Sim vs Tines
Sim is the open-source AI workspace where teams build, deploy, and manage AI agents visually, conversationally, or with code. Here is how Sim compares to Tines on platform architecture, AI capabilities, integrations, pricing, security, and support. Every fact below is sourced and dated.
Sim is an open-source AI workspace for building, deploying, and managing AI agents. This page compares Sim to Tines across platform architecture, AI capabilities, integrations, pricing, security and compliance, observability, and support, using sourced, dated facts for buyers evaluating both platforms.
What is Sim?
Sim is the open-source AI workspace where teams build, deploy, and manage AI agents, connecting 1,000+ integrations and every major LLM to automate real work visually, conversationally, or with code.
What is Tines?
Tines is a proprietary workflow automation platform, available cloud-hosted or self-hosted, originally built for security operations. Teams build event-driven "Stories" via a visual no/low-code canvas, natural language, or the API. It recently added native AI agent, MCP, and copilot capabilities.
Sim vs Tines: feature-by-feature comparison
CompareSim vs Tines
Sim
Tines
Platform
Builder type
Sim
Visual canvas, chat, or codeVisual drag-and-drop canvas, natural-language (Chat), or code (API/SDK)
Tines
Visual Stories canvas plus Workbench AI copilotVisual event-driven builder ('Stories') plus 'Workbench,' a natural-language AI copilot for building and editing stories. Workbench absorbed the former 'Story Copilot,' which was renamed 'Workbench for Storyboard' on June 2, 2026.
Learning curve
Sim
Low, plus natural-language Chat for non-technical usersLow for visual building; natural-language Chat surface for non-technical builders. Chat lets users describe a workflow in plain language and have Sim build it.
Tines
Moderate. API-centric, more setup than typical no-codeModerate. Tines favors direct HTTP/API actions over pre-built app connectors, giving flexibility but requiring more configuration knowledge than typical no-code tools
Self-hosting
Deployment options
Sim
Cloud-hosted or self-hosted, no mid-tier VPC optionCloud-hosted (managed, multi-tenant SaaS) or self-hosted (Docker/Kubernetes). No documented managed single-tenant/VPC hosting tier in between. The Enterprise plan's only hosting-related row in the pricing comparison table is a boolean "Self Hosting" flag; there is no dedicated-instance/VPC offering.
Tines
Cloud-hosted or self-hosted (Business/Enterprise)Tines-hosted cloud, and self-hosted (customer's own data center/cloud) for Business/Enterprise
Templates
Sim
Tines
Large public library across security, IT, HRLarge public "Tines library" of pre-built Story and Action templates across security, IT, HR, and other use cases
License
Sim
Apache 2.0Apache License 2.0
Tines
Proprietary SaaS; free Community Edition tierProprietary, closed-source commercial SaaS product. Offers a permanently free "Community Edition" tier, not an open-source license
Environment promotion
Sim
Yes: fork a whole workspace into a dev/qa/prod-style child, diff it, and promote or roll back changes in either direction. Credential and env-var remapping is required before every promote, so secrets are never silently copied across environments. Gated to Enterprise plan on hosted Sim, or a FORKING_ENABLED flag on self-hosted deployments.
Version control
Sim
Deployment rollback plus Copilot edit diff/revertDeployed-version history with rollback for every workflow; server-persisted checkpoint/revert and visual diff (accept/reject) specifically for Copilot AI edits. Manual drag-and-drop undo/redo is client-side/localStorage only (capped at 100 ops, 5 stacks), not server-synced across devices. Deployment history does not include an arbitrary version-to-version diff tool, and knowledge base documents have no version history.
Tines
Per-Story auto-save, diff preview, one-click rollbackPer-Story version history with auto-saved versions (every 5 min of inactivity or manual snapshot), diff preview between versions, and one-click restore. Scoped to a single Story, not a whole-project branch model
Realtime collaboration
Sim
Tines
No: Tines has no live, concurrent multi-user editing of the same Story canvas (shared cursors, selections, synced changes in real time). Its collaboration model centers on Cases (async, ticket-like collaboration on top of Records) and Send to Story (passing execution between stories), not simultaneous canvas co-editing.. Story editing follows a draft/versioning model rather than Figma/Google-Docs-style live co-editing. No evidence found of a lock-based alternative.
