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Vellum Alternative

Independent comparison · updated October 2026

An open-source Vellum alternative for your whole team

If you want an open-source alternative to Vellum that a whole team shares, the difference is scope. Vellum is a personal AI assistant, and its own page says it is open source. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: your agents, skills, company memory, and connectors in one git repo you own.

Try KortixSee Kortix vs Vellum

Open source · Any model, your keys · Self-host, VPC, or on-prem

The open-source AI Operating System

kortix.yaml
# kortix.yamlagents:  support-triage:    file: agents/support-triage.md   # what it does, in plain markdown    connectors: all                  # what it may reach
Source: https://github.com/kortix-ai/suna

An agent is agents/<name>.md (behavior) plus an agents.<name> block in kortix.yaml (governance).

The split

Kortix and Vellum, side by side

Kortix is the open-source option we recommend. Every Vellum cell quotes Vellum's own site.

Criteria
RecommendedKortix
Personal AI assistantVellum
Open source
Open source. Read it, fork it, audit it.
Open source; its page says you can inspect the code
What it is
The open-source AI Operating System
A personal AI assistant with long-term memory
Who it is for
Teams that want agents that do finished work, reviewed by people
One person, the assistant you own and customize
Self-host
Self-host is free, or run Kortix Cloud
Deploy on your own hardware, a VPS, or a private cloud
Your configuration and memory
Agents, skills, memory, and connectors in one git repo you own
Memory of you, kept locally on your machine
Models
Any model provider with your own keys
OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or open weights via Ollama
Governance
Per-tool Allow, Ask or Block; approval gates you set
Asks permission on risky actions until you trust them
Price to start
Free is $0 with 200 credits per month and 1 project
Free to download; Vellum Cloud from $30/month

Vellum's cells quote its own site and pricing page. Confirm both vendors before you buy.

The route

Six layers, each one a file or a command you can read

Kortix is an open-source AI Operating System. Your agents, skills, company memory, and connectors live in one git repo you own.

  1. Repo

    One git repo

    Your agents, skills, company memory, and connectors in one git repo you own.

    kortix.yaml
    kortix_version: 2default_agent: kortixproject:  name: my-project  description: What this project is.
    Source: https://kortix.com/docs/project/manifest
  2. Connectors

    3,000+ apps

    3,000+ apps in a click, plus MCP, OpenAPI, Postman, GraphQL and raw HTTP. Connector credentials are brokered server-side and never enter the machine.

    kortix.yaml
    connectors:  - slug: read-ai    name: Read AI    provider: mcp    url: 'https://api.read.ai/mcp'
    Source: https://kortix.com/docs/connect/connectors
  3. Models

    Any model

    Any model provider with your own keys. Or the ChatGPT plan you already pay for. Or sign in with your OpenCode Console account for OpenCode Zen and Go.

    terminal
    $ kortix providers login opencode$ kortix providers login opencode-go
    Source: kortix providers login --help
  4. Harness

    OpenCode

    OpenCode is the harness. An agent is agents/<name>.md (behavior) plus an agents.<name> block in kortix.yaml (governance).

    kortix.yaml
    opencode:  config_dir: harnesses/opencode
    Source: https://kortix.com/docs/project/manifest
  5. Sessions

    A cloud computer per session

    One isolated sandbox per session. Each session has its own isolated machine and branch.

    terminal
    $ kortix sessions new --prompt "Summarize this week's commits and open a change request"
    Source: https://github.com/kortix-ai/suna
  6. Control

    Change requests and permissions

    Rules down to the arguments of each call. Set each tool to Allow, Ask or Block. Approval gates you set. Off until you set them.

    kortix.yaml
    agents:  release-bot:    file: agents/release-bot.md    connectors: [github]    kortix_permissions: [project.gitops.push]
    Source: https://kortix.com/docs/project/manifest

GitHub stars

Open source. Read it, fork it, audit it.

FAQ

Questions people ask before they switch

Short answers, each quoting Kortix's docs or Vellum's own page.

01Is Vellum open source?

Yes. Vellum's own site says it is open source and you can inspect the code. The difference is scope: Vellum is a personal assistant for one person, while Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System a whole team runs on.

02Is there a free Vellum alternative?

Yes. Vellum is free to download. Kortix is free to start too: $0 with 200 credits per month and 1 project, and self-host is free. The team plan is $40 per seat per month with 2,500 credits per month per seat, pooled.

03Can I self-host an alternative to Vellum?

Yes. Run Kortix on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network; self-host is free. Vellum's pricing page says you can deploy it on your own hardware, a VPS, or a private cloud. See the self-hosting guide.

04What is a Vellum alternative for a whole team?

Kortix. Your agents, skills, company memory, and connectors live in one git repo the team owns, and each session runs on its own cloud computer. Session work reaches main through a change request. Merge is default-deny for agents. The line between a personal agent and a company system is in the Kortix blog.

05Is this site affiliated with Vellum?

No. Vellum is a product of its own company, and we name it only to compare. This site recommends Kortix, which is open source.

Run your whole team on one repo you own.

Start with one job and grow from there.

Try KortixSee Kortix vs Vellum

Open source · Any model, your keys · Self-host, VPC, or on-prem