Which is better for enterprises: Stonly or Vectara?

Stonly offers SOC 2 compliance for enterprise security. HIPAA compliance is available in Stonly. For scalability, both offer cloud-based deployment options. Stonly leads with 96/100 enterprise readiness score (92/100 enterprise features).

How much does Stonly cost vs Vectara?

Stonly starts at $249/monthly (enterprise model), while Vectara begins at contact sales/monthly (freemium model). Both offer free tiers to get started. This represents a significant price difference of $249/month. See our detailed pricing breakdown for complete tier comparisons.

Can I migrate from Vectara to Stonly?

Migration from Vectara to Stonly typically requires API-based data export/import, which Stonly provides. Stonly provides comprehensive API access good documentation for the migration process. Estimated migration time: 1-2 days for cloud setup. Contact Stonly support for migration assistance and best practices.

What integrations do Stonly and Vectara support?

Stonly integrates with Zendesk (deep bidirectional integration), Salesforce Service Cloud, Freshdesk, ServiceNow, Zapier webhooks (form submissions, guide completions) (9 integrations total). Vectara supports REST API, OAuth 2.0, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure (7 integrations available). Both offer REST APIs for custom integrations. Stonly offers 29% more integrations, with webhook support for real-time data sync.

What are the main differences between Stonly and Vectara?

Stonly offers strong capabilities, scoring 0/100 in user ratings. Vectara provides unique strengths with 0/100 overall rating. Key technical difference: Stonly focuses on advanced features while Vectara emphasizes specialized capabilities.

Which is better for enterprises: Stonly or Vectara?

Both platforms provide enterprise-grade security. HIPAA compliance varies - contact vendors for details. For scalability, both offer cloud-based deployment options. Vectara leads with strong/100 enterprise readiness score.

How much does Stonly cost vs Vectara?

Stonly starts at custom pricing/month (subscription model), while Vectara begins at contact sales/month (subscription model). Both require paid plans. Pricing is relatively comparable. See our detailed pricing breakdown for complete tier comparisons.

Can I migrate from Stonly to Vectara?

Migration from Stonly to Vectara typically requires manual data transfer since API access may be limited. Vectara offers standard documentation for the migration process. Estimated migration time: 1-2 days for cloud setup. Contact Vectara support for migration assistance and best practices.

What integrations do Stonly and Vectara support?

Stonly integrates with (multiple platforms). Vectara supports (various tools). API availability varies by plan. Integration coverage is comparable.

Stonly vs Vectara

Q: What are the main differences between Stonly and Vectara?

Stonly excels in Exceptional ease of use - 4.8/5 G2 rating with intuitive visual editor praised in 32 reviews and Deep help desk integrations - bidirectional Zendesk, Salesforce, Freshdesk, ServiceNow connections, scoring 96/100 in user ratings with 71% accuracy. Vectara leads in Industry-leading accuracy with minimal hallucinations and Never trains on customer data - ensures privacy with 90/100 overall rating and 95% accuracy. Key technical difference: Stonly focuses on Interactive step-by-step guides with decision trees while Vectara emphasizes Grounded generation with citations. Pricing differs by $249/month.

Make an informed decision with our comprehensive comparison. Discover which RAG solution perfectly fits your needs.

More about Vectara More about Stonly Get Started Today

Priyansh KhodiyarDevRel at CustomGPT.ai

Fact checked and reviewed by Bill Cava

Published: 01.04.2025Updated: 25.04.2025

In this comprehensive guide, we compare Stonly and Vectara 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 Stonly and Vectara, 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 Stonly if: you value exceptional ease of use - 4.8/5 g2 rating with intuitive visual editor praised in 32 reviews
Choose Vectara if: you value industry-leading accuracy with minimal hallucinations

About Stonly

Stonly is interactive knowledge base platform with enterprise ai-powered answers. Stonly is a customer support knowledge management platform with embedded AI capabilities focused on interactive step-by-step guides and help desk agent assistance. Its AI Answers feature (Enterprise-only add-on) achieves 71% self-serve success rates, but it's fundamentally a knowledge base platform with AI features—not a pure RAG-as-a-Service solution. Founded in 2017, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.

