparisons to find the perfect solution for your needs
Join the Discussion
Loading comments...