CustomGPT.ai Blog

5 Best Enterprise Search Software in 2025! (I Tried All Of Them)

TL;DR

  • Enterprise search software is an AI-driven tool that helps teams to quickly scan through internal data sources like emails, documents, and apps to find information, without searching manually.

  • After testing multiple platforms hands-on, my top three picks are CustomGPT, Glean, and Coveo. Each offers strong AI search capabilities and broad integrations.

  • I evaluated these software based on their ease of use, semantic search accuracy, supported data sources, security certifications, automation features, and pricing.

  • Overall, CustomGPT stands out with citation-backed answers, fast no-code setup, wide connector support, and a starting price of $89/month for three users.

  • It is the best option for most teams because it balances power and simplicity without heavy IT involvement or enterprise-level budgets.

Key Takeaways

  • Enterprise search software works like your company’s internal Google that pulls relevant info from the company’s scattered data, such as emails, docs, databases, and connected apps like Slack, using AI. It helps employees find answers quickly.

  • Features to consider when choosing an enterprise search software are:

    • Semantic search quality that goes beyond keywords for smarter results
    • Easy integrations with your everyday tools (Slack, Google Drive, Notion, Confluence)
    • Customizable AI agents for automation
    • Analytics dashboards for usage insights
    • Strong security, like SOC 2 and GDPR, to keep and protect sensitive data

  • Enterprise search software pricing options range from budget-friendly tools like Meilisearch at $30/month for developers or GoSearch’s free tier for tiny teams.

Mid-range predictability with CustomGPT’s $89/month flat rate that covers multiple users. Enterprise platforms like Glean and Coveo require custom quotes and typically cost more.

  • To choose the right tool,  test options with real queries from your workflow to check accuracy and speed, then eyeball the admin dashboard for how easily you can tweak permissions and track ROI. 

This way, you can ensure your tool meets the needs and workflow of your team.

I came across an interesting McKinsey report showing that the average time workers spend each week looking for the right information is 11 hours.

If you’re an IT manager, imagine what this means for your team and your company:

– Productivity drops

– The company loses money

That’s why, more than ever, companies are embracing enterprise search software. In fact, this global market is expected to reach about $8,85 billion by 2030.

Enterprise search market projected

With these tools, teams can save valuable time by quickly finding the information they need across all the company’s data sources. 

If you’re looking for the right enterprise search software for your business or team, you are in the right place.

After testing many tools, I am presenting to you my top 5 enterprise search software options. I will share their most interesting features, pros & cons, and pricing plans.

Keep reading!

Top Enterprise Search Software Comparison

Tools Features
CustomGPT 1. Customized AI, with Industry-leading accuracy (benchmarked)
2. Citation‐backed answers with inline source links
3. Connect all your data 1,400+ file formats + broad enterprise connectors (Drive, SharePoint, MCP,Notion, Confluence, Zendesk, Slack)
4. No-code customization of functionality and appearanceFast time-to-value, reliability across SMBs & small enterprises
Glean 1. Uses AI-powered search and context / NLP to improve relevancy
2. Offers analytics, reporting, search insightsFine-grained access control / permission-aware search
3. AI / context-aware searchConnection to many apps and data sources (Google Workspace, Slack, docs)
Coveo 1. AI-powered relevance and intent understanding: supports natural-language queries
2. Analytics and insights: dashboards to track search metrics (click-through, zero-results), content gaps, user journeys
3. Unified index that brings together structured and unstructured data from many sources.Cloud multi-tenant architecture
Meilisearch 1. Hybrid search (AI + keyword)Search-as-you-type (prefix updates)
2. Flexible indexing, ability to customize searchable/displayed attributes
3. Typo tolerance (fuzzy matching)
Elastic Enterprise Search 1. App Search & Workplace Search
2. Semantic / vector / hybrid search
3. Flexible deployment (cloud, hybrid) as part of Elastic ecosystem
4. Notifications via email, webhooks, IBM Resilient, Jira, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, ServiceNow, Slack, xMatters
Tools My rating Base price Best for
CustomGPT ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.5/5 $89/month, billed annually SMBs to small enterprises who want to deploy enterprise search functionality rapidly, without extensive dev resources.
Glean ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 Not public Larger companies seeking to manage enterprise knowledge and employee productivity.
Coveo ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 Custom pricing Large enterprises with complex search and content management needs.
Meilisearch ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 3.5/5 $30/month Small and medium businesses mostly interested in websites and document search
Elastic Enterprise Search ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 3.5/5 $99/month Developers and large organizations seeking to add advanced search to their applications, websites, and internal workflows.