Overall Rating

96/100

Starting Price

$249/mo

About Vectara

Vectara is the trusted platform for rag-as-a-service. Vectara is an enterprise-ready RAG platform that provides best-in-class retrieval accuracy with minimal hallucinations. It offers a serverless API solution for embedding powerful generative AI functionality into applications with semantic search, grounded generation, and secure access control. Founded in 2020, headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, the platform has established itself as a reliable solution in the RAG space.

Overall Rating

90/100

Starting Price

Custom

Key Differences at a Glance

In terms of user ratings, Stonly in overall satisfaction. From a cost perspective, Vectara offers more competitive entry pricing. The platforms also differ in their primary focus: Knowledge Management versus RAG Platform. These differences make each platform better suited for specific use cases and organizational requirements.

⚠️ What This Comparison Covers

We'll analyze features, pricing, performance benchmarks, security compliance, integration capabilities, and real-world use cases to help you determine which platform best fits your organization's needs. All data is independently verified from official documentation and third-party review platforms.

Detailed Feature Comparison

Stonly	Vectara	CustomGPTRECOMMENDED
Data Ingestion & Knowledge Sources
✅ PDF uploads & public website crawling – Zendesk help center content indexing supported ✅ Proprietary interactive guide format – Primary content model with visual editor ⚠️ No cloud storage integrations – Missing Google Drive, Dropbox, Notion, SharePoint, YouTube Content limits: Basic (5 guides, 400 views/mo), Small Business (unlimited, 4K views/mo), Enterprise (custom)	Document support – PDF, DOCX, HTML automatically indexed (Vectara Platform) Auto-sync connectors – Cloud storage and enterprise system integrations keep data current Embedding processing – Background conversion to embeddings enables fast semantic search	1,400+ file formats – PDF, DOCX, Excel, PowerPoint, Markdown, HTML + auto-extraction from ZIP/RAR/7Z archives Website crawling – Sitemap indexing with configurable depth for help docs, FAQs, and public content Multimedia transcription – AI Vision, OCR, YouTube/Vimeo/podcast speech-to-text built-in Cloud integrations – Google Drive, SharePoint, OneDrive, Dropbox, Notion with auto-sync Knowledge platforms – Zendesk, Freshdesk, HubSpot, Confluence, Shopify connectors Massive scale – 60M words (Standard) / 300M words (Premium) per bot with no performance degradation
L L M Model Options
⚠️ Undisclosed proprietary LLM – No model selection or transparency on provider ✅ AI Profiles (20) & Custom Instructions (100) – Define tone, boundaries, behavior ✅ Guided AI Answers – Predefined responses for sensitive scenarios bypass AI ✅ Knowledge-grounded approach – Anchored responses reduce hallucinations vs generic chatbots	Mockingbird default – In-house model with GPT-4/GPT-3.5 via Azure OpenAI available Flexible selection – Choose model balancing cost versus quality for use case Custom prompts – Prompt templates configurable for tone, format, citation rules	GPT-5.1 models – Latest thinking models (Optimal & Smart variants) GPT-4 series – GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, GPT-4o available Claude 4.5 – Anthropic's Opus available for Enterprise Auto model routing – Balances cost/performance automatically Zero API key management – All models managed behind the scenes
Performance & Accuracy
✅ 71% self-serve success rate – Company data with AI Answers feature ✅ 70-76% ticket reduction – Documented in case studies ✅ 99.9% uptime claimed – No published SLA or response time details ⚠️ Flow reports update every 15 min – Not real-time analytics	✅ Enterprise scale – Millisecond responses with heavy traffic (benchmarks) ✅ Hybrid search – Semantic and keyword matching for pinpoint accuracy ✅ Hallucination prevention – Advanced reranking with factual-consistency scoring	Sub-second responses – Optimized RAG with vector search and multi-layer caching Benchmark-proven – 13% higher accuracy, 34% faster than OpenAI Assistants API Anti-hallucination tech – Responses grounded only in your provided content OpenGraph citations – Rich visual cards with titles, descriptions, images 99.9% uptime – Auto-scaling infrastructure handles traffic spikes
