Copilot, ChatGPT or an AI of your own: how to choose?
Three ways to equip an SME with AI: an assistant paid per user, a custom integration project, or a foundation that brings the company’s context together, online or on your premises, like Escouade. They do not meet the same need, and are often combined.
- The pricePer user, per project, or by size, with no seats.
- Where the data livesA publisher’s cloud, or your server.
- The contextWhat the AI knows about your company.
- What comes nextWhat remains if you stop.
Three ways to equip an SME with AI
| Criterion | An assistant per userCopilot, ChatGPT Business… | An integration projectcustom-built | Escouadeonline, or installed on your premises |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | A subscription per user per month. | A project, then maintenance: €10,000 to €25,000, then €80 to €600 per month (published ranges, noted on 28/09/2026). | Online, a plan with no seats: Free, then €19, €60 or €249 excl. VAT per month depending on the size, and credits beyond the allowance. With Escouade hub, your data on your server: an €8,000 excl. VAT licence with six months of updates and an integration of at least €3,000 excl. VAT, depending on your context, then optional annual maintenance, under €900 excl. VAT. No per-user price. |
| Where the data runs | In the cloud of the assistant’s publisher. | Depending on the chosen architecture. | Online, on our server in France, in a space of your own; with Escouade hub, on a server in your name. The active AI provider receives the questions, the useful passages and the emails to analyse. |
| What the AI knows about the company | What its connectors open up to it, and what it is given. | What the project has connected. | Your emails, your documents and your records, linked together. |
| What remains if you stop | Access stops. | Depending on the contract. | With Escouade hub, the installation keeps running; only the updates stop. Online, your data stays yours. |
Escouade complements your assistant
For writing, summarising or translating, a per-user assistant is often enough. Escouade meets another need: gathering the company’s context, on a server of its own, and putting agents to work on it.
Thanks to its MCP server, a compatible assistant, such as Claude, can query this context.
Do the maths with your figures
Online, Escouade is not paid per user: from €0 to €249 excl. VAT per month depending on the size. With Escouade hub, over three years and for a small team, the per-user subscription can cost less than the package; beyond that, the package pays for itself. The calculation shows it plainly.
Copilot or ChatGPT: which one should an SME choose?
It depends on your office suite and your uses; both are paid per user per month. Escouade does not replace them: it gathers the company’s context on your server, and a compatible assistant can query it.
How much does a Copilot or ChatGPT Business licence cost?
Their public prices are set per user per month, and they change: check them with the publisher. To compare with a package, do the maths with your own figures.
Is Escouade cheaper than a per-user assistant?
Online, Escouade is not paid per user: Essential costs €19 excl. VAT per month for three people, Pro €60 excl. VAT with no user limit. With Escouade hub, not always: over three years and for a small team, the per-user subscription can cost less than the package. The calculation on the Pricing page shows it with your figures.
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Fifteen minutes on a fictitious company, then your questions.