Gumloop vs Cicada

Gumloop is a multiplayer agent builder: a team builds shared agents with subagents, triggers and approval rules, uses them in Slack, Teams and the web, and each person also gets a personal agent. Cicada is an AI workforce you don't build: every employee gets a teammate they text on WhatsApp or iMessage, mention in Slack or email, and a coordinator runs the specialists.

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The short version

Pick Cicada if your team works in WhatsApp, iMessage and group chats as well as Slack, and you'd rather describe the job than build an agent for it. Pick Gumloop if you want to build and govern many custom agents in Slack and Teams, with a developer surface and per-tool rules.

What Cicada does that Gumloop doesn't.

Nothing to build

In Gumloop someone designs each agent: its tools, triggers, subagents and rules. In Cicada you describe the job in plain English, and the coordinator gives it to the right specialist, or sets up a new one.

WhatsApp, and group chats

Gumloop's texting is iMessage, RCS and SMS, one-to-one only and on Enterprise, and WhatsApp is a connector rather than somewhere you talk to it. Cicada has its own WhatsApp number and works in iMessage too, in group chats as well as one-to-one.

It joins the meeting

On the Business plan, Cicada joins your Meet, Zoom, Teams and Webex calls and texts you the decisions and who owes what. Gumloop prepares briefs before meetings and reads notes from other notetakers; we couldn't find it joining calls.

Your content stays out of training

Cicada doesn't use your workspace content to train models. Gumloop's privacy policy says it may use self-serve customers' content to train its models; Enterprise content is excluded.

About Gumloop

What it is: A multiplayer AI agent builder: teams build shared agents with subagents, triggers and approval rules, and each person also gets a personal agent, Gumball. Made by Gumloop (AgentHub Inc.).
Where it works: Web app, Slack, Microsoft Teams, email (each agent can have its own inbox), a Chrome extension, an API and CLI; texting over iMessage, RCS and SMS one-to-one on Enterprise
What it costs: Pro from $37 a month for 20,000 credits, plus an 8% orchestration fee and compute per minute; 14-day trial with a card; Enterprise custom; unlimited seats, credits shared
Worth knowing: Texting is Enterprise-only and one-to-one (group chats are ignored), WhatsApp is a connector rather than a channel, and its privacy policy lets it train on self-serve customers' content.

Checked against Gumloop's own pages on 3 November 2026. See every Gumloop alternative.

Where Gumloop fits in the market.

Personal AI assistants help one person with their own work.
Automation platforms automate the workflows you design.
Gumloop
Enterprise platforms build agents inside their own ecosystems.

Cicada gives your whole business a coordinated AI workforce that every employee can delegate to, through the tools they already use.

Cicada

A team of agents for a team of people.

Gumloop gives a team shared agents that someone builds, plus a personal Gumball for each person. Cicada gives every person their own agents, coordinated, with nothing to build.

Agents for every person

Each person in your workspace gets their own agents. The apps the team shares are connected once; personal ones, like your inbox, stay under your own login.

A coordinator and specialists

A big job is split between specialists that work at the same time, and you get one answer back from the agent you asked.

Agents that work together

Teammates' agents know what each other covers, use each other's fresh figures and check with each other through the apps you share, never through anyone's private notes. Ask yours to message someone who uses Cicada, at your company or another, and their answer comes back to you.

Know-how the whole team shares

What one agent learns about the business, every agent in the workspace knows, and a skill one agent proves is shared with the rest.

Cicada and Gumloop, feature by feature.

Feature	Cicada	Gumloop
Agents across your team	Every person gets their own agents, a coordinator running specialists, and they work together across the team	Shared agents the team builds, plus a personal agent (Gumball) for each person
How you set it up	Describe the job in plain English; the coordinator assigns specialists	Build agents with tools, triggers, subagents and app rules (legacy visual workflows too)
Where you use it	iMessage, WhatsApp, Slack, email and a web app	Web app, Slack, Microsoft Teams, email and a Chrome extension; iMessage, RCS and SMS on Enterprise
WhatsApp and group chats	Yes, one-to-one and in iMessage and WhatsApp groups	WhatsApp only as a connector; texting is one-to-one (group chats are ignored)
Specialist agents	A coordinator delegates to specialists and returns one answer	Up to 10 subagents at once per task
Connected apps	1,400+, plus any MCP server and a live browser	Hundreds of connectors and MCP servers, custom MCP, a cloud browser, API and SDKs
Approvals	Per app: Full, Ask first or Read-only; approvals from the thread	Per app or per tool: always allow, ask each time, ask for writes, never allow
Joins your meetings	On Business: Meet, Zoom, Teams and Webex	Not that we could find (meeting briefs, and it reads Granola notes)
Training on your data	Your workspace content isn't used to train models	May train on self-serve content; Enterprise excluded
Price	A 3-day free trial, then Starter at $29 a month (300 credits, 3 agents, one person), Growth at $99 (up to 10 people) or Business at $249 (no limit on people). Credits are shared across the workspace, with no charge per person.	Pro from $37 a month for 20,000 credits, plus an 8% orchestration fee and compute; 14-day trial with a card; Enterprise custom

Gumloop details checked against its own site and docs on 3 November 2026. Products change fast; see the sources below.

Building agents, or delegating to them

Gumloop is for people who want to design agents and the rules around them. Cicada is for people who want the work done: you ask, the coordinator decides which specialist does what, and you get the result back in the conversation.

Where your team talks

Gumloop lives in Slack, Teams and its web app. Cicada is there too, in Slack and email, and in the WhatsApp and iMessage chats where suppliers, drivers and clients actually are.

The same control, set differently

Both let you decide what an agent may do in each app. In Cicada any member sets each app to Full, Ask first or Read-only for every agent, and the approval arrives in the thread where you asked.

Where Cicada is stronger

Nothing to build: describe the job and the coordinator assigns specialists.
WhatsApp and iMessage, one-to-one and in group chats, on every plan.
On Business, a notetaker that joins your meetings.
Every person gets their own agents, and they share what they learn.
Your workspace content isn't used to train models.

Choose Cicada if you want an AI workforce your team uses from WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack and email straight away, set up in plain English.

Where Gumloop fits

Building and governing many custom agents across a company, with roles and org-wide rules.
A developer surface: API, SDKs, a CLI and its own MCP server.
Apps it builds on your connected data, with the live cost of each chat.
Unlimited seats on one shared credit pool.

Gumloop may suit you if your team wants to build and govern its own custom agents in Slack, Teams and the web, with developers involved.

Gumloop vs Cicada, answered.

Is Cicada a Gumloop alternative?

Yes, if you'd rather delegate than build. Gumloop is an agent builder; Cicada gives every employee a teammate with specialists behind it, in WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack and email.

Does Gumloop work on WhatsApp?

Not as a channel, as of November 2026: its agents can send and read WhatsApp through a connector, and its texting (iMessage, RCS, SMS) is one-to-one on Enterprise. Cicada has its own WhatsApp number, for one-to-one chats and groups.

How is Gumloop priced?

Pro starts at $37 a month for 20,000 credits, with an 8% orchestration fee and compute charged per minute, after a 14-day trial with a card. Seats are unlimited on a shared credit pool. Enterprise is custom.

Does Gumloop train on my data?

Its privacy policy says it may use self-serve customers' content to train its models; Enterprise content is excluded unless the customer agrees in writing. Cicada doesn't use workspace content to train models.

Sources, checked 3 November 2026

Spotted something out of date? Tell us at support@cicadalabs.io and we'll fix it.

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