Native file storage
Sim
Yes: a native Files area with folder hierarchy, link-based sharing (public, password, email OTP, or SSO auth), and a workspace-level Recently Deleted view covering workflows, tables, knowledge bases, files, and folders. Admins can restrict which share-auth modes (public/password/email/SSO) a permission group is allowed to use.
Tines
No: Tines has no native, standalone file storage system with folder hierarchy, link-based sharing with auth options, or deleted-item recovery. File handling is per-feature: any action/tool can return a file to a Workbench user, and Pages can display file-related content, but there is no dedicated file-storage product.. Workbench file returns are scoped to a single user's chat session, not a shared workspace file store with folders/trash.
Sub-workflows (composition)
Sim
Tines
Yes: Tines' Send to Story action lets a parent Story call a separate sub-Story as a reusable step. The sub-story is configured with a webhook input action and a message-only output action; the parent's Send to Story action passes a payload, execution blocks until the sub-story finishes, and the sub-story's output event is returned to the calling action.. This is synchronous parent-waits-for-child composition with data passed in and returned, distinct from firing an independent story asynchronously via a plain webhook.
Pricing
Pricing model
Sim
Credit-based billing, BYOK exempt from capsCredit-based usage billing (Stripe), with bring-your-own-key exemption from metered caps
Tines
Tiered platform fee; Business/Enterprise are quote-onlyTiered platform-fee model (Community / Business / Enterprise) with add-ons to expand capacity (flows, teams, apps, AI credits, tunnels). No self-serve published dollar pricing; Business/Enterprise are "Contact Tines"
Entry paid plan
Sim
Pro plan at $25/user/monthPro: $25 per user/month
Tines
Business Edition, price on requestBusiness Edition. No public price; starts around 30 flows / 1 team / 100 users / 1.5M daily events per the pricing explainer, with self-hosting available
Free tier
Sim
Tines
Community Edition free forever, limited usageCommunity Edition is free forever: 1 builder, 3 flows/apps, 1 team, 25,000 monthly events, 50 AI runtime credits/month, unlimited viewers, SSO included
Bring your own key
Sim
Security & compliance
Data residency
Sim
Full control via self-hosting; Cloud region toggle is global, not per-customerFull data control via self-hosting (Docker/Kubernetes); data never leaves customer infrastructure when self-hosted. On Sim Cloud, async job execution has an internal US/EU region toggle, but it is deployment-wide, not a customer-selectable per-workspace residency option
Tines
Cloud or self-hosted for residency, retention controlsCloud-hosted (Tines-managed, AWS-based) or self-hosted in the customer's own data center/region for data-residency requirements; granular data retention controls provided
Role-based access control
Audit logging
Sim
Additional compliance
Sim
SOC2SOC2. Self-hosting is the primary lever Sim offers for data-residency-sensitive compliance needs beyond SOC2, rather than additional certifications.
Tines
ISO 27001, 27701, and 42001 certifiedISO 27001, ISO 27701, and ISO 42001 (AI management systems), announced April 14, 2026 as the "ISO trifecta." No HIPAA, PCI, or FedRAMP certification; Tines says self-hosting can help meet regimes like FedRAMP, not that it holds FedRAMP certification
Model & tool governance
Sim
Yes: enterprise "permission groups" let an admin allow-list/deny-list specific LLM providers and models, and separately deny specific tools/integrations (or disable all MCP or custom tools) per group, layered on top of workspace admin/write/read roles. This does not control whether an LLM provider retains prompts. Sim offers no "zero data retention" mode or governed AI gateway. A separate, Enterprise-gated feature lets orgs set a log-retention window and redact PII, but that only controls how long Sim itself keeps execution logs.
Tines
Not publicly documentedUnknown. Not publicly documented.
Credential governance
Sim
Yes: shared credentials (connected accounts, service accounts, workspace secrets) are their own nested permission level (Member/Admin) below organization and workspace roles, and enterprise permission groups can further allow-list specific integrations and restrict which file-share auth modes (public/password/email/SSO) a group may use. A user's personal environment variables/secrets are never shared or inherited by anyone, including org owners/admins.