5 Best Enterprise Search Software

1. CustomGPT

CustomGPT ai.homepage AI driven precision search
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.5/5
Base price: $89 
Integrates with: Slack, Notion, SharePoint, Confluence, Google Drive, HubSpot, Zapier 
Best for: Business owners, IT managers, and teams wanting to go live fast with reliable AI. 

On top of our list of the best enterprise software is CustomGPT. It lets you create AI agents, personalize them, and ask questions.

You can deploy agents on your website or share them with your team via a link. CustomGPT also lets you analyze your latest prompts and manage your content sources. Launch your Enterprise Search AI today! Start your free trial here.

Creating your agent is so simple. Simply pick a data source, and choose the use case that best describes your agent. It could be enterprise search, customer support, or even a revenue-driving sales chatbot. Then you can start searching. 

AI chat showing data source with marketing survey result

That’s not all! For example, you can connect CustomGPT to your Slack workspace

This way, your AI agent can respond to messages in Slack channels, and you can control who can use it inside the organization.

Join enterprise AI community on Slack platform

We also created an intelligent partner for you called Custom.ai Copilot. It’s more or less your personal AI assistant. Simply specify the help you need and let your partner perform its magic. 

CustomGPT.ai chat showing AI for marketing strategy

Last but not least, our tool comes with a dashboard you can use to view the number of hours your AI agent saved you for a week. It shows the total number of conversations, queries, and queries per conversation. 

Key Features

1 . Agents

If you’re an IT manager preparing a company report, you might need a lot of information for that. Your AI agent will save you hours of search by instantly finding the right data for you. This will prevent you from having to search through hundreds of documents. 

The AI agent can also take action for you. 

It’ll automatically update CRMs, refresh documentation, or fill in content gaps based on your company’s data. It does this using tools like agent actions, MCP connectors, our API, and Zapier.

On CustomGPT, you create such an agent by clicking “New Agent” on the sidebar.

Marketing team dashboard showing new agent un

Next, you will have to pick the data source for your agent. This means where the agent will be getting data from. There are many data sources like YouTube, Google Drive, File Upload, WordPress, etc. 

However, for this tutorial, I’ll go with the website.

Interface to pick data source for AI agent

Enter your website’s URL to start.

Form to build AI agent using website URL

You must now choose the use case that best describes your agent: Customer support, Website Copilot, Enterprise Search, and Revenue Agent.

Let’s carry on with Enterprise Search.

Agent setup window showing enterprise search option

Once created, it will propose questions that you can use to start your research. But if you already have your own question, you can enter it in the search bar below.

Chat interface showing suggested research questions

The question I chose was: “What percentage of companies surveyed in 2024 were not happy with the deliveries from their existing marketing agency?”

Interestingly, the Agent gave me a straight and accurate answer with the link to the source of its data.

Chat interface displaying marketing survey response example

I clicked the link, and it took me to the exact source where I confirmed the information.  

Survey excerpt showing percent dissatisfaction

 

CustomGPT’s simplicity makes it one of the best enterprise search software in the market.

2 . CustomGPT.ai Copilot

Our CustomGPT.ai Copilot acts as your intelligent partner. Whenever you need help with anything, you can just prompt it.

Agent dashboard showing activity and document counts

For example, you could just say: “I need help with my marketing strategies”.

Manage AI in best enterprise software

You will be impressed with the amount of knowledge it will display. It will go deeper, and you can even download the response.