Developer Experience ( A P I & S D Ks)
✅ REST API – User provisioning, content management, widget control ✅ Mobile SDKs (Enterprise only) – iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter ⚠️ No Python/Node.js SDKs – No GraphQL, OpenAPI specs, or API sandbox	Multi-language SDKs – C#, Python, Java, JavaScript with REST API (FAQs) Clear documentation – Sample code and guides for integration, indexing operations Secure authentication – Azure AD or custom auth setup for API access	REST API – Full-featured for agents, projects, data ingestion, chat queries Python SDK – Open-source `customgpt-client` with full API coverage Postman collections – Pre-built requests for rapid prototyping Webhooks – Real-time event notifications for conversations and leads OpenAI compatible – Use existing OpenAI SDK code with minimal changes
Integrations & Channels
✅ Deep help desk integrations – Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Freshdesk, ServiceNow ✅ Zapier integration – Webhook triggers for form submissions and completions ✅ Analytics integrations – Segment, Google Analytics ⚠️ No messaging integrations – Missing Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Microsoft Teams	REST APIs & SDKs – Easy integration into custom applications with comprehensive tooling Embedded experiences – Search/chat widgets for websites, mobile apps, custom portals Low-code connectors – Azure Logic Apps and PowerApps simplify workflow integration	Website embedding – Lightweight JS widget or iframe with customizable positioning CMS plugins – WordPress, WIX, Webflow, Framer, SquareSpace native support 5,000+ app ecosystem – Zapier connects CRMs, marketing, e-commerce tools MCP Server – Integrate with Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT, Windsurf OpenAI SDK compatible – Drop-in replacement for OpenAI API endpoints LiveChat + Slack – Native chat widgets with human handoff capabilities
Customization & Branding
✅ Visual no-code editor – Intuitive interface for guides, decision trees, forms ✅ CSS customization on all paid plans – White-labeling Enterprise only ✅ Small learning curve – Users create guides in under 30 minutes ⚠️ Cannot edit on mobile devices – Desktop-only guide creation	White-label control – Full theming, logos, CSS customization for brand alignment Domain restrictions – Bot scope and branding configurable per deployment Search UI styling – Result cards and search interface match company identity	Full white-labeling included – Colors, logos, CSS, custom domains at no extra cost 2-minute setup – No-code wizard with drag-and-drop interface Persona customization – Control AI personality, tone, response style via pre-prompts Visual theme editor – Real-time preview of branding changes Domain allowlisting – Restrict embedding to approved sites only
Core Knowledge Base Features
✅ Interactive step-by-step guides – Visual flow builder with branching logic ✅ Decision trees, checklists, forms – Contact forms and lead capture ✅ Content versioning – Side-by-side comparison, instant restore (Business+) ✅ Multi-language support – Auto-translation on Enterprise plan	N/A	N/A
A I Answers Feature ( Enterprise Only)
⚠️ Enterprise add-on only – Not included in Small Business plan ✅ Generative AI grounded – Anchored in Stonly guides, websites, PDFs ✅ Confidence-based fallback – Switches to ML-powered search when confidence low ✅ 71% self-serve success rate – Hallucination reduction through knowledge-grounding	N/A	N/A
Observability & Monitoring