Tines
Yes: credentials are scoped to Teams by default, and Team Admin/Editor roles control which teams a credential can be shared with. Sensitive settings like Access (where a credential can be used) and Domains (allowed outbound hosts/paths) are restricted to Team Admins or the credential's creator. Custom roles can extend the default viewer/builder/manager roles for finer-grained control.. Governance operates at the team/role level with per-credential Access and Domain restrictions, not a credential-set-to-role assignment matrix like Sim's, but reaches a similar outcome.
Single sign-on (SSO)
Sim
Tines
Yes: SSO via SAML or OIDC, configured at the tenant Authentication settings, with certified integrations for Okta, Duo, and CyberArk among others. Docs describe validating the IdP connection and redirecting users to the identity provider on sign-in.. Public docs describe the IdP handshake and setup steps but do not explicitly detail 'organization auto-provisioning on first login' (JIT provisioning) as a named capability.
Vetted first-party integrations
Sim
Yes: every one of Sim's 302 blocks is first-party authored and code-reviewed through the standard pull-request process in the main Sim repository; there is no public marketplace where an arbitrary third party can publish and have other users install executable tool code without going through Sim's own review. Custom code steps run inside Sim's own isolated-vm sandbox rather than as an installable third-party skill package, so the supply-chain trust boundary is Sim's codebase review, not an open registry.
Tines
Yes: Tines' executable actions (HTTP Request, webhooks, email, Send to Story, AI Agent, etc.) are a fixed, first-party set built and maintained by Tines, not a plugin/node marketplace. Third-party integrations go through the generic HTTP Request action against that tool's API, or by importing a pre-built 'Story' (a workflow template/JSON config, not installable code) from the community Story Library. No mechanism lets a third party publish executable custom actions/nodes that other tenants install.. The public Story Library has a 'Community selection' of user-submitted Story templates alongside Tines-authored ones, but these are shareable workflow configurations built from the same fixed first-party action set, not third-party executable plugins with their own code/dependencies (unlike n8n community nodes or a skill/plugin registry). No public vetting process for community Story submissions is documented, and no public security incident involving Tines' Story Library or action set was found.
PII redaction
Sim
Tines
Unknown: no documented PII redactionUnknown: no documented built-in detection or redaction of PII (emails, SSNs, etc.) in workflow content or retained logs. Tines markets credential/secret protection and access controls, but not a dedicated PII-scanning/redaction capability.
Custom data retention
Sim
Tines
No: audit logs have a fixed two-year retention period, with no org-configurable retention window for logs or soft-deleted resources. Self-hosted deployments expose configurable event/rate limits via environment variables, but not data retention windows.. Org can extend retention indirectly by exporting audit logs to their own S3 bucket, but the in-product retention period itself is not shown as configurable.
White-labeling
Sim
Tines
No: branding customization is scoped to Pages (custom logo, background/action colors, light/dark mode, saved Page themes), not the whole workspace or product UI. No evidence of full white-labeling (removing the Tines name/logo tenant-wide) was found.. Page themes let you brand individual deployed pages differently per audience, which is narrower than workspace-wide white-labeling.
AI capabilities
Multi-LLM support
Sim
21 providers incl. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Bedrock21 provider integrations (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google/Gemini, Azure OpenAI, Azure Anthropic, Groq, Cerebras, Mistral, xAI, Bedrock, Vertex, Ollama, OpenRouter, and more). apps/sim/providers/models.ts defines 21 provider entries; openrouter/litellm/vllm/ollama resolve models dynamically at runtime rather than from a hardcoded model list.
Agent reasoning blocks
Sim
Natural-language building
Tines
Workbench assistant builds and edits Stories from chatStory Copilot and Workbench are now one product. Story Copilot was rebranded 'Workbench for Storyboard' on June 2, 2026, and the same Workbench assistant covers both general chat and in-story building/editing.
