# Instinct vs Town > Town scores 48.7 (D) to Instinct's 7.3 (F) for proactive personal assistants. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-town - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-town.md (~3,350 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-town.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-town.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 Town scores 48.7 (D) on agent readiness against Instinct's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do proactive personal assistants. - Instinct: grade F, 7.3/100, rank #1009 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/instinct.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/instinct.json - Town: grade D, 48.7/100, rank #834 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/town.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/town.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 ### Instinct (F) Good for: People who want to hand errands to an assistant by text or phone. Watch for: No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent. ### Town (D) Good for: An owner who wants a mail and calendar assistant whose routines other systems can trigger. Ahead on: - Reliability, 35 against 10 - Schema & documentation, 33 against 0 - Agent ergonomics, 49 against 0 - Security & auth, 79 against 3 - Payments & pricing, 30 against 0 - Maintenance & community, 60 against 2 - Transparency & trust, 63 against 53 Also in its favour: - Free to start without a card Watch for: The privacy policy describes training with an opt-out and the trust page says training is opt-in. ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Instinct | Town | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 10 | 35 | Town +25 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 33 | Town +33 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 49 | Town +49 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 3 | 79 | Town +76 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 30 | Town +30 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 2 | 60 | Town +58 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 63 | Town +10 | | Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **7.3 · F** | **48.7 · D** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Instinct | Town | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Platform | Platform | | Vendor | Spear Street Technology, Inc. (d/b/a Instinct) | Town.com, Inc. | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | | HTTP | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Paid | Freemium | | 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 Town's Terms of Service (Town.com, Inc., updated 21 July 2026). | | Read-only variant documented | no | yes | | llms.txt | no | no | | Last release | none | 2026-10-10 | | 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. **Town.** Town is a hosted assistant that works across the owner's mail, calendar and work apps, and other systems can start its routines through per-routine webhooks with rotatable secrets, idempotency keys and documented errors. A caller can't read a run's result. The privacy policy and trust page disagree on whether training is on by default. ## Before you call either ### Instinct 1. Don't look for an endpoint. app.instinct.com/mcp serves the web app shell and refuses POST with 405. 2. Confirm any purchase with the owner. The terms say Actions may not be reversible. ### Town 1. Start a Town routine with POST to its webhook URL, Authorization Bearer whsec_ secret, and application/json or text/plain. Expect 202 only. 2. Send X-Town-Idempotency-Key with a stable event id on every retry so Town doesn't start a second run. 3. Treat 404 as wrong secret, disabled endpoint or missing endpoint alike, and ask the owner to check Routine Settings rather than retrying. 4. Send account_email only if the owner allowed the override. It must match a connected account in full and can't widen the routine's scope. 5. Ask the owner to keep routines that act on webhook input in approval-required mode, as Town's own docs advise. ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, Instinct or Town? Town scores 48.7 (D) on agent readiness against Instinct's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-town.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-town.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "instinct", "b": "town"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare instinct town` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/instinct.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/town.json ## Other comparisons with Instinct or Town - [asaply vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-instinct.md) - [asaply vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-town.md) - [Asmi vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-instinct.md) - [Asmi vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-town.md) - [Boba vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-instinct.md) - [Boba vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-town.md) - [Brea vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-instinct.md) - [Brea vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-town.md) - [Del vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-instinct.md) - [Del vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-town.md) - [HireAlpha vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-instinct.md) - [HireAlpha vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-town.md) - [Instinct vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-openinstinct.md) - [Instinct vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-orbits.md) - [Instinct vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Instinct vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-szn.md) - [Instinct vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-tab-bot.md) - [Instinct vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zapia.md) - [OpenInstinct vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openinstinct-vs-town.md) - [Orbits vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orbits-vs-town.md) - [Orchid vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-town.md) - [szn vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/szn-vs-town.md) - [Tab vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tab-bot-vs-town.md) - [Town vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/town-vs-zapia.md) - [AstrBot vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-instinct.md) - [AstrBot vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-town.md) - [Boski vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-instinct.md) - [Boski vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-town.md) - [Caddy vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-instinct.md) - [Caddy vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-town.md) - [CowAgent vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-instinct.md) - [CowAgent vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-town.md) - [folk vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-instinct.md) - [folk vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-town.md) - [GAIA vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-instinct.md) - [GAIA vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-town.md) - [Gemini Spark vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-instinct.md) - [Gemini Spark vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-town.md) - [Grok Bot vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-instinct.md) - [Grok Bot vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-town.md) - [Haven vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-instinct.md) - [Haven vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-town.md) - [Hermes Agent vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-instinct.md) - [Hermes Agent vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-town.md) - [Instinct vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Instinct vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-leon.md) - [Instinct vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-lindy.md) - [Instinct vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-nanobot.md) - [Instinct vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-nanoclaw.md) - [Instinct vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-openai-dots.md) - [Instinct vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-openclaw.md) - [Instinct vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-picoclaw.md) - [Instinct vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-poke.md) - [Instinct vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-qwenpaw.md) - [Instinct vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [Instinct vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zo-computer.md) - [IronClaw vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-town.md) - [Leon vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-town.md) - [Lindy vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-town.md) - [nanobot vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-town.md) - [NanoClaw vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-town.md) - [Dots vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-town.md) - [OpenClaw vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-town.md) - [PicoClaw vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-town.md) - [Poke vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-town.md) - [QwenPaw vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwenpaw-vs-town.md) - [Town vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/town-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [Town vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/town-vs-zo-computer.md) - [Instinct vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-natura.md) - [Instinct vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-pally.md) - [Instinct vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-tomo.md) - [Instinct vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-wajo.md) - [Natura tinyNature vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-town.md) - [Pally vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-town.md) - [Tomo vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tomo-vs-town.md) - [Town vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/town-vs-wajo.md) - [Instinct vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-talorys.md) - [Talorys vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/talorys-vs-town.md) ## 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. - Town 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.