Comparison

Kelu vs Kapa.ai

Last reviewed:

Both platforms turn your documentation into an AI assistant that answers with citations, in a widget, in Slack, over an API and over MCP. This comparison covers retrieval, sources, chat and helpdesk surfaces, and pricing, checked against Kapa's own site and docs.

Short answer

Choose Kapa.ai if you want a vendor with a SOC 2 Type II report and a long list of enterprise customers, or you need Discord, Slack or SharePoint as sources. Choose Kelu if you want public prices and a free plan that doesn't run out, a Microsoft Teams bot, or AI that answers tickets in Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, Front or Linear.

Try Kelu FreeSee Pricing

Feature comparison

The Kapa.ai column comes from Kapa's own website, pricing page and docs.

Feature
Kelu
Kapa.ai
Retrieval method
Hybrid: pgvector semantic + PostgreSQL full-text, RRF fusion, LLM query rewrite, cross-encoder re-ranking, then a coverage check that decides whether to answer
Agentic retrieval: keyword search, embedding search and cross-encoder reranking, with a slower multi-step "deep" mode
Source catalogue
24 source types: Kapa's 24 except Slack, Discord (no longer available for new setups) and Microsoft SharePoint, plus OneDrive, Linear, Stack Overflow for Teams and GitHub Files (a repository's docs, indexed apart from its code)
24 source types, including Slack, Discord and Microsoft SharePoint. Helpdesk sources: Zendesk tickets and Help Center, Salesforce Cases and Knowledge, Jira Service Management
Website / docs crawling
Yes — sitemap and link discovery, incremental sync
Yes
GitHub repo indexing
Five separate sources over one repo: docs files by convention, source code chosen by language and directory, issues, pull requests, discussions. Git-push webhook for incremental sync.
GitHub Code (docs and source code together, pinned to a branch or tag), Issues, Pull Requests, Discussions
Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow for Teams — a connector against your private instance, re-synced hourly
Public Stack Overflow, as a documented recipe: run a SQL query on the Data Explorer, download the CSV, upload it as a file
Save a page from the browser
Coming soon — the browser extension clips a page, or a passage you highlighted, into the index (not in the Chrome Web Store yet)
No browser extension documented
Slack bot
Yes — /kelu slash command and @mention. Included on Pro and Enterprise.
Yes
Microsoft Teams bot
Yes — @mention or direct message. Included on Pro and Enterprise.
Not documented on their site as of October 2026
Discord bot
Switched off for now. Use the widget, or the Slack and Teams bots.
Yes
Web widget
Yes — hosted at widget.kelu.dev. reCAPTCHA bot protection. Theme settings and per-component styles.
Yes — one script tag, with example questions and an MCP install menu
React component
Available: @keluhq/react on npm
Available: Chat SDK (@kapaai/react-sdk) and Agent SDK React components
JavaScript / Node SDK
Available: @keluhq/sdk on npm
Agent SDK core (@kapaai/agent-core) in TypeScript, plus a LangChain package for Python
REST API
Yes — Search and Chat API on every plan, including Free. WebSocket streaming.
Yes — Retrieval API and Chat API, included in the 14-day free trial
MCP server
Yes — per knowledge base, at app.kelu.dev/mcp/<name>. API key, Google or GitHub sign-in, or Kelu sign-in for your team. On every plan.
Yes — hosted per project, at <name>.mcp.kapa.ai. API key, Google or GitHub sign-in, or Kapa sign-in for your team.
Source groups & scoping
Yes (Enterprise) — source groups; each widget, bot or API call answers from the groups you pick
Yes — source groups by product or version, set per integration; separate external and internal projects
Versioned documentation
Yes — v1, v2, latest version labels on sources. One source group per version (Enterprise).
Yes — source groups per version, and GitHub sources pinned to a branch or tag
Suggested questions & related articles
Yes — starter-question and related-article endpoints
Example questions in the widget
Support form deflector
Yes — on every plan
Yes — Support Form Deflector, with a guide for the Zendesk support form
AI inside the helpdesk
Support Ticket AI in Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, Front and Linear, and Freshchat live chat. Answers tickets it has evidence for, tags the rest. Pro and Enterprise.
Zendesk Agent: a Zendesk sidebar app that drafts replies and summarizes tickets. It never sends a reply by itself.
Analytics
Yes — conversations, feedback ratio, gaps, daily trends on all plans
Yes — preset dashboards, coverage gaps, top questions, source analytics and an analytics API
SOC 2
SOC 2 Type II audit in progress (no report yet). DPA available.
SOC 2 Type II certified
Pricing
Public: Free $0, Pro $99/month ($79/month billed yearly), Enterprise custom. No per-seat fees.
No public prices. 14-day free trial, then Growth (platform fee plus committed answers) or Enterprise (custom). Free or discounted for qualifying open-source projects.
Sources, checked October 29, 2026: Kapa pricing · Knowledge sources · How retrieval works · Hosted MCP server · Prebuilt agents · Zendesk Agent · Support Form Deflector · Source groups · GitHub Code · Stack Overflow · Chat SDK · Agent SDK · Analytics · SOC 2 · Kapa for open source

