Dust is where you build the assistant. Fasrad is the assistant, already working.

Building an assistant vs. having one

Dust is a strong platform for technical teams that want to build custom AI assistants connected to their stack — Notion, Slack, GitHub, internal docs. You wire up the data sources, define the assistant, pick the model, and the people who do that work tend to be developers or ops engineers who enjoy it. Dust gives them real control over context and which data the model can see.

Fasrad starts from the other end. There is nothing to build. You name the agent, give it a personality, and it comes with a dedicated email inbox, a Google Calendar, Sheets and Drive, a CRM, and the ability to browse the web and call any REST API. It does not stop at answering questions about your data — it drafts the reply, books the slot, files the contact, and sends the follow-up next Tuesday because you told it to in plain English.

The difference is who does the work after the model produces an answer. With Dust, the assistant surfaces context and you act on it. With Fasrad, the agent holds the inbox and calendar and does the acting itself, then reports back.

Where the line falls:

• Dust wins on governance and source control — it's built for teams that need fine-grained data permissions, audit, and a managed assistant they can hand to a whole company.
• Dust connects natively to internal tools like Notion, Slack, and GitHub; Fasrad reaches those through web browse and REST calls, not deep native connectors.
• Fasrad ships with its own inbox, calendar, and CRM and acts on them — no integration project to stand up first.
• Fasrad runs on web, Telegram, email, and a public embed, and works on its own schedule between your messages.

Pick Dust if you have a technical team and the job is to give the whole company a governed assistant over internal knowledge. Pick Fasrad if you're one person or a small team who wants an agent that already does the outbound, the booking, and the follow-through without you building anything.

Related pages in this workflow

These pages cover the adjacent jobs buyers usually compare before choosing an AI agent.

• AI Personal Assistant — Your calendar, your follow-ups, your morning brief — run by an assistant with its own inbox, so you stop being your own secretary.
• AI Virtual Assistant — An assistant that does the work, not just the chat: its own inbox and calendar, your meetings booked, the replies you’d forget chased down.
• AI Booking Bot for Websites — Turns a website visitor into a booked meeting: it qualifies the request, offers real availability, books your calendar, and hands you the notes.
• AI Website Chatbot for Your Site — Closes the loop instead of dropping a transcript: it answers from your real pages, captures the lead, and books the meeting.
• AI Cold Outreach Agent — Personalizing cold email at volume is a full-time job; a blast just burns your domain. The agent does both — and books the replies — so you only show up for the meeting.
• AI Research Analyst — Hand it a question and a deadline, get a brief that shows its work — figures, links, and the page each number came from.
• Notion Alternative — Notion is brilliant storage; someone still has to dig through it. Fasrad reads every page and answers from the right doc — no tabs, no digging.
• Calendly Alternative That Reads & Replies — A booking link can’t read the email it’s pasted into. Fasrad can — it proposes the slot that fits, books it, and briefs you before you walk in.

Frequently asked questions

Isn't Dust the same thing — an AI agent over my data?

Dust is a platform to build assistants connected to your company data; the people setting it up are usually technical. Fasrad is the finished agent. You don't connect sources or pick a model — it comes with its own inbox, calendar, CRM, and web access, and it acts on them rather than just answering.

What does Dust still do better?

Governance and native source control. If you need fine-grained data permissions, audit trails, deep native connectors to Notion, Slack, and GitHub, and a managed assistant for an entire technical org, Dust is built for that and Fasrad is not. Fasrad reaches external systems through web browse and REST calls, which is broad but not the same as a vetted native connector.

Can Fasrad connect to my internal tools?

It can call any REST API with custom auth and browse the web, including JavaScript-heavy pages, so most systems with an API are reachable. It does not ship the deep native connectors to internal knowledge bases that Dust specializes in.

Do I need to be technical to set Fasrad up?

No. There's no flow builder, prompt engineering, or deployment. You describe what you want in plain language. Setup is about four minutes and it's in public beta.

Where does the agent run?

Web at fasrad.com/chat, as a private Telegram bot, over its own email inbox, and as a public embed chatbot on your site — the same agent and memory across all of them.

How much does it cost?

$49/month or $490/year — cancel anytime. It's in public beta, and setup takes about four minutes — no integration project to fund first.