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Vellum Alternative

Vellum Alternative

Kortix vs Vellum: an open-source company AI against a personal assistant

Kortix and Vellum are both open source and both run on your own hardware, and they are built for different owners. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System a team runs agents on. Vellum is a personal AI assistant that runs on your Mac or in its cloud.

Head to head

Kortix and Vellum, side by side

Kortix details come from its docs and repo; each Vellum cell comes from Vellum's own pages.

Criteria
RecommendedKortix
Personal assistantVellum
Open source
Yes. Read it, fork it, audit it.
Yes. Its own page says you can inspect the code.
Where it runs
Kortix Cloud, your VPC, or your own on-prem network.
Locally on your Mac, or in Vellum Cloud.
Who it is for
Teams that want agents that do finished work, reviewed by people.
One person. A personal assistant you name and customize.
Memory and context
Company memory in one git repo you own.
Memory and credentials stay on your machine or your cloud.
Models
Any model provider with your own keys.
OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or open weights via Ollama.
Governance / permissions
Per-resource permissions for people and agents. Roles, groups, audit trail.
Permission prompts on high-risk tasks until you mark them trusted.
Pricing shape
Self-host free; managed cloud $40 per seat per month plus usage.
Free to download; cloud plans $30, $100, or $200 per month.

Vellum cells come from its homepage and pricing page, checked October 2026. Kortix prices come from its pricing page.

In the repo

A project is a git repo you own

kortix docs
A project is a git repo with kortix.yaml at its root.Kortix hosts the repo, or you connect your own.Agents, skills, memory, tools, triggers and connectors are files in it.
Source: https://kortix.com/docs

From the Kortix docs.

What Vellum is

Vellum is a personal AI assistant. Its homepage calls it a personal, secure AI assistant that you fully own and customize to your needs, and says it runs locally on your machine or in the cloud. Vellum frames itself as an assistant you name and shape, that remembers you across every conversation, and that is reachable around the clock from any device. It is open source: the same page says you can inspect the code yourself.

Vellum's developer docs describe a different product under the same name, an AI development platform for building and deploying AI applications. The personal assistant is what vellum.ai ships today, so the assistant's own pages are the source for this comparison.

What Kortix is

Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: your agents, their skills, your company memory, and every connector in one git repo you own, with the agents working on real cloud computers. A Kortix project is a git repo, so agents, skills, memory, triggers, and connectors are files that are versioned and reviewed like code. Each session runs one agent in its own sandbox on its own branch, and session work reaches main through a change request a person approves.

Scope separates the two products. Vellum is one assistant for one person. Kortix is a company operating system that a whole team shares.

When Vellum is the right pick

Vellum fits when the job belongs to one person. It is a personal assistant that learns your preferences, holds memory about you, runs locally on a Mac or in Vellum Cloud, and reaches you on the devices you already use. You stay in control of it: Vellum asks for permission on tasks with security risks until you mark them trusted, and its memory and credentials vault live on your machine or in your cloud. Its pricing page is built around one person's assistant, with cloud tiers from $30 per month.

When Kortix is the right pick

Kortix fits when the job belongs to a team. Its configuration is one git repo the company owns, so the agents, skills, memory, and connectors that run the business are versioned and reviewable instead of held on one person's device. Sessions run on real cloud computers, and thousands of agents run in parallel on one config, each on its own cloud computer. Governance is per-resource: permissions for people and agents, roles, groups, and an audit trail. Kortix runs on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network, and self-hosting is free. The pricing breakdown sets the two shapes side by side.

How the two differ on ownership and team scope

The two products answer different ownership questions. Vellum answers what one person's assistant knows, and keeps that memory on your machine or in your cloud. Kortix answers what the company owns, and keeps that in a repo the whole team shares, reads, diffs, and audits. The choice follows the work: a personal assistant for one person's inbox, calendar, and notes, or a company operating system for a team that wants agents doing finished work, reviewed by people.

Read the Kortix docs for the project and session model, Vellum's homepage for the assistant, or self-hosting to run Kortix yourself.

FAQ

Kortix vs Vellum, questions buyers ask

01Is Kortix a Vellum alternative?

Yes, when the work belongs to a team. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System a company runs agents on, where Vellum is a personal assistant for one person. Both products are open source, and both can run on your own hardware. The difference is scope: Kortix keeps the company's configuration in a repo the whole team shares.

02Does Kortix run locally like Vellum?

Kortix runs on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network, and self-host is free. That is a company-wide deployment rather than a single desktop app. Vellum runs its assistant locally on your machine or in Vellum Cloud, which fits one person.

03Can a whole team use Kortix?

Yes. One Kortix project is a git repo the whole team shares, with per-resource permissions for people and agents, roles, groups, and an audit trail. Sessions run on their own cloud computers, and every change reaches main through a change request a person approves.

04Is Vellum open source like Kortix?

Yes. Vellum's homepage says it is open source and that you can inspect the code yourself, and its pricing page says you can deploy it on your own hardware, a VPS, or a private cloud. Kortix is open source too; the difference is that Kortix's configuration is a company repo, not a single person's assistant.

Run your team on an open-source AI Operating System

Self-host for free, or use Kortix Cloud.

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