CopilotKit vs Assistant UI
Updated onCompare CopilotKit and Assistant UI side-by-side. See how they stack up on features, pricing, and target market.
CopilotKit
CopilotKit is an open-source agentic application framework that helps developers integrate AI copilots and user-facing agents into their applications, with optional hosted cloud and enterprise plans.
Starts at $0 / developer seat / month
vs
Assistant UI
An open-source TypeScript/React library of composable primitives and a hosted backend for building production AI chat interfaces and generative UI.
Which should you choose?
CopilotKit
Choose CopilotKit (A) if you want a full agentic application platform that tightly connects your app’s state, UI, and actions to any agent backend and you value built-in analytics and enterprise options over the lowest cloud price.
Assistant UI
Choose Assistant UI (B) if you mainly need a highly customizable, ChatGPT-style React chat interface on top of your own backend or agent framework and want a very lightweight, low-cost managed backend option.
Typical cost comparison
Scenario: Small SaaS app with 1 developer and ~200 monthly active chat users using each vendor’s hosted cloud.
CopilotKit
$1100 per month
Assistant UI
$0 per month
Assistant UI saves you $1,100 per month in this scenario.
Key differences
| Category | CopilotKit | Assistant UI | Why? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentic Integrations & App Actions | CopilotKit is designed to connect to any agent backend via protocols like AG-UI, MCP, and A2A and exposes frontend/backend actions plus shared state between the agent and your app; Assistant UI mainly visualizes conversations and tool outputs from backends such as Vercel AI SDK or LangGraph. | ||
| Chat UI & Developer Experience | Both provide React chat components, but Assistant UI is purpose-built as a composable chat UI library inspired by shadcn/ui with multiple prebuilt layouts and minimal bundle size, so standing up a polished chat UX is typically faster than with CopilotKit’s more general agentic UI layer. | ||
| Enterprise Features & Analytics | Both offer enterprise plans, but CopilotKit emphasizes SSO, VPC/on‑prem deployment, SLAs, internationalization, and built-in analytics/A/B testing via Copilot Intelligence, whereas Assistant UI’s enterprise tier focuses on uptime, deployment options, and backend integration but relies more on external tooling for experimentation. | ||
| Managed Cloud Pricing at Low Scale | assistant-cloud includes 200 MAU for free and then $50/month for 500 MAU with small per-MAU overage, while CopilotKit’s Team plan starts at $1,000 per seat/month for 100 MAU plus $100 per additional 100 MAU, so Assistant UI is much cheaper for small hosted deployments. | ||
| Scope & Architecture | CopilotKit is a full agentic application platform (framework, UI components, managed cloud, and “Copilot Intelligence” analytics), whereas Assistant UI is primarily a React chat UI toolkit with an optional backend service. |
Feature comparison
| Feature | CopilotKit | Assistant UI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise deployment options (SSO, VPC/on‑prem, SLA) | CopilotKit Enterprise supports cloud, VPC, or on‑prem deployment with SSO and SLAs; assistant-cloud Enterprise offers custom MAU pricing, on‑premises deployment, data replication, and 99.99% uptime SLAs. | ||
| Headless / fully customizable UI mode | Both expose headless or primitive-style APIs so you can replace default styling and layout while they handle streaming, state, and accessibility concerns. | ||
| Managed cloud backend | Copilot Cloud and assistant-cloud both offer hosted backends (MAU-based) for chat persistence and management alongside their open-source libraries. | ||
| Open-source MIT-licensed core | Both CopilotKit and Assistant UI publish their core TypeScript/React libraries under the MIT license and are actively maintained on GitHub. | ||
| Production-ready chat UI components | CopilotKit includes agentic chat UI components alongside other in-app copilot patterns, while Assistant UI is dedicated to polished, highly customizable chat interfaces for React. | ||
| Analytics, A/B testing, and self-improving agents | CopilotKit’s Copilot Intelligence layer adds persistence, analytics, A/B testing, and reinforcement learning for agents, while Assistant UI relies on whatever analytics or experimentation your backend stack provides. | ||
| Agent actions & deep app-state integration | CopilotKit provides frontend and backend actions plus shared state, letting agents read and mutate application state directly; Assistant UI supports frontend tool calls and generative UI but leaves broader agent orchestration and app wiring to your backend. |
Review Consensus
CopilotKit
"Across review sites, CopilotKit is seen as a powerful, flexible agentic app framework with strong integrations and enterprise potential, best suited to technical teams willing to handle some complexity. "
- ● Highlights CopilotKit as an open-source platform that lets developers deeply customize how AI copilots integrate into their applications.
- ● Praises strong integrations with tools like LangChain and LangGraph for building context-aware agents.
- ● Notes useful features such as customizable chat, generative UI, and real-time user interaction.
- ● Emphasizes that CopilotKit is aimed at developers and is not suitable for non-technical users.
- ● Mentions limited ready-made templates, meaning more manual UI work than some alternatives.
- ● Indicates that advanced options like on‑prem cloud, guardrails, analytics, and internationalization require higher-tier or enterprise plans.
Data as of 9/13/2025
- ● Describes CopilotKit as a strong toolkit for embedding contextual chat, workflow automation, and in-app guidance into web applications.
- ● Highlights a freemium pricing model with a free tier and mid-range paid plans, viewed as good value in 2025.
- ● Emphasizes its open-source foundation, which helps developers avoid lock-in.
- ● Stresses that teams still must design their own AI workflows; it is not a no-code chatbot builder.
- ● Notes operational complexity from depending on external LLM providers and agent frameworks.
- ● Mentions a learning curve relative to simpler, more prescriptive chatbot platforms.
Data as of 9/16/2025
Assistant UI
"Reviews portray Assistant UI as a well-regarded, React-focused chat UI toolkit that excels at quickly delivering polished AI chat frontends, assuming you already have or can build the necessary backend and agent logic. "
- ● Rates assistant-ui highly as a React/TypeScript library that makes it fast to ship ChatGPT-like interfaces with ready-made components.
- ● Highlights flexibility to integrate with many backends (Vercel AI SDK, LangGraph, custom APIs) while keeping the frontend experience consistent.
- ● Notes strong performance features such as streaming, attachments, and keyboard shortcuts suitable for production apps.
- ● Points out that it is useful only for React-based projects, limiting applicability in non-React stacks.
- ● Reminds users they must still provision and manage their own LLM/backend infrastructure.
- ● Implies that advanced customization still requires solid frontend development skills.
Data as of 1/25/2026
Based on 0 reviews
- ● Describes assistant-ui as an open-source Typescript/React library with customizable components and a ChatGPT-like UI built on shadcn/ui and Tailwind.
- ● Emphasizes composable primitives, auto-scrolling, streaming, and accessibility features for high-quality conversational interfaces.
- ● Notes common use cases like in-app assistants, customer support bots, and rapid prototyping of conversational UIs.
- ● Indicates there are no user reviews yet on that directory, so social proof there is limited.
- ● Like other listings, makes clear you must bring your own backend and LLM provider.
- ● Focuses on chat UI rather than full-stack agent orchestration, so broader agent behavior must be implemented elsewhere.
Data as of 1/25/2026
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