The open-source Glean alternative

Move beyond black-box enterprise search

PipesHub delivers the unified search experience of Glean, while acting as the graph-native context layer for your AI agents. Plus, you maintain end-to-end control over where your data lives with total model freedom.

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You control it. Not a black box.

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. Deploy it your way - cloud, VPC, 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

Sub folders, pages, and spaces

Connector level only

Google Workspace Integration

Microsoft 365 integration

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.

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.

DATA SOVEREIGNTY & OWNERSHIP

You own the infrastructure, the code, and the data.

Deploy anywhere (VPC, on-prem, air-gapped); open-source Apache 2.0 you can fork and audit; no vendor lock-in.

EXPLAINABLE AI

Answers you can trust, backed by a graph, not just vectors.

Knowledge-graph-native; visual citations to the exact sentence, Excel row, or slide; confidence scores and forced evidence per answer.

SECURITY & GOVERNANCE

Granular control over what your agents can see and do.

Agent-level access scoping (sub-folders, Confluence pages, tables); permission-aware, end-to-end RBAC enforcement.

DEVELOPER EXTENSIBILITY

A platform to build workflows, not just a search bar.

Sandbox, code access, custom connectors; joins structured (SQL/APIs) + unstructured data; model freedom (Ollama, vLLM); agents that execute, not just search.

DATA SOVEREIGNTY & OWNERSHIP

You own the infrastructure, the code, and the data.

Deploy anywhere (VPC, on-prem, air-gapped); open-source Apache 2.0 you can fork and audit; no vendor lock-in.

SECURITY & GOVERNANCE

Granular control over what your agents can see and do.

Agent-level access scoping (sub-folders, Confluence pages, tables); permission-aware, end-to-end RBAC enforcement.

EXPLAINABLE AI

Answers you can trust, backed by a graph, not just vectors.

Knowledge-graph-native; visual citations to the exact sentence, Excel row, or slide; confidence scores and forced evidence per answer.

DEVELOPER EXTENSIBILITY

A platform to build workflows, not just a search bar.

Sandbox, code access, custom connectors; joins structured (SQL/APIs) + unstructured data; model freedom (Ollama, vLLM); agents that execute, not just search.

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.