Dashboard chat showing AI assistant giving marketing tips

 

3 . Dashboard

Our Dashboard is designed for marketing teams. It shows how many hours your agents saved you during the week. You also have an overview of the total number of conversations and guests. 

And one amazing thing is that you can see the countries where those conversations are from. 

Dashboard showing agent activity and conversation metrics

But there is more! The dashboard also shows how your team is using the tool: how many queries were made, who sent them, where they came from, and how many were successful. 

In addition, the dashboard’s Customer Intelligence feature lets you dive even deeper, giving you an inside look at chatters’ experiences with your agents.

Where are the gaps in your knowledge base? How often are customers discussing certain keywords? How often are they happy or upset with their conversational experiences? This tool helps you answer all these questions.

Analytics dashboard showing query source and status

What I enjoyed vs what gave me a hard time

What I enjoyed 👍
✅ The clean interface makes it easy to locate all the features on the sidebar menu
✅ You can create a custom agent in three clicks
✅ The platform integrates with HubSpot, Slack, Notion, WordPress, Zendesk, and Zapier
✅ The dashboard tells you how many hours your agents save you every week 
What gave me a hard time 👎
❌  The total batch size limit for uploading files is 1GB, but you can either split them into smaller parts or connect sources like Google Drive or SharePoint to automatically sync your files while you focus on other tasks.

CustomGPT is the fastest way to deploy a secure, accurate enterprise search solution built on your company’s data. Stop wasting 11 hours a week looking for information and get instant, cited answers.

Build Your AI Search Agent in 5 Minutes (Free Trial)

Best for

Pricing

  • Standard: $89/month, billed annually
  • Premium: $449/month, billed annually
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing
Best enterprise AI pricing plans comparison table

2. Glean

Best enterprise AI assistant homepage for leaders
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 stars 
Base price: Not public 
Integrates with: Box, Confluence, GitHub, Google Drive, Jira 
Best for: Large companies with task automation needs

Next on this list of the best enterprise search software is Glean. When reviewing the platform, I noticed that their search engine is a bit similar to Google and provides many filters to help find information.

When doing research on Glean, I can select my preferred source from the results found. I can also use many filters, such as Updated, Type, or From, to make the results more precise.

Glean search result for roadmap presentation

The Chat is within Glean’s AI assistant, which you can use to enter prompts, tag people or documents, or upload a file. You can then ask the assistant to summarize a particular file or action, and it will do exactly that.

Glean assistant summarizing recent Slack channels topics

But I fell in love with the Directory feature. It shows all the employees in an organizational chart. I can click on one employee and know everything about them: name, position, location and even social handles.

Best AI chart showing employee profile

Key features

1 . Home 

On Glean, after adding your source, you will use the search bar on the Home interface to do your research. The research can be a “roadmap presentation”.

Glean search bar showing roadmap presentation query

The search page reminded me of Google.

The left side of the interface shows all your search results with the exact sources.

Glean search results filterd by all data sources


I can, for example, click on “Gong,” which has 7k results. The whole interface will only display these results.

Glean search filtered by source type Gong

If I click the “Updated” filter, I can specify the time range for the results that will show up.

Best enterprise showing updated date filter options

By clicking “From”, I can choose the exact employee I want the search page to show their results. There are also other filters like Type, Account, Owner, and Participants.

Glean search filters showing teamamate selection list

Another interesting thing is the “Summarize” button next to every result on the search page. It helps summarize the content of your page in case you may not want to read the whole document.

Glean search results with document summary option

2 . Chat

Glean Chat is the AI assistant, which you can use to generate answers, summarize documents, and perform many other actions. You can use prompts to start.

Glean assistant chat showing new chat option

I can use this prompt, for example:” Summarize the last 3 days for the #industry Slack channel”. The Assistant will instantly start generating answers.

AI assistant summarizing Slack discussions over three days

If you click the “+” button in the search bar, you can tag people or docs, filter data, and attach a file.

Glean assistant interface showing document search options

3 . Directory

In large organizations, you might not have the opportunity to meet all employees. With the Directory feature, you can view them all on the platform. You can easily see who takes certain actions, along with their department and role.

