The best Glean alternative

The Glean alternative you can actually own. Open source, self-hosted, and model-agnostic with knowledge-graph-native retrieval, agent reasoning, and paragraph-level citations.

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Self-hosted. Open source.

Glean is a closed-source enterprise search platform. It returns an answer and a list of files, and you still open each one to verify. Fully managed, fully hosted on Glean's cloud - optimized for helping knowledge workers find information.

Pipeshub is the open-source, white-box alternative, built to act on enterprise context. It traces every answer to the exact sentence, row, or slide, shows the agent's reasoning, and gives a confidence level. Self-host in your VPC or on-prem, plug in any LLM, and build agents, skills, and workflows on one platform.

Glean built the knowledge access layer for enterprises. Pipeshub is the next step: turning that context into action across structured and unstructured data, with strict permissions, full traceability, and your data never leaving your perimeter.

Features

Open-source & self-hostable

Air-gapped deployment

Pricing

SaaS, VPC, on-prem, or air-gapped

SaaS or Glean-managed VPC

Agent reasoning & actions

Multi-step reasoning, actions, end-to-end workflow automation

Search-first assistant, limited automation

Citation precision

Paragraph, row, and page level with confidence levels

File-name level

Model flexibility

BYOM, plus open-weight and local inference (Ollama, vLLM)

Cloud-hosted only (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini)

Knowledge graph

Native, graph-first architecture across structured and unstructured data

Added later, limited scope

Access control granularity

Folder, page, and table level

Connector level only

Google Workspace support

Microsoft 365 support

Partial (Teams only)

Custom connectors (BYO apps)

Pricing

Free to self-host

Per-seat SaaS, enterprise minimums

¹The Dell on‑prem offering, introduced by Glean in May 2025, remains Glean‑managed rather than customer‑managed. Glean keeps access to your environment for operations and updates, and there is currently no support for self‑managed or fully air‑gapped deployments.

SECURE BY DESIGN.

Every document keeps its original permissions, with SOC 2 Type I compliance in place and SOC 2 Type II controls actively in progress.

Permission-Aware

Role-based access control with granular agent permissions, enforced end-to-end across all connectors.

Compliance Ready

SOC 2 Type I & II, ISO 27001, VAPT certified. Full audit trail for every query and agent action.

Deployment Flexibility

Cloud, VPC, on-premise, or air-gapped. You choose the security boundary.

Which Is Right

For You?

Both platforms promise to unify your workplace data and make it searchable.

The difference is how much control, visibility, and extensibility you get once you look under the hood.

Both platforms promise to unify your workplace data and make it searchable.

The difference is how much control, visibility, and extensibility you get once you look under the hood.

OPEN SOURCE & OWNERSHIP

A fully open-source, MIT-licensed platform you can fork, audit, and self-host.

GRANULAR CITATIONS

Granular, paragraph-level citations down to the exact sentence, Excel row, slide, or web page.

AGENT-LEVEL ACCESS

Per-agent knowledge scoping - give each agent access only to the specific sub-folders, Confluence pages, tables, or sites it needs.

MODEL FREEDOM

True model freedom - OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Cohere, Mistral, Qwen, and open-weight models.

ANY DATA SOURCE

Native support for structured data (SQL, warehouses, APIs) and unstructured data.

TRUE DEVELOPER PLATFORM

A real developer platform: sandbox, code access, custom connectors, custom agents.

DEPLOY ANYWHERE

Deployment in your own VPC, on-prem, or air-gapped - your data never leaves your perimeter.

HALLUCINATION CONTROL

Built-in hallucination control - agents must show evidence, reasoning, and citations on every answer.

EXPLAINABLE AI

Transparent agent reasoning and a confidence score on every answer.

KNOWLEDGE GRAPH NATIVE

A knowledge-graph-native engine that understands documents and the relationships between them.

END-TO-END AUTOMATION

End-to-end workflow automation with agents that actually complete tasks.

NO VENDOR LOCK-IN

Freedom from per-seat pricing and vendor

lock-in.

OPEN SOURCE & OWNERSHIP

A fully open-source, MIT-licensed platform you can fork, audit, and self-host.

DEPLOY ANYWHERE

Deployment in your own VPC, on-prem, or air-gapped - your data never leaves your perimeter.

GRANULAR CITATIONS

Granular, paragraph-level citations down to the exact sentence, Excel row, slide, or web page.

HALLUCINATION CONTROL

Built-in hallucination control - agents must show evidence, reasoning, and citations on every answer.

AGENT-LEVEL ACCESS

Per-agent knowledge scoping - give each agent access only to the specific sub-folders, Confluence pages, tables, or sites it needs.

EXPLAINABLE AI

Transparent agent reasoning and a confidence score on every answer.

MODEL FREEDOM

True model freedom - OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Cohere, Mistral, Qwen, and open-weight models.

KNOWLEDGE GRAPH NATIVE

A knowledge-graph-native engine that understands documents and the relationships between them.

ANY DATA SOURCE

Native support for structured data (SQL, warehouses, APIs) and unstructured data.

END-TO-END AUTOMATION

End-to-end workflow automation with agents that actually complete tasks.

TRUE DEVELOPER PLATFORM

A real developer platform: sandbox, code access, custom connectors, custom agents.

NO VENDOR LOCK-IN

Freedom from per-seat pricing and vendor

lock-in.

ZERO INFRASTRUCTURE

A vendor‑managed, cloud‑hosted SaaS with no customer‑managed infrastructure.

VENDOR-OWNED ROADMAP

A closed, opinionated product where Glean owns the roadmap.

BASIC SEARCH EXPERIENCE

File-name level citations and a narrow set of search-centric agent actions.

PLUG-AND-PLAY SEARCH

Out-of-the-box enterprise search across a curated set of connectors.

MANAGED SAAS PRICING

A vendor-managed cloud deployment and per-seat pricing model.

ZERO INFRASTRUCTURE

A vendor‑managed, cloud‑hosted SaaS with no customer‑managed infrastructure.

PLUG-AND-PLAY SEARCH

Out-of-the-box enterprise search across a curated set of connectors.

VENDOR-OWNED ROADMAP

A closed, opinionated product where Glean owns the roadmap.

MANAGED SAAS PRICING

A vendor-managed cloud deployment and per-seat pricing model.

BASIC SEARCH EXPERIENCE

File-name level citations and a narrow set of search-centric agent actions.

Frequently
Asked

Questions

Answers to the questions teams ask most when evaluating an open-source Glean alternative.

Is Pipeshub really an open-source Glean alternative?

Yes. Pipeshub is fully open source under the apache license - the complete codebase lives on GitHub. Unlike Glean, which is closed-source SaaS, you can audit the code, fork it, self-host it, extend it, and contribute back. There's no proprietary core, no hidden enterprise-only module, and no vendor approval required to ship on it.