Head to head · Assistants reached by message · October 2026 research run
Instinct vs Orbits
Orbits scores 15.6 (F) on agent readiness against Instinct's 7.3 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Instinct leads on 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
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.
Orbits F
Best for Families who want one shared assistant for calendars, lists, meals, chores and household email.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 15 against 10
- Schema & documentation, 10 against 0
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 54 against 2
Watch for
No public agent API, as llms.txt states.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Instinct | Orbits | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 10 | 15 | Orbits +5 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 0 | 10 | Orbits +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 | Orbits +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 2 | 54 | Orbits +52 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 53 | 43 | Instinct +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | F 7.3/100 | F 15.6/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Instinct | Orbits |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Platform | Platform |
| Vendor | Spear Street Technology, Inc. (d/b/a Instinct) | Nemus AI, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| 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 the Orbits Terms of Service (Nemus AI, Inc.). |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-13 |
| 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 |
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.
Orbits
Orbits is a family household app whose assistant, Bit, runs shared calendars, lists and meals, reads household email and places restaurant calls after approval, with iOS releases every week or two. No outside agent can call it, prices appear only as App Store in-app purchases, and no status page, security contact or named subprocessors were found.
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.
Orbits
- Don't plan to call Orbits from another agent. llms.txt says no public agent API is offered.
- Tell the owner the assistant needs an Orbits subscription bought in the app, and that any trial appears only at purchase.
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Instinct or Orbits?
Orbits scores 15.6 (F) on agent readiness against Instinct's 7.3 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Instinct leads on transparency & trust.
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- OpenInstinct vs Orbits
- Orbits vs Orchid
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- AstrBot vs Instinct
- Boski vs Instinct
- Caddy vs Instinct
- CowAgent vs Instinct
- folk vs Instinct
- GAIA vs Instinct
- Gemini Spark vs Instinct
- Grok Bot vs Instinct
- Haven vs Instinct
- Hermes Agent vs Instinct
- Instinct vs IronClaw
- Instinct vs Leon
- Instinct vs Lindy
- Instinct vs nanobot
- Instinct vs NanoClaw
- Instinct vs Dots
- Instinct vs OpenClaw
- Instinct vs PicoClaw
- Instinct vs Poke
- Instinct vs QwenPaw
- Instinct vs Town
- Instinct vs ZeroClaw
- Instinct vs Zo Computer
- Gemini Spark vs Orbits
- Instinct vs Natura tinyNature
- Instinct vs Pally
- Instinct vs Tomo
- Instinct vs Wajo (Fo)
- Leon vs Orbits
- Natura tinyNature vs Orbits
- Orbits vs Wajo (Fo)
- Instinct vs Talorys
- Orbits 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.
Orbits 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-orbits.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/instinct.json·/api/v1/tools/orbits.json - From a terminal
anchor compare instinct orbits(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "instinct", "b": "orbits"}at/mcp, no key