In this comprehensive guide, we compare SimplyRetrieve and Yellow.ai 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 Yellow.ai, 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 Yellow.ai if: you value genuinely comprehensive 35+ channel coverage: whatsapp bsp, messenger, instagram, telegram, slack, teams, voice, sms
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 Yellow.ai
Yellow.ai is enterprise conversational ai platform with multi-llm orchestration. Enterprise conversational AI platform with embedded RAG capabilities processing 16 billion+ conversations annually. Multi-LLM orchestration across 35+ channels and 135+ languages with proprietary YellowG LLM claiming <1% hallucination rates. Founded in 2016, headquartered in San Mateo, CA, USA / Bengaluru, India, the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.
Overall Rating
85/100
Starting Price
Custom
Key Differences at a Glance
In terms of user ratings, both platforms score similarly in overall satisfaction. From a cost perspective, pricing is comparable. The platforms also differ in their primary focus: RAG Platform versus Conversational AI. 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
Yellow.ai
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.
Document Cognition (DocCog) Engine: 75-85% accuracy depending on document complexity using T5 model fine-tuned on SQuAD/TriviaQA
Supported Formats: PDF, DOCX, DOC, PPTX, PPT, TXT via manual upload through platform UI only (no API upload)
Automatic Synchronization: Configurable intervals - hourly, daily, weekly for external knowledge base updates
Website Crawling: URL ingestion and sitemap.xml parsing for structured site content extraction
Missing Integrations: No Google Drive, Dropbox, or Notion support - significant gap vs competitors
YouTube Limitation: Transcript ingestion not natively supported
API Gap: No programmatic document upload or knowledge base management via API
Q&A Extraction: T5 model-based question-answer pair generation from ingested documents
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.
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.
Multi-Turn Conversations: Super Agent maintains conversation context across turns with intent detection, entity extraction, slot filling, and dialogue state management
150+ Language Support: Automatic language detection with native multilingual processing across all 150+ supported languages reducing accuracy loss vs translation-based systems
Human Handoff: Configurable escalation triggers with full conversation history transfer, agent workload balancing, queue management, and SLA tracking
Analytics & Insights: Comprehensive dashboards with containment rates, CSAT scores, conversation flows, drop-off points, user journey analytics, and business KPI tracking
Agent Performance Monitoring: Bot accuracy scoring, user satisfaction metrics, conversation success rates, A/B testing capabilities for continuous improvement
Voice AI Capabilities: Real-time voice agents in 50+ languages with sentiment analysis during calls, IVR integration, call deflection, automated transcription
Lead Capture & Qualification: Real-time lead scoring, CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho), automatic contact creation, lead routing based on firmographics
Safety & Conduct Controls: Configurable filters ensuring ethical communication, avoiding harmful topics, handling sensitive data responsibly with compliance guardrails
Conversational Behavior Rules: Define conversation rules guiding agent responses in different situations ensuring consistent interactions across channels and use cases
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.
Visual Studio: Drag-and-drop conversation flow builder with no-code interface for business users
White-Labeling: Custom branding, domains, widget appearance on Enterprise plan
Komodo-7B: Indonesia-focused with 11+ regional language variants for Southeast Asian market
T5 Fine-Tuned: SQuAD/TriviaQA training for Document Cognition Q&A extraction (75-85% accuracy)
GPT Integration: GPT-3 and GPT-3.5 integrations documented in platform materials
GPT-4/Claude: Support not explicitly confirmed in documentation - unclear availability
Dynamic Model Routing: Automatic selection via Dynamic AI Agent based on query complexity and context requirements
Enterprise Tuning: Proprietary models trained on anonymized customer interactions with PII masking at data layer
Focus: Enterprise-specific tuning prioritized over raw model access and flexibility
Abstracted Selection: Model routing handled automatically - minimal user control over specific model choice
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.
Platform-First Architecture: Designed for UI-based development with APIs serving supplementary functions (not primary access)
Available via API: User management (create/update/delete/list), event pushing for custom triggers, outbound notifications, webhook integrations
NOT Available via API: Bot/agent creation or management, document upload, knowledge base management, direct RAG query endpoints, embedding/vector store access, analytics data export
Mobile SDKs: Well-documented Android (Java), iOS (Swift), React Native, Flutter, Cordova with complete code examples, Postman collections, demo applications
Python SDK: Does not exist - major limitation for backend developers and data science teams
Web SDK: Script tag injection only (no npm package) - documentation criticized as incomplete by G2 reviewers
Rate Limits: Not publicly documented - no transparency for production capacity planning
OpenAPI Spec: Not published - no Swagger documentation for API exploration
Critical Limitation: Cannot use Yellow.ai as RAG backend - queries must flow through platform conversation flows vs direct API calls
Ships a well-documented REST API for creating agents, managing projects, ingesting data, and querying chat.
