Vana vs Durable

Vana is open data infrastructure for human-grounded AI, built around a personal server you control on your own device. Connect accounts like Spotify, Oura, and your calendar, see what you have created across platforms, and decide which apps or AI tools get access. The Vana App at app.vana.org is the consumer entry point, while docs and SDKs on GitHub support builders who want user-owned context without rebuilding memory from scratch.

Major AI assistants added proprietary memory in 2025 and 2026, but each keeps context on its own servers and it does not travel when you switch tools. Vana's 2026 App upgrade stores that context locally and exposes it through Portable Memory MCP, so Claude, ChatGPT, and other MCP clients can read from one source you own. That is the trade-off: you manage permissions yourself instead of accepting a platform's walled garden.

Builders use the Data Portability API to ship apps that request data directly from users rather than scraping third-party platforms. The Vana Foundation runs grants, cohorts, and a 1.5 million-person data network for contributors who want their information to create value. Enterprise teams route to OpenDataLabs for licensed training data, separate from the consumer app.

Durable turns business problems described in plain English into production-ready automations that your team can deploy and maintain without writing code. You describe a workflow issue, Durable investigates connected systems like Salesforce or Snowflake, and produces reviewable requirements before writing real code. Deployments happen with one click, and Durable monitors automations afterward, fixing API breaks and submitting updates for approval.

Unlike agent-first platforms that chain LLM calls into brittle workflows, Durable writes deterministic production code and uses AI only where judgment is needed, such as classifying documents or mapping custom fields. Requirements stay in plain English as the source of truth, so edits propagate to code without filing tickets or waiting on engineering sprints.

Operations teams at mid-market and enterprise companies use Durable for CRM syncs, invoice processing, lead routing, and customer onboarding. Integrations cover 44 systems including Salesforce, Slack, HubSpot, Jira, and Snowflake, with SOC 2 Type II and a 99.9% uptime SLA for production workloads.