# Dust vs StackRef

Dust records 547,217 monthly visits with +1.8% month-over-month growth and Contact for Pricing pricing. StackRef records 765 monthly visits with +184.4% growth and Contact for Pricing pricing.

| Metric | [Dust](https://openaitools.app/tool/dust) | [StackRef](https://openaitools.app/tool/stackref) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://dust.tt | https://stackref.com |
| Categories | AI Assistant, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Workflow, AI Knowledge Management | Other |
| Pricing Model | Contact for Pricing | Contact for Pricing |
| Monthly Visits | 547,217 | 765 |
| MoM Growth Rate | +1.8% | +184.4% |
| Primary Market | France | Indonesia |
| Direct Visits | 456,919 | 305 |
| Review Score | 4.4 | 4 |
| Saved Count | 5 | 0 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## Dust

Dust positions itself as 'multiplayer AI' for human-agent collaboration. Rather than giving each employee a private chatbot, it lets teams build agents that have shared access to company knowledge, connected tools, conversations and notifications, so work can move back and forth between people and AI. Agents can be reused across departments, and human review stays part of the loop where it matters.

The platform's differentiator is context. According to Dust, most AI tools can retrieve a single Slack message or CRM record, whereas its agents pull context together across Slack, CRM, documents and other company systems to answer with the full picture and then act on it. Over 70 connectors cover messaging, calendars, CRM, file storage, project management, data and finance tools, and agents can reach MCP servers through the same gateway.

Governance is a first-class feature. Dust offers a dual-layer permission model that separates what agents can access from who can use them, SCIM-synced groups, admin-gated overrides, audit logs and analytics for monitoring adoption, usage, cost and ROI. It is SOC 2 Type II certified, offers US or EU data residency and supports single-tenant deployment. Teams can build agents with 20+ frontier and open-source models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral and others, choosing the right model per workflow. The company says more than 3,000 organizations and 300,000+ agents run on the platform.

**Pricing & Plans:** Contact for pricing. Dust offers a free trial after signup, but its plans are oriented toward teams and enterprises with usage-based credits, volume pricing and dedicated support; you need to talk to sales for exact figures.

- **Agents with company context:** Connect 70+ tools including Slack, Notion, Google Drive, GitHub, Salesforce and Zendesk so agents answer with real company knowledge instead of generic guesses.
- **70+ connectors and MCP support:** Reach messaging, CRM, docs, project management, data, finance and MCP servers through one platform, so agents can act across systems rather than just chat.
- **Model flexibility:** Build agents with 20+ frontier and open-source models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Mistral, and pick the best model for each task.
- **AI-native governance:** A dual-layer permission model, SCIM-synced groups, admin-gated overrides, audit logs and usage analytics keep company data locked down while teams move fast.
- **Multiplayer collaboration:** People and agents share context, tools and notifications, so cross-functional workflows run with reusable skills and human review built in.

**Strengths:** Deep context gathering across 70+ enterprise connectors; Strong enterprise governance with permissions, audit logs and SOC 2 Type II; Model-agnostic: choose among 20+ frontier and open-source models; Shared, reusable agents that scale across departments

**Limitations:** Pricing is sales-led, so costs are hard to estimate before a demo; Setting up connectors and permissions takes real admin work; Best value comes with broad rollout, which is a heavier commitment for small teams

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/dust.md)

## StackRef

StackRef is an independent consulting practice run by Keith McDuffee, a CISSP-certified cloud architect with more than 20 years across infrastructure, DevOps, and security, currently also a Senior Director of DevOps and Application Security. The consulting side provides hands-on help designing, securing, and optimizing cloud environments on AWS, GCP, and Azure, with an emphasis on being precise and clear about requirements rather than over-charging or over-complicating.

Alongside consulting, StackRef offers its own designed, self-hosted, end-to-end internal hackathon manager. This product supports the hackathon lifecycle with features such as sandbox environments, AI-assisted scoring, and team collaboration, making it useful for organizations that want to run internal innovation events on their own infrastructure rather than a third-party SaaS.

Client reviews highlight fast response, deep end-to-end infrastructure knowledge, and a willingness to dig into problems and propose multiple solutions. Being based near Boston and working remotely with clients worldwide, StackRef fits teams that want a senior, accountable expert plus a purpose-built internal hackathon tool. Pricing is arranged through a free intro call or direct email.

**Pricing & Plans:** StackRef does not publish fixed prices. Its model is contact for pricing: you book a free 30-minute intro call or email directly to discuss consulting scope or the self-hosted hackathon platform and receive a quote.

