Elastic Workplace Search alternatives at a glance
Comparison as of September 19, 2026
| Criteria | Elastic Workplace Search (baseline) | Tricky Wombat | Elasticsearch with connectors (build on Elastic) | Glean | Onyx | GoSearch | Coveo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Existing Enterprise Search 8.x subscribers until end of support on July 15, 2027 | Tricky Wombat fits teams with complex questions whose answers are spread across many sources. | Developers who want to keep building search on Elasticsearch | Large enterprises standardizing on one AI work platform | Engineering-led teams that must self-host | Teams that want self-serve setup | Companies running employee and customer-facing search on one platform |
| Rollout scope | Existing 8.x deployments only. Not available in 9.0 or later, and not sold to customers who subscribed after 9.0 | Project by project, from a single team. Runs alongside existing search tools | Per deployment. Your team builds the search app and decides who gets access | Organization-wide. Minimum often 100 to 250 users (Vendr) | Per deployment. Self-hosted or vendor-hosted | Per user, self-serve signup | Per seat on Workplace plans. Sold through sales |
| Deployment time | No new deployments. Content must move to Elasticsearch before a 9.x upgrade (Elastic docs) | Real time, as documents are uploaded | Depends on your build. Agent Builder builds agents "in minutes," per Elastic | 4 to 5 weeks to first value for mid-sized companies (Glean Community) | "Minutes" for a self-hosted install, per Onyx docs | "First results within days," per GoSearch | No timeline published. Coveo's implementation guide covers indexing content, search page design and relevance tuning |
| Contract terms | Existing Enterprise Search subscription. End of maintenance January 15, 2027. End of support July 15, 2027 | Monthly or annual. Enterprise: annual, begins with a 14-day pilot. 14-day free trial, no card, on self-serve plans | Elastic Cloud: monthly or annual. 14-day free Cloud trial, no card. Self-managed Basic is free to download | Annual standard, 2 to 3 year terms common (Vendr) | Community Edition: MIT license, no contract. Business: annual billing | Free plan, no card required. Enterprise trials case by case | Annual and three-year subscriptions. 14-day free trial, per Coveo |
| Support model | Elastic subscription support on 8.x until July 15, 2027 | Email with 2-business-day response (Starter) up to 1-hour response and a shared Slack channel (Enterprise). Onboarding by the engineers who built the product | Enterprise subscription: 24/7, web and phone, 1-hour initial response on the most severe issues | Support assistant for all users. Tickets for designated support contacts. Email | Community support on Business. Dedicated support with SLA on Enterprise | Help center and live chat during business hours | Coveo Care Pro or Enterprise: online, phone and email. 24/7 for Severity 1, 24/5 otherwise |
| Integration depth | 20+ content sources plus Custom API sources. Permission sync on selected sources | Confluence, Google Drive, Dropbox, Asana and file shares. Reads 1,000+ file types | 32 content connectors in Elastic docs, 17 with document-level security. You run the connector service | 250+ connectors | 50+ connectors | 100+ connectors | 50+ connectors |
| Vertical specialization | Horizontal, Elastic Stack customers | Mid-market professional and knowledge services | Horizontal, developer platform | Horizontal, large enterprise | Horizontal, technical teams | Horizontal | Service, website, commerce and workplace search |
| AI capabilities | Semantic search, vector search and chat require moving to Elasticsearch, per Elastic (2023) | Seven-step context pipeline before any model answers. All models on every plan. No training on customer data by default | Agent Builder (GA January 2026) with MCP and A2A. ELSER, E5 and Elastic Rerank. Playground deprecated in 9.4 | Agent builder, 40+ LLMs through Model Hub | Bring your own LLM. Custom agents | AI assistant and private agents. Bring your own LLM on Enterprise | Generative answering, Passage Retrieval API, MCP server |
| How answers are assembled | Ranked results in the native search app and Search API | Patent-pending clustering algorithm: groups related passages from every source, then selects the context before a model answers | Retrieval you design: lexical, vector and semantic search on semantic_text, passed to the model you choose | Enterprise knowledge graph across connected apps (Futurum) | Open-source search stack with your own model | Indexed plus real-time app search. Inline citations, admin-set permissions | Unified index with lexical, vector and behavioral ranking. Source permissions replicated at index level |
Sources for every cell are listed at the end of this page.
Test it on the messy stuff
Every vendor demo runs on data the vendor chose. Your data has duplicate files, stale drafts and three versions of the same rate card. Accuracy on that data predicts whether people keep using the tool after month two.
Your Workplace Search deployment still answers questions today, so you have a baseline to score replacements against. A Tricky Wombat pilot runs on your live data, with no fee for 14 days.