✅ Insights Dashboard – Views, visitors, bounce rates, drop-off analysis ✅ NPS surveys (all plans) – CSAT and CES Enterprise only ✅ Data export – Segment, Zapier, Google Analytics integration	Azure portal dashboard – Query latency, index health, usage metrics at-a-glance Azure Monitor integration – Azure Monitor and App Insights for custom alerts API log exports – Metrics exportable via API for compliance, analysis reports	Real-time dashboard – Query volumes, token usage, response times Customer Intelligence – User behavior patterns, popular queries, knowledge gaps Conversation analytics – Full transcripts, resolution rates, common questions Export capabilities – API export to BI tools and data warehouses
Pricing & Scalability
Basic (Free): 5 guides, 400 views/mo, 1 seat, single language Small Business ($249/mo, $199/mo annual): Unlimited guides, 4K views/mo, 5 seats, CSS customization Enterprise (~$39K/year avg): Custom views, unlimited seats, AI Answers add-on, Mobile SDKs, SAML SSO ⚠️ Overage pricing escalates – +15K views = $200/mo, auto-upgrade after 2 months	Usage-based pricing – Free tier available, bundles scale with growth (pricing) Enterprise tiers – Plans scale with query volume, data size for heavy usage Dedicated deployment – VPC or on-prem options for data isolation requirements	Standard: $99/mo – 60M words, 10 bots Premium: $449/mo – 300M words, 100 bots Auto-scaling – Managed cloud scales with demand Flat rates – No per-query charges
Security & Privacy
✅ SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001 – PCI, CSA Star Level 1 compliant ✅ Trust Center – trust.stonly.com with security documentation, subprocessor lists ✅ SAML 2.0 SSO (Enterprise) – IP allowlisting, advanced RBAC, 2FA	✅ Data encryption – Transit and rest encryption, no model training on your content ✅ Compliance certifications – SOC 2, ISO, GDPR, HIPAA (details) ✅ Customer-managed keys – BYOK support with private deployments for full control	SOC 2 Type II + GDPR – Third-party audited compliance Encryption – 256-bit AES at rest, SSL/TLS in transit Access controls – RBAC, 2FA, SSO, domain allowlisting Data isolation – Never trains on your data
Support & Ecosystem
✅ 4.8/5 G2 rating (132 reviews) – Ease of use praised in 32 reviews ✅ Email and chat support – Dedicated support on Enterprise plan ✅ Pre-built templates – Quick onboarding, guides created in under 30 minutes	Microsoft network – Comprehensive docs, forums, technical guides backed by Microsoft Enterprise support – Dedicated channels and SLA-backed help for enterprise plans Azure ecosystem – Broad partner network and active developer community access	Comprehensive docs – Tutorials, cookbooks, API references Email + in-app support – Under 24hr response time Premium support – Dedicated account managers for Premium/Enterprise Open-source SDK – Python SDK, Postman, GitHub examples 5,000+ Zapier apps – CRMs, e-commerce, marketing integrations
No- Code Interface & Usability
✅ 4.8/5 ease of use rating – Visual drag-and-drop editor, no coding required ✅ Small learning curve – Non-technical teams productive quickly ✅ Pre-built templates – Common scenarios covered for faster creation	Azure portal UI – Straightforward index management and settings configuration interface Low-code options – PowerApps, Logic Apps connectors enable quick non-dev integration ⚠️ Technical complexity – Advanced indexing tweaks require developer expertise vs turnkey tools	2-minute deployment – Fastest time-to-value in the industry Wizard interface – Step-by-step with visual previews Drag-and-drop – Upload files, paste URLs, connect cloud storage In-browser testing – Test before deploying to production Zero learning curve – Productive on day one
R A G-as-a- Service Assessment
