# folk vs IronClaw > IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) to folk's 19.8 (F) for proactive personal assistants. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-ironclaw - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-ironclaw.md (~3,400 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-ironclaw.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-ironclaw.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 IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against folk's 19.8 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do proactive personal assistants. - folk: grade F, 19.8/100, rank #993 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/folk-nozomio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/folk-nozomio.json - IronClaw: grade B, 66.7/100, rank #288 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ironclaw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ironclaw.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 ### folk (F) Good for: People who want a texting companion for habits, workouts, study and money goals, with a free tier. Also in its favour: - Free to start without a card Watch for: No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent. ### IronClaw (B) Good for: One technical owner who wants a self-hosted assistant over Gmail, Calendar, Slack and Telegram with credentials kept out of the model's reach. Ahead on: - Reliability, 67 against 25 - Schema & documentation, 74 against 10 - Agent ergonomics, 69 against 0 - Security & auth, 66 against 3 - Payments & pricing, 60 against 30 - Maintenance & community, 74 against 35 - Transparency & trust, 75 against 67 Also in its favour: - Open source Watch for: Global auto-approve defaults to on in the 1.4.1 source, so tools marked ask (send, trash, delete) run without a prompt. Only financial, approval and budget effects always ask ## Score by category | Category | Weight | folk | IronClaw | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 25 | 67 | IronClaw +42 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 10 | 74 | IronClaw +64 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 69 | IronClaw +69 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 3 | 66 | IronClaw +63 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | IronClaw +30 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 74 | IronClaw +39 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 75 | IronClaw +8 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | | | **Total** | | **19.8 · F** | **66.7 · B** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | folk | IronClaw | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Platform | Agent harness | | Vendor | Nozomio, Inc. | NEAR AI | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | | HTTP | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Freemium | Freemium | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Closed service under folk's terms (Nozomio, Inc., last updated 8 September 2026). | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | | Read-only variant documented | yes | no | | llms.txt | yes | yes | | Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2026-09-29 | | Terms last updated | | no document linked | | Privacy policy last updated | | no date given | | 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 | 13k stars | ## Verdicts **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. **IronClaw.** Credentials stay in an encrypted store and are injected at the host boundary, and extensions declare per-tool permissions, network targets and OAuth scopes. The global auto-approve setting defaults to on in the 1.4.1 source, so tools marked ask, such as `gmail.send_message`, run unprompted until the owner turns it off. ## Before you call either ### 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. ### IronClaw 1. Open Settings and turn off global auto-approve, or set send and delete tools to ask each time, before connecting mail or chat accounts 2. Install with the release installer and run `ironclaw onboard`. 1.x does not migrate 0.29 data, so use a fresh home directory 3. Call `POST /api/v1/responses` with the bearer token from `~/.ironclaw/reborn/webui-token`. Keep under 30 requests in 60 seconds 4. Resolve approval and OAuth gates in the web interface. The Responses API fails the turn instead of surfacing them 5. Connect MCP servers over HTTP only. The stdio transport is rejected ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, folk or IronClaw? IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against folk's 19.8 (F), and leads in every scored category. ### Are folk and IronClaw open source? No open-source release is listed for folk. IronClaw is open source (MIT OR Apache-2.0). ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-ironclaw.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-ironclaw.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "folk-nozomio", "b": "ironclaw"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare folk-nozomio ironclaw` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/folk-nozomio.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ironclaw.json ## Other comparisons with folk or IronClaw - [asaply vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [asaply vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Asmi vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [Asmi vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Boba vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [Boba vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Brea vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [Brea vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Del vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [Del vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-ironclaw.md) - [folk vs HireAlpha](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-hirealpha.md) - [folk vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-openinstinct.md) - [folk vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-orbits.md) - [folk vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [folk vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-szn.md) - [folk vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-tab-bot.md) - [folk vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-zapia.md) - [HireAlpha vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-ironclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-openinstinct.md) - [IronClaw vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orbits.md) - [IronClaw vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [IronClaw vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-szn.md) - [IronClaw vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-tab-bot.md) - [IronClaw vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zapia.md) - [AstrBot vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [AstrBot vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Boski vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [Boski vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Caddy vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [Caddy vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-ironclaw.md) - [CowAgent vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-folk-nozomio.md) - [CowAgent vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-ironclaw.md) - [folk vs GAIA](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-gaia.md) - [folk vs Gemini Spark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-gemini-spark.md) - [folk vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-grok-bot.md) - [folk vs Haven](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-haven.md) - [folk vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-hermes-agent.md) - [folk vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-instinct.md) - [folk vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-leon.md) - [folk vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-lindy.md) - [folk vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-nanobot.md) - [folk vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-nanoclaw.md) - [folk vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-openai-dots.md) - [folk vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-openclaw.md) - [folk vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-picoclaw.md) - [folk vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-poke.md) - [folk vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-qwenpaw.md) - [folk vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-town.md) - [folk vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [folk vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-zo-computer.md) - [GAIA vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Gemini Spark vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Grok Bot vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Haven vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Hermes Agent vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Instinct vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-ironclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-leon.md) - [IronClaw vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-lindy.md) - [IronClaw vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-nanobot.md) - [IronClaw vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-nanoclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-openai-dots.md) - [IronClaw vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-openclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-picoclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-poke.md) - [IronClaw vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-qwenpaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-town.md) - [IronClaw vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zo-computer.md) - [folk vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-natura.md) - [folk vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-pally.md) - [folk vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-tomo.md) - [folk vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-wajo.md) - [IronClaw vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-natura.md) - [IronClaw vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-pally.md) - [IronClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-tomo.md) - [IronClaw vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-wajo.md) - [folk vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-talorys.md) - [IronClaw vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-talorys.md) ## 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.