API Documentation
Welcome Messages & Greetings: Personalized welcome messages for different channels, user segments, and conversation contexts with dynamic variable substitution
Fallback Behaviors: Configurable responses for knowledge gaps, API failures, validation errors, low-confidence scenarios with escalation path options
Multi-KB Support: Multiple knowledge bases per organization with role-based access, departmental segregation, and cross-KB search capabilities
Auto-Reindexing: Automatic knowledge base refresh when source content changes in connected systems ensuring always-current information
Dynamic Prompt Engineering: Custom system prompts, temperature controls, response length limits, creativity settings configurable per use case
Channel-Specific Customization: Different agent behaviors, response formats, media handling per channel (WhatsApp, voice, web, email)
CRITICAL LIMITATION - Opaque RAG Implementation: Retrieval mechanisms, embedding models, chunking strategies, similarity thresholds not exposed for developer configuration
CRITICAL LIMITATION - NO Programmatic Knowledge API: Knowledge base management requires UI interaction - no API for document upload, embedding updates, or retrieval tuning
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.
Channel-Specific Metrics: Performance tracking across messaging, voice, web, mobile channels independently
User Engagement Tracking: MTU (Monthly Transacting Users) monitoring and conversation volume analytics
API Analytics: Not publicly documented - no programmatic access to analytics data
Export Limitation: Analytics data export via API not available - UI-based reporting only
Real-Time Monitoring: Live dashboard visibility but specific alerting capabilities not emphasized
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.
Multi-Channel Support: Email, chat, phone support with tier-based access levels
Enterprise Support: Dedicated customer success managers, priority support, SLA guarantees on Enterprise plan
Implementation Services: Professional services included with typical 4-month deployment timeline
Documentation: Available at docs.yellow.ai with API references, mobile SDK guides, Postman collections
Training & Onboarding: Included in enterprise packages with dedicated resources
Community Forums: Available for peer support and knowledge sharing
G2 Feedback: Mixed support quality post-onboarding noted by reviewers, documentation gaps cited
Gartner Recognition: Magic Quadrant 'Challenger' status (2023/2025) provides analyst validation
Customer Base: Enterprise brands including Sony, Domino's, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ferrellgas across 85+ countries
Learning Curve: Steep curve noted - one G2 reviewer: "Setup felt akin to solving a Rubik's cube blindfolded"
Developer Resources: Mobile SDK documentation praised, web SDK documentation criticized as incomplete
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: ENTERPRISE CONVERSATIONAL AI PLATFORM with RAG capabilities, NOT a pure RAG-as-a-Service API platform - emphasis on multi-channel automation and workflow orchestration
Target Audience: Mid-market to enterprise organizations (1,000+ employees) with complex conversational workflows vs individual developers or SMBs requiring simple knowledge retrieval
Primary Strength: Exceptional for enterprise-grade conversational AI across 35+ channels (WhatsApp, voice, web, social) with 150+ language support and 60%+ automation rates in regulated industries
Vertical Expertise: 50% customer concentration in financial services with deep BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, Insurance) domain knowledge and compliance capabilities (PCI DSS, SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA)
Voice AI Excellence: Real-time voice agents in 50+ languages with sentiment analysis, IVR integration, call center deflection capabilities differentiate from text-only RAG platforms
CRITICAL LIMITATION - Enterprise Sales Motion: Custom pricing requires sales engagement (2-6 week cycle) with no self-serve option - unsuitable for quick testing or developer experimentation
CRITICAL LIMITATION - Pricing Opacity: No published pricing, user reviews report costs 'much higher than competitors', estimated $1,500-$3,500/month minimum vs $99-$299 in RAG platforms
CRITICAL LIMITATION - Implementation Complexity: 8-12 week implementation timelines common with mandatory professional services vs instant deployment in self-serve platforms
Developer API Limitations: APIs oriented toward conversation orchestration vs programmatic RAG operations (semantic search, embedding controls, retrieval configuration)
Lock-In Concerns: Heavy professional services dependency and complex multi-system integrations create significant switching costs vs API-first RAG platforms
Use Case Mismatch: Exceptional for large-scale enterprise conversational AI deployments across multiple channels; inappropriate for simple document Q&A or developer-centric RAG use cases
