Agentic Index
Dust vs Writer (2026)
Dust and Writer both let enterprises build and run agents, and the split is open builder versus governed production: Dust offers per agent choice across 20+ models with agents grounded on company data, at 30 dollars per user a month (24 annual) with a free option, while Writer runs on its own Palmyra models with playbooks, brand governance, and compliance enforcement from 29 dollars per user a month Starter to custom enterprise. That verdict is the Agentic Index coverage score, graded from each vendor's own published materials.
Nearly identical entry prices; very different philosophies. Choose Dust for model flexibility and builder freedom, Writer for governed, on brand output.
This comparison is published by Agentic Index, an independent agentic AI vendor research platform. Dust and Writer are each graded against the same 14 capability Agentic Index taxonomy, from the vendor's own public materials under the Agentic Index verification standard, alongside 956 researched vendors. No vendor pays for placement and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Choose Dust if
- Model choice per agent (20+ models, no gating) is a real requirement.
- Builder freedom for many teams to create their own agents is the culture fit.
- A free option and self serve motion match how your org adopts tools.
Choose Writer if
- Brand, compliance, and governance enforcement on output is the priority.
- Playbook driven repeatable workflows fit your production needs.
- Zero data retention posture and proprietary models reassure your security team.
| At a glance | Dust | Writer |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Enterprise operations agent | Enterprise operations agent |
| Entry price | Free seat at 0€ with 500 lifetime credits; paid entry is Pro at 24€ per seat per month billed yearly (30€ monthly), and Max at 120€ yearly (150€ monthly). All excluding VAT. Enterprise on application. Figures are euros, not dollars. | Starter $29/user/mo annual ($39 monthly) · Enterprise custom |
| Free / trial | Free option (no card, up to 5 users) + 15-day Pro trial | 14-day free trial (no card) |
| Pricing confidence | public exact | public partial |
| Feature | D Dust |
W Writer |
|---|---|---|
| Action & orchestration | ||
|
Integrations & Tool Calling Ability to connect agents to real systems through native integrations, OAuth-authenticated actions, custom tools, APIs, webhooks, or MCP-compatible tools. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Workflow Orchestration Ability to sequence, branch, retry, route, and combine deterministic workflow nodes with autonomous agent steps. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Triggers & Channel Coverage How agents wake up and where they work: schedules, webhooks, message events, CRM events, inbox events, chat, email, voice, and collaboration tools. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
| Knowledge & context | ||
|
Knowledge Grounding & RAG Ability to ground agent behavior in company data through document ingestion, retrieval, external knowledge APIs, semantic search, or RAG layers. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Memory & State Persistence Ability to persist context across a run, conversation, workflow, user, team, or longer-term memory layer. |
Partial | Partial |
| Control & trust | ||
|
Human Oversight & Guardrails Approval steps, consent checkpoints, escalation rules, structured guardrails, policy constraints, and pause/resume controls. |
Partial | Full / Explicit |
|
Security, Identity & Governance RBAC, SSO, auditability, encryption, least-privilege tool access, compliance posture, and data handling policy. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Observability & Auditability Traces, logs, execution histories, metrics, audit events, and debugging detail for production agent behavior. |
Partial | Full / Explicit |
|
Deployment & Data Residency Deployment modes and options, including SaaS, dedicated cloud, VPC, on-prem, hybrid, local runtime, and self-hosting. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
| Solution readiness | ||
|
Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs Ready-made workflows, packaged employees, templates, blueprints, industry solutions, and role-specific agents that reduce time-to-value. |
Partial | Full / Explicit |
| Platform extensibility | ||
|
Model Flexibility & Routing Ability to work across multiple foundation models, route tasks to different models, or let buyers bring their own providers and keys. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Composability layer: stable APIs, SDKs, MCP tool consumption/serving, custom tools, and integration into internal systems. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Testing, Debugging & Optimization Testing, debugging, scoring, retries, fallbacks, quality gates, and optimization loops for improving agent workflows before and after deployment. |
No / Not documented | Partial |
| Specialist automation | ||
|
Browser & Computer Use Browser, desktop, or remote/local computer control for workflows that cannot be handled through stable APIs alone. |
No / Not documented | Full / Explicit |
Pricing snapshot
Sourced from the Index pricing dataset · open each vendor's profile for full detail.
| Pricing | D Dust |
W Writer |
|---|---|---|
|
Entry price Lowest public entry point |
Free seat at 0€ with 500 lifetime credits; paid entry is Pro at 24€ per seat per month billed yearly (30€ monthly), and Max at 120€ yearly (150€ monthly). All excluding VAT. Enterprise on application. Figures are euros, not dollars. | Starter $29/user/mo annual ($39 monthly) · Enterprise custom |
|
Pricing confidence How public the numbers are |
Public, exact | Public, partial |
|
Billing Primary billing axis |
Per seat per month with a monthly credit allocation attached to each seat, across three seat types inside one self-serve Business plan, plus a sales-led Enterprise plan. Seats are priced in EUROS excluding VAT; programmatic API usage is priced in US dollars at $0.01 per credit. Admins assign a seat type per user and can mix and reassign them at any time. | seats |
|
Variable cost Workload / overage exposure |
Medium variable cost | Medium variable cost |
|
Free tier / trial Try before you buy |
Free tierTrial
|
No free tierTrial
|
|
Buying motion Self-serve vs sales call |
Mixed | Mixed |
More comparisons with Dust or Writer
Other matchups in enterprise operations agents
Not the pairing you were after? These compare a different set of enterprise operations agents on the same 14 capabilities.