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Head to head · Proactive personal assistants · October 2026 research run

folk vs Dots

Dots scores 28.3 (F) on agent readiness against folk's 19.8 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. folk leads on reliability, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do proactive personal assistants.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 834 assistants comparisons

folkNozomio, Inc. · Platform F19.8/100#993 of 1010 DotsOpenAI · Platform F28.3/100#980 of 1010

Which one, for what

folk F

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

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 25 against 3
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 10
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 31

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

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

Dots F

Best for A ChatGPT Pro or Enterprise user who wants ongoing work tracked across mail, documents, code and Slack with approval before sends.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 41 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 22 against 0
  • Security & auth, 58 against 3

Watch for

Beta. The admin setting is labelled Use dots (Beta), access is rolling out gradually, and Teams access is an invite-only alpha

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runfolkDotsEdge
Reliability16%20253folk +22
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.21041Dots +31
Agent ergonomics13%16.2022Dots +22
Security & auth14%17.5358Dots +55
Payments & pricing10%12.53010folk +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83538Dots +3
Transparency & trust7%8.86731folk +36
Negative events≤1500
TotalF 19.8/100F 28.3/100

Facts side by side

FactfolkDots
KindPlatformPlatform
VendorNozomio, Inc.OpenAI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPaid
x402nono
LicenceClosed service under folk's terms (Nozomio, Inc., last updated 8 September 2026).Proprietary hosted service. The governing terms were not read
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-122026-10-09
Terms last updatedno 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

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.

Dots

Actions that affect accounts or share information pass an automatic review, and custom rules can require approval or a hand-off. Dots is a beta on Pro plans from $100 a month, and no status page, terms, privacy policy or way to delete individual saved notes was found in the pages we could read.

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.

Dots

  1. Say what may be sent. Asking a dot to draft replies does not permit sending them, and an action outside a stated scope needs another decision
  2. Stop three things separately. Pause stops the main task only, delegated tasks stop in Activity and recurring tasks in Scheduled, and completed actions are not undone
  3. Connect each thing separately. A messaging channel grants no access to an inbox, an app or a computer
  4. Sign out of websites and disconnect apps yourself when removing access. Revoking dots access or disconnecting an app does not delete information already obtained
  5. Keep the connected computer online with the ChatGPT app open for local work. Only one personal computer can be connected at a time

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, folk or Dots?

Dots scores 28.3 (F) on agent readiness against folk's 19.8 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. folk leads on reliability, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

Other comparisons with folk or Dots

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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