Best enterprise AI people directory showing emploee profiles

I can also view the organizational chart of the company.

Glean organizational chart showing team structure and roles

All employees are in the chart. I can just click on one employee to have more details. It will show their full name, role, location, when they first joined, and all their social handles.

Glean organizational chart member profile card

What I enjoyed vs what gave me a hard time

What I enjoyed 👍
✅ The organizational chart shows all employees with their personal details
✅ You can summarize any research with their AI
✅ Loved that there are many filters to help locate your employee

What gave me a hard time 👎
❌ Doesn’t offer a trial to explore first
❌ Glean is for larger enterprises with very deep pockets, and not for SMBs or small companies, so pricing isn’t listed publicly

Best for

  • Larger companies with contracts in the six-figure range that want enterprise-grade security and large-scale deployment capabilities. 

Pricing

  • No public pricing page

3. Coveo

Generate AI search powering in best enterprise software
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 
Base price: Custom pricing
Integrates with: AWS, Box, Confluence, Dropbox, Google Drive 
Best for: Large enterprises with complex search needs

We will continue this list with Coveo. It offers many features under project, machine learning, analytics, and its search page is a bit similar to that of Glean.

Before you browse on Coveo, you need to add sources: name and URL, for instance. After that, you can search and have access to clickable links.

Search results showing privacy policy and terms pages

As I mentioned earlier, their search page is a bit similar to Glean but with fewer colors. When you enter a word, you will see different sources with the number of results.

Search results list showing various indexed articels

To be organized, you can create projects for the team. You can select the project type, say, “IT employee portal”, then name it and add a description.

Overview tab showing project details and identification

Another impressive thing is that I can create a catalog for my business. I will simply name the catalog, include a description, and select object types such as variants and availability. Then I’ll add my products.

Create first catalog in best enterprised software

Key features

1 . Search Pages

Feature names usually differ from one tool to another. Using Coveo, the Search Pages is what you use to search for data across the company. 

Without wasting much time, let’s create one.

Search page dashboard with add page button

The first step is to choose my search page type from the options: Legacy Interface Editor, Code only, or Simple builder. I will go with “Simple builder”.

Chose simple builder option to create search page

Next, I will name my search page and even assign it to a project if I have one.

image 2

That’s it! I could edit, share, or delete the search page if I want.  But that’s not all I could do! Because I love to go a step further when reviewing tools, I decided to open the search page.

image 1

The interface had a very clean look.

Search results list showing filterd web articles

I entered the word “Client” just to see what would happen. And the search didn’t disappoint. I saw many results and pages with my preferred word. I could just scroll and select the result I wanted. 

Search results for client related articles displayed

2 . Content

The results your search pages show will always come from the content you feed it. And to constantly grow your search page, you need to add sources to your content.

This is what we will do by clicking “Source” under Content.

Sources page with get started button

Choose a source of your content. We can go with the Web.

Select a web connector in best enterprise software

You can name your source, add a URL, and assign it to a project (optional).

Setup screen for adding a new web source

The source has been added. But because I wanted to be sure, I went to “Content Browser”.

Content browser showing filtered source results

In the search bar, I entered “Privacy policy”. All the pages dealing with this term suddenly popped up with the source referenced in the reply.

3 . Project

An organization has many departments and employees. You can’t just have data scattered all over the platform. You need to create a project for each use case to be organized.

Projects page with add project button

To create a project, I will choose a project type, add a name, description, and an email that will serve as a point of contact.

Create new project in best enterprise software

I can now select the resource used for this project and click “Create”.

Select Global knowledge seaarch resource and creating project

There you go! If you followed these steps, you have just created your project.

I can see an overview of the project and the resources as well.

Overview page of small support search portal project

What I enjoyed vs what gave me a hard time

What I enjoyed👍
✅ You can customize the search page with filtering options such as source, author, item type etc..
✅ Has a section dedicated to commerce where you can create a catalog
✅ There are various resources I could use for my project: Properties, Search hubs, Extension, Pipeline, Search page, etc.
What gave me a hard time 👎
❌ The platform displays too many features on the sidebar which can be confusing.
❌Can be difficult for non-technical users. You need some coding experience to understand language models like Python.