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 Studio: Drag-and-drop conversation flow builder positioned as "no-code" platform
Dynamic AI Agent: Zero-training deployment with automatic model routing reduces manual configuration
Multi-Intent Detection: Automatic handling of complex queries without manual flow definition
Pre-Built Templates: Industry-specific conversation templates for faster deployment
Channel Configuration: Guided setup for 35+ messaging and voice channel integrations
Knowledge Management UI: Manual document upload and external system connection configuration
Policy Builder: Visual configuration for multi-checkpoint validation rules and guardrails
RBAC Management: Six permission levels with team access control configuration
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
Primary Advantage: Complete enterprise conversational AI platform with unmatched 35+ channel coverage and 135+ language support
Compliance Leadership: SOC 2, ISO 27001/27018/27701, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, FedRAMP exceeds most AI platform competitors
Proprietary Innovation: YellowG LLM claims <1% hallucination rate, Komodo-7B for Indonesia, 0.6s response times (vendor benchmarks)
Proven Scale: 16 billion+ conversations annually, customers include Sony, Domino's, Hyundai, Volkswagen across 85+ countries
Regional Strength: Multi-region data centers (US, EU, Singapore, India, Indonesia, UAE) with Komodo-7B for Southeast Asia
Primary Challenge: NOT a RAG-as-a-Service platform - embedded RAG within closed conversational system blocks API-first use cases
Developer Friction: No Python SDK, no knowledge base API, no dedicated RAG endpoints, web SDK documentation gaps
Pricing Barrier: ~$10K-$25K annual minimum with 4-month implementation vs competitors with sub-$100/month self-service tiers
Learning Curve: G2 reviews cite steep complexity - "setup felt akin to solving a Rubik's cube blindfolded"
Market Position: Competes with enterprise CX platforms (Genesys, Twilio, LivePerson) vs RAG API services (CustomGPT.ai, Pinecone Assistant)
Use Case Fit: Exceptional for enterprises needing omnichannel CX automation at scale; poor fit for developers seeking programmable RAG capabilities
Architectural Mismatch: Platform-first vs API-first design makes direct RAG platform comparison fundamentally misleading
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
Proprietary YellowG LLM: Custom-trained model with vendor-claimed <1% hallucination rate vs GPT-3's 22.7%, 0.6-second average response time
Komodo-7B: Specialized Indonesia-focused model supporting 11+ regional language variants for Southeast Asian market dominance
Orchestrator LLM: Context switching and multi-intent detection engine with zero-training deployment capability
T5 Fine-Tuned: SQuAD/TriviaQA trained model for Document Cognition with 75-85% accuracy depending on complexity
GPT-3 & GPT-3.5: Integration documented for supplemental processing and model routing
15+ LLM Models: Multi-model architecture combining proprietary and third-party models for optimal task routing
Dynamic Model Routing: Automatic selection based on query complexity, language requirements, and performance optimization
Note: GPT-4/Claude support not explicitly confirmed - availability unclear in documentation
Enterprise Training: Models trained on 16 billion+ anonymized customer conversations with PII masking at data layer
Limited Flexibility: Users cannot manually select models - system handles routing automatically without direct control
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
Agentic RAG Architecture: Multi-checkpoint validation combining intelligent retrieval with reasoning and action - Yellow.ai's AI Agents don't just retrieve, they think, act, and learn
Document Cognition (DocCog): T5 model-based Q&A extraction with 75-85% accuracy depending on document complexity
Hallucination Prevention: Proprietary YellowG LLM approach with vendor-claimed <1% rate vs industry averages through training optimization
Automatic Guardrails: Policy compliance and response filtering from deployment without manual configuration requirements
Knowledge Synchronization: Configurable intervals (hourly, daily, weekly) for external sources including Salesforce, ServiceNow, Confluence, SharePoint
Website Crawling: URL ingestion and sitemap.xml parsing for structured site content extraction and Q&A generation
Enterprise Integrations: Bi-directional sync with AWS S3, Prismic, and major enterprise knowledge bases
Note: Closed Architecture: RAG embedded within platform - no direct endpoints, embedding customization, or vector store API access for developers
Note: No API Upload: Document upload requires manual platform UI interaction - cannot programmatically manage knowledge base
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
Customer Service Automation: 90% query automation across 35+ channels with 60% operational cost reduction - handles 16 billion+ conversations annually
Employee Experience (EX): IT support automation (password resets, hardware requests), HR policy FAQs, leave applications, pay slip access, conference room bookings with rapid response delivery even in low bandwidth environments
