I tested 7 top Glean alternatives in 2025—here’s what I found

Let’s be real for a second: your company’s knowledge is probably scattered everywhere. It’s in Slack threads, buried in Google Drive, tucked away in Zendesk, and living on random Confluence pages. Trying to find a straight answer can feel like a full-blown digital scavenger hunt, and who has time for that?

Enterprise search tools like Glean showed up with a big promise: to create one single source of truth and fix the chaos. The problem is, that promise often comes with a shocking price tag, a setup process that drags on for months, and a "one-size-fits-all" model that doesn’t really fit anyone perfectly, especially fast-moving support and IT teams.

That whole situation sent me looking for something better. This post breaks down the 7 best Glean alternatives I found. These tools offer more flexibility, better features for specific teams, and a much quicker way to get things up and running.

What is an enterprise search tool?

Basically, an enterprise search tool is a private Google for your company. It connects to all your internal apps and documents, from the help desk to your shared drives, and builds a single index you can search. The goal is to let you find information without needing to remember exactly where it lives.

But things have evolved past simple keyword searches. The tools you’ll see today are using AI and natural language processing (NLP) to figure out what you’re really asking. Instead of just a list of links, they give you direct answers. The best ones are even taking the next step: they don’t just help you find information; they help you act on it with smart automation.

Why look for Glean alternatives?

Glean was one of the first to the party with AI-powered enterprise search, and it definitely gets credit for that. But as business needs have changed, some of its cracks have started to show, pushing people to find solutions that are a better fit for how teams work today. Here’s why you might be in the same boat.

• You can’t figure out the price. Most of the old-school enterprise search tools, Glean included, hide their pricing. You’re pushed into a sales call just to get a number, and the per-user costs can explode as you grow. It makes budgeting a total guessing game. Alternatives with clear, public pricing are a breath of fresh air.

• The setup takes forever and requires IT. Getting started with these big tools can feel like a marathon. It often takes months and a ton of developer time, which means you’re stuck waiting in a long IT queue. Modern teams need tools they can set up themselves in an afternoon, not half a year.

• It’s built for everyone, which means it’s perfect for no one. A tool designed to work for every department, from legal to engineering, is rarely going to have the specific features a high-speed team like customer support or sales needs. Those teams don’t just need to find docs; they need to solve tickets, draft replies, and automate tasks that eat up their day.

• It finds answers but doesn’t help you act on them. Most search tools are passive. They help you find info, and then… that’s it. You’re on your own. The best Glean alternatives are built for action. They help you go from finding an answer to getting work done by letting you build automated workflows, triage tickets, and generate content.

• The all-or-nothing security model is a little scary. The idea of indexing every single document in your entire company can make anyone in charge of security nervous. Better options give you more fine-grained control, letting you pick and choose exactly which knowledge sources to include and even giving you the option to not index sensitive data at all.

A quick comparison of the best Glean alternatives

Here’s a high-level look at how the top competitors stack up.

Tool	Best For	Key Feature	Pricing Model	Self-Serve Setup?
eesel AI	Support & IT Automation	AI Agent & Workflow Engine	Transparent, Tiered	Yes
Capacity	Unified internal & external support	Knowledge Orchestration	Custom	No
Ask-AI	Customer-facing GTM teams	Purpose-built CX workflows	Custom	No
Coveo	Advanced enterprise search	AI-powered relevance	Custom	No
Guru	Internal knowledge management	Browser extension & Slack app	Per user/month	Yes
Docket	Sales team enablement	AI Sales Assistant	Custom	No
Elasticsearch	Developer-led implementations	Open-source flexibility	Resource-based / Tiered	Yes

The top 7 Glean alternatives for your business in 2025

After digging in and testing the options, here are the platforms that really stood out, each with its own strengths for solving real-world business headaches.

1. eesel AI

eesel AI is much more than a search tool. It’s an AI platform designed specifically for the teams on the front lines: customer service, ITSM, and internal support. It connects directly with your help desk (like Zendesk or Freshdesk) and all your other knowledge sources to automate support, help agents draft replies, and triage tickets on its own. It’s built for teams that need to do things with their knowledge, not just look at it.

Why it’s a top alternative: Where Glean gives you a passive search bar, eesel AI gives you an active automation engine. It immediately learns from your past support tickets, so it picks up your brand voice and common solutions from day one. Its powerful simulation mode is a standout feature, letting you test how the AI would have handled thousands of your past tickets before you even turn it on for customers. This gives you total confidence in how it will perform, which is something most other tools just can’t do.

A look at eesel AI's simulation mode, which allows teams to test the AI's performance on past tickets before activation. This is a key reason it is one of the top Glean alternatives.:

What’s great:

• You can set it up yourself, fast: You can sign up, connect your help desk, and have it running in minutes without ever talking to a salesperson.

• You’re in complete control: You get to decide exactly which tickets the AI handles and what it’s allowed to do, whether that’s looking up order information, tagging tickets, or passing a complex issue to a human.

• The pricing is clear: The plans are straightforward and predictable, with no confusing fees per resolution. This is a huge win compared to competitors who hide their pricing.

What to watch out for:

• It’s laser-focused on support and IT use cases. If you’re just looking for a simple document search tool for the whole company, this might be more powerful than you need.

Pricing: eesel AI’s pricing is public, starting at $239/month (billed annually) for the Team plan. The Business plan ($639/month billed annually) lets you train the AI on past tickets and use custom AI actions. You can also pay monthly if you prefer.

2. Capacity

Capacity calls itself an AI-powered knowledge orchestration platform. It’s built to connect all your company data to offer a single support experience for both your internal teams (like HR and IT) and your customers.

