Short answer: Five Dust alternatives for building AI agents in Slack are Glean, Lindy, n8n Agents, Runbear and Viktor. Glean starts from company-wide search, Lindy from inbox, meetings and scheduled routines, and n8n from automation workflows. Runbear puts named, shared agents in Slack and Microsoft Teams channels. Viktor offers one AI teammate that runs jobs across your tools. Runbear is our product, so the list is in alphabetical order.
This guide covers these five because each runs agents inside Slack and each starts from a different job. Relevance AI, Botpress and Microsoft Copilot Studio also come up as Dust alternatives and are not covered here. Zapier gets a short note at the end because it changed how its agents work this month. Plans and prices below were checked on each vendor's own pages on October 16, 2026. Links are in the Sources section at the end.
What Dust does well, and where the alternatives differ
Dust is built for companies that want many governed agents in one workspace. Admins organize data into Spaces, and the Spaces an agent uses decide who can see and use it. A tool can run on one shared account, or on personal credentials, where each user signs in to the tool with their own account. Dust also has Pods, shared workspaces where people and agents work on conversations, tasks and files.
Three differences matter most when you compare Dust with the tools below.
The bill follows headcount. Dust's self-serve Business plan, for teams of up to 100 people, charges per seat. Larger teams go to Dust's sales-led Enterprise plan. A Pro seat is €24 per month billed yearly (€30 billed monthly) with 8,000 credits a month. A Max seat is €120 per month billed yearly (€150 monthly) with 40,000 credits. Dust lists these prices in euros, before VAT. A member can get a Free seat only once, with 500 credits that do not renew. On Dust's Enterprise Pooled plan, members draw from one shared workspace credit pool instead.
Not everyone who asks is a member. Dust's Slack docs describe members calling @Dust in a channel, a thread or a direct message, and admins can let an agent answer every message in a channel without a mention. That fits an internal rollout. Customers or vendors in a shared channel are a different case (see How to choose).
The team wants the agent in the channel first. Dust works in Slack and Microsoft Teams, and it also offers Pods and Frames (interactive dashboards and apps) inside Dust. If your team wants the agent to do most of its work in the thread where someone asked, weigh how much of Dust you would use outside Slack.
How the five compare with Dust
| Tool | Where it runs | How it bills | Entry price (Dust and n8n list euros) | Fits best when |
| Dust | Slack, Microsoft Teams, web app | Per seat with credits, pooled credits on Enterprise | Free seat with 500 credits, Pro €24 per seat per month billed yearly | You want many governed internal agents in one workspace |
| Glean | Slack, Microsoft Teams, web app | Per user per month, Enterprise Flex adds pooled credits | No per-user price in its pricing docs | Company-wide search comes first |
| Lindy | Slack, plus inbox and calendar | Every active user, credits pooled | Per user, from $29.99 a month for 3,000 credits | A few people automate inbox, calendar and follow-up work |
| n8n Agents | Slack, Telegram, Linear, Discord, schedules | Workflow executions, unlimited users | Starter €20 per month billed yearly for 2,500 executions | Your team already builds n8n workflows |
| Runbear | Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord | Monthly plan that includes credits and builders | Free to start, Team $99 per month with 20,000 credits and 5 builders | Named agents work in team channels and shared channels |
| Viktor | Slack, Microsoft Teams | Workspace credits, no per-seat licenses | Free with up to $100 in credits, Team $100 per month for 40,000 credits | One AI teammate runs multi-step jobs across your tools |
Glean: company-wide search first
Glean starts from enterprise search that follows each person's permissions, and adds an agent builder and agent orchestration on top. In a Slack channel, Glean can reply on its own to questions it spots, or reply when someone tags @Glean. Answers go privately to the person who asked unless an admin turns on Public Mode, and each answer follows that person's permissions. Glean also works in Microsoft Teams. Its Core Suite is licensed per user, per month, and its Enterprise Flex plan adds a shared pool of usage credits on top of the per-user license.
Watch for: Glean's pricing docs describe the license model but give no per-user price. The Slack app needs Glean Assistant turned on for your organization.
Lindy: an assistant for inbox and follow-up
Lindy is an AI assistant for inbox, meetings and follow-up, and every plan comes with Slack access, where people can tag Lindy in a thread. Lindy's pricing page lists the Team plan from $29.99 a month per user with 3,000 credits each. At times the page has shown $49.99 with 5,000 credits instead, so check it before you budget. Credits pool across the team, and top-ups cost $10 per 1,000 credits. New accounts get $50 in free credits that last 7 days.
Watch for: Lindy bills every active user. A person who only tags Lindy in Slack still counts as a user and is billed after a 7-day trial. A help channel with many occasional askers adds a seat for each of them. Microsoft Teams is not on Lindy's pricing page.
n8n Agents: agents on top of n8n workflows
n8n launched Agents on September 25, 2026. You describe the agent's job and give it a model plus the tools and workflows it may use. After that, your team can chat with it in Slack, put it on a schedule, or trigger it from another workflow. One turn with an agent counts as one workflow execution. Every n8n plan includes unlimited users, and Starter is €20 per month billed yearly for 2,500 executions.