Best for

  • Large enterprises with complex search and content management needs.

Pricing

  • Knowledge: Custom pricing
  • Commerce: Custom pricing
Comparison of knowledge and commerce AI solutions

4. Meilisearch

Best Meilisearch platform for AI search scaling (1)
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.5/5 stars 
Base price: $30/month 
Integrates with: JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Go 
Best for: Small and medium IT companies

Meilisearch is the next best enterprise search software in this list. It not only lets you retrieve information, but it also monitors your search performance and shows what users search for.

Before you can use the search options on the platform, you’ll create a project, then an Index. You will then name and choose how you want to import your documents. You can copy your search results, edit, or delete them.

Search preview dashboad displaying Saas query results

I particularly loved the Analytics. It shows my total searches, total users, average click-through rate, and conversion rate. This means I can clearly see what people are searching for, which is great.

Analytics dashboard showing no search data or users

That’s not all! I can also monitor the search performance and see the maximum search queries per second.

Monitoring dashboard displaying search latency performance

Now, anytime you upload a file or document, it turns into a batch. You can later see the status, type, index ID, batch ID, and duration. You will also see the coding version of your file.

Processing batches dashboard with succeeded and failed tasks

Key features

1 . Index

Imagine you are searching for a specific document inside your company’s software, but there are so many results. You will find it difficult to fish out the right information. 

The index helps you organize your documents in collections. This way, your searches are more relevant.

On Meilisearch, you will first create a project before accessing the main dashboard.

Create project form with name field

Now, let’s create an index.

Best way to create new Meilisearch index

Enter your index’s name.

Create index window with name field

Now, I can choose how I want to import my documents into my index. I can upload files, use mock data, or use a documentation crawler.

Meilisearch import screen showing file upload and crawler

Because I chose the “Documentation crawler”, I had to add a website.

Meilisearch import screen showing website crawl input

Using the Search view, I simply entered “SaaS” and got about 996 results. On the left side, I could still copy, edit, or delete the results.

Meilisearch search preview displaying SaaS query results

2 . Analytics

It’s important to know what users search for. Thanks to Analytics on Meilisearch, you can see the total searches, total users, click-through rate, and average click position. It also shows your conversion rate.

Meilisearch analytics page showing empty metrics panel

There is more! The interface also displays all the search requests over a week, the most searched queries, countries with the most searches, and searches without results.

3 . Monitoring

Sometimes, your team can upload so many documents that you don’t even realize the platform is now slowing down. The Monitoring feature tracks the performance and health of the platform. 

Best analytics chart showing Meilisearch data

You can see the search performance, how fast it is happening, and also the maximum search queries per second.

Search performance dashboard showing latency metrics

I could also see the indexing performance with exact dates.

Indexing performance chart showing latency spike

What I enjoyed vs what gave me a hard time

What I enjoyed 👍
✅ Shows how fast searches and queries are happening through analytics.
✅ Displays the countries with the most searches 
✅ The platform can add a ranking score to your search to show its relevance

What gave me a hard time 👎
❌ Some features, such as monitoring, analytics, and chat, are still in beta mode
❌ File upload is limited. Can’t upload PDF files

Best for

  • Small and medium businesses with workflows requiring heavy website and document search. 

Pricing

  • Build: $30/month
  • Pro: $300/month
  • Custom: Custom pricing

5. Elastic Enterprise Search

Best enterprise AI search platform homepahge Elastic
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.5/5  
Base price: $99/month 
Integrates with: Atlassian Jira, AWS, Azure, Beats, Box  
Best for: Developers and large organizations with complex dataset needs

The list continues with Elastic Enterprise Search. I added it to this list because it gives you access to large language models (LLMs) when you set up your chat experience. You can also customise your search with synonyms.

