The Dust alternative for those who want to build nothing
Dust is a French success story: a platform where teams build AI agents plugged into their internal data. But it is a building tool, designed self-service. The AIOS is the alternative for the business owner who expects a digital employee already configured, on their own server.
Dust (Paris, 2022), founded by alumni of OpenAI and Stripe, is one of Europe's references for enterprise AI agents: the platform plugs into your tools (Notion, Slack, Drive, Microsoft 365...) and your teams build specialised assistants per role, with the AI model of their choice. The company raised 40 million dollars in 2026 (Sequoia among others) and equips well-known scale-ups.
That model is precisely what does not suit everyone: Dust is a self-service product where your teams do the setup work (creating agents, connecting sources, iterating), with a real learning curve documented in user reviews, per-seat billing now metered in consumption credits, agents mostly summoned on demand, and advanced options reserved for Enterprise plans.
The AIOS is the Dust alternative for the business owner who wants to build nothing: a digital employee already configured on their use cases by our team, proactive (follow-ups, monitoring, reports), with a shared business memory and a dedicated server in France from day one, on a fixed subscription.
Where Dust falls short, and how the AIOS fills each gap
Dust provides the bricks; your teams assemble: create the agents, connect the sources, write the instructions, iterate. User reviews say it plainly: the setup takes more effort than a simple chatbot, and the tool's power has to be earned. With the AIOS, the building is done for you: our team configures your use cases during the trial, and you validate results, not settings.
Dust shines in mid-size companies and scale-ups where teams take ownership of the tool and administer their fleet of agents. Reviews note a real learning curve for non-developers. If nobody in your company has time to become an agent administrator, the AIOS is the right format: a human counterpart, one hour of training, and a system that runs.
Dust is billed per seat, with a credit system since 2026 that meters consumption: the more your team uses it, the faster the meter runs, and the cost grows with headcount. The AIOS takes the opposite stance: one fixed monthly subscription per company, whatever the volume of delegated work, with no meter.
Dust agents answer when summoned, in Slack or the interface: it is an excellent knowledge assistant. Proactivity (chasing a quote, watching a market, producing a report every morning unprompted) is not the product's core. The AIOS is proactive by construction: follow-ups, monitoring, scheduled reports, the morning sort, night work.
Dust covers the big tools of the modern stack well, but user reviews point to sources still missing from the catalogue; if your tool is not on it, you wait for the roadmap. The AIOS has no closed catalogue: it has a server and can code, so anything with an API can be connected, and our team configures custom integrations.
At Dust, several advanced options (SSO, provisioning, higher limits) are reserved for Enterprise plans, and standard hosting is shared SaaS. The AIOS delivers its full model to every client: dedicated server in France from day one, your data at home, with no tier to unlock.
The comparison at a glance
| Your AIOS | Dust | |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Your AIOSA complete digital employee, delivered configured | DustA platform to build your own agents per role |
| Who it is for | Your AIOSBusiness owners and small teams, no technical profile | DustMid-size companies and scale-ups with hands-on teams |
| Who configures | Your AIOSThe AIOS team, with you, during the trial | DustYour teams (agent creation, connecting sources) |
| Model | Your AIOSOne system with a shared business memory | DustSpecialised agents per use case, multiplied |
| Hosting | Your AIOSDedicated server per client, in France | DustShared SaaS cloud; advanced options reserved for Enterprise |
| Proactivity | Your AIOSActs alone: follow-ups, monitoring, reports, scheduled work | DustAgents mostly summoned on demand by the teams |
| Human support | Your AIOSOnboarding, 1h of training, ongoing support | DustDepends on the plan; product designed self-service |
| Billing | Your AIOSFixed monthly subscription per company, 7-day trial | DustPer seat, with credits metered by usage |
When to choose what
When to choose Dust
- You are a mid-size company or scale-up with teams ready to build and administer their agents
- Your central need is a knowledge assistant plugged into a large internal corpus (Notion, Slack, Drive)
- You want to pick the AI model of each agent yourself and iterate finely
When to choose the AIOS Recommended
- You run the business and nobody has time to build agents
- You want proactivity: a system that chases, monitors and produces without being asked
- You value a dedicated server from day one and a human configuring everything with you
For a well-staffed mid-size company that wants to build its fleet of agents, Dust remains an excellent French choice. For a business owner who wants to build nothing, the AIOS is the alternative: the setup work is done by our team, the system is proactive, the billing is fixed, and the dedicated server in France is there from day one, not at the end of an Enterprise negotiation.
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Your questions, our answers.
What is the best Dust alternative?
For a business owner without a technical team, the AIOS is the most direct alternative: where Dust sells a platform your teams must take ownership of, the AIOS delivers a digital employee already configured on your use cases, proactive, on a fixed subscription and on a dedicated server in France. Dust keeps the advantage for mid-size companies that want to build and administer a fleet of agents themselves with the AI model of their choice.
Dust and AIOS are both French: what should I compare?
The service model. Dust sells a platform your teams take ownership of (building agents, connecting sources, iterating). The AIOS sells an outcome: a system already built, configured on your use cases by our team, on a dedicated server. The right choice depends on who, in your company, will do the setup work.
Is Dust's per-seat and credit billing a problem?
It is a consistent model for equipping many employees, but the cost follows usage: seats and consumed credits add up. For a company where the point is to unload the owner and a handful of people, the AIOS's fixed subscription (whatever the volume of delegated work) is often easier to read.
Does an AIOS also plug into our tools like Dust?
Yes: email, calendar, documents, over 50 connectors, and custom integrations configured by our team. The difference is that the AIOS does not just answer from your data: it acts on it (sends, chases, files, produces) continuously.
Compare on your real files.
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