Aleph Alpha and Custodos compared
Aleph Alpha builds its own language models and sovereign infrastructure for large organisations, industry and government. Custodos is a finished platform that bundles leading models from several providers and is usable in days rather than projects. The two solve different problems.
- Aleph Alpha develops its own specialised models and delivers them as sovereign infrastructure, typically as part of a project.
- Custodos bundles the leading commercial models (GPT, Claude, Gemini, Mistral) in a finished interface with a published price.
- Custodos stores in Switzerland and processes in the EU or in Switzerland, your choice. Aleph Alpha is oriented towards European, predominantly German infrastructure.
- In April 2026 the Canadian company Cohere agreed to acquire Aleph Alpha; the combined company operates under the Cohere name.
Custodos and Aleph Alpha side by side
Figures for Aleph Alpha come from the company's website and from reporting on the Cohere acquisition.
Models
- Custodos
- Leading commercial models (GPT, Claude, Gemini and Mistral), new models as they become available in the EU or Switzerland
- Aleph Alpha
- Its own industry-specialised language models; not a catalogue of the leading commercial models.
Product shape
- Custodos
- Platform with chat, company knowledge, agents and integrations
- Aleph Alpha
- Infrastructure and models as a foundation for your own applications.
Adoption
- Custodos
- Self-service, in the browser, with no integration project
- Aleph Alpha
- Adoption as a project, usually with consulting and integration.
Price
- Custodos
- €12 to €72 per seat per month billed annually (€15 to €90 monthly), published
- Aleph Alpha
- No prices published on the website; entry through sales.
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Free trial
- Custodos
- 7 days
- Aleph Alpha
- No open self-service access.
Storage and AI region
- Custodos
- Stored in Switzerland; AI processing in the EU or Switzerland, as you choose
- Aleph Alpha
- European infrastructure with a German focus, optionally in the customer's own data centre.
Switzerland as a region
- Custodos
- Yes, explicitly selectable
- Aleph Alpha
- Not listed.
Audience
- Custodos
- SMEs and mid-sized companies, law firms, fiduciaries, recruitment, institutions and public administration across DACH
- Aleph Alpha
- Large organisations, industry, the public sector and defence.
Professional secrecy in DACH
- Custodos
- Designed for § 203 of the German Criminal Code, § 121 of the Austrian Criminal Code and Art. 321 of the Swiss Criminal Code
- Aleph Alpha
- No product-level statement on these provisions.
Provider
- Custodos
- Stellar GmbH, Cham (Switzerland)
- Aleph Alpha
- Aleph Alpha GmbH, Heidelberg (Germany); part of Cohere (Canada) since April 2026.
Prices as of November 2026, other details as of August 2026. Figures for the other provider come from that provider's own sources, linked below. Prices and features change; check both before you decide.
Where the difference shows in daily work
Sovereign infrastructure and a finished platform answer different questions.
Leading models from several providers instead of in-house models
Aleph Alpha develops its own language models. Custodos brings the models your staff already know (GPT, Claude, Gemini, Mistral) into a controlled environment.
In days rather than projects
Custodos is a finished product: sign up, invite the team, start. Sovereign infrastructure always also means integration, operations and a budget for both.
Operations you do not have to run yourself
We operate the platform, with data stored in Switzerland and AI processing in the EU or Switzerland, and supply the documentation for your review. You need neither your own data centre nor an AI operations team.
Cut to DACH organisations below corporate scale
Law firms of twelve, fiduciary offices of thirty, institutions of two hundred: those sizes are exactly our fit, both professionally and in price.
- When AI needs to reach daily work nowCustodos is a finished product with a published price and a seven-day trial. No preliminary project is needed to let the first department start working with it.
- When you need the model quality of the large providersFor writing, summarising, reviewing and translating, GPT, Claude, Gemini and Mistral set the standard. Custodos brings them into an environment that does not hand your data away.
- When your organisation is smaller than a ministrySovereign infrastructure pays off above a certain size and security level. Below it, an operated platform with data stored in Switzerland is the more economical answer.
Custodos supplies the technical preconditions for handling your data confidentially. The legal assessment in each individual case remains with your organisation.
What speaks for Aleph Alpha
Aleph Alpha solves a problem we deliberately do not solve: full technological sovereignty down to the model itself. If you have to run models in your own, if necessary air-gapped, data centre, if you want control over weights and training provenance, or if you are a public authority or defence organisation under corresponding obligations, a provider like Aleph Alpha is the right address, not an operated platform.
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What Aleph Alpha brings and we do not:
- Its own language models rather than bought-in ones: no model provider in the chain whose terms can change.
- Operation right down to the customer's own data centre, including air-gapped environments.
- References in industry and the public sector that the company names itself, among them Bosch, Deutsche Bank, SAP and the German Federal Employment Agency.
- Research into explainability and an architecture oriented towards European languages and legal requirements.
Sources
- Aleph Alpha: company website · Aleph Alpha GmbH
- Aleph Alpha: legal notice · Aleph Alpha GmbH
- Cohere to acquire German AI company Aleph Alpha · CNBC, 24 April 2026
All product and company names mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners. Custodos has no business relationship with the providers compared here; this comparison is based solely on publicly available information.
Frequently asked questions
Are Custodos and Aleph Alpha competitors at all?
Only partly. Aleph Alpha develops its own models and delivers sovereign infrastructure, usually as a project for large organisations, industry and government. Custodos is a finished platform that bundles the leading commercial models and is usable in the browser straight away. Both approaches meet at the question of how a company uses AI without handing over its data; they simply answer it differently.
What does the Cohere acquisition mean for Aleph Alpha?
In April 2026 the Canadian company Cohere agreed to acquire Aleph Alpha; the combined company carries the Cohere name and is to be run from Canada and Germany. For evaluating the provider, the practical point is this: check during your selection process who your contracting party will be and in which jurisdiction it sits. With Custodos that remains a Swiss company based in Cham.
Do I need my own infrastructure to use Custodos?
No. Custodos is operated by us. Your data is stored in Switzerland. The AI models process it in the EU or Switzerland – your administrators choose the region. You need neither your own data centre nor a team to run models. For your review we provide a data processing agreement and documentation on processing, encryption and governance.
Does Custodos use European models?
Among others, yes. Custodos bundles the leading models of several providers, including the French provider Mistral alongside GPT, Claude and Gemini. The point of the platform is not the origin of any single model but that your data is stored in Switzerland, the AI models process in the region you chose, the EU or Switzerland, and nothing flows into model training.