Pilla vs Vellum

Vellum positions itself as "Your Personal Intelligence". Pilla is AI workflow automation built for deskless teams — the people doing the work on their feet, not at a desk.

Start for free

Compared against Vellum's own documentation · last verified Thu May 21 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

The short version

Choose Pilla if
Pilla wins whenever the buyer is operating a deskless or frontline team and the deliverable is "the team actually does the work, on their phones, with evidence".
Choose Vellum if
Vellum wins when the buyer is an engineering or product team building LLM features they will embed in their own application.

At a glance

CapabilityPillaVellum
AI automated action stepYesYes
Photo inputYesYes
ChecklistYesNo
Location / clock-in inputYesNo
Group team chatsYesNo
Push notifications on new messageYesNo
Public forms (external submissions)YesYes
MCP server (connect Claude / Cursor / other)YesNot documented

How Vellum positions itself

Vellum's homepage now leads with "Your Personal Intelligence" — a personal AI assistant with persistent memory, identity and proactive reach-outs across macOS, iOS, Slack and Telegram. That sits alongside Vellum's original product: an LLM development platform for engineering and product teams who need to build, deploy, evaluate and monitor production AI features. The platform side covers a visual Workflows builder, a code-first SDK, evaluations, observability and an Agent Builder copilot. Customer profile skews to Series A-to-B SaaS, fintech and healthcare teams actively shipping generative-AI features.

When teams choose Vellum

Vellum wins when the buyer is an engineering or product team building LLM features they will embed in their own application. The Workflows SDK, prompt versioning, online evaluations, deployment environments, observability with full traces, and SOC 2 / HIPAA posture are genuinely mature. Composio + MCP support inside the Agent Node gives developers a clean way to call Slack, Gmail or any external tool from inside an agent. AI Apps make those workflows shareable as no-code interfaces. None of this is fake — Vellum has Series A funding and a real product. If the buyer is technical and the deliverable is "an AI feature inside our software", Vellum is a credible pick.

When Pilla wins

Pilla wins whenever the buyer is operating a deskless or frontline team and the deliverable is "the team actually does the work, on their phones, with evidence". Vellum has no checklist step, no photo evidence step, no geolocation or clock-in, no signature capture, no team messaging, no broadcasts, no read receipts and no concept of "team performance" — because Vellum's workflows are LLM pipelines that run server-side, not opening procedures or compliance checks completed by humans on shift. The Agent Builder helps developers build AI features; Pilla's in-product agent helps managers run and supervise frontline operations. Different buyer, different output, almost no surface overlap.

Full feature comparison

How Pilla and Vellum compare across 72 capabilities. A dash means the feature is not documented on Vellum's own site.

FeaturePillaVellum

Workflows

Recurring workflow templatesYesYes
Ad-hoc workflow creationYesYes
Reusable workflow blueprintsYesYes
Reusable element templatesYesYes
Custom tags & categoriesYesYes
Issue reporting on workflowsYesNo
Activity audit trailYesYes
Public template libraryYesYes
Public forms (external submissions)YesYes
CSV data exportsYesNot documented
Bulk operationsYesNot documented
Template impact analysisYesNo
Template analytics & insightsYesYes
Template version historyYesYes

Input Steps

Text inputYesYes
Number inputYesYes
Date inputYesNot documented
Time inputYesNot documented
Location / clock-in inputYesNo
ChecklistYesNo
Single-choice inputYesNot documented
Multi-choice inputYesNot documented
Cascading selectYesNo
Rating scaleYesNo
Photo inputYesYes
Video inputYesNo
Audio note / inputYesNo
File inputYesYes
Signature inputYesNo

Guidance Steps

Rich text guidanceYesNo
Video guidanceYesNo
Photo guidanceYesNo

AI Steps

AI context briefing stepYesYes
AI decision gate stepYesYes
AI decision tree stepYesYes
AI automated action stepYesYes

Communication

In-app 1:1 direct messagesYesNo
Group team chatsYesNo
Team-wide broadcastsYesNo
Photo, video & file attachmentsYesNo
Threaded repliesYesNo
Emoji reactionsYesNo
@mention teammatesYesNot documented
Read receiptsYesNo
Push notifications on new messageYesNo
Messages linked to workflowsYesNo

In-app agent

Plain-English Q&A on how it worksYesYes
In-product walkthroughs and tutorialsYesNot documented
Saved chat history & resumable sessionsYesYes
Cites help docs and source dataYesNot documented
File feedback, bugs & feature requests from chatYesNo
Q&A on your workflowsYesYes
Q&A on your team's performanceYesNo
Q&A across connected integrationsYesYes

Integrations & API

Native integrationsYesYes
100+ MCP integrationsYesNot documented
Public REST APIYesYes
Outbound webhooksYesYes
MCP server (connect Claude / Cursor / other)YesNot documented
IP allowlist on API keysYesNot documented
Custom API rate limitsYesYes

Administration

User roles (staff / manager / admin)YesYes
CSV user & team importYesNot documented
Tenant-isolated dataYesYes
Account-wide audit logsYesYes
Custom step run allowancesYesYes
Annual step run poolingYesNot documented
SSO & SAMLYesYes
SCIM provisioningYesYes
Dedicated success managerYesYes
Custom onboardingYesYes
Service-level agreement (SLA)YesNot documented

Pricing

Pilla

£19+ / team / month

Free tier to start. Priced per team, not per seat, so every user is included.

Vellum

$25 / per user plus prepaid credits

Free tier available. Enterprise plan available.

Frequently asked questions

Is Pilla a good Vellum alternative?
Pilla wins whenever the buyer is operating a deskless or frontline team and the deliverable is "the team actually does the work, on their phones, with evidence".
What can Pilla do that Vellum can't?
Checked against Vellum's own documentation, Pilla offers issue reporting on workflows, template impact analysis, location / clock-in input, checklist, and cascading select — none of which Vellum documents.
When should I choose Vellum over Pilla?
Vellum wins when the buyer is an engineering or product team building LLM features they will embed in their own application.
How much does Pilla cost compared to Vellum?
Pilla starts free and is priced per team rather than per seat, from £19 per team per month with all users included. Vellum offers a free tier and starts at $25 per user plus prepaid credits.

Run your workflows where the work happens

Pilla brings AI workflow automation to deskless teams. Start free, no credit card needed.