Comparison
Two platforms that can be installed on your side. This page compares graal and Palantir criterion by criterion: what each one publishes, in its own words, dated and sourced.
At a glance
graal
With you: your Kubernetes or OpenShift, on-premises or with the hosting provider of your choice. No third-party service is needed to run it.
Palantir
Two delivery modes: Palantir Cloud, “a hosted environment controlled by Palantir”, and On-Premises Software, on your infrastructure or your own cloud instance.
graal
Two open source products, under the Apache 2.0 license: graal Data Platform and graal Agentic Platform.
Palantir
Software licenses, “primarily term licenses”. Data stays accessible in open formats, including Apache Iceberg and Apache Parquet.
graal
Annual vendor subscription per vCPU, unlimited users and agents, no usage-based billing.
Palantir
Subscriptions with operating and maintenance services, term licenses and professional services. No price list in the documents consulted.
graal
An MCP server drives the Data Platform, under a service account scoped to one project and with human approval. The Agentic Platform puts any agent to work on your processes.
Palantir
AIP, a generative AI platform; Palantir MCP to build inside the platform; Ontology MCP for external agents. No availability status is shown on these pages.
Criterion by criterion
Every Palantir cell links to its source and to the date we accessed it. Quotes stay in their original language.
| Criterion | graal | Palantir |
|---|---|---|
| Where the platform runs | Your Kubernetes or OpenShift: on-premises, in a private cloud or with the hosting provider of your choice. Installed with Helm, without cluster administration rights; offline installation is possible. | Palantir distinguishes two modes. Palantir Cloud: “subscriptions to access our software platforms in our hosted environment”. On-Premises Software: software used “either on their internal hardware infrastructure or on their own cloud instance”, sold with operating and maintenance services. |
| Who operates the control plane | You do. No SaaS and no telemetry: no third-party service is needed to run it. Operations by graal Services is a separate service that you choose. | Palantir Cloud: “a hosted environment controlled by Palantir”. Apollo, the continuous delivery platform, “is a cloud-agnostic, single control layer that coordinates ongoing delivery of new features, security updates, and platform configurations”; according to Palantir, it lets its customers run their software in “virtually any environment”. |
| Vendor and headquarters | GRAAL.SYSTEMS SAS, a French-law vendor, Paris. | Palantir Technologies Inc., a Delaware corporation; address of principal executive offices: Aventura (Florida). |
| Software license | Open source, Apache 2.0 license, for the Data Platform and the Agentic Platform alike. | “Sales of our software licenses, primarily term licenses, grant customers the right to use functional intellectual property, either on their internal hardware infrastructure or on their own cloud instance, over the contractual term” |
| Open formats | Parquet and Apache Iceberg on your S3 storage, standard SQL with Trino; low-code pipelines exported as Pandas or PySpark code. | “All data is stored in its original format (such as CSV, Iceberg, or Parquet), and is accessible through standard interfaces, such as REST, JDBC, and S3-compatible access. Additionally, all transformed data is, by default, accessible in open formats, such as Apache Iceberg and Apache Parquet.” |
| Published pricing model | Annual vendor subscription per vCPU, unlimited users and agents, no usage-based billing. 8-week pilot; graal Services priced separately. | The 10-Q describes subscriptions sold with “ongoing operating and maintenance” services, term licenses and professional services. No price list was found in the documents consulted. |
| Generative AI and agents | MCP server built into the Data Platform, one service account per project, per-agent policies, human approval, revocation, audit. LLM gateway and RAG over your documents. Agentic Platform: workflows of agents and people, any agent, measured guarantees. | AIP is “our generative AI platform”, with “a development toolchain for building AI-powered agents and automations”. “Palantir MCP enables AI IDEs and AI agents to autonomously design, build, edit, and review end-to-end applications within the Palantir platform.” “Ontology MCP enables controlled writes to ontology data, while Palantir MCP enables modifications to ontology structure.” No availability status is shown on these pages. |
A cell older than 90 days is re-checked or removed. Has something changed? Write to contact@graal.systems and we will correct it.
When to choose graal
The Data Platform and the Agentic Platform are open source, under the Apache 2.0 license, independent and complementary: each one installs, runs and is bought on its own.
GRAAL.SYSTEMS SAS publishes and supports both platforms. They install on your Kubernetes or OpenShift, on-premises or with the hosting provider of your choice, and no third-party service is needed to run them.
The vendor subscription is computed per vCPU, with unlimited users and agents and no usage-based billing: the bill varies neither with the number of queries nor with the number of people or agents.
A service account scoped to one project, per-agent policies, human approval for sensitive actions, immediate revocation and an audit log. The Agentic Platform puts any agent to work under measured guarantees and operates the Data Platform through its MCP server: every call is traced on both sides.
When Palantir suits you
“Foundry is our foundational data operations platform, which provides the core capabilities for data management, logic authoring, systemic mapping development through our Ontology, analytics, and workflow development.”
Apollo “is a cloud-agnostic, single control layer that coordinates ongoing delivery of new features, security updates, and platform configurations”.
“Ontology MCP enables controlled writes to ontology data, while Palantir MCP enables modifications to ontology structure.”
Palantir writes: “For over a decade, Gotham has surfaced insights for global defense agencies, the intelligence community, disaster relief organizations and beyond.”
Frequently asked questions
Both install on your infrastructure. graal brings together two open source platforms under the Apache 2.0 license: the Data Platform, from source to model in production, and the Agentic Platform, which puts agents to work under measured guarantees. The 8-week pilot compares on a real use case.
Yes. It sits in Parquet and Iceberg on your S3 storage, with standard SQL through Trino, and low-code pipelines export as Pandas or PySpark code.
An annual vendor subscription per vCPU, with unlimited users and agents and no usage-based billing. The amount depends on your vCPU quota and the services you choose: you receive it after a scoping conversation.
Through the Data Platform’s MCP server, under a service account scoped to one project. Sensitive actions wait for a manager’s approval, and every call is visible live and in the audit log.
The 8-week pilot puts graal to the test on your use case, in your infrastructure.