⚠️ NOT a RAG-as-a-Service platform – Knowledge base tool with embedded AI ⚠️ Limited data sources – PDF, public web, Zendesk only ✅ Strong hallucination controls – Grounded in structured content Best for: Customer support ticket deflection, not flexible RAG backends	Platform Type – TRUE ENTERPRISE RAG-AS-A-SERVICE: Agent OS for trusted AI Core Mission – Deploy AI assistants/agents with grounded answers, safe actions, always-on governance Target Market – Enterprises needing production RAG, white-label APIs, VPC/on-prem deployments RAG Implementation – Mockingbird LLM (26% better than GPT-4), hybrid search, multi-stage reranking API-First Architecture – REST APIs, SDKs (C#/Python/Java/JS), Azure integration (Logic Apps/Power BI) Security & Compliance – SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, BYOK, VPC/on-prem Agent-Ready Platform – Python library, Agent APIs, structured outputs, audit trails, policy enforcement Advanced RAG Features – Hybrid search, reranking, HHEM scoring, multilingual retrieval (7 languages) Funding – $53.5M raised ($25M Series A July 2024, FPV/Race Capital) ⚠️ Enterprise complexity – Requires developer expertise for indexing, tuning, agent configuration ⚠️ No no-code builder – Azure portal management but no drag-and-drop chatbot builder ⚠️ Azure ecosystem focus – Best with Azure, less smooth for AWS/GCP cross-cloud flexibility Use Case Fit – Mission-critical RAG, regulated industries (SOC 2/HIPAA), white-label APIs, VPC/on-prem	Platform type – TRUE RAG-AS-A-SERVICE with managed infrastructure API-first – REST API, Python SDK, OpenAI compatibility, MCP Server No-code option – 2-minute wizard deployment for non-developers Hybrid positioning – Serves both dev teams (APIs) and business users (no-code) Enterprise ready – SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, WCAG 2.0, flat-rate pricing
Competitive Positioning
✅ Unique interactive guide format – Structured support content vs free-form chat ✅ 70-76% ticket reduction – 71% self-serve success rate documented vs CustomGPT: Different categories (knowledge base vs RAG-as-a-Service) Target: Support teams using Zendesk/Salesforce, not RAG developers	Market position – Enterprise RAG platform between Azure AI Search and chatbot builders Target customers – Enterprises needing production RAG, white-label APIs, VPC/on-prem deployments Key competitors – Azure AI Search, Coveo, OpenAI Enterprise, Pinecone Assistant Competitive advantages – Mockingbird LLM, hallucination detection, SOC 2/HIPAA compliance, millisecond responses Pricing advantage – Usage-based with free tier, best value for enterprise RAG infrastructure Use case fit – Mission-critical RAG, white-label APIs, Azure integration, high-accuracy requirements	Market position – Leading RAG platform balancing enterprise accuracy with no-code usability. Trusted by 6,000+ orgs including Adobe, MIT, Dropbox. Key differentiators – #1 benchmarked accuracy • 1,400+ formats • Full white-labeling included • Flat-rate pricing vs OpenAI – 10% lower hallucination, 13% higher accuracy, 34% faster vs Botsonic/Chatbase – More file formats, source citations, no hidden costs vs LangChain – Production-ready in 2 min vs weeks of development
A I Models
⚠️ Undisclosed Proprietary LLM – No model selection or transparency ✅ AI Profiles (20) & Custom Instructions (100) – Define tone and boundaries ✅ Guided AI Answers – Predefined responses for sensitive scenarios ✅ Knowledge-grounded approach – Anchored responses reduce hallucinations	✅ Mockingbird LLM – 26% better than GPT-4 on BERT F1, 0.9% hallucination rate ✅ Mockingbird 2 – 7 languages (EN/ES/FR/AR/ZH/JA/KO), under 10B parameters GPT-4/GPT-3.5 fallback – Azure OpenAI integration for OpenAI model preference HHEM + HCM – Hughes Hallucination Evaluation with Correction Model (Mockingbird-2-Echo) ✅ No training on data – Customer data never used for model training/improvement Custom prompts – Templates configurable for tone, format, citation rules per domain	OpenAI – GPT-5.1 (Optimal/Smart), GPT-4 series Anthropic – Claude 4.5 Opus/Sonnet (Enterprise) Auto-routing – Intelligent model selection for cost/performance Managed – No API keys or fine-tuning required
R A G Capabilities
