Lindy or Dust: the duel settled by Joute
Lindy vs Dust comparison: $46/month against $29/month, plus the real difference in daily use. Dust wins this duel.
Updated · 9 min read
The essentials in 30 seconds
- Lindy: build AI assistants that automate your recurring tasks.
- Dust: AI agent platform for teams, connected to your tools.
- Pricing: Dust at $29/month, Lindy higher at $46/month. Double that if you push it every day.
Verdict: Dust, for the majority of use cases.
The comparison table
| Criteria | Lindy | Dust |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $46/month | $29/month |
| Business model | Freemium | Paid |
| Catalog category | agents | agents |
| Official site | lindy.ai | dust.tt |
Both tools, on screen
| Lindy | Dust |
|---|---|
 |  |
| lindy.ai | dust.tt |
Real screenshots of both homepages in May 2026, unedited.
Who should pick Lindy
You go with Lindy if building AI assistants that automate your recurring tasks matches your actual need and freemium, with a paid tier at $46/month fits your budget. It's for everyday general use cases.
Who should pick Dust
You go with Dust if AI agent platform for teams, connected to your tools describes what you're looking for and paid from the start at $29/month works for you. It's for everyday general use cases.
The real cost over 12 months
At the monthly entry price, over a full year: Dust costs $348, Lindy costs $552. The gap is $204 over 12 months, and it almost systematically doubles if you push the tool beyond the base quota.
The real question isn't "which one is cheaper" — it's "does Lindy deliver $204 worth of extra value for your actual, concrete use case." Without a concrete answer to that, Dust is the rational default.
The 2026 context
The AI Agents category is moving fast in 2026, and choosing between Lindy and Dust isn't just about price or features. Three underlying forces are shaping the market.
First, the big models are eating the wrappers. Any tool whose value comes from a system prompt or a UX layer on top of an LLM is exposed: Claude, GPT, and Gemini are integrating these functions natively with every release. That's the whole point of Joute's verifiability score — it flags the tools that resist this dilution.
Second, pricing is getting murky. Credits, tokens, quotas, tiers: the price shown on the pricing page is rarely the real cost in practice. That's true for both tools here, and it's exactly why we document the annual cost above.
Third, the market is going European. Publishers are integrating French, euro billing, and GDPR compliance. For both Lindy and Dust, check where your data is hosted before any enterprise commitment.
Traps to avoid
Three recurring mistakes when choosing between these two tools, regardless of which one you end up picking.
Comparing the entry price and forgetting the total cost. The monthly price shown is almost always the lowest tier, calculated on annual billing. On monthly billing, it's 15 to 25% more. And with quotas that get eaten up fast, budget 1.5 to 2× the listed price for daily professional use.
Deciding based on a demo. Every AI tool publisher knows how to put on a demo that wows. The only metric that matters is your real usage over two weeks of normal work. All serious tools have a free trial — use it on a real task, not the demo's perfect use case.
Ignoring the ecosystem. An isolated tool is worth less than a well-integrated one. Before deciding, check the native connectors (Slack, Notion, GitHub depending on your stack), API quality, and the extensions community. Lindy and Dust have different ecosystems, and that's often what tips the decision at the 12-month mark.
Real-world feedback
After 2 weeks of parallel use, Dust is the one you spontaneously reopen in the morning. Lindy stays open in a tab for specific tasks where it still holds the edge, but it's no longer the default.
The gap shows up most on long sessions: Dust holds up through an hour of back-and-forth without losing the thread, where Lindy needs re-framing more often. That's not visible in a five-minute demo, but it's what matters on a real workflow.
Verdict by profile
If you're new to the category. Dust is the sensible default: gentler learning curve, more complete documentation, more active community on English-language forums.
If you already have your stack. First look at integration quality with your existing tools. Lindy and Dust have different ecosystems, and that's often the deciding factor in practice.
If you're building for a team. Beyond the raw score, look at team pricing, SSO management, and admin controls. Solo pricing is only part of the equation — the annual cost per user can double between tiers.
The ecosystem factor
An isolated AI tool is worth less than a well-integrated one. Before making your call, inventory the native connectors (Slack, Notion, GitHub, your CRM depending on your stack), API and documentation quality, and the depth of the extensions or plugin marketplace.
Dust has a clear edge here: the paid ecosystem pushes publishers to invest in integrations. Lindy partly compensates with a more permissive API, but the integration friction at setup remains higher.
If you could only keep one
Dust. Over time and for daily use, it's the one that holds up. The promise is more stable, the product roadmap more predictable, the value-for-money better calibrated.
Lindy stays relevant as a complementary tool, especially in cases where Dust shows its limits. But as the primary tool, on a single 12-month subscription, Dust is what comes up most often in our recommendations.
Verdict
Dust wins this duel. Dust is our pick here. The loser isn't bad — it just targets a narrower use case or carries a hidden cost that Dust avoids.
To go deeper, check out the AI Agents category or open the comparator to put them head-to-head on your own criteria. You can also check the detailed pages: Lindy and Dust.
Frequently asked questions
Lindy or Dust for beginners?
Dust, because for the majority of use cases. Lindy is still a solid plan B for profiles that fall outside the majority case (category-specific use cases).
Which one is cheaper at real-world usage?
Dust has the lower entry price. But at heavy use, quotas get eaten up fast for both: budget double the listed price if the tool runs every day.
Can you use Lindy and Dust together?
Often yes, provided the use cases complement each other. Lindy and Dust are in the same category (AI Agents) so there's overlap, but if you're switching between slightly different use cases, a subscription to each isn't unreasonable.
Is Lindy free?
Freemium: there's a limited free tier, and the paid subscription starts at $46/month to lift the limits.
Is Dust free?
No, it's a paid tool at $29/month from the start. No meaningful free version.
Winner: Dust
pour la majorité des usages.