Head to head · Assistants that remember you · October 2026 research run

Atticus vs QwenPaw

QwenPaw scores 62.2 (B) on agent readiness against Atticus's 42.9 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do assistants that remember you.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 875 assistants comparisons

Which one, for what

Atticus E

Best for A person on macOS 26 with a Claude Pro or Max plan who wants voice control of apps, windows, files and the browser.

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where QwenPaw loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No API, MCP server or documented command an outside agent can call

QwenPaw B

Best for One person who wants an assistant on Chinese and Western chat apps with scheduled digests, a consumer mailbox and file-based memory, on their own machine and with a model of their choice.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 68 against 15
  • Agent ergonomics, 67 against 9
  • Security & auth, 60 against 49
  • Maintenance & community, 73 against 51

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

Usage data is on by default, qwenpaw init --defaults accepts it without a prompt, and the opt-out variable is absent from the README and docs

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAtticusQwenPawEdge
Reliability16%206870QwenPaw +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.21568QwenPaw +53
Agent ergonomics13%16.2967QwenPaw +58
Security & auth14%17.54960QwenPaw +11
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85173QwenPaw +22
Transparency & trust7%8.85656even
Negative events≤150-3
TotalE 42.9/100B 62.2/100

Facts side by side

FactAtticusQwenPaw
KindPlatformAgent harness
VendorSaarthurR (Saarth Ranka)AgentScope
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTP, stdio
AuthNoneNone
PricingYour planFree
x402nono
LicenceMITApache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-10-142026-09-11
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity163 stars36k stars

Verdicts

Atticus

Atticus runs a person's Mac by voice on their existing Claude or Devin plan, with a sandboxed safe mode and a local log of every command. It has no API, MCP server or documented command for another agent, it is five days old, and it rebuilds itself from the main branch every six hours by default.

QwenPaw

Mail tools ask for approval by default, automatic mail handling may not delete permanently, and the security docs list what each sandbox backend fails to enforce. Usage data is sent by default, the default approval level passes every tool call no rule flags, and no privacy policy or security advisory is published.

Before you call either

Atticus

  1. Don't plan to call Atticus from another agent. It takes requests only from its own shortcut and typing box
  2. If a user runs Atticus beside you, expect it to move windows and type into apps on the same Mac
  3. Point a user who wants pinned versions to Settings > About & Updates to turn off self-update

QwenPaw

  1. Set QWENPAW_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=true before qwenpaw init --defaults or qwenpaw app. Both send usage data without asking
  2. Set approval_level to STRICT or SMART in agent.json. The default AUTO runs every tool call no guard rule flags
  3. Set dm_policy and group_policy to allowlist with allow_from on each channel. Both default to open
  4. Set QWENPAW_AUTH_ENABLED=true before binding beyond 127.0.0.1. Requests from localhost skip login even then
  5. Keep mail tools on ask for send_message, delete_message and delete_thread, and turn on Mail Access Control with automatic handling

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Atticus or QwenPaw?

QwenPaw scores 62.2 (B) on agent readiness against Atticus's 42.9 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Are Atticus and QwenPaw open source?

Yes. Atticus is open source (MIT). QwenPaw is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Atticus or QwenPaw

Machine-readable

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