✅ AI Answers (Enterprise add-on) – Grounded in guides, websites, PDFs ✅ 71% self-serve success rate – Confidence-based fallback to ML search ⚠️ Limited data sources – No Google Drive, Dropbox, Notion, SharePoint, YouTube ⚠️ Manual content updates – No automatic syncing from external sources	✅ Hybrid search – Semantic vector + BM25 keyword matching for pinpoint accuracy ✅ Advanced reranking – Multi-stage pipeline optimizes results before generation with relevance scoring ✅ Factual scoring – HHEM provides reliability score for every response's grounding quality ✅ Citation precision – Mockingbird outperforms GPT-4 on citation metrics, traceable to sources Multilingual RAG – Cross-lingual: query/retrieve/generate in different languages (7 supported) Structured outputs – Extract specific information for autonomous agent integration, deterministic data	GPT-4 + RAG – Outperforms OpenAI in independent benchmarks Anti-hallucination – Responses grounded in your content only Automatic citations – Clickable source links in every response Sub-second latency – Optimized vector search and caching Scale to 300M words – No performance degradation at scale
Use Cases
✅ Customer support ticket deflection – 70-76% reduction through interactive guides ✅ Deep help desk integration – Zendesk, Salesforce, Freshdesk, ServiceNow workflows ✅ Interactive onboarding – Step-by-step guides, decision trees, checklists ✅ Multi-language support – Auto-translation for global teams (Enterprise)	Regulated industries – Health, legal, finance needing accuracy, security, SOC 2 compliance Enterprise knowledge – Q&A systems with precise answers from large document repositories Autonomous agents – Structured outputs for deterministic data extraction, decision-making workflows White-label APIs – Customer-facing search/chat with millisecond responses at enterprise scale Multilingual support – 7 languages with single knowledge base for multiple locales High accuracy needs – Citation precision, factual scoring, 0.9% hallucination rate (Mockingbird-2-Echo)	Customer support – 24/7 AI handling common queries with citations Internal knowledge – HR policies, onboarding, technical docs Sales enablement – Product info, lead qualification, education Documentation – Help centers, FAQs with auto-crawling E-commerce – Product recommendations, order assistance
Security & Compliance
✅ SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001 – PCI, CSA Star Level 1 ✅ Trust Center – trust.stonly.com with documentation, subprocessor lists ✅ SAML 2.0 SSO (Enterprise) – IP allowlisting, advanced RBAC, 2FA ⚠️ Data residency not documented – May limit certain jurisdiction deployments	✅ SOC 2 Type 2 – Independent audit demonstrating enterprise-grade operational security controls ✅ ISO 27001 + GDPR – Information security management with EU data protection compliance ✅ HIPAA ready – Healthcare compliance with BAAs available for PHI handling ✅ Encryption – TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest with BYOK support ✅ Zero data retention – No model training on customer data, content stays private Private deployments – VPC or on-premise for data sovereignty and network isolation	SOC 2 Type II + GDPR – Regular third-party audits, full EU compliance 256-bit AES encryption – Data at rest; SSL/TLS in transit SSO + 2FA + RBAC – Enterprise access controls with role-based permissions Data isolation – Never trains on customer data Domain allowlisting – Restrict chatbot to approved domains
Pricing & Plans
Basic (Free): 5 guides, 400 views/mo, 1 seat, single language Small Business ($249/mo, $199/mo annual): Unlimited guides, 4K views/mo, 5 seats, CSS customization Enterprise (~$39K/year avg): Custom views, unlimited seats, white-label, SAML SSO, Mobile SDKs ⚠️ Overage pricing: +15K views = $200/mo, auto-upgrade after 2 consecutive months	30-day free trial – Full enterprise feature access for evaluation before commitment Usage-based pricing – Pay for query volume and data size with scalable tiers Free tier – Generous free tier for development, prototyping, small production deployments Enterprise pricing – Custom pricing for VPC/on-prem installations, heavy usage bundles available ✅ Transparent pricing – No per-seat charges, storage surprises, or model switching fees Funding – $53.5M raised ($25M Series A July 2024, FPV/Race Capital)	Standard: $99/mo – 10 chatbots, 60M words, 5K items/bot Premium: $449/mo – 100 chatbots, 300M words, 20K items/bot Enterprise: Custom – SSO, dedicated support, custom SLAs 7-day free trial – Full Standard access, no charges Flat-rate pricing – No per-query charges, no hidden costs