24/7 Support Operations: Minimal human involvement for routine queries, autonomous account issue resolution, transaction execution, multi-department coordination with full context preservation
E-commerce & Retail: Personal shopping assistance (inventory browsing, price comparison, order placement, returns handling), real-time transaction monitoring with suspicious activity blocking
Travel & Hospitality: Booking management for travel, hotels, restaurants with automatic rebooking during disruptions and 24/7 availability
Financial Services: Fraud detection workflows with automated investigation initiation and PCI DSS compliance for payment transactions
Healthcare: HIPAA-compliant patient engagement and support with protected health information handling capabilities
Government & Federal: FedRAMP authorized platform for US federal deployments with complete compliance and security requirements
Real-World Results: Lulu Hypermarket 3M+ unique users in 4 weeks, Sony 21,000+ voice calls in 2 months, Lion Parcel 85% automation rate, AirAsia employee experience transformation
Enterprise Scale: Customers include Sony, Domino's, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ferrellgas across 85+ countries with billion+ conversation processing
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: Independently audited security controls and compliance certification with annual penetration testing validation
ISO Certifications: ISO 27001 (Information Security Management), ISO 27018 (Cloud Privacy Controls), ISO 27701 (Privacy Information Management)
HIPAA Compliant: Healthcare industry ready for protected health information (PHI) handling with Business Associate Agreement support
GDPR Compliant: European data protection and privacy rights with regional data centers in EU for data residency requirements
PCI DSS Certified: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Level 1 compliance for financial transaction security
FedRAMP Authorized: Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program certification for US government cloud deployments
Encryption Standards: AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 for data in transit exceeding industry baseline requirements
Regional Data Centers: 6 global regions (US, EU, Singapore, India, Indonesia, UAE) with customer-selected data residency for compliance and latency optimization
Enterprise Identity Management: SSO/SAML integration with Google, Microsoft, Azure AD, LDAP for unified access control
RBAC Controls: Six permission levels for granular team access control with IP whitelisting for network-level security
Audit Logs: 15-day API activity retention for compliance reporting and security monitoring
On-Premise Options: Private cloud and complete on-premise deployment available for air-gapped environments and complete data sovereignty
AI Training Privacy: Models trained on anonymized customer interactions with PII masking at data layer before processing
Basic Plan (AWS Marketplace): ~$10,000/year minimum for single use case implementation with limited channel access
Standard Plan: ~$25,000/year for up to 4 use cases with expanded capabilities and additional channels
Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing requiring sales engagement - unlimited bots, channels, integrations with dedicated support and SLA guarantees
Implementation Timeline: Typically 4 months from contract to full deployment with professional services included (G2 user data)
Additional Costs: Voice AI features and advanced generative AI capabilities incur separate charges beyond base platform subscription
Sales-Led Process: All paid plans beyond free tier require sales contact - no self-service purchasing or transparent public pricing
Payment Terms: Annual contracts standard for commercial plans with monthly billing unavailable for most tiers
Entry Barrier: $10K minimum annual spend creates significant barrier for small businesses, startups, and individual developers
On-Premise Pricing: Custom enterprise pricing for private cloud and on-premise deployments with additional implementation costs
Regional Variations: Pricing may vary by selected data center region and compliance requirements
Scale Justification: 16 billion+ conversations annually and enterprise customer base (Sony, Domino's, Hyundai) validates high-end positioning
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
Multi-Channel Support: Email, live chat, phone support with tier-based response time guarantees
Enterprise Support: Dedicated customer success managers, priority support queues, SLA guarantees with 1-hour response times on critical issues
Professional Services: Implementation services included in enterprise packages with typical 4-month deployment timeline and project management
Documentation Portal: Available at docs.yellow.ai with API references, integration guides, mobile SDK documentation with code examples