Run the same test on your two finalists:
- Collect 10 questions your staff asked in the last month. Include at least 3 that need facts from more than one source.
- Connect the same sources to both tools with the same permissions.
- Score every answer as correct and cited, correct but uncited, wrong, or no answer.
- Count confident wrong answers on their own line. A confident wrong answer costs more than no answer, because someone acts on it.
Tricky Wombat publishes the seven points where retrieval pipelines fail (opens in a new tab). Use the list as a scoring checklist for any vendor, including this one.
Why do companies look for an Elastic Workplace Search alternative?
Most teams on this page did not choose to leave. Workplace Search stops at 8.x, so the real decision is what shape the replacement takes.
The first question is ownership. If your engineers run Elasticsearch and want to keep the index and relevance tuning in house, staying on Elastic is the shortest path. Onyx fits when the requirement is self-hosting and nobody wants to write a search interface.
The second is packaging. Many IT teams chose Workplace Search because it arrived as a finished app. Glean, GoSearch and Coveo each ship a finished product, at different scales and with different sales models.
The third is the type of question. For some teams the questions that matter most were never lookups. They need one answer assembled from a proposal, a method document and a contract.
Is Tricky Wombat right for you?
Tricky Wombat is built for firms where the answer to one client question often sits in three places: a proposal in Sales, a method in Delivery and a contract clause in Legal. Finding the best-matching document is the easy part. Assembling the right context from all three is where answers go wrong. Tricky Wombat runs every question through a seven-step pipeline (query rewriting, GraphRAG, semantic analysis, clustering, reranking, statistical document selection and statistical chunking) before a model writes a word. The design follows one thesis: answer quality depends far more on the context a model receives than on which model you choose.
See how the seven-step pipeline works → (opens in a new tab)
The rollout suits a migration. Start with one project instead of the whole company, connect only its sources, and give access only to the people on it. The project is answering questions as soon as your documents are uploaded. The engineers who built the pipeline run onboarding themselves, with no implementation partner in between.
Tricky Wombat is the wrong pick in three cases. If you want one product that replaces Workplace Search for every employee in a single rollout, Glean or Coveo is built for that. If your developers want to own the retrieval code, Elasticsearch or Onyx gives them that control. And the company runs a deliberately small, invite-only onboarding queue, so you may wait for a slot.
Choose it over rebuilding Workplace Search if your hardest questions draw on many sources, you want to start with one project instead of the whole company, and you want a pilot on your own data before you sign an annual contract.
Which other Elastic Workplace Search alternative fits your team?
Each of these five wins a different situation. The first two suit developers, the last three suit IT teams that want a finished app.
Elasticsearch with connectors: best for developers who want to stay on Elastic
This is Elastic's own migration path, and it keeps your cluster and your team's skills. Elastic's docs say Workplace Search content sources "need to be replaced with self-managed Elastic connectors," which write straight to Elasticsearch indices. The connector reference lists 32 connectors, 17 with document-level security. For AI answers, Elastic points to semantic_text, ELSER, E5 and Elastic Rerank. Agent Builder became generally available on January 22, 2026, with MCP and A2A support (BusinessWire (opens in a new tab)). Playground, the low-code chat tool in Elastic's 2025 migration post, was deprecated in 9.4 in favor of Agent Builder.
Plan for the build. Your team runs the connector service on its own infrastructure and builds the interface with Search UI or a client library.
Choose it over staying on Workplace Search 8.x if your engineers already run Elasticsearch and want full control of indexing, relevance and the interface.
Onyx: best for teams that must self-host without building a UI
Onyx, formerly Danswer, publishes its Community Edition under the MIT license and ships a finished chat and search interface. The GitHub project has more than 32,000 stars and 50+ connectors, and the quickstart installs it "in minutes." The Enterprise plan adds OIDC and SAML SSO, on-premise deployment and a support SLA.
Self-hosting moves upgrades and uptime to your team. Confirm a connector exists for every content source you use today.
Choose it over Workplace Search if data must stay on your servers and you want a finished interface instead of a build project. More options: Onyx alternatives (opens in a new tab).
Glean: best for large enterprises standardizing on one AI platform
Glean is sold as a company-wide platform. It lists 250+ connectors and 40+ LLMs through its Model Hub, and builds an enterprise knowledge graph across connected apps (Futurum (opens in a new tab)). Buyers typically commit to 100 to 250 users or more, on annual contracts with 2 to 3 year terms common (Vendr (opens in a new tab)). Mid-sized companies reach first value in about four to five weeks, according to the Glean Community.
Plan for an organization-wide rollout, and leave procurement time before your 8.x end of maintenance date.