- **Cloud architecture consulting:** Hands-on architecture, security, and cost optimization across AWS, GCP, and Azure, led by a CISSP-certified architect with 20+ years of experience.
- **Security and compliance:** Focused engagements on hardening cloud environments and supporting compliance, with an emphasis on robust, well-governed infrastructure.
- **Cost optimization:** Practical work to reduce cloud spend and right-size infrastructure without sacrificing reliability.
- **Internal hackathon platform:** A self-designed, self-hosted, end-to-end internal hackathon manager covering sandbox environments and AI scoring to run innovation events.
- **Direct expert access:** Booking a free 30-minute call and working directly with the principal architect instead of going through a queue.

**Strengths:** Direct access to a CISSP-certified architect with 20+ years of experience; Cross-cloud expertise spanning AWS, GCP, and Azure; Consulting paired with a self-hosted hackathon platform; Free 30-minute intro call before committing

**Limitations:** Consulting capacity is tied to one principal architect, which can limit parallel engagements; Hackathon software and consulting are distinct offerings that may suit different buyers; No published fixed pricing, so budgeting requires a conversation; The platform is niche, focused on cloud architecture and internal hackathons rather than broad team tooling

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/stackref.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do Dust and StackRef compare in monthly traffic?

Dust has 547,217 monthly visits, while StackRef has 765. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

Dust has a month-over-month growth rate of +1.8%; StackRef has +184.4%.

### How does pricing compare?

Dust: Contact for Pricing. Contact for pricing. Dust offers a free trial after signup, but its plans are oriented toward teams and enterprises with usage-based credits, volume pricing and dedicated support; you need to talk to sales for exact figures. StackRef: Contact for Pricing. StackRef does not publish fixed prices. Its model is contact for pricing: you book a free 30-minute intro call or email directly to discuss consulting scope or the self-hosted hackathon platform and receive a quote.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [Notion](https://openaitools.app/tool/t) | 173,441,670 | +0.1% | Freemium | Provides a unified connected workspace for team documents and databases, but lacks Dust's advanced multi-source enterprise knowledge indexing. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/t.md) |
| 2 | [Salesforce Agentforce (formerly Einstein)](https://openaitools.app/tool/salesforce-einstein) | 111,910,743 | +2.2% | Freemium | Integrates deeply with CRM ecosystems to automate enterprise workflows, but is tightly bound to the Salesforce software suite. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/salesforce-einstein.md) |
| 3 | [Glean](https://openaitools.app/tool/glean) | 3,301,875 | +0.1% | Contact for Pricing | Offers robust enterprise-wide permission-aware search and knowledge management, but with less focus on custom multi-model agent workflows. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/glean.md) |
| 4 | [Abacus.AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/abacus-ai) | 3,278,636 | -1.7% | Contact for Pricing | Combines multi-model chat assistants and automated machine learning optimization, but with a heavier focus on data science pipelines. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/abacus-ai.md) |
| 5 | [Angular](https://openaitools.app/tool/angular-dev) | 735,108 | -7.5% | Free | Google's batteries-included framework for scalable web apps | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/angular-dev.md) |
| 6 | [Taskade](https://openaitools.app/tool/taskade) | 539,714 | -9.4% | Freemium | Turn one prompt into live business apps, AI agents and automated workflows | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/taskade.md) |
| 7 | [Gumloop](https://openaitools.app/tool/gumloop) | 379,557 | -21.1% | Freemium, Paid, Contact for Pricing | Excels at visual no-code web scraping and data automation pipelines, but lacks Dust's dedicated internal knowledge base architecture. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/gumloop.md) |
| 8 | [Tines](https://openaitools.app/tool/tines) | 273,260 | +24.4% | Freemium, Contact for Pricing | Focuses on secure enterprise workflow automation and security orchestration, but requires more manual setup for custom AI agents. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/tines.md) |
| 9 | [Kore.ai](https://openaitools.app/tool/kore-ai) | 143,328 | -18.2% | Contact for Pricing | Delivers enterprise-grade conversational AI and workflow automation, but focuses more heavily on customer service and enterprise contact centers. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/kore-ai.md) |
| 10 | [Sim AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/sim-ai) | 140,953 | +20.6% | Freemium, Paid (per user/month), and Enterprise with custom pricing; self-hosting free under Apache 2.0 | Open-source workspace to build, deploy and govern AI agents | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/sim-ai.md) |

---
Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/dust-vs-stackref

More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)