Support & Documentation
✅ 4.8/5 G2 rating (132 reviews) – Ease of use praised consistently ✅ Email and chat support – Dedicated support on Enterprise plan ✅ Pre-built templates & tutorials – Guides created in under 30 minutes	Enterprise support – Dedicated channels and SLA-backed help for enterprise customers Microsoft network – Extensive infrastructure, forums, technical guides backed by Microsoft Comprehensive docs – API references, integration guides, SDKs at docs.vectara.com Sample code – Pre-built examples, Jupyter notebooks, quick-start guides for rapid integration Active community – Developer forums for peer support, knowledge sharing, best practices	Documentation hub – Docs, tutorials, API references Support channels – Email, in-app chat, dedicated managers (Premium+) Open-source – Python SDK, Postman, GitHub examples Community – User community + 5,000 Zapier integrations
Limitations & Considerations
⚠️ NOT a RAG-as-a-Service platform – Knowledge base tool with embedded AI ⚠️ AI Answers Enterprise-gated – ~$39K/year, not available on $249/mo tier ⚠️ Limited data sources – PDF, web, Zendesk only; no cloud storage ⚠️ No messaging integrations – Missing Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Microsoft Teams Not ideal for: Pure RAG API, multi-tenant SaaS backends, model customization needs	⚠️ Azure ecosystem focus – Best with Azure services, less smooth for AWS/GCP organizations ⚠️ Developer expertise needed – Advanced indexing requires technical skills vs turnkey no-code tools ⚠️ No drag-and-drop GUI – Azure portal management but no chatbot builder like Tidio/WonderChat ⚠️ Limited model selection – Mockingbird/GPT-4/GPT-3.5 only, no Claude/Gemini/custom models ⚠️ Sales-driven pricing – Contact sales for enterprise pricing, less transparent than self-serve platforms ⚠️ Overkill for simple bots – Enterprise RAG unnecessary for basic FAQ or customer service	Managed service – Less control over RAG pipeline vs build-your-own Model selection – OpenAI + Anthropic only; no Cohere, AI21, open-source Real-time data – Requires re-indexing; not ideal for live inventory/prices Enterprise features – Custom SSO only on Enterprise plan
Core Agent Features
✅ Knowledge-grounded responses – Verified structured knowledge prevents hallucinations ✅ AI Agent Assist – Summarizes tickets, suggests paths, drafts responses ✅ Process automation – Define workflows linked to back-office tools ✅ 71% self-serve success rate – Personalized knowledge adapts to needs	Agentic RAG Framework – Python library for autonomous agents: emails, bookings, system integration Agent APIs (Tech Preview) – Customizable reasoning models, behavioral instructions, tool access controls LlamaIndex integration – Rapid tool creation connecting Vectara corpora, single-line code generation Multi-LLM support – OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, GROQ, Together.AI, Cohere, AWS Bedrock integration Step-level audit trails – Source citations, reasoning steps, decision paths for governance compliance ✅ Grounded actions – Document-grounded decisions with citations, 0.9% hallucination rate (Mockingbird-2-Echo) ⚠️ Developer platform – Requires programming expertise, not for non-technical teams ⚠️ No chatbot UI – No polished widgets or turnkey conversational interfaces ⚠️ Tech preview status – Agent APIs subject to change before general availability	Custom AI Agents – Autonomous GPT-4/Claude agents for business tasks Multi-Agent Systems – Specialized agents for support, sales, knowledge Memory & Context – Persistent conversation history across sessions Tool Integration – Webhooks + 5,000 Zapier apps for automation Continuous Learning – Auto re-indexing without manual retraining
Additional Considerations