Knowledge base / RAG
Sim
Tines
Connects to Notion, Glean, Confluence for contextSupports connecting to external knowledge sources (e.g. Notion, Glean, Confluence) for enterprise knowledge/RAG-style context in workflows, rather than a built-in vector database product
MCP support
Sim
Evaluation & guardrails
Sim
LLM-judge Evaluator plus Guardrails validation blockEvaluator block (LLM-judge scoring against user-defined named metrics) and Guardrails block (JSON validity, regex, RAG/hallucination scoring, PII detection/masking). These are per-call scoring/validation primitives, not a batch golden-dataset eval-suite runner or A/B prompt-testing harness.
Tines
Governance controls, no dedicated eval/guardrail productGovernance-oriented controls (policy-aligned MCP access, approvals, oversight), not a dedicated LLM-output evaluation/testing framework. No eval/guardrail product (output scoring, red-teaming) is documented
Human-in-the-loop
Sim
Tines
"Pages" collect mid-run input from people"Pages" let a running Story present a web form to a person for input mid-run, used for requester/approver flows. Exact pause/resume and notification mechanics are not publicly documented.
Generative media
Sim
Dynamic tool use
Sim
No: an Agent block calls tools the workflow author explicitly added to it at build time, rather than browsing and picking from a broader pool (e.g. an entire MCP server catalog) at inference time. Runtime MCP "discovery" exists to resolve/refresh the schema of an already-configured tool. The model does not browse or choose from the server's full tool list.
Tines
Not publicly documentedUnknown. Not publicly documented.
Automatic model fallback
Sim
No: a failed or rate-limited LLM call is retried using Sim's own hosted API keys for the same model, rather than automatically switching to a different model or provider. A "fallback" comment in the provider layer refers to rotating among Sim's own hosted API keys for the same model, not switching models.
Tines
Not publicly documentedUnknown. Not publicly documented.
Agent skills
Sim
Yes: named, reusable "Agent Skills" (built on the open Agent Skills / SKILL.md format) that agents load on demand via progressive disclosure, editable in-app or imported from a SKILL.md file or GitHub URL. Only the skill name and description sit in the agent's system prompt (~50-100 tokens each); the full instructions load into context only when the agent calls load_skill.
Tines
Yes: Tines Workbench supports Agent Skills, an open standard for packaging specialized knowledge or workflows as a SKILL.md file (name, description, instructions) that the AI loads on demand. Skills are created and managed in a team's Skills section alongside credentials and templates, are team-scoped, and toggle per preset for reuse across the team.. Distinct from Presets (which bundle templates/stories/instructions); Skills specifically are reusable named knowledge snippets loaded on demand.
Native chat deployment
Sim
Tines
Yes: Tines' AI Agent action supports a Chat mode that can be deployed as a public-facing page with an 'Anyone with the link' access option, requiring no Tines login for external users; it supports a configurable URL, theming, an initial message, and idle timeout.. This is a deployable chat surface built on the AI Agent action rather than a separate 'Chat' module, but it meets the bar of a publicly deployable conversational surface.
Parallel execution
Sim
Yes: a native Parallel block fans a run out into concurrent branches (fixed count or one per list item) and joins their results back into the workflow automatically. Contained blocks run concurrently instead of sequentially, either a fixed number of times or once per item in a list/collection, and each branch's output aggregates for downstream blocks.
Tines
Yes: Tines supports native fan-out/fan-in via its Explode and Implode actions. Explode splits an array into individual events that flow through the rest of the story concurrently while sharing the same story run GUID; Implode recombines those parallel branches back into a single event using that shared GUID plus an item count.. Explode/Implode is Tines’ dedicated split-and-rejoin mechanism, distinct from a single sequential loop over an array.
Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol
Sim
Tines
No documented support. Tines' AI Agent action integrates with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for connecting to remote tool servers, but no Tines documentation, changelog, or help center article describes support for the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol or an Agent Card-based peer-to-peer agent discovery mechanism.. Tines documents MCP tool-calling explicitly. A2A is a distinct, newer standard for agent-to-agent (not agent-to-tool) communication and isn’t mentioned anywhere in Tines’ public docs.
