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AksharAI or building your AI app from scratch
Plenty of capable teams build agents directly on a model provider's API with an open source framework. For some projects that is the right call. The choice turns on who will change the app, how soon you need it and who carries the upkeep.
Side by side
AksharAI and building from scratch
First working version
AksharAI: Assembled in the builder from existing blocks for documents, approvals, channels and logs, then fitted to your process.
Building from scratch: Your engineers write each piece: ingestion, retrieval, prompts, tool calls, screens and logging.
Who can change it
AksharAI: Business owners can change wording, rules and approval steps in the visual editor; engineers handle connectors.
Building from scratch: Every change goes through your engineering team and its release cycle.
Approvals and audit log
AksharAI: Built in for every app: approval steps, action boundaries and a run log with sources.
Building from scratch: Designed and built by you. Often added late, after the first incident.
Channels
AksharAI: Web, mobile, WhatsApp, email, voice and embedded widgets from the same agent.
Building from scratch: Each channel is a separate integration to build and maintain.
Model choice
AksharAI: Leading providers and open models, chosen per application and changeable later.
Building from scratch: Complete freedom, including models and techniques the platform does not support.
Unusual requirements
AksharAI: Handled through custom blocks and connectors our team builds, within the platform's structure.
Building from scratch: No limits beyond your team's time. Best for products where the AI is the core of what you sell.
Ongoing cost
AksharAI: Platform plan plus model usage, plus build hours when you want our team to do the work.
Building from scratch: Engineering salaries for building and maintaining it, plus model usage and hosting.
Lock in
AksharAI: Your data, documents and prompts stay yours and can be exported. The app runs on AksharAI.
Building from scratch: You own all the code, and carry all the upkeep.
Choose building from scratch when
- The AI feature is the core of a product you sell, and you need full control of every detail
- You already have an experienced AI engineering team with time to spare
- Your requirements sit well outside workflows, documents, conversations and approvals
- Company policy requires every line of the system to be your own code
Choose AksharAI when
- The goal is an internal or customer facing agent that does a business task reliably
- Business teams need to change rules and wording without waiting for a release
- You want approvals, logs and access rules in place from day one
- You would rather spend engineering time on the hard connectors than on plumbing
Questions
Asked while deciding
Can we start on AksharAI and move to our own code later?
Yes. Your prompts, documents, test cases and data are yours. The evaluation set you build on AksharAI is often the most useful thing to take with you.
Do we still need engineers with AksharAI?
Usually some. Connecting an older ERP or writing a custom tool needs engineering, either yours or our team's on 2good terms. Most of the rest can be done by the business team.
Is a platform slower or more expensive to run?
Model usage costs the same either way, since you pay the provider for the same calls. The difference is in build and upkeep time, which depends on your team.
Compare
AksharAI or a generic AI chatbot
What a general chat assistant does well for your staff, and where a business agent is needed instead.
Learn moreFree tool
Agent readiness check
Ten questions about one process and the gaps to close first.
Learn morePlatform
The six parts of AksharAI
Builder, logic, agent studio, screens, integrations and governance.
Learn moreSee it on your work
Bring one slow, repetitive process. We will show you an agent doing it.
A working session with someone who builds these every week.
Or get a ballpark proposal in two minutesWhat happens next
- Step 1A short call about one process and the systems involved
- Step 2A demo of an agent working on a version of your task
- Step 3A clear view of fit, approvals and what it would take