Spiceworks
Spiceworks covers the Microsoft 365 outage from the help desk's side.
Comparison · Support
Plain vs Hatz AI
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Plain and Hatz AI — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:ai-agents
Plain vs Hatz AI: at a glance
| Feature | Plain | Hatz AI |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Support | Support |
| Velocity score | 8.8 | 7.5 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 2 |
| Top themes | customer-support, ai-agents, mcp, agent-governance | msp, ai-agents, automation, governance |
| Last editorial update | 2mo ago | 1d ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is Plain?
Plain built an autonomous support agent, and has now built the controls to trust it.
Plain's changelog is dated entries with no titles, and nearly all of it concerns two AI surfaces: Ari, the customer-facing responder, and Sidekick, the internal agent. Sidekick spent July gaining reach — its own full-page home, reusable workspace skills, and connection to arbitrary MCP servers. The newest release turns to Ari and adds what was missing around it: a way to test it before customers see it, provenance behind each answer, configurable tone, and explicit escalation rules.
What is Hatz AI?
Hatz 2.0 turns its chat into an agent that plans, browses and saves its work as automations.
Hatz is a multi-model AI platform sold through MSPs. Hatz 2.0, released November 12, merges its Auto tiers into one Auto mode that plans each task, splits it across parallel helpers, works in websites through a controlled browser and saves finished work as repeatable automations. A Vault keeps API keys out of the model's view, and chats can run for up to three hours unattended. The same day added an itemised Subscription Overview for MSP billing and Claude Fable 5.2 and Gemini 4 Carbon in the model catalog, a week after Spaces and the AI Gateway.
Plain vs Hatz AI: editorial side-by-side
Plain
8.8SUPPORT
Plain built an autonomous support agent, and has now built the controls to trust it.
◆ Current state
Plain's changelog is dated entries with no titles, and nearly all of it concerns two AI surfaces: Ari, the customer-facing responder, and Sidekick, the internal agent. Sidekick spent July gaining reach — its own full-page home, reusable workspace skills, and connection to arbitrary MCP servers. The newest release turns to Ari and adds what was missing around it: a way to test it before customers see it, provenance behind each answer, configurable tone, and explicit escalation rules.
◆ Where it's heading
The sequence reads as capability first, then governance. Plain rebuilt Ari into an agentic first responder, opened Sidekick to any MCP server, and let teams write skills the whole workspace shares — all of which widen what the agents can do and reach. The current release closes the loop the other way, making that autonomy inspectable and bounded before it is switched on. That is the order support-AI vendors have to complete in: teams will not put an agent in front of customers on capability claims alone.
◆ Prediction
With testing and provenance in place, the next step is likely measurement — resolution and escalation rates per skill, or per-answer quality review feeding back into the skills teams write. The entries are short summaries linking off-site, so per-release depth is limited.
Hatz AI
7.5SUPPORT
Hatz 2.0 turns its chat into an agent that plans, browses and saves its work as automations.
◆ Current state
Hatz is a multi-model AI platform sold through MSPs. Hatz 2.0, released November 12, merges its Auto tiers into one Auto mode that plans each task, splits it across parallel helpers, works in websites through a controlled browser and saves finished work as repeatable automations. A Vault keeps API keys out of the model's view, and chats can run for up to three hours unattended. The same day added an itemised Subscription Overview for MSP billing and Claude Fable 5.2 and Gemini 4 Carbon in the model catalog, a week after Spaces and the AI Gateway.
◆ Where it's heading
Hatz is moving from a model picker with workflows to an agent runtime that MSPs govern. The November 6 gateway put outside coding agents under Hatz controls; Hatz 2.0 makes its own chat an agent, with approvals, credentials handling and billing visibility for the MSP layer.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next releases to give MSP admins finer controls over agent runs, such as per-role approval policies, browser site limits and credit caps for automations.
Alternatives to Plain and Hatz AI
Other Support products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Plain or Hatz AI.
DoneDone
DoneDone's editor gets tables, spreadsheet paste and text colors.
Twilio
Twilio's voice AI stops cutting callers off mid-sentence, using its own turn-taking model.
Xurrent
Xurrent's November update blocks unverified email senders from changing records.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent 5.71 starts letting bots work chats over MCP and answer the phones.
Chatway
Chatway adds a Ticket Center, moving from live chat toward a full helpdesk.
See all Plain alternatives → · See all Hatz AI alternatives →
Recent activity from Plain and Hatz AI
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoHatz AISubscription Overview, Claude Fable 5.2, Gemini 4 Carbon, Activate Updates
- 2d agoHatz AIMajor Platform Upgrades: Auto Mode, Automations, Browser Control, and Vault ⚡
- 8d agoHatz AIHatz Spaces, AI Gateway, Per-User Usage Reporting, Draw.io File Support ⚡
- 15d agoHatz AIHatz Skills, Google Calendar & Slack Integrations, GPT-6.1 Terra, Reflection Beam
- 22d agoHatz AIDecide Steps in Workflows, Response Feedback in Chats, IT Glue Integration, Password-Protected Artifact Links, Shadow AI Scan Reports & More
- 29d agoHatz AINew Left-Hand Navigation, Claude Haiku 5.5, Gemini 4 Argon, Model Catalog Maintenance, Compact Tool Calls in Chat
- 2mo agoPlainTest Ari before customers see it, with per-answer proof ⚡
- 3mo agoPlainImport past conversations from any tool, no built-in importer
- 3mo agoPlainSidekick connects to any MCP server ⚡
- 3mo agoPlainSidekick gains reusable, workspace-shared skills ⚡
- 3mo agoPlainShare published workflows by link
- 4mo agoPlainSidekick gets its own full-page home and tool controls
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Plain and Hatz AI?
Both compete on the same themes — ai-agents — within Support. Plain is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 7.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 2. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Plain better than Hatz AI?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Plain is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 7.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 2. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Support products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Plain?
Top Plain alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Plain alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/plain for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Hatz AI?
Top Hatz AI alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Hatz AI alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hatz-ai for the full list with editorial commentary on each.