Loop / iteration block
Sim
Tines
Yes: Tines actions (including Event Transform in message-only mode and Send to Story) support a Loop attribute that points at a list or object field on the incoming event and invokes the action once per element, exposing a LOOP object for the current item on each pass. This is a per-action for-each attribute rather than a visual loop container block, and runs one item at a time rather than concurrently, distinct from the Explode/Implode parallel fan-out mechanism.. Tines caps a single loop at fewer than 20,000 elements. The dedicated concurrent-fan-out counterpart is Explode/Implode, documented separately as parallelExecution.
Integrations
Integrations
Sim
302 blocks, ~3,900 tool actions302 first-party blocks, ~3,900 underlying tool actions. Sim's landing page cites "1,000+ integrations," a broader figure counting individual API actions rather than top-level blocks. Both numbers describe the same integration surface.
Tines
API-centric; 1000s of preconfigured Action templatesTines does not market a fixed integration count. It is deliberately API-centric (the "HTTP Request" action can call any API) while also offering "1000s of preconfigured Action templates" for tools like Jira, Slack, and CrowdStrike
Trigger types
Sim
Webhook, cron, chat, REST API, triggers for 61 appsWebhook, schedule/cron, chat, REST API, and event-based triggers for 61 apps (Slack, Gmail, GitHub, Stripe, etc.)
Tines
Webhook, schedule, email, and Send-to-StoryWebhook actions (unique inbound URL), scheduled/interval runs, Receive Email (IMAP or generated address), and Send-to-Story (synchronous inbound API call)
Custom code steps
API publishing
Sim
SDKs & extensibility
Sim
Tines
Full REST API; no client SDK or marketplaceFull REST API (https://<tenant>/api/v1/...) covering Stories, Actions, Cases, audit logs, and more, but no dedicated client SDK or third-party integration marketplace. Extensibility runs through the generic HTTP Request action rather than an SDK/plugin marketplace
Publish as MCP server
Sim
Tines
Yes: Tines lets you build an MCP server action directly on the storyboard, turning a Story into a callable MCP endpoint for external AI clients (e.g. Claude Desktop). The MCP server action configures which Tools (Public Templates, Private Templates, Send to Story) are exposed, supports HTTP Authorization header or URL-based secret auth, and the build panel provides ready-to-copy configuration for popular MCP clients.. Confirms the prior signal: any Story can be exposed as an MCP endpoint with configurable access/auth, the reverse direction of ordinary MCP client consumption.
Observability & durability
Tracing & observability
Sim
Yes: execution logs include a per-block/per-span trace view (duration, cost, token counts, and latency stats like TTFT/TPS) with expandable nested iteration groups, plus a "View Snapshot" frozen copy of the workflow structure and block states at run time for debugging. This trace view is built directly into Sim rather than a raw export browsable in an external tool like Jaeger, and does not expose aggregate latency-percentile charts (p50/p95/p99). The run snapshot serves as a log-detail/debugging artifact rather than a resumable mid-run checkpoint.
Tines
Per-run GUID trace; no built-in OpenTelemetry dashboardsEach workflow run ("Story run") gets a unique ID and a full, action-by-action event chain viewable in the UI or API. A Tenant Health dashboard (self-hosted) and Story/Action status views surface errors, run volume, and worker capacity, but this isn't OpenTelemetry-style distributed tracing by default; a separate community guide shows customers wiring up their own OpenTelemetry dashboard
Durability & retries
Sim
Tool-call retries (up to 10x); single-attempt job orchestrationIndividual tool/API calls have configurable exponential-backoff retry (up to 10 attempts). The background job-orchestration layer itself retries only once by design. Durability instead comes from consecutive-failure tracking on schedules and the human-in-the-loop snapshot pause/resume mechanism. Sim does not offer guaranteed-once-only block execution, a failed-run holding queue for manual recovery, or a "replay a past execution with its original inputs" feature. The per-execution debugging snapshot serves as a log-detail artifact rather than a resumable mid-run checkpoint.
Tines
Configurable HTTP retries; no confirmed execution replayHTTP Request actions support configurable automatic retries with "retry on status" behavior, notifying only if the final retry fails. Story version history lets you restore a prior configuration, but no explicit feature to replay a past execution with its original captured inputs is confirmed
Failure alerting
Sim
Data drains
Sim
Yes: Enterprise orgs can continuously export workflow logs, job logs, or audit logs on a schedule to a customer-owned S3 bucket, GCS bucket, Azure Blob container, BigQuery table, Snowflake table, Datadog logs intake, or an HTTPS webhook. Each drain exports exactly one data source; multiple drains are created to export multiple sources. Viewing drain config/run history is restricted to org owners/admins.
