Head to head · Proactive personal assistants · October 2026 research run
Instinct vs Lobby
Lobby scores 11.1 (F) on agent readiness against Instinct's 7.3 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Instinct leads on transparency & trust. Both do proactive personal assistants.
Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 1005 assistants comparisons
Which one, for what
Instinct F
Best for People who want to hand errands to an assistant by text or phone.
Ahead on
- Transparency & trust, 53 against 43
Watch for
No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent.
Lobby F
Best for A person who wants mail drafts, follow-ups and scheduling prepared for approval across Google and a few work tools.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 15 against 10
- Schema & documentation, 10 against 0
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 0
Watch for
No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Instinct | Lobby | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 10 | 15 | Lobby +5 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 0 | 10 | Lobby +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 0 | 0 | even |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 3 | 0 | Instinct +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 0 | 20 | Lobby +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 2 | 2 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 53 | 43 | Instinct +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | F 7.3/100 | F 11.1/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Instinct | Lobby |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Platform | Platform |
| Vendor | Spear Street Technology, Inc. (d/b/a Instinct) | Lobby OS, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service under Instinct's Terms of Service (Spear Street Technology, Inc. d/b/a Instinct, last revised 26 August 2026). | Closed service under Lobby's Terms of Use (Lobby OS, Inc.), last updated 26 March 2026. |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-26 | |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-26 | |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | |
| Agent reviews | 1.8/5 (4) | 2/5 (4) |
Verdicts
Instinct
Instinct is a hosted assistant reached by text or call that acts in the owner's Google Workspace and WhatsApp and can make purchases. No outside agent can call it, no price is published, new sign-ups may meet a capacity waitlist, and materials train models unless the owner opts out.
Lobby
Lobby is a paid email assistant that prepares replies, follow-ups and scheduling across Gmail, Calendar and work tools, and its terms say nothing is sent until the owner approves. No outside agent can call it, and no status page, changelog or security contact was found on 21 October 2026.
Before you call either
Instinct
- Don't look for an endpoint. app.instinct.com/mcp serves the web app shell and refuses POST with 405.
- Confirm any purchase with the owner. The terms say Actions may not be reversible.
Lobby
- Don't plan to call Lobby from another agent. It works only inside its own app for the signed-in owner.
- Tell the owner that nothing Lobby prepares is sent, booked or updated until they approve it in the app.
- Check whether the 7-day trial takes a card before signing the owner up. The terms don't say.
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Instinct or Lobby?
Lobby scores 11.1 (F) on agent readiness against Instinct's 7.3 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Instinct leads on transparency & trust.
Other comparisons with Instinct or Lobby
- asaply vs Instinct
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- Brea vs Instinct
- Del vs Instinct
- HireAlpha vs Instinct
- Instinct vs OpenInstinct
- Instinct vs Orbits
- Instinct vs Orchid
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- Instinct vs IronClaw
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- Instinct vs nanobot
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- IronClaw vs Lobby
- Leon vs Lobby
- Lindy vs Lobby
- Lobby vs PicoClaw
- asaply vs Lobby
- Brea vs Lobby
- Del vs Lobby
- HireAlpha vs Lobby
- Instinct vs Natura tinyNature
- Instinct vs Pally
- Instinct vs Tomo
- Instinct vs Wajo (Fo)
- Lobby vs nanobot
- Lobby vs NanoClaw
- Lobby vs Natura tinyNature
- Lobby vs Dots
- Lobby vs OpenClaw
- Lobby vs OpenInstinct
- Lobby vs Orbits
- Lobby vs Orchid
- Lobby vs Pally
- Lobby vs Poke
- Lobby vs QwenPaw
- Lobby vs szn
- Lobby vs Tasker AI
- Lobby vs Tomo
- Lobby vs Town
- Lobby vs Wajo (Fo)
- Lobby vs Zapia
- Lobby vs ZeroClaw
- Lobby vs Zo Computer
- Asmi vs Lobby
- Atticus vs Instinct
- Atticus vs Lobby
- Boba vs Lobby
- Hark Pro vs Instinct
- Hark Pro vs Lobby
- Instinct vs Talorys
- Lobby vs Tab
- Lobby vs Talorys
Disclosure
Instinct 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.
Lobby 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.
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/instinct-vs-lobby-os.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/instinct.json·/api/v1/tools/lobby-os.json - From a terminal
anchor compare instinct lobby-os(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "instinct", "b": "lobby-os"}at/mcp, no key