Choose it over Workplace Search if you want a finished app for every employee and prefer buying a platform to building one. More options: Glean alternatives (opens in a new tab).
GoSearch: best for teams that want self-serve setup
GoSearch has a free plan with no card required, so one team can connect its own apps without a sales cycle. It lists 100+ connectors, combines indexed and real-time search across connected apps, and puts inline citations on AI answers. GoSearch states that teams see "first results within days." Enterprise adds bring-your-own LLM and SSO.
Admins set permissions by team, department or role, so check how that maps to the source permissions Workplace Search synced.
Choose it over Workplace Search if you want a finished app you can stand up yourself this week.
Coveo: best for companies running employee and customer search together
Many Enterprise Search customers ran App Search on a website and Workplace Search for staff. Both reach end of support on the same date, and Coveo covers both jobs on one platform. Its workplace product lists 50+ connectors, replicates source permissions in the index, and adds generative answering and an MCP server.
Coveo sells annual and three-year subscriptions through its sales team. If you only need internal search, weigh how much of the platform you will use.
Choose it over Workplace Search if you are replacing App Search and Workplace Search at the same time and want one vendor for both. More options: Coveo alternatives (opens in a new tab).
Can you run Tricky Wombat alongside Workplace Search?
Yes. Tricky Wombat does not ask you to replace anything, which matters during a migration. Workplace Search 8.x stays supported until July 15, 2027 and keeps answering everyday lookups while you pick its long-term replacement. You deploy Tricky Wombat one project at a time next to it, connect only that project's sources, and give access only to the people on it.
The two jobs differ. Workplace Search and most of its replacements answer everyday lookups well, like where the travel policy lives. A client engagement asks harder questions. What did we propose to a similar client in 2024, which liability clause did Legal reject, and how did Delivery staff the last three projects like this one? Those answers sit in a proposal, a method document and a contract, and a ranked list of documents leaves the assembly to the reader.
In practice, a firm starts with one practice group or one high-stakes engagement, answering questions as soon as documents are uploaded. Existing access rights stay intact for every question, and every answer cites the material it came from. The same setup works after the migration, whether you land on Elasticsearch, Glean or anything else on this page.
What happens to Workplace Search after 9.0?
Workplace Search runs only on Elastic 8.x. These dates, all from Elastic, set your migration window:
- April 15, 2025: Elastic 9.0 ships and Elastic announces the deprecation, telling existing customers there is "no rush to migrate" (Elastic blog (opens in a new tab)).
- January 15, 2027: end of maintenance for Enterprise Search 8.x (Elastic EOL policy (opens in a new tab)).
- July 15, 2027: end of support for Enterprise Search 8.x.
Elastic's docs add three conditions. You "must migrate your content and search experiences to Elasticsearch before upgrading" to 9.x. Elastic managed connectors must be converted to self-managed connectors on your own infrastructure, which the Kibana Upgrade Assistant handles. The Elastic web crawler is replaced by the self-managed Open Crawler project (Elastic docs (opens in a new tab)).
If your replacement needs a pilot, a security review and a connector rebuild, start in the fourth quarter of 2026.
How should you choose a Workplace Search replacement?
Start with who will own the replacement. If your engineers run Elasticsearch today and want to keep doing it, stay on Elastic. If nobody wants to maintain connectors and a search interface, buy a finished app.
Next, check every content source Workplace Search indexes today against each candidate's connector list. Workplace Search synced document permissions from sources like Google Drive and OneDrive, so confirm the replacement shows people only what they could open before.
Then look at the questions people ask. Lookups work in almost any tool here. Questions that need a past proposal, a delivery method and a contract clause are where tools differ, so weight them most in your pilot.
Finally, pick a rollout. A single company-wide cutover fits Glean or Coveo. A self-hosted stack fits Onyx or Elasticsearch. One team first fits GoSearch or Tricky Wombat.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Elastic Workplace Search alternative?
The best choice depends on whether you build or buy. Elasticsearch with connectors fits developers staying on Elastic. Onyx fits teams that must self-host. Glean fits large enterprises. GoSearch fits self-serve buyers. Coveo fits companies that also ran App Search. Tricky Wombat fits teams with complex questions whose answers are spread across many sources.
Can you use Tricky Wombat and Workplace Search at the same time?
Yes. Tricky Wombat deploys one project at a time and connects only the sources that project uses, so it runs next to Workplace Search 8.x until end of support on July 15, 2027, and next to whichever tool replaces it company-wide.
When does Elastic Workplace Search reach end of support?
Elastic lists end of maintenance for Enterprise Search 8.x, which includes Workplace Search, on January 15, 2027, and end of support on July 15, 2027. Workplace Search is not available in Elastic 9.0 or later, and customers who subscribed after the 9.0 release cannot use it.
