Comparison
Verum vs big-AGI: hosted workbench, with your votes remembered
big-AGI is a well-built open-source AI workspace you can run yourself, and its Beam feature already does multi-model comparison and merging. If you have been looking at Beam, you are looking at the closest thing to Verum's Arena and pipelines.
The difference is not 'we run many models' — big-AGI does that too. It is that Verum is hosted with nothing to deploy, and that comparisons in Verum are blind and recorded, so your votes accumulate into a personal model ranking instead of ending when the tab closes.
Verum vs big-AGI: feature comparison
| Capability | Verum | big-AGI |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Hosted — sign up and use it, nothing to deploy | Self-host, or use a community-hosted instance |
| Price | $12/month for the workbench, plus your own token spend | Free and open source — you pay only for tokens and hosting |
| Source code access and customisation | No — closed source | Yes — fork it, modify it, run your own build |
| Bring your own API keys | Yes — encrypted at rest, row-level tenant isolation | Yes — you control the deployment entirely |
| Multi-model comparison | Truth Arena — two models, identical settings, names hidden | Beam — multi-model responses with merge |
| Votes persisted into a personal ranking | Yes — votes train Best pick for your account | Comparison is per-session, not a recorded preference history |
| Per-stage cost, token and latency receipts | Yes — recorded per run and exportable | Varies by deployment and provider |
| Accounts, billing and multi-user setup | Built in — signup, trial, Stripe | Not the project's goal; you would add it yourself |
Verum column reflects shipped behaviour as of 24 July 2026. big-AGI changes frequently — check big-agi.com for current details. big-AGI is an open-source project by its respective authors. Verum is not affiliated with or endorsed by big-AGI.
Beam and Truth Arena are solving different halves
Beam is strong at the moment of comparison: fan a prompt out to several models, look at the answers together, merge the good parts. Verum's pipelines do a similar job with panel and merge stages, and add a judge stage that scores the result against a weighted rubric.
Where Verum goes further is after the comparison. Arena hides which model produced which answer until you have voted, then records that vote. Over time those votes fit a personal ranking — Best pick — so the product learns which model you actually prefer rather than asking you again every time.
That is also why Verum withholds rubric scores until your vote is in. Showing a machine score first would anchor the choice and quietly corrupt the preference data the ranking depends on.
When big-AGI is the better choice
If you want to own the stack, big-AGI is the better answer and it is not close. It is free, the source is open, and you can host it wherever your data policy requires. Verum cannot match any of that — it is a hosted product with closed source and a subscription.
Choose big-AGI if you want to modify the app itself, need to run entirely inside your own infrastructure, or would rather spend engineering time than $12 a month.
When Verum is the better choice
Choose Verum if you do not want to run or update anything, and if you want your comparisons to compound. Signup to first blind duel is a couple of minutes, keys are encrypted at rest, and each account's data is isolated at the row level.
It also matters if you care about spend. Every run records input and output tokens, cost, latency and which key was used, and the analytics dashboard turns that into spend by model and by feature, joined against your win rates.
Frequently asked questions
Is Verum an open-source big-AGI alternative?
No. Verum is closed source and hosted. If open source is a requirement, big-AGI is the better fit and Verum will not satisfy it.
How is Truth Arena different from Beam?
Beam shows several model answers together so you can merge them. Truth Arena runs two models with identical system prompts and settings, hides which is which until you vote, and records the outcome. Those recorded votes build a personal ranking; Beam's comparison is per-session.
Do I still bring my own API keys?
Yes, on both. In Verum they are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM and stored server-side, because Verum proxies the provider call for you. In a big-AGI deployment you control the whole environment yourself.
Can I self-host Verum?
No. Verum is available as a hosted product only. If self-hosting is a hard requirement, big-AGI is the appropriate choice.
What does Verum cost?
$12/month for the workbench. Tokens are billed by the labs against your own keys, at their list price.
Use your own keys. See what every answer costs.
$12/month for the workbench. Tokens are billed by the labs, at their price.
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