SchemaBounce vs Dust: Which AI Agent Platform Should You Choose?
Reading Your Data vs. Running on It
Dust and SchemaBounce both deploy AI agents. Both connect to your tools. Both promise productivity gains. They're built on fundamentally different architectures. And that difference determines what your agents can do.
What Dust Does
Dust calls itself "The Operating System for AI Agents." You create agents, connect them to company data (Notion, Slack, Google Drive, Salesforce), and let them answer questions, draft content, and automate tasks.
Dust is well-designed for teams that want AI agents to search and summarize information across existing tools. No-code builder. Multi-model support (GPT, Claude, Gemini, Mistral). SOC 2 compliant. Use cases across knowledge management, sales, marketing, customer care, and more.
If "find answers across our company knowledge" is the primary need, Dust does that well.
What SchemaBounce Does
SchemaBounce is a business operating system powered by AI agents. Real-time data pipelines feed a per-workspace Agent Data Layer where agents gather information, make decisions, and take action autonomously.
59+ pre-built agents. Multi-agent domains with org charts and escalation paths. Visual workflow builder. Infrastructure as Code via Kolumn CLI. Agents send emails, update CRMs, create invoices, and escalate to humans.
The Core Difference: Reading vs. Running
Dust agents read your data where it sits. Every question is an API call to an external system. Salesforce, Notion, Slack.
SchemaBounce agents run on their own data. Your data streams into a dedicated Agent Data Layer automatically. Agents query their local database. No external API calls. No rate limits. No waiting.
Why it matters:
Speed
A Dust agent answering a complex question searches Notion, checks Slack, queries Salesforce. Three API calls, each taking hundreds of milliseconds. A SchemaBounce agent queries its local data layer. One query. Milliseconds.
Rate Limits
Every SaaS tool limits API calls. A Dust agent processing a batch of customer inquiries hits Salesforce's rate limit and gets throttled mid-task. SchemaBounce agents query their own database. No external rate limits.
Memory
Dust agents have conversation context within a session but limited persistence between sessions. SchemaBounce agents have five types of persistent memory: records, key-value memory, graph relationships, semantic search, and encrypted secrets. They get smarter over time. See why your AI agents keep forgetting everything for what this fixes.
Relationships
A Dust agent retrieves a customer record from Salesforce and a ticket from Zendesk. It doesn't understand they're related. It has to figure that out from context clues every time. SchemaBounce's graph database stores explicit relationships. Agents traverse them instantly.
Action
Dust agents are built to read and respond. Search, answer, draft. SchemaBounce agents are built to decide and act. Process events, make decisions from multiple sources, send emails, update records, create invoices, escalate to humans.
Feature Comparison
| Capability | Dust | SchemaBounce |
|---|---|---|
| Agent builder | No-code visual | Visual + marketplace + Kolumn CLI |
| Data access | Reads from apps via API | Dedicated data layer with real-time streaming |
| Persistent memory | Limited (conversation context) | 5 subsystems: records, KV, graph, vectors, secrets |
| Graph relationships | No | Yes (entity relationship traversal) |
| Real-time data | No (reads on demand) | Yes (continuous streaming) |
| Multi-agent domains | Basic collaboration | Org charts + reporting lines + escalation |
| Pre-built agents | Templates | 59+ production-ready with org charts |
| Takes action | Limited (search/respond) | Full (email, CRM, invoicing, calls, escalation) |
| Workflow builder | No | Visual multi-step DAG designer |
| Per-workspace isolation | Shared infrastructure | Dedicated database per workspace |
| Pricing | Per seat plus credits (Pro is 30 EUR/user/mo, 24 EUR billed annually, 8,000 credits/mo) | Per workspace tier (starts at $199/mo) |
Those two pricing cells are not a head-to-head. Dust charges per seat and meters credits on top; we charge per workspace. Without a seat count there is no total to compare, and the crossover moves with your team size, so work it out for the number of people who would actually use it.
When to Choose Dust
Dust is the right pick if your primary need is searching and summarizing information across company tools. Your data lives in SaaS apps and you don't need it centralized. You have knowledge workers who need AI assistance for daily tasks. Per-seat pricing works for your team size. You don't need agents taking autonomous actions.
When to Choose SchemaBounce
SchemaBounce is the better choice if you need agents that take action, beyond answering questions. You need real-time data flowing from databases and SaaS apps. You need persistent memory that compounds over time. You need multi-agent teams with org charts and escalation, the same structure covered in your AI agents need an org chart. You need graph relationships between entities. You need a compliance audit trail. You need per-workspace isolation.
The short version: you want agents to run your business operations, beyond supporting your knowledge workers.
The Bottom Line
Dust helps your team find information faster. SchemaBounce helps your business run itself.
Smart search across company tools. Dust is well-built for that.
AI agents that gather data, make decisions, take action, and get smarter over time. That's what SchemaBounce was built for.
The Agent Platform starts at $199/mo. Create an account to explore. No credit card required.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between SchemaBounce and Dust?
Dust agents read your data where it sits, calling APIs to external tools on demand. SchemaBounce streams data into a dedicated Agent Data Layer where agents query it instantly with no rate limits, plus persistent memory and graph relationships.
Is Dust or SchemaBounce better for customer support?
Dust excels at internal knowledge search, helping your team find answers. SchemaBounce excels at autonomous support operations, agents that triage tickets, respond to customers, and escalate to humans with full context.
How does pricing compare between Dust and SchemaBounce?
Dust charges per seat and meters credits on top: Pro is 30 EUR per user per month, 24 EUR billed annually, with 8,000 credits a month. SchemaBounce charges per workspace tier, starting at $199/month. Those are different units, so there is no total to compare without a seat count. Work it out for the number of people who would actually use it.