Back to Blog
Competitor Comparison

Need a Custom GPT? Here's How to Actually Do It

August 26, 20256 min readReplyHub Team
Share:
ChatGPT
VS
ReplyHub

The Honest Comparison

TL;DR: When to Choose Each

Use ChatGPT API if:

  • You have weeks to build custom infrastructure
  • You want to handle token costs yourself
  • You enjoy setting up RAG systems
  • Speed doesn't matter for your users

Use ReplyHub if:

  • You need a custom GPT right now
  • You want flat-rate pricing (no surprises)
  • You're building AI landing pages
  • You want lightning-fast customer experiences

Speed: Where It Actually Matters

**Need a custom GPT for your business?** ChatGPT requires weeks of development. ReplyHub gets you there in 60 seconds.

ChatGPT Speed Reality

  • • API response: 2-5 seconds average
  • • ChatGPT Plus: Even slower during peak times
  • • Rate limits: 40k tokens/min (GPT-4)
  • • No speed optimization for support
  • • Users expect instant replies in customer service

ReplyHub Speed Reality

  • • API response: 50-150ms average
  • • Cerebras 3000 TPS when needed
  • • Gemini 2.5 Flash for quality + speed
  • • Built specifically for customer service
  • • Users get instant satisfaction

Why ReplyHub is Better

**Simple truth**: ReplyHub is cheap, easy to integrate, and lightning fast. Perfect for AI landing pages and customer experiences.

🎯 The Real Comparison

Building Custom GPT

  • • 2-4 weeks development time
  • • $2K+ in dev costs
  • • Token costs you can't predict
  • • Infrastructure headaches
  • • RAG setup complexity
  • ❌ Weeks to launch

ReplyHub Way

  • • 60 seconds to custom GPT
  • • $7-99/month flat rate
  • • 50ms responses built-in
  • • Knowledge base included
  • • Perfect for landing pages
  • ✅ Ship today

Quality: Different Strengths

Here's where we'll be completely honest: ChatGPT is good at what it does. But what it does isn't customer service.

🤖 ChatGPT Strengths

  • • Excellent general knowledge
  • • Creative problem solving
  • • Natural conversation flow
  • • Strong reasoning abilities
  • • Good at explaining complex topics

But for customer service:

  • • No knowledge of your business
  • • Can't access your docs/FAQs
  • • Gives generic answers
  • • No conversation persistence

⚡ ReplyHub Strengths

  • • Learns your business context
  • • Connects to your knowledge base
  • • Research-backed answers
  • • Persistent conversations
  • • Built for customer support

Trade-offs:

  • • Less creative than ChatGPT
  • • Focused on support use cases
  • • Not for general conversation

Developer Experience

Building customer service with ChatGPT means building everything from scratch:

🛠️ What You Need to Build with ChatGPT

  • ✓ Conversation management system
  • ✓ Knowledge base integration
  • ✓ Rate limiting and error handling
  • ✓ Context window management
  • ✓ User session persistence
  • ✓ Analytics and monitoring
  • ✓ Cost optimization

Development time: 2-4 weeks minimum

🚀 What You Get with ReplyHub

  • ✅ One API call - everything handled
  • ✅ Built-in conversation management
  • ✅ Knowledge base integration
  • ✅ Multiple AI models (best one selected)
  • ✅ Analytics dashboard
  • ✅ Cost optimization built-in

Setup time: 60 seconds

Real-World Use Cases

❌ When ChatGPT Struggles

  • Customer: "What's your return policy?"
  • ChatGPT: "I don't have access to specific company policies..."
  • Result: Customer frustrated, agent needed
  • Customer: "Is product X in stock?"
  • ChatGPT: "I can't check inventory in real-time..."
  • Result: Another escalation

✅ Where ReplyHub Excels

  • Customer: "What's your return policy?"
  • ReplyHub: "Our return policy allows 30 days for full refunds on unopened items..."
  • Result: Question answered in 50ms
  • Customer: "How do I integrate the API?"
  • ReplyHub: "Here's the exact code snippet for your use case..."
  • Result: Developer gets working code immediately

The Bottom Line

📊 Side-by-Side Reality Check

FeatureChatGPTReplyHub
Response Speed2-5 seconds50-150ms
Setup Time2-4 weeks60 seconds
Monthly Cost (1k conversations)$180-240$60-80
Knowledge Base IntegrationBuild yourselfBuilt-in
Conversation ManagementBuild yourselfIncluded
Best ForGeneral AI tasksCustomer service

ChatGPT is an impressive general-purpose AI. But for customer service, you need something built for the job.

Different tools for different jobs.

Choose the right one for your users.

Ready to See the Speed Difference?

Test ReplyHub vs ChatGPT side-by-side. See sub-100ms responses in action.