Why it’s on the list: Capacity is a solid choice if you’re trying to build one system to handle all your support needs, both for employees and customers. It has features like automated helpdesk knowledge bases and HR onboarding support, which can be useful for businesses trying to streamline every support function at once.

What’s great:

• It has a strong focus on handling both internal and external support cases.

• The workflow automation features are pretty powerful.

What to watch out for:

• There’s no self-serve option or public pricing. You have to book a demo and go through a sales process to get started.

• The platform can feel a bit over-engineered if all you need is a straightforward search solution.

Pricing: Custom pricing is available after you talk to their sales team.

3. Ask-AI

Ask-AI is a generative AI platform designed specifically for customer experience (CX) and go-to-market (GTM) teams. It’s less about finding a document and more about using customer communication data to find insights and automate workflows.

Why it’s on the list: This is a great example of a specialized tool that goes deep on one thing. Instead of just finding information, it offers features made for sales and support teams, like proactive ticket support and sentiment analysis.

What’s great:

• It’s purpose-built for the specific needs of support, customer success, and sales teams.

• It excels at generating content (like agent replies) and pulling useful insights from customer conversations.

What to watch out for:

• This isn’t a general-purpose enterprise search tool for your entire company.

• The setup and pricing are aimed at larger companies, requiring a demo to get started.

Pricing: Custom pricing is available upon request after a demo.

4. Coveo

Coveo is a beast of an AI platform aimed at large enterprises. It’s known for highly customizable and personalized search and is designed for big companies with complex data environments that need a really robust solution.

Why it’s on the list: For businesses with the budget and technical resources, Coveo is a market leader and a direct, high-end competitor to Glean.

What’s great:

• Its advanced AI and machine learning deliver very relevant search results.

• It provides deep analytics and dashboards to help you tweak its performance.

What to watch out for:

• It’s a very expensive tool that requires a lot of technical skill to set up and manage.

• The sales process is long and built for large enterprises, with no way to try it on your own.

Pricing: Coveo offers custom pricing plans based on your needs. You’ll have to contact their sales team for a quote.

5. Guru

Guru is a knowledge management tool that helps you capture and share information right where your team works. It uses a system of "Knowledge Cards" that pop up in a browser extension or within Slack.

Why it’s on the list: Guru is a great option for teams whose main goal is to create a central, verified internal wiki that everyone can trust and access without switching tabs.

What’s great:

• It fits right into your team’s day-to-day with its handy browser extension.

• The content verification features are strong, helping make sure information stays accurate.

What to watch out for:

• Its AI search can feel a bit hit-or-miss compared to more advanced platforms.

• It’s more about surfacing existing docs than it is about automating actions.

Pricing: Guru’s pricing starts at $25 per user/month (billed annually) with a 10-seat minimum. They also have an Enterprise plan with custom pricing.

6. Docket

Docket is an AI assistant built to help sales teams quickly find answers to tricky product questions, respond to RFPs, and handle buyer questions in the moment.

Why it’s on the list: It’s another fantastic example of a Glean alternative that’s hyper-focused on one department. It delivers a ton of value by zeroing in on sales-specific workflows that general tools just don’t cover.

What’s great:

• It pulls sales knowledge from key places like Slack and Salesforce into one spot.

• It automates time-sucking tasks for sales reps, like filling out security questionnaires.

What to watch out for:

• It’s a sales tool, period. It’s not a knowledge platform for the rest of the company.

• There’s no public pricing; you have to schedule a demo.

Pricing: Custom pricing is available upon request.

7. Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is a powerful, open-source search and analytics engine. It’s the foundation that many other commercial search products are built on top of. It’s the right choice for companies with a strong technical team that wants to build a completely custom search experience from the ground up.

Why it’s on the list: This is the ultimate choice for flexibility and control. If you have the engineering firepower, you can use Elasticsearch to build exactly what you need.

What’s great:

• It’s highly scalable and incredibly flexible.

• It has a massive open-source community and tons of documentation.

What to watch out for:

• It requires serious technical expertise to implement, manage, and scale. Don’t underestimate this part.

• The total cost (once you factor in hosting and engineering salaries) can get very high, even though the software itself is free.

Pricing: While the open-source version is free, Elastic offers various pricing models for its managed cloud services.

Tips for choosing the right Glean alternatives

Feeling a little lost in the options? Here are a few simple tips to help you make the right call.

• First, what problem are you actually solving? Before you look at any tools, get clear on your main goal. Is this a company-wide problem of just finding documents? Or is a specific team, like support, struggling with manual tasks? A general tool might work for the first scenario, but a specialized platform will deliver way more value for the second.

• How fast do you need to see results? Ask yourself, "How quickly can my team start using this and see a difference?" A solution you can set up yourself in an afternoon, like eesel AI, will give you a return on your investment much faster than one that requires a six-month project with the IT department.

• Don’t fall for hidden pricing. Avoid getting tangled up in a long sales cycle just to find out a tool is way outside your budget. Look for solutions with clear, predictable pricing. This lets you budget properly and avoids any nasty surprises down the road. You want a partner, not a vendor that penalizes you for growing.

The future is action, not just answers

While Glean and other early enterprise search tools were focused on the problem of finding information, the next wave of AI is all about acting on it. The best solutions today don’t just hand you a link; they automate workflows, draft replies, and help your team get their actual work done faster.

For customer support and IT teams, this is a huge shift. It means moving from a passive search bar to an active AI partner that works alongside them in their help desk, handling the repetitive tasks so they can focus on what really matters.

Ready to see what an action-oriented AI platform can do for your team? Sign up and build your first AI agent with eesel AI in minutes.