When I use Playground, I can create my chat experience. I simply upload my file, name my index, and select my AI connector. The AI chat shows the exact time you ask a question and receive a reply. 

Elasticsearch playground showing summarized marketing goals

To help expand my search, I can create synonyms or interchangeable words.

Elasticsearch synonyms page showing rule assignments

You already know that an index is a collection of documents. The Index Management interface shows the index you’ve created, the number of documents you’ve added, and its storage size.

Elasticsearch index management panel showing active indices

What’s more, I can also access all my documents on the platform. When I use the Discover feature, I can view the document and a summary of its content.

Elasticsearch discover view showing document summary panel

Key features

1 . Playground

On Elastic Search, you use Playground to create and chat with your indexed data using large language models(LLMs), or documents you’ve uploaded. 

Elasticsearch playground start screen with new project button

To set up a chat experience, I can choose my preferred LLM or go to Elasticsearch Data. From there, I can either create an index or start by uploading files(which is my next step).

Elasticsearch chat setup screen with LLm and data options

I could upload my files and name my index. I could also run an analysis explanation of the document, apply advanced settings, or delete it.

Elasticsearch file upload preview showing index name creation

Under LLM settings, I could select my AI connector and add clear instructions.

Elasticsearch LLM settings showing assistant instructions

I could adjust the playground context by choosing the exact number of documents sent and adding context fields.

In the search bar, I entered my first question just to test the chat: “What are our marketing goals for 2025?”.

Best enterprise AI playground setup for document queries

The AI saved the exact time I asked the question before providing an answer.

Regarding the answer, I did not have any complaints.

Playground query result showing AI generated marketing goals

2 . Synonyms

Not everyone types the same thing when searching. One employee may search “HR policies” while another one searches “human resource guidelines”. Without synonyms, both searches could provide different results, meanwhile they want the same information.

Let’s see an example of how to create synonyms.

Synoyms setup screen with get started button

First, name your synonyms set

Elasticsearch dialog for naming a synonyms set

Next, select a rule type: Equivalent, which means words with the same meaning, or Explicit, which are words that expand to include the terms on the right.

Elasticsearch synoym rule page showing equivalent options

Voila. I’ve created my synonyms.

Explicit: sales strategy, sales growth, business equals sales 

Equivalent: objectives, targets, and aims are interchangeable words.

Elasticsearch discover page showing document summary and fields 2

3 . Discover

Searching for a document shouldn’t be a whole struggle. The Discover feature lets you browse all your documents, filter, and search them. It also shows a summary of each document with its attachment author and content. 

Elasticsearch discover page showing document summary and fields

With the Field statistics, I can see the field type, name, document in %, and values.

Field statistics table showing document attributes and values

On the right side of the interface, I can add and see all the available fields. This helps me understand the shape of my data. You can also explore a field in Lens.

Dashboard showig document fields and statistics in discover view

What I enjoyed vs what gave me a hard time

What I enjoyed 👍
✅ Loved that the platform specifies the exact time you do research, and the exact time AI responds to it.
✅ Can create synonyms to help expand your search
✅ You can choose your preferred AI connector for your chat.
What gave me a hard time 👎
❌ Can be difficult for non-technical users as the platform uses many advanced terms like inference endpoints.

Best for

  • Developers and large organizations seeking to add advanced search to their applications, websites, and internal workflows.

Pricing

  • Standard: $99/month
  • Gold: $114/month
  • Platinum: $131/month
  • Enterprise: $184/month
Elasticsearch pricing comparison showing standard to enterprise plans

What is an Enterprise Search Software?

An enterprise search software is a tool that helps teams quickly find information across all the company’s data sources. Such information can be emails, files, documents, databases, or even cloud apps.

To give you an idea, it is like Google but for your company’s internal data. With Google, you search through the Web. But with this software, you search through everything your company already owns.

When I say everything, I mean it. For example, let’s say a new employee joins the company but doesn’t know who the CEO is. If they use an enterprise search software like CustomGPT, they can ask: “Who is the CEO of the Company?”

