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

Atticus vs szn

Atticus scores 42.9 (E) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants that remember you.

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

AtticusSaarthurR (Saarth Ranka) · Platform E42.9/100#974 of 1094 sznNomadic Futures · Platform F7.3/100#1094 of 1094

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.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 68 against 5
  • Schema & documentation, 15 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 9 against 0
  • Security & auth, 49 against 0
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 51 against 2
  • Transparency & trust, 56 against 23

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

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

szn F

Best for A person who wants calls, emails and bookings done for them and has an access code.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

Early access by access code only.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAtticussznEdge
Reliability16%20685Atticus +63
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.21510Atticus +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.290Atticus +9
Security & auth14%17.5490Atticus +49
Payments & pricing10%12.56020Atticus +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8512Atticus +49
Transparency & trust7%8.85623Atticus +33
Negative events≤1500
TotalE 42.9/100F 7.3/100

Facts side by side

FactAtticusszn
KindPlatformPlatform
VendorSaarthurR (Saarth Ranka)Nomadic Futures
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingYour planFree
x402nono
LicenceMITClosed service. No terms of service were found on theszn.ai. A privacy policy and an acceptable use policy (both last updated March 2026) apply.
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-14none
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno 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 starsnone

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.

szn

szn is an errand assistant in early access that makes calls, sends emails and books for its owner, free during the preview for people with an access code. No outside agent can call it, no terms of service or legal entity appear in its policies, and its privacy policy says nothing on training.

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

szn

  1. Don't plan to call szn from another agent. It answers only its web app, iMessage, SMS and email for the owner.
  2. Tell the owner they need an access code to start, and that the acceptable use policy makes them responsible for confirming actions.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Atticus or szn?

Atticus scores 42.9 (E) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Are Atticus and szn open source?

Atticus is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for szn.

Other comparisons with Atticus or szn

Disclosure

szn 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.

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