Tines
No: Tines documents scheduled export of audit logs to Amazon S3 every 15 minutes, but no general-purpose, continuous data-drain feature for execution/workflow data to destinations like BigQuery, Datadog, or generic webhooks.. The audit-log-to-S3 export is the only continuous export destination found; broader execution-data drains are not documented.
Async execution
Sim
Yes: a workflow can be triggered in fire-and-forget async mode, returning HTTP 202 with a job ID immediately, then polled via a dedicated jobs endpoint through queued/processing/completed/failed states. Async jobs are tracked via polling the job endpoint rather than a completion webhook/callback option.
Tines
Yes: Tines supports asynchronous execution for Workflows as APIs. Triggering a story via an API request runs it in the background. If an Exit Action produces an event within 30 seconds, the response returns that data immediately. If it takes longer, the API returns an HTTP 504 with a response_url (also given in the X-Tines-Response-Location header) that can be polled later to fetch the eventual result, while the story keeps running regardless of the timeout.. The 30-second window only affects whether the HTTP response can return data immediately; the underlying story execution is not bound by it and continues in the background.
Execution limits
Sim
5-50 min sync timeout, 90 min async, 15-300 concurrentPlan-gated: synchronous API calls time out at 5 minutes on the free plan and 50 minutes on paid plans, async calls at 90 minutes on every plan, with 15 to 300 concurrent executions per billing entity depending on plan. These limits are not published in docs; request bodies are separately capped at 10 MB.
Tines
30s per-action timeouts; concurrency capped, unpublished numberTines publishes per-action timeout figures rather than one global run timeout: HTTP Request and AI Agent (LLM) actions default to a 30-second timeout, Run Script actions default to 10 seconds with a 110-second maximum, and MCP server tool responses cannot exceed 30 seconds before the client sees a timeout error. For Workflows as APIs, an Exit Action must emit an event within 30 seconds of the API request or the call returns a 504 Gateway Timeout (story execution continues regardless). Tines also caps the number of simultaneous API requests to a story; when exceeded it returns HTTP 201 Created instead of 200, signaled via the X-Tines-Status and X-Tines-Limit-Reached headers, without publishing an exact numeric concurrency ceiling.. No single 'max execution time per run' number is published; limits are per action-type. The exact numeric concurrency ceiling for simultaneous story API requests isn't disclosed in public docs, only that exceeding it changes the response status code.
Partial-failure handling
Sim
Tines
Yes: Tines lets you connect a dedicated failure path from an action, so any action that errors emits its event down that path to a separate error-handling action instead of halting the whole story. This is configured via the action's context menu ('set failure path') and pairs with retry logic (e.g. HTTP Request actions retry on configured status codes, up to 25 retries with exponential backoff plus jitter) and an emit_failure_event option that fires once retries are exhausted, so downstream actions can react while the rest of the run proceeds.. Historically a failed HTTP Request action after exhausted retries would stop the story; Tines added error-event emission plus explicit 'failure path' routing so the rest of the story is not forced to halt.
Support
Support channels
Sim
Community support plus Enterprise 'Dedicated Support'Community (open source, GitHub) plus an unquantified "Dedicated Support" flag on the Enterprise plan. Enterprise and pricing pages do not include CSM, onboarding/enablement, or professional-services details beyond a plan-comparison-table "Dedicated Support" flag.
Tines
Dedicated support for Business/Enterprise, Slack for othersDedicated support and training for Business/Enterprise plans; community Slack and documentation for lower tiers
SLA
Sim
Tines
Not publicly disclosedUnknown
Community
Sim
100,000+ buildersOver 100,000 builders use Sim
Tines
Public library, university/bootcamp, community SlackPublic "Tines Library" of shared Story/Action templates, a "Tines University"/bootcamp learning program, and a community Slack referenced in documentation
Academy / training
Sim
Tines
Yes: Tines offers a structured learning program, Tines University, with free foundational courses (about 30 minutes each), instructor-led and self-paced Bootcamps (fundamentals and advanced), and two certification tiers (Core and Advanced) that builders can share on LinkedIn.. Available free even on Community Edition; Advanced certification is hands-on labs, roughly 3 hours.
