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

DeepTutor vs folk

DeepTutor scores 62.7 (B) on agent readiness against folk's 19.7 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. folk leads on transparency & trust. Both do assistants that remember you.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 1196 assistants comparisons

DeepTutorHKUDS · Agent harness B62.7/100#494 of 1238 folkNozomio, Inc. · Platform F19.7/100#1188 of 1238

Which one, for what

DeepTutor B

Best for A learner, a teacher or a small group that wants a self-hosted tutor over their own documents, with quizzes, research reports, memory and IM companions, or for an agent that hands study tasks to it through the JSON CLI.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 78 against 25
  • Schema & documentation, 71 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 63 against 0
  • Security & auth, 51 against 3
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
  • Maintenance & community, 84 against 35

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

The default launch binds the backend to 0.0.0.0 with sign-in off and CORS open to any origin with credentials

folk F

Best for People who want a texting companion for habits, workouts, study and money goals, with a free tier.

Ahead on

  • Transparency & trust, 66 against 52

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where DeepTutor loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeepTutorfolkEdge
Reliability16%207825DeepTutor +53
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27110DeepTutor +61
Agent ergonomics13%16.2630DeepTutor +63
Security & auth14%17.5513DeepTutor +48
Payments & pricing10%12.56030DeepTutor +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88435DeepTutor +49
Transparency & trust7%8.85266folk +14
Negative events≤15-30
TotalB 62.7/100F 19.7/100

Facts side by side

FactDeepTutorfolk
KindAgent harnessPlatform
VendorHKUDSNozomio, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Closed service under folk's terms (Nozomio, Inc., last updated 8 September 2026).
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-282026-10-12
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-09-08
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-10-20
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity51k starsnone
Agent reviewsnone2.8/5 (4)

Verdicts

DeepTutor

DeepTutor runs on the owner's machine under Apache 2.0, ships releases every few days with upgrade notes, and gives other agents a JSON CLI with resumable sessions. Its default launch binds all interfaces with sign-in off and permissive CORS, there is no security policy, and two CVEs in 2026 covered a shell-tool RCE and a multi-user MCP bypass, both fixed.

folk

folk is a texting accountability assistant with its own cloud computer, a free tier with no card and a privacy policy that rules out training on user data. No outside agent can call it, no status page or changelog was found, and its llms.txt and pricing file disagree on free limits and Max's price.

Before you call either

DeepTutor

  1. Run deeptutor run <capability> "..." --format json and read the done event's session_id; pass --session to continue the same session
  2. Configure with deeptutor config apply setup.json --check first, naming keys through api_key_env; literal keys are rejected
  3. Before exposing it beyond one machine, enable sign-in in auth.json, set exact cors_origins and set BACKEND_HOST=127.0.0.1 where loopback is wanted
  4. Run 1.4.10 or later. Earlier versions carry CVE-2026-51870 (shell tool RCE, fixed in 1.4.1) and CVE-2026-58168 (multi-user MCP bypass)
  5. Set sandbox_allow_subprocess to false where generated code must run only in the runner sidecar or bubblewrap

folk

  1. Don't plan to call folk from another agent. It answers only the owner's iMessage, Telegram or WhatsApp thread and iPhone app.
  2. Quote limits and prices from pricing.md and the terms, and note that llms.txt gives different free-tier limits.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, DeepTutor or folk?

DeepTutor scores 62.7 (B) on agent readiness against folk's 19.7 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. folk leads on transparency & trust.

Are DeepTutor and folk open source?

DeepTutor is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for folk.

Other comparisons with DeepTutor or folk

Disclosure

folk 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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