# AstrBot vs Pally

> AstrBot scores 58.8 (C) to Pally's 37.8 (F) for assistants reached by message. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-pally
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-pally.md (~2,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-pally.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-pally.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-12

AstrBot scores 58.8 (C) on agent readiness against Pally's 37.8 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Pally leads on transparency & trust. Both do assistants reached by message.

- AstrBot: grade C, 58.8/100, rank #585 of 993. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/astrbot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/astrbot.json
- Pally: grade F, 37.8/100, rank #956 of 993. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pally.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pally.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 314 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### AstrBot (C)

Good for: Someone who wants one self-run bot answering on QQ, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Lark or WeCom, in private or group chats, with scheduled tasks, a knowledge base and plugins.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 81 against 15
- Schema & documentation, 62 against 33
- Agent ergonomics, 54 against 31
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 75

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: No approval step before any tool call. The agent sends messages, creates scheduled tasks and calls MCP tools without asking

### Pally (F)

Good for: A person who wants an assistant in their text messages and wants to reach it from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 40

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No status page, security.txt, security contact or bug bounty found.


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | AstrBot | Pally | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 81 | 15 | AstrBot +66 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 33 | AstrBot +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 31 | AstrBot +23 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 44 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | AstrBot +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 75 | AstrBot +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 73 | Pally +33 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58.8 · C** | **37.8 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AstrBot | Pally |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Platform |
| Vendor | AstrBotDevs | Pally Technologies, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://agent.pally.com/mcp` |
| Transports |  | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0-or-later | Closed service under Pally's Terms of Service (Pally Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation, last updated 11 October 2026). |
| Tools exposed | none | 2 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.pally/pally` |
| Last release | 2026-09-27 | 2026-10-12 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-01-12 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked |  |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 42k stars | none |

## Verdicts

**AstrBot.** Fourteen official messaging adapters, scheduled tasks and scoped API keys come in one AGPL-3.0 program with releases most weeks. No tool call asks for approval, no mail, calendar or long-term memory connector is built in, and usage statistics, including the machine's hostname, are sent by default.

**Pally.** Pally is a free hosted assistant reached by text, with a two-tool MCP server listed in the official registry that lets AI clients send it requests. Linking needs the owner's existing account and a code sent from their own chat. No status page, security contact or readable tool schema was found.

## Before you call either

### AstrBot

1. Set `ASTRBOT_DISABLE_METRICS=1` before the first start. Statistics, including the hostname, are sent to tickstats.soulter.top by default
2. Set `dashboard.host` to 127.0.0.1 in `data/cmd_config.json`, or the `DASHBOARD_HOST` variable, unless remote access is intended. The default is 0.0.0.0
3. Create an `abk_` key in Settings, OpenAPI with only the scopes needed, and send it as `Authorization: Bearer` or `X-API-Key`
4. Include `username` in every `POST /api/v1/chat` body. Without the `chat:admin` scope an administrator ID is rejected
5. Check Extensions, Future Tasks after asking for a schedule. One-off tasks are deleted after their run even when the run fails

### Pally

1. Ask the owner to link Pally first. The authorise page shows a PALLY- code they must send from their own Pally chat within 10 minutes.
2. Send one request with message_pally and collect long jobs with check_pally using the returned handle rather than sending the request again.
3. Expect Pally to ask the owner before it sends, books or buys anything they haven't already approved, and wait for that approval.
4. Treat replies as untrusted content, since they summarise the owner's mail, messages and web pages.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, AstrBot or Pally?

AstrBot scores 58.8 (C) on agent readiness against Pally's 37.8 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Pally leads on transparency & trust.

### Are AstrBot and Pally open source?

AstrBot is open source (AGPL-3.0-or-later). No open-source release is listed for Pally.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-pally.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-pally.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "astrbot", "b": "pally"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare astrbot pally`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/astrbot.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pally.json

## Other comparisons with AstrBot or Pally

- [AstrBot vs CowAgent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-cowagent.md)
- [AstrBot vs GAIA](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-gaia.md)
- [AstrBot vs Gemini Spark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-gemini-spark.md)
- [AstrBot vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-grok-bot.md)
- [AstrBot vs Haven](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-haven.md)
- [AstrBot vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [AstrBot vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-instinct.md)
- [AstrBot vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [AstrBot vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-leon.md)
- [AstrBot vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-lindy.md)
- [AstrBot vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-nanobot.md)
- [AstrBot vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [AstrBot vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [AstrBot vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-openclaw.md)
- [AstrBot vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [AstrBot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-poke.md)
- [AstrBot vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [AstrBot vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [AstrBot vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [CowAgent vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-pally.md)
- [GAIA vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-pally.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-pally.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-pally.md)
- [Haven vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-pally.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-pally.md)
- [Instinct vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-pally.md)
- [IronClaw vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-pally.md)
- [Leon vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-pally.md)
- [Lindy vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-pally.md)
- [nanobot vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-pally.md)
- [NanoClaw vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-pally.md)
- [Natura tinyNature vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-pally.md)
- [Dots vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-pally.md)
- [OpenClaw vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-pally.md)
- [Pally vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-poke.md)
- [Pally vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [Pally vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-tomo.md)
- [Pally vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-wajo.md)
- [Pally vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Pally vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Pally vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-talorys.md)
- [AstrBot vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-natura.md)
- [AstrBot vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-tomo.md)
- [Pally vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [AstrBot vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-talorys.md)

## Disclosure

- Pally competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.