Sim standout features
AI Copilot / Chat agent-building surface
Chat and in-editor Copilot suggest and build workflow changes directly.
A natural-language surface (Chat) and in-editor Copilot that can explain, suggest, and build workflow changes directly, backed by a dedicated copilot module with its own tool registry.Hybrid semantic + keyword knowledge base
Combines vector and full-text search with configurable chunking across 11 file formats.
Built-in RAG with pgvector embeddings and a generated tsvector column for combined vector + full-text search, plus a token-based chunker with configurable chunk size/overlap and 11 supported file formats (csv, doc, docx, html, json, md, pdf, pptx, txt, xlsx, yaml).Native MCP client and server
Call external MCP servers as tools, or expose Sim workflows as an MCP server.
A dedicated MCP block lets any workflow call external MCP servers as a tool, and a serve/workflow-servers API surface lets Sim expose its own workflows as MCP servers.Fork a workspace into dev, qa, and prod environments
Fork, diff, and promote environments with mandatory credential remapping.
Fork a whole workspace into a dev/qa/prod-style child environment, preview a diff, and promote changes bidirectionally. Credential and env-var remapping is required on every promote, so secrets never cross environments silently.Human-in-the-loop approvals with durable resume
Pause a run for human approval and resume later via a durable snapshot link.
A dedicated block pauses a run and waits for a human-submitted approval form, backed by persisted execution snapshots so the run can resume later via a link, even after a server restart.Self-hostable under Apache 2.0
Fully open source with Docker Compose and Helm deployment options.
Fully open source (Apache 2.0), with Docker Compose files and a Helm chart for Kubernetes deployment, alongside a managed cloud-hosted option.Documented Tines limitations
No public pricing above the free tier
Business and Enterprise pricing requires contacting sales.
Business and Enterprise plans have no published dollar pricing. Buyers must contact sales to get a quote, making self-serve cost comparison impossible.No cross-environment (dev/qa/prod) promotion model
No dev/qa/prod promotion model, only in-place change approval.
Version control is scoped to a single Story (auto-saved versions, diff, restore), not a fork/branch model for promoting a whole project between environments. The closest analog is in-place "Change Control" approval gating on edits.No documented built-in generative media blocks
No built-in image, video, or speech generation blocks.
Public docs show text-oriented AI features (AI Action, Agents, Workbench) via LLM providers, but no dedicated image, video, or text-to-speech/speech-to-text generation blocks. Those calls would need to go through the generic HTTP Request action against a third-party API.Not open source
Closed-source SaaS with a limited free tier, not an open-source license.
Tines is a closed-source commercial SaaS/self-hosted product; the free "Community Edition" is a limited product tier (1 builder, 3 flows, 25,000 monthly events), not an open-source license.Bottom line
Choose Sim if you want an open-source, self-hostable AI workspace that treats AI agents as first-class citizens: native multi-LLM support, real-time multiplayer editing, environment promotion (dev/qa/prod), human-in-the-loop approvals, and enterprise governance (SSO, credential-level permissions, audit logs) built in rather than bolted on.
Choose Tines if you specifically need ISO 42001 AI-governance certification: Tines announced the "ISO trifecta" on April 14, 2026: ISO 27001, ISO 27701, and ISO 42001, the international standard for AI management systems.
Frequently asked questions
Sim is an open-source AI workspace where teams build, deploy, and manage AI agents visually, conversationally, or with code. Tines is a proprietary workflow automation platform, available cloud-hosted or self-hosted, originally built for security operations. Teams build event-driven "Stories" via a visual no/low-code canvas, natural language, or the API. It recently added native AI agent, MCP, and copilot capabilities. Teams considering a switch typically weigh licensing (Sim is Apache 2.0 and self-hostable), pricing model, and how AI-native the platform's agent-building experience is.