--- title: "Against the cloud assistants · AssistantGeneral" description: "ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini and the rest: capable and governed, and in someone else's building." url: "https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/compare/cloud-assistants/" source: "https://royalsoftworks.com" format: "markdown" note: "Markdown rendering of the HTML page at `url`. Same content, same canonical URL." --- Competitive comparison · 1 of 9 # Against the cloud assistants. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini and the rest: capable and governed, and in someone else's building. | Product | Own hardware | Your files | Workflows | Connectors | Messaging | MCP | Voice | Admin (theirs) | Admin (yours) | No internet | Desktop | Pricing | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AssistantGeneral★ This product · checked against our code, 12 October 2026 Private beta, Windows only. The admin console runs on one of your own machines; company sign-in (SSO, SCIM) only in pilots. Works with no internet once set up — activating a licence needs a connection once. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | Yes | Private beta — no published price yet | | Cloud AI assistants | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ChatGPT Business / Enterprise Business can store data in the EU but does not process it there; SCIM and the Compliance API are Enterprise-only. | No | Partial | Partial | Yes | Partial | Yes | Partial | Yes | No | No | Yes | Business $20–25/user/mo; Enterprise custom | | Microsoft 365 Copilot EU Data Boundary available. Desktop cell not re-checked. | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Partial | Copilot Chat free with M365 / Business $21 (<300 users) / Enterprise $30 | | Claude (Team / Enterprise) In third-party mode, Claude Desktop runs on your own cloud account with policy from your device management. First-party processing is US/global only. | No | Partial | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | No | Yes | Team $20–25/seat; Enterprise $20/seat + usage at API rates | | Google Gemini (Workspace + Gemini Enterprise) Desktop and MCP cells not re-checked. | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Included from Workspace Business Standard ($14) / Gemini Enterprise from ~$21 | | Perplexity (Pro / Enterprise) Desktop = the Comet browser. Advanced admin controls need 50+ seats or a Max seat. | No | Partial | No | No | No | No | Partial | Partial | No | No | Partial | Pro $20 / Enterprise Pro $40 / Enterprise Max $325 per seat | Yes~Partly, or only in some editions No?Not checked — unknown, not no - **Own hardware:** — The AI model can run on hardware you own — your PC or your own server. - **Your files:** — Searches your own documents and answers from them. - **Workflows:** — Multi-step automations; a visual builder counts as full. - **Connectors:** — Ten or more built-in data connectors. - **Messaging:** — Works as a bot in Slack, Teams, WhatsApp or Telegram. - **MCP:** — Model Context Protocol: plugs into outside tools. - **Voice:** — Speech in and out (partial: cloud-only or one direction). - **Admin (theirs):** — Admin console run by the vendor, in its own cloud: sign-in, roles, audit. - **Admin (yours):** — Admin console and policy you host on your own machines. - **No internet:** — Works with no internet connection at all. - **Desktop:** — Native desktop application. Rows checked on 30 September 2026 against each vendor’s own pages (sources at the end of this page); our own row against our own code on 12 October 2026. Off the table since the last version: Flowise reached end of life on 31 August 2026. Backyard AI's desktop app is discontinued. Enchanted was superseded by another app from the same developer. Prices and features change quickly — check before you buy, and tell us if a cell is wrong. Contents 1. 01Cloud assistants: capable, governed, and in someone else’s building 01 ## Cloud assistants: capable, governed, and in someone else’s building ChatGPT, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Claude and Gemini now tick most of the boxes in the table above: connectors, MCP, agents, desktop apps, and admin consoles with sign-in, roles and audit. Microsoft offers its EU Data Boundary, and Claude Desktop can run on a company’s own cloud account with its policy delivered by device management — the closest a cloud assistant comes to keeping the vendor out of the data path. What none of them changes is where the work happens: every prompt and every document is processed in the vendor’s cloud, or in a cloud account you rent. And on the business plans the owner can read everyone’s chats through documented tools — an export on ChatGPT and Claude, Purview on Microsoft, Vault on Google. - Every request is processed in the vendor’s cloud, or in your own cloud account - No mode that works with the internet unplugged - Copilot needs a Microsoft 365 business or enterprise plan; Copilot Chat itself costs nothing there - Administrators can read or export chat content with documented tools [Previous Compare: all 9 pages](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/compare/) [Next Against desktop AI apps.](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/compare/desktop-apps/) [All of AssistantGeneral compare](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/compare/)