Chat window with suggested research questions and query box

Not only will they receive an instant reply from the AI agent, but they will also see the source referenced in that response.

Chat assistant displaying CEO query and response window

They can then click it and verify the information.

Sample website showing CEO profile card

How to Choose the Right Enterprise Search Software

To choose the right enterprise search software, consider the following:

  • 1. Ease of use
  • 2. Features You Require In Your Business
  • 3. Pricing  and Scalability
  • 4. Integrations With Other Tools
  • 5. Security and Access Control

Let me explain further.

1. Ease of use

The very first factor to consider before choosing the right enterprise search software is ease of use.

This is very important because it determines how quickly your team can adopt and benefit from the tool. So you clearly understand that a complex one, though powerful, won’t be of much help since they don’t understand it, let alone use it.

The truth is, within many companies ( apart from tech companies), there are a good number of employees who do not have technical aspects to their work. Your team should be able to navigate easily and find what they need without constant help because of major technicalities.

For that reason, the platform should feel intuitive, with a clear display of features.

Dashboard displaying AI performance and sidebar menu

Search bars should be clearly visible. This way, you can find the source you need quickly for your agent, for instance. 

Best custom GPT AI agent data source selection page

As a business owner, if you choose a tool that is really easy to use and intuitive, you will start smiling at your employees’ performance. They will thank you for it.

Take the example of Elizabeth Planet, a leadership coach and advisor in the nonprofit sector with over 15 years of experience.

Elizabeth planet nonprofit leadership and strategy coach profile

She wanted an easier way for people to access her non-profit library resources, but found out that most AI tools were too technical and complex.

She then discovered our platform, CustomGPT, which made it easy for her to build NonprofitAMA, a chatbot that answers questions using her own trusted content. 

Chat intrface for nonprofit management and strategy questions

To her, the process was easy since CustomGPT is a no-code platform.

Regarding NonprofitAMA, here’s what she said: “I added a couple of trusted sources to the chatbot, and the answers improved tremendously! – You can rely on the responses it gives you because it’s only pulling from [curated] information.”

Elizabeth was able to accomplish such an achievement because the platform she chose was easy to use. 

Best customGPT nonprofit consultant testimonial screenshot

Her story shows that with CustomGPT, even users who aren’t tech-savvy can easily build powerful AI assistants.  

2. Features You Require In Your Business

The truth is, every company has different priorities. 

You shouldn’t go for a software just because it has a long list of features. You should rather look at one with features that align with you: 

  • Business goals
  • Company size
  • Complexity

A small team should prioritize:

  • Simplicity
  • Automation features like AI-assisted search
  • A user-friendly dashboard
  • Predictable pricing
  • Reliable infrastructure
  • Citation‐backed answers with inline source links

This will save them time without the need for a full IT department.

Dashboard showing created and documents

But let’s say you’re an IT manager at a small tech startup with 5-10 people.  It’s likely you wear many hats. You manage tools, data, and team support, and this keeps you so busy. Because of your limited time, an AI-assisted search feature will help your team members find answers they need without your help.

As a result, when someone asks, “What are the standard API limits for standard users and admin/internal systems?” The system automatically replies and pulls the right document.

CustomGPT chat showing API request limits

Now, that’s not all! As a business owner, customer support manager, or content operations manager, you need an AI agent that reflects your brand.

(if you are serious about your branding, then you need features to personalize your AI agent.)

CustomGPT lets you choose the AI agent’s name, role, agent avatar, and branding colors.

Set panel for editing AI agent profile

You must be able to customize your agent behavior by setting up instructions.

CustomGPT persona editor showing AI response rules

I also think the platform you choose should let you select your agent’s capability, specify where it generates responses from, and the AI model.

Configure Agents Intelligence settings

Whether you are a small business owner or a large organization, you must definitely identify the features you actually need. If not, you might pay for features you will never use.

3. Pricing and Scalability

To choose your enterprise search software, consider pricing and scalability.

Most platforms use a per-user, per-month pricing model and typically cost between $20-$100. This means the more members you add, the higher the cost.

