Short answer: Glean, Dust and Runbear all give a team shared AI agents in Slack, but each starts from a different job. Glean starts from enterprise search: one index of company knowledge that follows each document's permissions, with an assistant and an agent builder on top. Dust starts from an AI workspace where employees build many custom agents, pick a model for each and govern them with Spaces. Runbear starts from the channel: named agents such as @Support or @HR that a team mentions in Slack or Microsoft Teams, including shared channels with customers. As Dust alternatives, Glean fits when finding answers across many systems comes first, and Runbear fits when a team wants a few named agents in the channels it already uses. Dust itself fits when employees will build many agents.
Runbear is our product. Facts about Glean and Dust come from their own websites and docs, checked on October 16, 2026, and every source is linked at the end.
Glean, Dust and Runbear side by side
| Glean | Dust | Runbear | |
| Starts from | Enterprise search across company systems | An AI workspace where teams build and run agents | Named agents that live in Slack and Microsoft Teams channels |
| Agents | Glean Agents, with an agent builder and agent orchestration | Custom agents with their own skills, knowledge and tools, and multi-agent workflows on schedules and triggers | One agent per job, such as @Support or @HR, set up by describing the job in plain English |
| In Slack | Mention @Glean, use /glean, or open the Glean sidebar. Answers are private to the asker unless an admin turns on Public Mode | Tag @Dust in a channel or thread, or DM the app. Answers come back in a thread | Mention the named agent in the channel. It answers in the thread and cites its source |
| Permissions | A single index that enforces each document's permissions | Spaces separate data, and each tool runs on one shared account or on each user's own account | Connected tools can run on the asker's own account. Documents indexed into an agent are shared by everyone who can use it |
| How it charges | Per user, per month, with no per-user price in its pricing docs. Some AI features add Model Hub usage fees | Per seat with credits on the self-serve Business plan, pooled credits on Enterprise | Monthly plans with credits and builders: Team $99, Business $399 |
| Best fit | A large company that wants one search layer across departments | A company that wants employees to build and govern many agents | Teams that want a few agents in the channels they already use, including with customers |
Glean: the search-first alternative to Dust
Glean fits as a Dust alternative when people cannot find answers spread across dozens of systems. Its homepage groups enterprise search, Glean Assistant and Glean Agents on one platform, with an agent builder, agent orchestration and more than 250 connectors. Everything runs on one index. In Glean's words, that index "enforces the real permissions of every document at index time" across the systems it connects.
In Slack, people can mention @Glean, use the /glean command, or open the Glean sidebar to ask questions and run agents. Glean can also answer on its own when it spots a question in a channel. Its answers go privately to the person who asked, and each one follows that person's permissions. An admin can turn on Public Mode to post answers in the channel. Glean in Slack needs Glean Assistant turned on for your organization, and Glean also works in Microsoft Teams.
Glean licenses its Core Suite per user, per month. Its pricing docs explain the license model but list no per-user price, and some features, such as reasoning modes and Canvas, are billed separately as Model Hub usage.
Dust: an AI workspace for building many agents
Dust fits when employees will build and run many agents themselves. Dust calls itself multiplayer AI: people and agents share company knowledge, tools and conversations. Teams build custom agents with their own skills, knowledge and tools, choose among more than 20 models, including ones from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Mistral, and run multi-agent workflows on schedules and triggers. Agents connect to tools such as Slack, Notion, Google Drive, GitHub and Salesforce, plus any tool through MCP.
Spaces separate data and permissions by team, and Dust says its permission model keeps two settings apart: what an agent can reach, and who may use that agent. When a tool needs a login, an admin chooses shared credentials, one account for every user, or personal credentials, where each user connects their own account and sees only what that account allows.
In Slack, a workspace admin installs the Dust app once. After that, members tag @Dust in a channel or thread, or DM the app, and the answer comes back as a thread reply. Dust also works in Microsoft Teams.
Dust's self-serve Business plan is for teams of up to 100 people and charges per seat. A Pro seat is €24 per month billed yearly with 8,000 credits a month, and a Max seat is €120 per month billed yearly with 40,000 credits. Prices are in euros before VAT. A Free seat comes with 500 credits once. Larger teams talk to Dust's sales team about the Enterprise plan, which adds workspace-pooled credits, SCIM and audit logs.
