Runtime vs Decagon
Runtime is one agent harness for every payment team, including support. Decagon builds AI agents for customer support across chat, email, and voice. Compare scope, data, and fit.
TL;DR: Runtime is the stronger choice when support is one of several teams you want on agents, so a "where's my payout" ticket, the payment ops trace, and the recon break share one investigation. Decagon is a strong, purpose-built AI agent for customer support conversations.
| Feature |  Runtime |  Decagon |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Agent harness for every payment team | AI agents for customer support |
| Customer conversations | Slack, Teams, email, SMS, voice | Purpose-built for chat, email, and voice |
| Teams covered | Support, payment ops, finance, risk, compliance | Customer support |
| Escalations into the ledger and processor | Agents investigate end to end | Hand off or call configured actions |
| Shared memory across teams | One governed memory | Within support |
| Runs in your cloud | Yes, or fully self-hosted | Hosted platform |
| Approvals on money movement | Built in | Configured actions |
Decagon and Runtime at a glance
Decagon builds AI agents for customer support. Its agents answer customers across chat, email, and voice, follow support procedures, and hand off to people, with analytics on conversation quality and resolution.
Runtime is the AI agent harness for payment teams. From payment ops to risk, compliance, and support, anyone on the team can build agents that work their queues on their own computers inside your cloud, called from Slack, Teams, email, SMS, or voice, with approvals and a full audit trail.
Decagon is for support leaders who want the best possible customer conversation. Runtime is for fintech operators who want support and every team behind it on one platform.
How they differ
One stuck payment, four teams
A "where's my payout" ticket is rarely just a support question. Support gets the ticket, payment ops traces the payment, finance sees a recon break, and risk or compliance may need to review it. Today each team investigates separately in its own tools. On Runtime it's one investigation with one record, shared by every team that touches it.
Investigation, not just conversation
Decagon is built around the customer conversation and hands off or calls configured actions when a case needs more. Runtime agents work the escalation end to end on their own computers: query the ledger, check the processor, read the bank file, and draft the resolution. They stop for a person before anything moves money.
Start with one team, expand to every team
Runtime lands like a vertical tool: one team, one sharp use case, such as payout status tickets. Because every team builds on the same harness and the same memory, the next agent for payment ops or finance starts with the context the first one built. Rain replaced $250k in vendor spend with Runtime.
Your cloud, your models
Runtime agent computers run in your AWS, GCP, or Azure account, or fully self-hosted. You choose the models, including open-weight models served in your cloud for PCI and PII work, and card numbers and SSNs never reach prompts or logs.
Where Decagon is stronger
- Customer conversation quality. Purpose-built for chat, email, and voice support.
- Support analytics. Conversation quality and resolution insights for support leaders.
- Out of the box. A support agent without building from SOPs.
- Focus. Everything in the product is aimed at the support team.
Which should you choose
Choose Decagon if
- Customer support is the only team in scope
- You want an out-of-the-box support agent across chat, email, and voice
- Conversation analytics for support leaders is a priority
- Investigations rarely need data beyond the help desk
Choose Runtime if
- Support tickets regularly turn into payment, finance, or risk investigations
- You want every team that touches a transaction on one platform and one record
- Card data or PII has to stay in your cloud
- You need approvals on money movement and an audit trail your sponsor bank will accept
Some teams run both: Decagon on the customer conversation, Runtime on the investigation behind it.
See Runtime on your busiest queue
Bring one SOP. A forward-deployed AI engineer builds the first agent with your team, inside your cloud.
Frequently asked questions
Is Decagon good for fintech customer support?
Decagon is a strong, purpose-built AI agent for support conversations across chat, email, and voice. In fintech, many tickets end in an investigation in the ledger, processor, or bank data. Runtime covers that work across support, payment ops, finance, and risk on one platform.
Can Decagon run in my own cloud?
Decagon is offered as a hosted platform. Runtime runs agent computers in your AWS, GCP, or Azure account, or fully self-hosted, with card numbers and SSNs stripped from prompts and logs.
What is the best Decagon alternative for payment companies?
If support is the only team in scope, Decagon is a good choice. If you want the support agent and the payment ops, finance, and risk agents on one platform with one record per case, Runtime is built for payment and fintech teams.
Can I use Runtime and Decagon together?
Yes. Decagon can handle the customer conversation while Runtime agents investigate the escalation across your ledger, processor, and bank files and route any money movement for approval.
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