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LlamaIndex vs Steer SDK
LlamaIndex focuses on data-centric retrieval, while Steer enforces output correctness.
LlamaIndexFramework for LLM apps and agents over your data
Steer SDKStop Debugging. Start Teaching. The Active Reliability Layer for AI Agents. Which to pick
Pick LlamaIndex if you want…
- Agentic OCR for complex docs
- Data-aware LLM retrieval
- Integrations with Microsoft Azure Marketplace (on LlamaIndex's list, not Steer SDK's)
Pick Steer SDK if you want…
- Deterministic guardrails for AI agents
- A free, open-source tool
- Integrations with Python or PydanticAI (on Steer SDK's list, not LlamaIndex's)
Side by side
- What it is
- LlamaIndex:LlamaParse converts complex documents into structured, AI-ready data with agentic OCR and extraction.
- Steer SDK:Steer SDK is an open-source Python library that adds deterministic guardrails to AI agents to catch hallucinations and enforce reliability.
- Best for
- LlamaIndex:Agentic OCR for complex docs
- Steer SDK:Deterministic guardrails for AI agents
- Who it’s for
- LlamaIndex:Developers building AI agents and RAG pipelines that need accurate document parsing.
- Steer SDK:Developers building autonomous LLM agents who need runtime safety and observability.
- Pricing
- LlamaIndex:Freemium
- Steer SDK:Open source
- Plans
- LlamaIndex:Free $0
- Steer SDK:—
- Open source
- LlamaIndex:Yes, 52,381 GitHub stars
- Steer SDK:Yes, 134 GitHub stars
- Works with
- LlamaIndex:Microsoft Azure Marketplace
- Steer SDK:Python, PydanticAI
LlamaIndex features
- Agentic OCR. Layout-aware parsing of tables, charts, images and handwriting with high accuracy.
- Schema-based Extraction. Turn unstructured content into structured JSON using LLM-powered agents without training.
- Document Splitting & Classification. Automatically segment and categorize documents using natural-language rules.
- Enterprise Indexing. Chunking and embedding pipeline for precise retrieval in RAG applications.
- LiteParse Local Engine. Open-source, fast, on-device parsing of PDFs, Office files and images with no cloud limits.
- Security & Compliance. SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA compliance with encryption, VPC deployment and granular access controls.
Steer SDK features
- Low-latency sidecar. Adds verification with less than 5 ms overhead by running in-process.
- Fail-safe design. Configurable behavior on internal errors to prioritize uptime.
- Zero data exfiltration. Local-first architecture ensures prompts never leave your network.
- Audit-ready logging. Every blocked response is logged with a deterministic reason code.
- Framework patching. Zero-touch reliability for frameworks like PydanticAI via a central policy file.
- Decorator sidecar. Manual control using @capture decorator to inject taught rules at runtime.
LlamaIndex vs Steer SDK FAQ
Is LlamaIndex or Steer SDK free?+
LlamaIndex has a free plan and paid plans. Steer SDK is free and open source.
Is LlamaIndex or Steer SDK open source?+
Yes, both are open source: LlamaIndex (run-llama/llama_index on GitHub, MIT license) and Steer SDK (imtt-dev/steer on GitHub, MIT license).
Do LlamaIndex and Steer SDK integrate with the same tools?+
Their integration lists don't overlap: LlamaIndex lists Microsoft Azure Marketplace; Steer SDK lists Python and PydanticAI.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.