Can you stay on Elastic after Workplace Search?
Yes. Elastic's migration guide replaces Workplace Search content sources with self-managed connectors that write to Elasticsearch indices. You then build the search interface with Search UI or a client library, and add AI answers with Agent Builder, which became generally available in January 2026.
Is OpenSearch a Workplace Search alternative?
OpenSearch is a search engine, not a finished workplace search app. AWS forked it from Elasticsearch 7.10.2 in 2021, and it is released under the Apache 2.0 license under the Linux Foundation. It suits engineering teams that want to build their own employee search and maintain their own connectors.
Does Elastic Playground replace Workplace Search?
No. Playground was a low-code tool for testing retrieval-augmented chat on Elasticsearch data, and Elastic deprecated it in version 9.4. Elastic now directs that work to Agent Builder, generally available since 9.3. Either way, your developers build and host the employee-facing search experience themselves.
When should you start evaluating a Workplace Search alternative?
Start at least six months before January 15, 2027, when Elastic ends maintenance for Enterprise Search 8.x. A 14-day pilot, a security review and a connector rebuild for every content source fit inside that window, and you avoid running an unmaintained product while you migrate.
How was this comparison researched?
Every competitor fact on this page comes from a public source listed below: vendor websites and documentation, Elastic's end-of-life policy, BusinessWire, the Linux Foundation, Vendr, Futurum and the Glean Community. All facts were verified on September 19, 2026 and are re-checked every quarter. Send corrections to info@trickywombat.ai.
Bring your messy stuff
Pick one project that Workplace Search serves today. Bring 10 real questions and your worst folders, and connect the sources that project uses. Tricky Wombat runs the pilot on your live data, next to the tools you already have, and scores the answers with you. You can end the pilot at any point during the 14 days with no fee and no contract.
Book a 20-minute fit call (opens in a new tab) | See how enterprise search works (opens in a new tab)
Product names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here for identification only. No vendor on this page endorses Tricky Wombat. Competitor information comes from the public sources below, verified September 19, 2026. Features and terms change, so confirm current details with each vendor.
Sources
- Workplace Search deprecation, 27 months of support, migration tools: Elastic, Apr 15, 2025 (opens in a new tab)
- Enterprise Search 8.x retirement notice, end of maintenance and end of support: Elastic EOL policy (opens in a new tab)
- Migration to 9.x, access for new customers, self-managed connectors, managed connector conversion, Open Crawler: Elastic docs, Migrating to 9.x from Enterprise Search 8.x (opens in a new tab)
- Elastic 9.0 general availability: Elastic, Apr 15, 2025 (opens in a new tab)
- Workplace Search content sources and permission sync: Elastic docs, Content sources overview (opens in a new tab)
- Workplace Search support status and AI features moving to Elasticsearch: Elastic, Nov 14, 2023 (opens in a new tab)
- Elastic content connectors, document-level security, self-managed deployment: Elastic docs, Content connectors (opens in a new tab)
- Playground deprecation in 9.4 and Agent Builder: Elastic docs, Playground (opens in a new tab)
- Agent Builder general availability, MCP and A2A: BusinessWire, Jan 22, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Elastic support tiers: Elastic subscriptions (opens in a new tab). Trial and billing: Elastic pricing FAQ (opens in a new tab)
- Glean seat minimums and contract terms: Vendr, Feb 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Glean connectors: Glean press release, May 28, 2026 (opens in a new tab). LLMs and Model Hub: glean.com/pricing (opens in a new tab). Knowledge graph: Futurum, Apr 3, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Glean deployment time: Glean Community, Apr 24, 2026 (opens in a new tab). Support: Glean support center (opens in a new tab)
- Onyx plans, support and SSO: onyx.app/pricing (opens in a new tab). License, stars and connectors: GitHub (opens in a new tab). Deployment: Quickstart (opens in a new tab)
- GoSearch plans and connectors: gosearch.ai/pricing (opens in a new tab). Search approach and setup time: Enterprise search (opens in a new tab). Support: Technical (opens in a new tab)
- Coveo workplace features, connectors, security and trial: Digital workplace (opens in a new tab), Features (opens in a new tab). Subscriptions: coveo.com/pricing (opens in a new tab). Support: Coveo Care (opens in a new tab)
- OpenSearch origin and foundation: Linux Foundation, Sep 16, 2024 (opens in a new tab). License: OpenSearch FAQ (opens in a new tab)
- Tricky Wombat deployment, support and plans: /price (opens in a new tab), /enterprise-search (opens in a new tab)
- Coveo implementation guide, Coveo for Workplace product sheet (opens in a new tab)