Onyx
An open-source (MIT) enterprise search and AI assistant, formerly Danswer. Onyx connects to 40-plus tools like Slack, GitHub, Notion and Google Workspace and gives a natural-language, cited answer over your internal knowledge, with RAG, agents and access controls. Self-host for free with any LLM; managed cloud starts at $20/user/month.
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Our take
Onyx is the open-source answer to Glean: a real enterprise search and assistant you can self-host for free, point at your own LLM, and keep entirely inside your network. The connector breadth and access controls are solid. Self-hosting takes engineering effort, but for privacy-conscious or budget-conscious Indian teams, free and on-prem is a rare and powerful combination.
Best for
Teams that want a self-hostable, private alternative to Glean for searching internal knowledge across their tools.
Pros
- Open-source (MIT) and free to self-host
- Keeps data in your network; bring your own LLM
- 40-plus connectors with access controls
- Managed cloud option if you do not want to host
Cons
- Self-hosting needs engineering effort
- Quality depends on your chosen LLM and setup
- Cloud tier is per-seat at $20/user/month
How it compares
Glean and Dust are polished and hosted; Onyx trades some turnkey ease for open-source control, data residency and a zero-licence self-host path.
Full review
Onyx, which started life as Danswer, is an open-source platform for searching everything your company knows. It indexes across 40-plus sources - Slack, GitHub, Notion, Google Workspace and more - and answers questions in plain language with citations, using RAG plus agents and actions, all behind proper access controls so people only see what they should.
The reason it matters for India is the licensing and hosting model: the community edition is MIT-licensed and free to run on your own infrastructure with any model provider, which means data residency and cost control without a per-seat bill. If you would rather not operate it, the managed cloud is $20/user/month. The trade-off is the usual open-source one - you take on setup and tuning in exchange for control - but few hosted rivals can match free-and-private.
Cloudkart Trust Graph
4.0/5- Actual Utility4/5
Source: Initial LLM-authored rubric (backfill)
- Ease of Use3/5
Source: Initial LLM-authored rubric (backfill)
- Pricing Fairness5/5
Source: Initial LLM-authored rubric (backfill)
- Reliability4/5
Source: Initial LLM-authored rubric (backfill)
- Differentiation4/5
Source: Initial LLM-authored rubric (backfill)
Scored as of . Each score is versioned and auditable; vendors cannot buy it.
How this score is set
- Editorial rubric
- Primary signal — five dimensions, 4.0/5 average.
- Community reviews
- None yet.
- Pricing verified
- Not yet verified
- Independence
- Score set by our editorial team before any affiliate relationship is considered. No vendor can buy it.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Onyx free, and how much does it cost?
- Onyx is open source and free to self-host.
- Who is Onyx best for?
- Teams that want a self-hostable, private alternative to Glean for searching internal knowledge across their tools.
- How is Onyx rated on Cloudkart.ai?
- Onyx scores 4.0 out of 5 on the Cloudkart.ai rubric, which weighs actual utility, ease of use, pricing fairness, reliability and differentiation. Scores are set editorially and can never be bought.
Community reviews
No community reviews yet. Be the first to share how Onyx works for you.
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