Alfera vs Onyx

Onyx: Open-source AI platform for chat, search and agents over company knowledge, with connectors that enforce source permissions. Alfera is the AI coworker your whole team shares: a company brain that syncs your apps, connections shared per person or per team, permissions on every action, and Slack, WhatsApp and email. Open source, in one click on your server or on Alfera Cloud.

In one line: Alfera is a coworker that does the work, vs AI chat and search over your documents.

Open-source enterprise AI chat, search and agents platformAlfera on GitHub
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OnyxOpen-source enterprise AI chat, search and agents platformOpen source, or Alfera Cloud
What it isOpen-source AI platform for chat, search and agents over company knowledge, with connectors that enforce source permissions.The AI coworker your whole team shares, with a company brain that syncs your apps. Open source.
Open sourceYes, MIT Expat (code under "ee" directories is under the Onyx Enterprise License)Yes, AGPL-3.0
Self-hostYesYes: one click on DigitalOcean or AWS, or one command on any server
PriceBusiness $20 per user/month, billed annually; Enterprise: contact salesFree to start: open source to self-host, and Alfera Cloud starts with $10 of free AI usage
Where it worksWeb app, Slack, Discord, Chrome extension, Desktop app, MCP server, APISlack, WhatsApp, email from its own address, the web app, a Mac app, the API and MCP
Team useCustom agents shared with users or user groups; group-based permissions; source permissions enforced at query time.Multiplayer: one coworker for the whole team. It knows who is asking, and each connection is shared with everyone, one project, or one person
PermissionsAdmins set each app action to Auto-approve, Ask or Deny; Ask parks the request until the user approves or rejects it (Craft).Allow, ask first, or never, per connection and per action. Approvals in Slack, email or the app, and every action logged
Starts on its ownCraft Scheduled Tasks run a prompt on an interval or daily/weekly schedule. Event or webhook triggers: Not published.On a schedule, from a webhook, or on 600+ app events
ModelsOpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, Bedrock, Vertex AI, OpenRouter, LiteLLM, Ollama, LM Studio and any OpenAI-compatible API.230+ models: Claude, GPT, Gemini, open models, your ChatGPT plan, or your own

Where Onyx is the better choice

Teams that want accurate AI answers over enterprise knowledge, including those with strict data rules (VPC, on-prem, air-gapped).

  • Search across 40+ app connectors with each source's permissions synced and enforced at query time
  • Can run fully air-gapped, on bare metal or in your own VPC with self-hosted models
  • Published retrieval benchmark (EnterpriseRAG-Bench) and a Discord bot and Chrome extension in addition to Slack

Everything Alfera does

  • A company brain that syncs your apps. Connect Google Drive, Notion, Slack and the rest. Documents sync on their own, keep every version, and every answer draws on them.
  • One coworker for the whole team. It knows who is asking. Many people, many tasks at once, each with their own chats and connections, and shared chats when you want.
  • 3,000+ app connections, shared the way you choose. Each connection is open to everyone, one project, or one person. A personal mailbox stays personal; the support inbox is the team’s.
  • Permissions on every action. Allow, ask first, or never, per connection and per action. Approvals land in Slack, email or the app, and every action is logged.
  • Where your team already is. Slack, WhatsApp, email from its own address, the web app, a Mac app, and your own code through the API and MCP.
  • It starts work by itself. On a schedule, from a webhook, or on 600+ app events in Gmail, HubSpot, Stripe and more.
  • Its own computer. Every chat runs in a sandbox with a terminal and a browser, and its files stay from one chat to the next.
  • Any model. 230+ models: Claude, GPT, Gemini, open models, your ChatGPT plan, or a model you run yourself.
  • Open source, and free to start. AGPL-3.0. Self-host it in one click on DigitalOcean or AWS, or start on Alfera Cloud with $10 of free AI usage.

Onyx and Alfera

Yes. Alfera is the AI coworker your whole team shares. It has a company brain that syncs your apps, 3,000+ app connections shared per person or per team, permissions on every action, and it works in Slack, WhatsApp, email and the web app. It starts work by itself, runs on any model, and it is open source: self-host it in one click or start free on Alfera Cloud. Onyx is also open source (MIT Expat (code under "ee" directories is under the Onyx Enterprise License)).

Sources

Facts about Onyx come from its own pages, read on 16 October 2026. Something out of date? Write to hello@alfera.ai and we will fix it.