Where Kelu focuses differently

01

Hybrid retrieval with an answer gate

Kelu combines pgvector semantic search and PostgreSQL full-text search with reciprocal rank fusion. An LLM rewrites the question first, and a cross-encoder re-ranks the candidates. A coverage check then decides whether your sources answer the question. If they don't, Kelu says it doesn't know and shows no citations.

02

A free plan that stays free

Kapa's free trial lasts 14 days. Kelu's Free plan has no end date: 1 knowledge base, 500 indexed pages and 100 AI questions a month, with the widget, form deflector, REST API and MCP server included.

03

Answers inside your helpdesk

Support Ticket AI works in Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, Front and Linear, and in Freshchat live chat. It answers the tickets it has evidence for and tags the rest with your escalation tag. Draft only mode leaves answers as private notes, and a simulation replays up to 100 recent resolved tickets before you go live.

04

Transparent public pricing

Kelu publishes its prices: Pro is $99/month, or $79/month billed yearly, with a 14-day free trial. You can see the cost before you talk to anyone.

Got questions?

Frequently asked questions

How is Kelu different from Kapa.ai?

Both answer questions from your documentation with citations, and both offer a widget, a Slack bot, an API, an MCP server and a support form deflector. Kelu adds public prices with a lasting free plan, a Microsoft Teams bot, and AI that answers tickets in several helpdesks. Kapa has more enterprise proof today, including a SOC 2 Type II report, and it still offers a Discord bot.

Can I migrate from Kapa.ai to Kelu?

Yes. Every source type in Kapa's catalogue has a counterpart in Kelu's except Slack, Discord and Microsoft SharePoint. Migration is usually reconnecting your sources and swapping the widget embed or API calls.

Which sources does Kelu index that Kapa does not?

OneDrive, Linear and Stack Overflow for Teams. Kelu also splits a GitHub repository into documentation files and source code as two sources, so you can index one without the other.

Does Kelu support the same integrations?

Kelu ships a web widget, a support form deflector, Slack and Microsoft Teams bots, an open REST API with WebSocket streaming, an MCP server per knowledge base, and Support Ticket AI in Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, Front and Linear (tickets) and Freshchat (live chat). React and JavaScript SDKs are on npm. Kelu's Discord bot is switched off for now.

Do answers include citations?

Yes. Each answer built from your content links to the exact source passages it used. When your sources don't cover a question, Kelu says it doesn't know and shows no citations.

Is my data used to train AI models?

No. Your connected content and your users' conversations are never used to train models. Content is indexed only to answer questions for your knowledge base. PII masking and zero data retention are available on every plan.

How much does Kelu cost?

Pricing is public. Free is $0, with 1 knowledge base, 500 indexed pages and 100 AI questions a month. Pro is $99/month, or $79/month billed yearly, with a 14-day free trial. Enterprise is custom. There are no per-seat fees. See the pricing page for details.

Is this comparison up to date?

The Kapa.ai column was checked against Kapa's own website, pricing page and docs on October 29, 2026. The pages we used are listed under the table. If you spot something outdated, contact us and we'll correct it.

See for yourself

Connect your docs and get your first AI-powered answer in under 5 minutes. No credit card required.

Free to start · No credit card required · Talk to Sales →