LlamaIndex vs Orkes Conductor (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, LlamaIndex and Orkes Conductor share a 2.2 GPA, both have a free plan and their prices can't be set side by side, so the choice depends on whether you care more about features, where LlamaIndex grades higher, or ease of use, where Orkes Conductor does.
Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
LlamaIndex
Document parsing and extraction platform for AI agents
Orkes Conductor
Workflow orchestration for AI agents and services, built on Conductor
Which one is for you
Pick LlamaIndex if
- Fits if you feed PDFs and other documents into language-model pipelines
- Works for developers who also use the open-source LlamaIndex libraries
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you do not write code, as it is an API product
- Pricey if you outgrow pay-as-you-go: Pro is $500 a month
- Tight if you stay free: about 1,000 pages once, and 1 project
- Watch out: layout-aware parsing modes cost more than 1 credit a page
- Watch out: SSO and VPC deployment are Enterprise only
Pick Orkes Conductor if
- Fits if you are a developer who wants to try a workflow engine in a free sandbox
- Works for engineering teams ready to buy Enterprise for agent and service orchestration
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a price, as Enterprise is quoted through a demo
- Skip it if you need production use on the free plan, since it is not recommended for that
- Tight if you are a team: multiple users and detailed access control need Enterprise
- Watch out: free support is community-only
- Too light for no-code users, as the work is workflows and SDK code
How we grade them
| 2.2GPALlamaIndexFair | 2.2GPAOrkes ConductorFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPay-as-you-go is $0 a month with credits at $1.50 per 1,000. Pro is $500 a month, well above the category's $150 dearest-tenth start. | CNo price is published, only a free sandbox and a quoted Enterprise plan. Nothing to compare against the category's $24 middle. |
| Free plan and trial | C10K free credits, about 1,000 pages, with 5 concurrent parse jobs and 1 project. A document pile will use that fast. | CA free managed Developer Edition with most Enterprise features, but only for individual developers, not for teams or production, with community-only support. |
| Features | BParse, extract, classify, split and index, plus an agent builder and the open-source libraries. The listing shows no gap in the document-handling job. | CWorkflows, agents, a visual editor, SDKs, prompt studio and security controls. Multiple user accounts and detailed access control need Enterprise. |
| Ease of use | DNo rating on record. It is used through an API and libraries, so developers do the setup. | CNo store rating on record. You model workflows in an editor or code with SDKs, which takes a learning curve. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb service and API, listed on AWS and Azure marketplaces with GitHub links. No desktop or phone app. | BWeb console, SDKs and an API, with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini and GitHub listed. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | parsing documents for AI agents | workflow engine for agents and services |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: LlamaIndex and Orkes Conductor. How we grade
Where they differ
- Orkes Conductor also covers no-code.
At a glance
| LlamaIndex | Orkes Conductor | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $500 per month (Pro), after pay-as-you-go from $0 | Not published |
| Free plan | Pay-as-you-go plan: $0 a month with 10K free credits (about 1,000 pages), then $1.50 per 1,000 credits. | Developer Edition: free managed sandbox with the open-source features and most Enterprise features, for individual developers and not for production use. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | LlamaIndex | Orkes |
| Price read from | llamaindex.ai | orkes.io |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
LlamaIndex
- The pricing page covers LlamaParse only; the open-source LlamaIndex and Workflows libraries are separate and free.
- Cost scales with pages: parsing starts at 1 credit a page and layout-aware modes cost more.
- Pro is $500 a month; SSO, VPC deployment and custom BAAs need Enterprise.
- Pricing is shown separately for US and Europe regions; the figures here are the US page.
Orkes Conductor
- No prices are published: the Developer Edition is free and Enterprise is quoted through a demo.
- The free Developer Edition is for individual developers and is not recommended for production or for teams.
- Multiple user accounts and detailed access control need the Enterprise plan.
- Support on the free edition is community-only.
Key features
LlamaIndex
- Parse
- Turns PDFs, Office files, spreadsheets and images into text, markdown or JSON, with table, chart and layout handling and several accuracy tiers.
- Extract, classify and split
- Schema-based extraction agents pull structured fields from documents, with citations and confidence scores; documents can also be classified and split.
- Index
- A chunking and embedding pipeline prepares documents for retrieval in RAG applications.
- Document agent builder
- A builder turns natural-language descriptions into workflows, with starter templates and one-click deploys from GitHub repositories.
- Open-source libraries
- LlamaIndex, Workflows and LiteParse are open-source projects the company maintains for building AI apps and parsing documents locally.
Orkes Conductor
- Agents and workflows together
- Orchestrates agent decisions, service calls and human approvals in one execution that keeps its state at every step.
- Visual editor and SDKs
- Workflows can be built visually or defined in code, with open-source SDKs for Java, TypeScript, Python, Go, C# and more.
- LLM tasks and prompt studio
- The platform capability list includes LLM tasks and an AI Prompt Studio alongside human tasks, event handlers, webhooks and a scheduler.
- Hosting choices
- Fully hosted by Orkes, or hosted in the customer's cloud account or on-premises, with dedicated clusters and VPC options on Enterprise.
- Security controls
- Lists SOC 2 Type II, role-based access, single sign-on, audit logs, secrets and end-to-end data encryption.
Plans
LlamaIndex
Pay-as-you-go$0
per month, plus $1.50 per 1,000 credits
10K credits included, 5 concurrent parse jobs, 1 project and basic community support.
Pro$500
per month, with credits at $1.25 per 1,000
400K credits included, 20 concurrent jobs, 5 projects and priority Slack support; an 800K-credit bonus is offered for a limited time.
EnterpriseCustom
Volume credit discounts, 5x higher rate limits, SSO, VPC or hybrid deployment and a dedicated account manager.
Orkes Conductor
Developer Edition$0
Free managed sandbox for prototyping, with community support. Meant for one developer, not production.
EnterpriseCustom
Hosted by Orkes or in your own cloud account, SSO, audit logs, support with SLA-backed response times, up to a 99.99% availability SLA.
Ways to pay less
LlamaIndex
- Startups
Startup program with free credits
The pricing page invites startups to apply for free credits, dedicated support and community spotlights.
Orkes Conductor
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, LlamaIndex or Orkes Conductor?
As of Nov 13, 2026, LlamaIndex starts at $500 per month (Pro), after pay-as-you-go from $0, and Orkes Conductor publishes no starting price.
Which has a free plan, LlamaIndex or Orkes Conductor?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both LlamaIndex and Orkes Conductor have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.