# Brea vs OpenClaw > OpenClaw scores 67.1 (B) to Brea's 12.9 (F) for assistants reached by message. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-openclaw - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-openclaw.md (~3,300 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-openclaw.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-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 Brea's 12.9 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants reached by message. - Brea: grade F, 12.9/100, rank #1001 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brea.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brea.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 ### Brea (F) Good for: An iPhone user who wants an assistant across many apps and websites with per-action approval. 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 10 - Agent ergonomics, 77 against 0 - Security & auth, 74 against 7 - Payments & pricing, 60 against 20 - Maintenance & community, 86 against 4 - Transparency & trust, 68 against 48 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 | Brea | 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) | 10 | 84 | OpenClaw +74 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 77 | OpenClaw +77 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 7 | 74 | OpenClaw +67 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | OpenClaw +40 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 4 | 86 | OpenClaw +82 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 48 | 68 | OpenClaw +20 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -8 | | | **Total** | | **12.9 · F** | **67.1 · B** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Brea | OpenClaw | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Platform | Agent harness | | Vendor | Brea AI LLC | OpenClaw Foundation | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | | | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Freemium | Free | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Closed service under Brea's terms (Brea AI LLC, last updated 2 July 2026). | MIT | | Read-only variant documented | no | yes | | llms.txt | yes | 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 **Brea.** Brea is an iMessage assistant with a free plan that needs no card, approval by reply before it sends, deletes or pays, and one-time Link cards for purchases. No outside agent can call it, paid prices sit inside the app, and no changelog or subprocessor list 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 ### Brea 1. Don't plan to call Brea from another agent. It answers only the owner's iMessage thread. 2. Tell the owner that replying ALWAYS stops Brea asking again for that action. ### 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, Brea or OpenClaw? OpenClaw scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Brea's 12.9 (F), and leads in every scored category. ### Are Brea and OpenClaw open source? No open-source release is listed for Brea. OpenClaw is open source (MIT). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-openclaw.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-openclaw.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "brea", "b": "openclaw"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare brea openclaw` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brea.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openclaw.json ## Other comparisons with Brea or OpenClaw - [asaply vs Brea](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-brea.md) - [asaply vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-openclaw.md) - [Asmi vs Brea](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-brea.md) - [Asmi vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-openclaw.md) - [AstrBot vs Brea](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-brea.md) - [Boba vs Brea](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-brea.md) - [Boba vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-openclaw.md) - [Boski vs Brea](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-brea.md) - [Brea vs Caddy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-caddy-app.md) - [Brea vs CowAgent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-cowagent.md) - [Brea vs Del](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-del.md) - [Brea vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [Brea vs GAIA](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-gaia.md) - [Brea vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-grok-bot.md) - [Brea vs Haven](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-haven.md) - [Brea vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-hermes-agent.md) - [Brea vs HireAlpha](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-hirealpha.md) - [Brea vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-instinct.md) - [Brea vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Brea vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-lindy.md) - [Brea vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-nanobot.md) - [Brea vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-nanoclaw.md) - [Brea vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-natura.md) - [Brea vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-openai-dots.md) - [Brea vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-openinstinct.md) - [Brea vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-orbits.md) - [Brea vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Brea vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-pally.md) - [Brea vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-picoclaw.md) - [Brea vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-poke.md) - [Brea vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-qwenpaw.md) - [Brea vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-szn.md) - [Brea vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-tab-bot.md) - [Brea vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-tomo.md) - [Brea vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-town.md) - [Brea vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-zapia.md) - [Brea vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [Brea vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-zo-computer.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) - [Brea vs Gemini Spark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-gemini-spark.md) - [Brea vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-leon.md) - [Brea vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-wajo.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) - [Brea vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-talorys.md) - [OpenClaw vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-talorys.md) ## Disclosure - Brea 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.