# Boba vs OpenClaw > OpenClaw scores 67.1 (B) to Boba's 10.3 (F) for assistants reached by message. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openclaw - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openclaw.md (~3,300 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openclaw.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openclaw.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: 2026-10-13 OpenClaw scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Boba's 10.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants reached by message. - Boba: grade F, 10.3/100, rank #1004 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/boba.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/boba.json - OpenClaw: grade B, 67.1/100, rank #270 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openclaw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openclaw.json - Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md - All 834 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md ## Which one, for what ### Boba (F) Good for: Groups who want a free assistant inside a shared chat for planning, drafting and images. Also in its favour: - Free to start without a card - No incidents deducted, where OpenClaw loses 8 points for them Watch for: No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent. ### OpenClaw (B) Good for: A technical owner who wants an assistant on their own machine across many chat apps, with their choice of model and files they can read and delete. Ahead on: - Reliability, 75 against 15 - Schema & documentation, 84 against 0 - Agent ergonomics, 77 against 0 - Security & auth, 74 against 0 - Payments & pricing, 60 against 30 - Maintenance & community, 86 against 2 - Transparency & trust, 68 against 39 Also in its favour: - Open source Watch for: Without configuration the default is full access. Host exec runs with no approval and sandboxing is off ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Boba | OpenClaw | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 15 | 75 | OpenClaw +60 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 84 | OpenClaw +84 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 77 | OpenClaw +77 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 0 | 74 | OpenClaw +74 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | OpenClaw +30 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 2 | 86 | OpenClaw +84 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 39 | 68 | OpenClaw +29 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -8 | | | **Total** | | **10.3 · F** | **67.1 · B** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Boba | OpenClaw | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Platform | Agent harness | | Vendor | humans& ai, inc. | OpenClaw Foundation | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | | | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Free | Free | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Closed service under Boba's Terms of Service (humans& ai, inc., last updated 5 October 2026). | MIT | | Read-only variant documented | no | yes | | llms.txt | no | yes | | Last release | none | 2026-10-12 | | Terms last updated | | no document linked | | Privacy policy last updated | | no 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 | | | | Popularity | none | 392k stars | ## Verdicts **Boba.** Boba is a free texting assistant for one-to-one and group chats over iMessage, RCS and SMS, started by sending one message with no card or app. No outside agent can call it, its privacy notice uses inputs and outputs to train its models with no opt-out found, and no status page or security contact was found. **OpenClaw.** Self-hosted under the MIT licence, with state, memory and credentials kept on the owner's machine and no paid tier. A fresh install runs tools on the host with full access, no approval prompt and no sandbox, and the project has published 722 security advisories since January 2026, 14 of them critical. ## Before you call either ### Boba 1. Don't plan to call Boba from another agent. It answers only text messages in the Messages app. 2. Tell people in a group chat that messages sent to Boba may be used to train its models. ### OpenClaw 1. Set a session permission mode of `guarded` or `workspace`, or `tools.exec.mode`, before connecting mail. The default runs host commands without approval 2. Turn on `agents.defaults.sandbox` for any agent that reads mail, web pages or attachments. Sandboxing is off by default 3. Set `tools.message.crossContext.allowAcrossProviders` and `allowWithinProvider` to `false` to confine sends to the current conversation 4. Route incoming mail to a restricted reader agent, as the IMAP and Gmail guides show, and deny `gateway`, `cron`, `sessions_spawn` and `sessions_send` for it 5. Run `openclaw security audit` after setup, and treat the Gateway token as an owner credential. `POST /tools/invoke` accepts it with full operator access ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, Boba or OpenClaw? OpenClaw scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Boba's 10.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. ### Are Boba and OpenClaw open source? No open-source release is listed for Boba. OpenClaw is open source (MIT). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openclaw.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openclaw.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "boba", "b": "openclaw"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare boba openclaw` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/boba.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openclaw.json ## Other comparisons with Boba or OpenClaw - [asaply vs Boba](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-boba.md) - [asaply vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-openclaw.md) - [Asmi vs Boba](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-boba.md) - [Asmi vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-openclaw.md) - [AstrBot vs Boba](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-boba.md) - [Boba vs Boski](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-boski.md) - [Boba vs Brea](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-brea.md) - [Boba vs Caddy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-caddy-app.md) - [Boba vs CowAgent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-cowagent.md) - [Boba vs Del](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-del.md) - [Boba vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [Boba vs GAIA](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-gaia.md) - [Boba vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-grok-bot.md) - [Boba vs Haven](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-haven.md) - [Boba vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-hermes-agent.md) - [Boba vs HireAlpha](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-hirealpha.md) - [Boba vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-instinct.md) - [Boba vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Boba vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-lindy.md) - [Boba vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-nanobot.md) - [Boba vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-nanoclaw.md) - [Boba vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-natura.md) - [Boba vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openai-dots.md) - [Boba vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openinstinct.md) - [Boba vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-orbits.md) - [Boba vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Boba vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-pally.md) - [Boba vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-picoclaw.md) - [Boba vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-poke.md) - [Boba vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-qwenpaw.md) - [Boba vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-szn.md) - [Boba vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-tab-bot.md) - [Boba vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-tomo.md) - [Boba vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-town.md) - [Boba vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-zapia.md) - [Boba vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [Boba vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-zo-computer.md) - [Brea vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-openclaw.md) - [Del vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-openclaw.md) - [HireAlpha vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-openclaw.md) - [OpenClaw vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-openinstinct.md) - [OpenClaw vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-orbits.md) - [OpenClaw vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [OpenClaw vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-szn.md) - [OpenClaw vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-tab-bot.md) - [OpenClaw vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-zapia.md) - [AstrBot vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-openclaw.md) - [Boski vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-openclaw.md) - [Caddy vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-openclaw.md) - [CowAgent vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-openclaw.md) - [folk vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-openclaw.md) - [GAIA vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-openclaw.md) - [Gemini Spark vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-openclaw.md) - [Grok Bot vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-openclaw.md) - [Haven vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-openclaw.md) - [Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openclaw.md) - [Instinct vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-openclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-openclaw.md) - [Leon vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-openclaw.md) - [Lindy vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-openclaw.md) - [nanobot vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-openclaw.md) - [NanoClaw vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-openclaw.md) - [Dots vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-openclaw.md) - [OpenClaw vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-picoclaw.md) - [OpenClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-poke.md) - [OpenClaw vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-qwenpaw.md) - [OpenClaw vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-town.md) - [OpenClaw vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [OpenClaw vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-zo-computer.md) - [Natura tinyNature vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-openclaw.md) - [OpenClaw vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-pally.md) - [OpenClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-tomo.md) - [OpenClaw vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-wajo.md) - [Boba vs Gemini Spark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-gemini-spark.md) - [Boba vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-leon.md) - [Boba vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-talorys.md) - [Boba vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-wajo.md) - [OpenClaw vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-talorys.md) ## Disclosure - Boba 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.