Entry-level pricing for small businesses ranges from $20-$50 per user per month. Meanwhile, enterprise-level plans can go way beyond $300+ per user.

The reason why you should really consider this factor is that as your business grows, so does the price. 

For instance, a solution that is affordable for 10 users today might become costly and difficult to manage for 100 users. 

Now, some of the platforms I discussed earlier in this article do not have their pricing plans public. However, if you really want to choose your software, you should have access to pricing plans and know what each offers.

Elastic Search’s Standard tier, for instance, costs $99/month. This plan gives you access to their Search AI, API platform, Language client, and Elasticsearch Query. 

Best Elastic Cloud pricing plans comparison

Meanwhile, CustomGPT’s Standard tier is $89/month when billed annually. With this plan, you can create up to 10 agents, have 60M words storage capacity, 3 team members, and RAG API Access.

Best customGPT pricing plans for AI agents

The former costs $99, while the latter $89. The difference is $10 a month, and $120 after a year. You may think it is small, ( but wait until you add more users), but pricing models matter. 

For example, with Elastic Search, costs rise as your team grows, but CustomGPT offers predictable, flat pricing with no per-user fees. 

Now, making such comparisons is a smart move. It helps you determine whether or not the platform will easily grow with you.

4. Integrations With Other Tools

Furthermore, if you want to choose the right enterprise search software, you must check if it integrates with other tools.

It would be a nightmare as a business owner to have a team that constantly keeps switching between platforms and ecosystems just to find one document or email.

This is the importance of integration. And a good enterprise search software should easily connect with the other tools your company already uses.

One known integration is Slack. The reason is that it has become the main communication hub for most teams. The software you choose could even have a dedicated Slack community that could be of help to you.

Best customGPT Slack community join page

It should also connect with popular platforms like Hubspot, Notion, WordPress, Wix, and even Zendesk.

CustomGPT data source options including Notion and wordpress

And of course, giants like YouTube, Shopify, alongside connectors like Zapier, and API.

CustomGPT integrations showing Shopify Youube and Zapier

5. Security and Access Control

When dealing with enterprise search software, security is essential because it touches sensitive data.

In terms of security, the software you choose should follow strict protocols for handling and storing data securely.

As an example, at CustomGPT, we are SOC 2, SOC Type 2 certified, and fully GDPR compliant.

CustomGPT compliance showing SOC2 and GDPR certification

Now, enterprise search software often connects with almost every system in your company: emails, documents, databases, and customer records. For that reason, not everybody must have access to your information.

For example, if a particular team member doesn’t have access to a file in Google Drive, they shouldn’t suddenly see it in the search results. That would pose a high risk.

Now, it’s important to know who does what and when, and who has access to what.

Again, when it comes to access, the right software should follow strict protocols for:

  • Product security 
  • Data security
  • Network security
  • App security
  • Endpoint security
  • Corporate security
BetcustomGPT security compliance dashboard view

Choose the Best Enterprise Search Software

There you go! Choosing the right enterprise search software isn’t an easy task. 

I’ve shared my experience with you while thoroughly reviewing each software, starting from CustomGPT, then Glean, Coveo, Meilisearch, and Elastic Enterprise Search. 

I’ve discussed what I liked and what I didn’t in each tool, then gave you a guide on how to choose the right enterprise search software.

And I know you are now able to do so!

FAQ

What is enterprise search software used for?

An enterprise search software is a tool that helps teams quickly find information across all the company’s data sources.

How does enterprise search differ from regular website search?

Website search helps users find content on a public website, while enterprise search does so inside the company’s data sources.

What are the best Enterprise Search Software on the market?

The best enterprise search software on the market are CustomGPT, Glean, Coveo, Meilisearch, and Elastic Enterprise Search.

Can enterprise search tools connect with apps like Google Drive, Slack, or Notion?

Yes, enterprise search tools like CustomGPT connect with apps like Slack, Google Drive, and Notion.

Which Enterprise Search Software is best for small businesses?

CustomGPT is an enterprise search software best suited for small businesses.

 

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