Head to head · Assistants reached by message · October 2026 research run

Haven vs Orchid

Haven scores 22.2 (F) on agent readiness against Orchid's 20.2 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Orchid leads on reliability, schema & documentation and transparency & trust. Both do assistants reached by message.

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

Which one, for what

Haven F

Best for A consumer assistant for one person who wants to phone, text or email it and have it remember them.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 6 against 0
  • Security & auth, 13 against 0
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 35 against 24

Watch for

No approval setting or list of actions that need confirmation was found on the public pages. The terms say it sends emails, SMS and calls following the user's instructions.

Orchid F

Best for A founder or operator who wants Gmail and calendar triage by text with approval before anything leaves.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 50 against 35
  • Schema & documentation, 10 against 4
  • Transparency & trust, 60 against 51

Watch for

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

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runHavenOrchidEdge
Reliability16%203550Orchid +15
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.2410Orchid +6
Agent ergonomics13%16.260Haven +6
Security & auth14%17.5130Haven +13
Payments & pricing10%12.53010Haven +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83524Haven +11
Transparency & trust7%8.85160Orchid +9
Negative events≤1500
TotalF 22.2/100F 20.2/100

Facts side by side

FactHavenOrchid
KindPlatformPlatform
VendorHello Haven, Inc.Zero Email, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreePaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Hello Haven's Terms of ServiceClosed service under Orchid's Terms of Service (Zero Email, Inc., last updated 16 January 2026).
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-09-17none
Terms last updated2026-07-24
Privacy policy last updated2026-07-24
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

Verdicts

Haven

Haven answers by phone call, text, email and app, is free in beta with no card, and publishes a status page with dated incidents. No public page read says which actions need approval, which accounts it connects or how their tokens are kept, and it names no model provider or sub-processor.

Orchid

Orchid is a paid executive assistant over iMessage, SMS and Telegram that holds drafts and calendar holds until the owner approves, with a public status page and a named subprocessor list. No outside agent can call it, there's no free tier, and its privacy policy allows training a personal model while its blog says it never trains.

Before you call either

Haven

  1. Haven has no documented API or MCP server. An outside agent can reach it only through the owner's channels (call, SMS, email, app).
  2. Do not assume an approval step before Haven sends mail, texts or calls. None is documented on the public pages.
  3. Email Haven sends to other people names Hello Haven as sender and says it was sent on the user's behalf, per the terms.
  4. Chat messages, history, profile context and uploaded files go to third-party AI model providers that the vendor does not name.
  5. Check status.hellohaven.ai before relying on phone or voice. All four published incidents affected those channels.

Orchid

  1. Don't plan to call Orchid from another agent. It answers only the owner's iMessage, SMS and Telegram threads.
  2. Check status.orchid.ai before telling the owner Orchid is down. The 7 August incident moved it to a new number.
  3. Tell the owner that drafts and holds wait for their approval unless they widen it.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Haven or Orchid?

Haven scores 22.2 (F) on agent readiness against Orchid's 20.2 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Orchid leads on reliability, schema & documentation and transparency & trust.

Other comparisons with Haven or Orchid

Disclosure

Orchid 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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