Watch for: n8n says Agents are still in preview. Its launch post lists Slack, Telegram, Linear, Discord and schedules as ways to reach an agent, and does not list Microsoft Teams. Teams that already maintain n8n workflows get the most from it.
Runbear: named agents in Slack and Teams channels
Runbear is a Dust alternative for teams that want named, shared AI agents in Slack and Microsoft Teams channels. Customers and vendors in a shared channel can use those agents, such as @Support or @Onboarding, without a Runbear account. Disclosure: Runbear is our product. Each agent answers from the sources you connect, such as Notion, Google Drive and Confluence, and cites the document behind the answer. Agents also act in other tools through 2,000+ integrations, for example by opening a Jira or Linear ticket from the conversation. You pick Claude, GPT or Gemini for each agent.
Team is $99 per month with 20,000 credits and 5 builders, the people who create and manage agents. Business is $399 per month with 100,000 credits and 10 builders. Business also adds SAML/SSO and lets you bring your own model key, and Runbear shares its SOC 2 Type II report on request. See Runbear pricing for what each plan includes.
Watch for: each plan caps the number of builders. Plan credits reset each billing cycle, and agents pause when they run out unless an admin turns on pay-as-you-go. Runbear is also not a personal assistant for one person's errands, and it does not run its own browser.
Viktor: one AI employee across your tools
Viktor calls itself an AI employee. It works inside Slack and Microsoft Teams and connects to more than 9,800 tools. Pricing is per workspace. The free start gives up to $100 in credits that never expire, and the Team plan is $100 per month for 40,000 credits shared across the whole workspace. Unused credits roll over, and Viktor says it has no per-seat licenses.
Watch for: on Viktor's own scale, a quick task such as a Slack summary with a CRM follow-up uses 100 to 300 credits, and a complex workflow 500 to 1,500. Run a few weeks of real work before you set a budget.
A note on Zapier
In an October 6, 2026 post, Zapier said Zapier Agents is now AI by Zapier. Agent work now runs as an AI step inside a Zap and is billed in tasks, like the rest of Zapier. Teams with many Zaps in place can add agent steps without a new tool.
How to choose
- List who will ask. If every asker is an employee, any of these tools can work. If customers or vendors in shared channels need answers, check each vendor's rules for people outside your workspace before a pilot.
- Price it at your real headcount. Per-seat and per-user plans grow with each person who uses the agent. Credit and execution plans grow with the work. Work out both for your team.
- Match the knowledge to the tool. For search across many company systems, start with Glean. For a few trusted sources plus actions in tools like Jira, Linear or HubSpot, an agent builder with integrations fits better.
- Test with a real task. Decide who will build and maintain the agents, then run one real request from your team through each finalist.
FAQ
What is the closest Dust alternative for building many internal agents?
Glean is closest when search across company systems, with each person's permissions, matters most. n8n Agents is closest when your team already builds n8n workflows and wants agents to call them.
Which Dust alternatives do not charge per seat?
Viktor bills workspace credits and says it has no per-seat licenses, and n8n bills workflow executions with unlimited users. Glean, Lindy and Dust's self-serve plans bill per user or per seat.
Is there a free way to try a Dust alternative?
Viktor starts free with up to $100 in credits, and Lindy gives new accounts $50 in credits for 7 days. Runbear is free to start with no credit card before you move to a paid plan, and Dust offers each member a Free seat with 500 credits once.
Sources
- Dust pricing: https://dust.tt/home/pricing
- Dust seat management: https://docs.dust.tt/docs/user-documentation/admins/usage-seats-and-credits/seat-management
- Dust in Slack: https://docs.dust.tt/docs/user-documentation/agents/integrations/dust-in-slack/index
- Dust in Teams: https://docs.dust.tt/docs/user-documentation/agents/integrations/dust-in-teams
- Dust personal and shared credentials: https://docs.dust.tt/docs/user-documentation/admins/tools-management/personal-vs-shared-credentials
- Dust Pods: https://docs.dust.tt/docs/user-documentation/pods/overview
- Dust Spaces: https://docs.dust.tt/docs/user-documentation/admins/spaces-management
- Glean in Slack: https://docs.glean.com/administration/platform/embedded-integrations/slackbot
- Glean Core Suite pricing: https://docs.glean.com/glean-core-suite-pricing
- Glean Enterprise Flex pricing: https://docs.glean.com/glean-enterprise-flex-pricing
- Glean in Microsoft Teams: https://www.glean.com/mcp/microsoft-teams
- Glean AI agents: https://www.glean.com/ai-agents
- Lindy pricing: https://www.lindy.ai/pricing
- n8n Agents launch: https://blog.n8n.io/introducing-n8n-agents/
- n8n pricing: https://n8n.io/pricing/
- Runbear pricing: https://runbear.io/pricing
- Runbear features: https://runbear.io/features
- Runbear vs Dust: https://runbear.io/runbear-vs-dust
- Runbear on ChatGPT Dots alternatives: https://runbear.io/posts/chatgpt-dots-alternatives-slack-teams
- Viktor pricing: https://www.viktor.com/pricing
- AI by Zapier: https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-agents-is-now-ai-by-zapier/
