# folk vs Poke

> Poke scores 37.6 (F) 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-poke
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-poke.md (~3,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-poke.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-poke.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

Poke scores 37.6 (F) on agent readiness against folk's 19.8 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. folk leads on transparency & trust. 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
- Poke: grade F, 37.6/100, rank #960 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/poke.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/poke.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.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 58

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

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

### Poke (F)

Good for: One person who wants an assistant in their text messages that reads and drafts mail, manages a calendar and reaches other apps through MCP.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 51 against 25
- Schema & documentation, 42 against 10
- Agent ergonomics, 30 against 0
- Security & auth, 24 against 3

Watch for: No documented setting for which actions need approval before Poke sends, deletes or spends. Release notes mention email draft approval only in passing


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | folk | Poke | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 25 | 51 | Poke +26 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 10 | 42 | Poke +32 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 30 | Poke +30 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 3 | 24 | Poke +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 31 | folk +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 58 | folk +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **19.8 · F** | **37.6 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | folk | Poke |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Platform |
| Vendor | Nozomio, Inc. | The Interaction Company of California Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service under folk's terms (Nozomio, Inc., last updated 8 September 2026). | Proprietary service under Poke's Terms of Service. The `poke` npm package (CLI and Node.js SDK) declares MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2026-06-25 |
| Terms last updated |  | 2026-03-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | 2026-09-11 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |

## 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.

**Poke.** Hosted assistant that answers in Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram and RCS and acts in Gmail, Outlook, calendars and MCP servers. Plan prices and a status page are public. No approval settings, credential storage, model providers or retention periods are documented, and customer content trains models unless Maximum Privacy is selected.

## 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.

### Poke

1. POST JSON to `https://poke.com/api/v1/inbound/api-message` with a Bearer key from Kitchen. Legacy `pk_` keys work only on the deprecated `/api/v1/inbound-sms/webhook`
2. Expect only `{"success": true}` back. Poke's answer goes to the owner's message thread, not to the caller
3. Do not retry a POST blindly. No idempotency key is documented, and a repeated message may make Poke act twice
4. Treat an API key as full access to the owner's mail, calendar and integrations. Create one key per automation and revoke it when done
5. Avoid the prefilled integration link with `apiKey` in the query string for real secrets. Enter the key in the form or use `npx poke@latest mcp add -k`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, folk or Poke?

Poke scores 37.6 (F) on agent readiness against folk's 19.8 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. folk leads on transparency & trust.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-poke.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-poke.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "folk-nozomio", "b": "poke"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare folk-nozomio poke`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/folk-nozomio.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/poke.json

## Other comparisons with folk or Poke

- [asaply vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [asaply vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-poke.md)
- [Asmi vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Asmi vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-poke.md)
- [Boba vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Boba vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-poke.md)
- [Brea vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Brea vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-poke.md)
- [Del vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Del vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-poke.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 Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-poke.md)
- [OpenInstinct vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openinstinct-vs-poke.md)
- [Orbits vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orbits-vs-poke.md)
- [Orchid vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-poke.md)
- [Poke vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-szn.md)
- [Poke vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Poke vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-zapia.md)
- [AstrBot vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [AstrBot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-poke.md)
- [Boski vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Boski vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-poke.md)
- [Caddy vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Caddy vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-poke.md)
- [CowAgent vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [CowAgent vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-poke.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 IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-ironclaw.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 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 Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-poke.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-poke.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-poke.md)
- [Haven vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-poke.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-poke.md)
- [Instinct vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-poke.md)
- [IronClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-poke.md)
- [Leon vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-poke.md)
- [Lindy vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-poke.md)
- [nanobot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-poke.md)
- [NanoClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-poke.md)
- [Dots vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-poke.md)
- [OpenClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-poke.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-poke.md)
- [Poke vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [Poke vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-town.md)
- [Poke vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Poke vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-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)
- [Natura tinyNature vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-poke.md)
- [Pally vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-poke.md)
- [Poke vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-tomo.md)
- [Poke vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-wajo.md)
- [folk vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-talorys.md)
- [Poke vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-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.