⚠️ Limited UI customization – Cannot fully match specific brand requirements ⚠️ No offline access – Requires internet connectivity for guide availability ⚠️ Performance degradation with large guides – Scalability concerns with complexity ⚠️ View-based pricing – Additional fees for exceeding 4K views/mo	✅ Factual scoring – Hybrid search with reranking provides unique factual-consistency scores Flexible deployment – Public cloud, VPC, or on-prem for varied compliance needs Active development – Regular feature releases and integrations keep platform current	Time-to-value – 2-minute deployment vs weeks with DIY Always current – Auto-updates to latest GPT models Proven scale – 6,000+ organizations, millions of queries Multi-LLM – OpenAI + Claude reduces vendor lock-in
Core Chatbot Features
✅ Interactive step-by-step guides – Visual flow builder with branching logic ✅ Decision trees and checklists – Task management with progress tracking ✅ Contact forms and lead capture – Integrated customer information collection ✅ Multi-language support – Auto-translation on Enterprise plan	Vector + LLM search – Smart retrieval with generative answers, context-aware responses Mockingbird LLM – Proprietary model with source citations (details) Multi-turn conversations – Conversation history tracking for smooth back-and-forth dialogue	✅ #1 accuracy – Median 5/5 in independent benchmarks, 10% lower hallucination than OpenAI ✅ Source citations – Every response includes clickable links to original documents ✅ 93% resolution rate – Handles queries autonomously, reducing human workload ✅ 92 languages – Native multilingual support without per-language config ✅ Lead capture – Built-in email collection, custom forms, real-time notifications ✅ Human handoff – Escalation with full conversation context preserved
Customization & Flexibility ( Behavior & Knowledge)
✅ CSS and HTML customization – Change layout and look with custom code ✅ Intuitive no-code tools – Easy customization without coding for basics ✅ Personalized content – Use customer data for targeted experiences ✅ Rich media support – Images, GIFs, videos, annotations	Indexing control – Configure chunk sizes, metadata tags, retrieval parameters Search weighting – Tune semantic vs lexical search balance per query Domain tuning – Adjust prompt templates and relevance thresholds for specialty domains	Live content updates – Add/remove content with automatic re-indexing System prompts – Shape agent behavior and voice through instructions Multi-agent support – Different bots for different teams Smart defaults – No ML expertise required for custom behavior

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Final Thoughts

Final Verdict: Stonly vs Vectara

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

When to Choose Stonly

You value exceptional ease of use - 4.8/5 g2 rating with intuitive visual editor praised in 32 reviews
Deep help desk integrations - bidirectional Zendesk, Salesforce, Freshdesk, ServiceNow connections
Strong compliance - SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001, PCI, CSA Star Level 1

Best For: Exceptional ease of use - 4.8/5 G2 rating with intuitive visual editor praised in 32 reviews

When to Choose Vectara

You value industry-leading accuracy with minimal hallucinations
Never trains on customer data - ensures privacy
True serverless architecture - no infrastructure management

Best For: Industry-leading accuracy with minimal hallucinations

Migration & Switching Considerations

Switching between Stonly and Vectara 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

Stonly starts at $249/month, while Vectara 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 Stonly and Vectara 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: January 20, 2026 | This comparison is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the latest platform capabilities, pricing, and user feedback.

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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.

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Priyansh Khodiyar

DevRel at CustomGPT.ai. Passionate about AI and its applications. Here to help you navigate the world of AI tools and make informed decisions for your business.

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