Mobile SDK Resources: Comprehensive Android, iOS, React Native, Flutter, Cordova documentation with complete code examples, Postman collections, demo applications
Training & Onboarding: Included in enterprise packages with dedicated training resources and guided implementation support
Community Forums: Available for peer support, knowledge sharing, and best practices discussion among Yellow.ai users
Gartner Recognition: Magic Quadrant 'Challenger' status (2023/2025) provides third-party analyst validation and market positioning
Customer Base: Enterprise brands including Sony, Domino's, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ferrellgas deployed across 85+ countries
G2 Feedback: 4.4/5 overall (106 reviews) with 9.3/10 customization, 9.2/10 proactive engagement - mixed post-onboarding support quality noted
Documentation Gaps: Web SDK documentation criticized as "hit and miss" by reviewers - mobile SDKs better documented than web integration
Learning Curve: Steep complexity curve noted by users - G2 reviewer: "Setup felt akin to solving a Rubik's cube blindfolded"
Developer Resources: Strong mobile SDK documentation, weak Python SDK (doesn't exist), limited API cookbook/advanced tutorial content
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-as-a-Service Platform: Full-stack enterprise conversational AI with embedded RAG - cannot use Yellow.ai purely as knowledge/RAG backend for custom applications
No API-First Development: Cannot programmatically create bots/agents, upload documents, manage knowledge bases, or directly query RAG endpoints - platform-centric architecture
Missing Developer Tools: No Python SDK (major gap for backend developers), no npm package for web SDK (script tag injection only), no OpenAPI specification published
Knowledge Ingestion Gaps: No Google Drive, Dropbox, Notion integration support - significant gap vs competitors like CustomGPT and YourGPT
YouTube & Audio Limitations: No YouTube transcript ingestion, no native audio/video file processing support
High Entry Barrier: $10K-$25K annual minimum with 4-month implementation timeline vs competitors offering $19-99/month self-service tiers
Use Case Mismatch: Excellent for enterprises needing omnichannel CX automation; poor fit for developers seeking programmable RAG APIs or simple chatbot embedding
Vendor Lock-In Risk: Proprietary platform with limited portability - difficult to migrate conversation flows, knowledge bases, and integrations to alternative solutions
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
Massive Scale: 16 billion+ conversations processed annually across enterprise deployments
Multi-Lingual: 135+ languages supported with regional variants (Komodo-7B for 11+ Indonesian languages)
Hallucination Prevention: YellowG LLM claims <1% hallucination rate vs GPT-3's 22.7% in vendor benchmarks
Dynamic AI Agent: Zero-training deployment with automatic model routing and next-action determination
Multi-Intent Detection: Handles complex user queries with context-aware orchestration across conversation turns
Response Speed: 0.6-second average response time (YellowG LLM performance claim)
Automatic Guardrails: Policy compliance and response relevance filtering from deployment without manual configuration
Case Study Performance: Lulu Hypermarket 3M+ unique users in 4 weeks, Sony 21,000+ voice calls in 2 months
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 Type: NOT A RAG-AS-A-SERVICE PLATFORM - Full-stack enterprise conversational AI with embedded RAG
Critical Distinction: RAG functions as embedded feature, not exposed API service - cannot use Yellow.ai purely as knowledge/RAG backend
Document Cognition: 75-85% accuracy with T5 model fine-tuned on SQuAD/TriviaQA for Q&A extraction
Knowledge Architecture: Closed system - no direct RAG query endpoints, embedding access, or vector store API
API Limitations: No programmatic document upload, knowledge base management, or direct retrieval capabilities
Query Flow: Queries must flow through platform conversation flows vs direct API calls to knowledge backend
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
Customization & Flexibility
N/A
Knowledge Updates: Manual via UI only - no API for programmatic document upload or management
After analyzing features, pricing, performance, and user feedback, both SimplyRetrieve and Yellow.ai 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 Yellow.ai
You value genuinely comprehensive 35+ channel coverage: whatsapp bsp, messenger, instagram, telegram, slack, teams, voice, sms
Switching between SimplyRetrieve and Yellow.ai 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 Yellow.ai begins at custom pricing. Total cost of ownership should factor in implementation time, training requirements, API usage fees, and ongoing support. Enterprise deployments typically see annual costs ranging from $10,000 to $500,000+ depending on scale and requirements.
Our Recommendation Process
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 Yellow.ai 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.
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