Runbear: named agents in your team's channels
Runbear gives teams shared AI agents in Slack and Microsoft Teams: named agents such as @Support or @HR that anyone in the channel can mention, including customers and vendors in a shared channel who have no Runbear account. Runbear is also a Dust alternative for building AI agents in Slack: you describe the job in plain English, connect the tools the agent needs from more than 2,000 integrations, and add the named agent to a channel. Runbear says setup takes about 10 minutes, with no engineering team.
Each agent answers from the sources you connect, such as Notion, Google Drive and Confluence, and cites the document behind the answer. In the same thread it can act, for example by filing a Jira or Linear ticket from the conversation. You choose Claude, GPT or Gemini for each agent.
When an agent calls a connected tool such as Salesforce or Google Drive, it can use the asking person's own account, so that person sees only what they could already see in that tool. Documents you index into an agent's own knowledge base are different. Everyone who can use that agent can get answers from them.
Runbear's plans include monthly credits and a set number of builders, the people who create and manage agents. You can start free with no credit card. Team is $99 per month with 20,000 credits and 5 builders. Business is $399 per month with 100,000 credits and 10 builders, and adds SAML/SSO and the option to bring your own model key. Runbear shares its SOC 2 Type II report on request, and Enterprise pricing is custom. See Runbear pricing for the full list.
When to choose Runbear, and when not to
Choose Runbear when:
- Your team works in Slack or Teams and will not adopt another app.
- You want a few named agents, each owned by one team, rather than a company-wide search rollout.
- Customers or vendors in shared channels need answers too.
- The agent should answer and then act in tools like Jira or Linear in the same thread.
Choose Glean or Dust when:
- You need search across dozens of systems for thousands of employees. Runbear answers from the sources you connect to each agent. It is not a company-wide search index. Glean is built for that job.
- Restricted documents must stay restricted inside one index. Documents indexed into a Runbear agent are shared by everyone who can use it, so restricted files should stay in connected tools. Glean's index enforces each document's permissions.
- You want employees to build many agents in a governed workspace. That is Dust's core use, with Spaces, model choice per agent and multi-agent workflows.
- You want most AI work to happen in one web app. Runbear is built around chat channels, and Glean and Dust center daily work on their own web apps.
For a one-to-one look at Dust, see Runbear vs Dust.
FAQ
Is Glean a search tool or an agent builder?
Both. Glean's homepage lists enterprise search, Glean Assistant and Glean Agents, and Glean Agents includes an agent builder and agent orchestration. The agents run on top of Glean's search index.
Does Dust let each user connect their own accounts?
Yes. For tools that need a login, a Dust admin can pick personal credentials, where each user signs in with their own account, or shared credentials, where every user works through one account.
How do Glean, Dust and Runbear charge?
Glean licenses per user, per month, and its pricing docs list no per-user price. Dust's self-serve Business plan charges per seat, with credits attached to each seat. Runbear's plans start at $99 per month and include monthly credits and a set number of builders.
Can people outside the company use these agents in Slack?
Runbear agents work for customers and vendors in a shared Slack channel without a Runbear account. Glean and Dust describe their Slack apps for people in your organization, so check each vendor's rules for outside users before a pilot.
Sources
- Glean homepage: https://www.glean.com/
- Glean in Slack (Glean docs): https://docs.glean.com/administration/platform/embedded-integrations/slackbot
- Glean blog on Glean in Slack: https://www.glean.com/blog/glean-in-slack-coworker
- Glean Core Suite pricing (Glean docs): https://docs.glean.com/glean-core-suite-pricing
- Glean in Microsoft Teams: https://www.glean.com/mcp/microsoft-teams
- Dust homepage: https://dust.tt/
- Dust pricing: https://dust.tt/home/pricing
- Dust in Slack (Dust docs): https://docs.dust.tt/docs/slack
- Dust personal and shared credentials (Dust docs): https://docs.dust.tt/docs/user-documentation/admins/tools-management/personal-vs-shared-credentials
- Dust in Teams (Dust docs): https://docs.dust.tt/docs/user-documentation/agents/integrations/dust-in-teams
- Runbear homepage: https://runbear.io/
- 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
