# IronClaw vs Orchid > IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) to Orchid's 20.2 (F) for assistants reached by message. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai.md (~3,400 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai.min.md (~530 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai.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 IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Orchid's 20.2 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants reached by message. - IronClaw: grade B, 66.7/100, rank #288 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ironclaw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ironclaw.json - Orchid: grade F, 20.2/100, rank #992 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orchid-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orchid-ai.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 ### IronClaw (B) Good for: One technical owner who wants a self-hosted assistant over Gmail, Calendar, Slack and Telegram with credentials kept out of the model's reach. Ahead on: - Reliability, 67 against 50 - Schema & documentation, 74 against 10 - Agent ergonomics, 69 against 0 - Security & auth, 66 against 0 - Payments & pricing, 60 against 10 - Maintenance & community, 74 against 24 - Transparency & trust, 75 against 60 Also in its favour: - Open source Watch for: Global auto-approve defaults to on in the 1.4.1 source, so tools marked ask (send, trash, delete) run without a prompt. Only financial, approval and budget effects always ask ### Orchid (F) Good for: A founder or operator who wants Gmail and calendar triage by text with approval before anything leaves. Watch for: No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent. ## Score by category | Category | Weight | IronClaw | Orchid | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 50 | IronClaw +17 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 10 | IronClaw +64 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 0 | IronClaw +69 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 0 | IronClaw +66 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 10 | IronClaw +50 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 24 | IronClaw +50 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 60 | IronClaw +15 | | Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **66.7 · B** | **20.2 · F** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | IronClaw | Orchid | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Agent harness | Platform | | Vendor | NEAR AI | Zero Email, Inc. | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | HTTP | | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Freemium | Paid | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | Closed service under Orchid's Terms of Service (Zero Email, Inc., last updated 16 January 2026). | | Read-only variant documented | no | no | | llms.txt | yes | yes | | Last release | 2026-09-29 | none | | Terms last updated | no document linked | | | Privacy policy last updated | no date given | | | Customer content may train models | | | | Terms restrict automated access | | | | Terms restrict benchmarking | | | | Terms or service can change without notice | | | | Arbitration or class-action waiver | | | | Popularity | 13k stars | none | ## Verdicts **IronClaw.** Credentials stay in an encrypted store and are injected at the host boundary, and extensions declare per-tool permissions, network targets and OAuth scopes. The global auto-approve setting defaults to on in the 1.4.1 source, so tools marked ask, such as `gmail.send_message`, run unprompted until the owner turns it off. **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 ### IronClaw 1. Open Settings and turn off global auto-approve, or set send and delete tools to ask each time, before connecting mail or chat accounts 2. Install with the release installer and run `ironclaw onboard`. 1.x does not migrate 0.29 data, so use a fresh home directory 3. Call `POST /api/v1/responses` with the bearer token from `~/.ironclaw/reborn/webui-token`. Keep under 30 requests in 60 seconds 4. Resolve approval and OAuth gates in the web interface. The Responses API fails the turn instead of surfacing them 5. Connect MCP servers over HTTP only. The stdio transport is rejected ### 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, IronClaw or Orchid? IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Orchid's 20.2 (F), and leads in every scored category. ### Are IronClaw and Orchid open source? IronClaw is open source (MIT OR Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Orchid. ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "ironclaw", "b": "orchid-ai"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare ironclaw orchid-ai` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ironclaw.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orchid-ai.json ## Other comparisons with IronClaw or Orchid - [asaply vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-ironclaw.md) - [asaply vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Asmi vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Asmi vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [AstrBot vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Boba vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Boba vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Boski vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Brea vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Brea vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Caddy vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [CowAgent vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Del vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Del vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [folk vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [GAIA vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Grok Bot vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Haven vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Hermes Agent vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [HireAlpha vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-ironclaw.md) - [HireAlpha vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hirealpha-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Instinct vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [IronClaw vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-openinstinct.md) - [IronClaw vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orbits.md) - [IronClaw vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-szn.md) - [IronClaw vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-tab-bot.md) - [IronClaw vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zapia.md) - [Lindy vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [nanobot vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [NanoClaw vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Dots vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [OpenClaw vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [OpenInstinct vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openinstinct-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Orbits vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orbits-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Orchid vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-pally.md) - [Orchid vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-picoclaw.md) - [Orchid vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-poke.md) - [Orchid vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-qwenpaw.md) - [Orchid vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-szn.md) - [Orchid vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-tab-bot.md) - [Orchid vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-tomo.md) - [Orchid vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-town.md) - [Orchid vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-zapia.md) - [Orchid vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [Orchid vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-zo-computer.md) - [AstrBot vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Boski vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Caddy vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-ironclaw.md) - [CowAgent vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-ironclaw.md) - [folk vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-ironclaw.md) - [GAIA vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Gemini Spark vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Grok Bot vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Haven vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Hermes Agent vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-ironclaw.md) - [Instinct vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-ironclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-leon.md) - [IronClaw vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-lindy.md) - [IronClaw vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-nanobot.md) - [IronClaw vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-nanoclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-openai-dots.md) - [IronClaw vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-openclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-picoclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-poke.md) - [IronClaw vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-qwenpaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-town.md) - [IronClaw vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [IronClaw vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zo-computer.md) - [Gemini Spark vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [IronClaw vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-natura.md) - [IronClaw vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-pally.md) - [IronClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-tomo.md) - [IronClaw vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-wajo.md) - [Leon vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Natura tinyNature vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-orchid-ai.md) - [Orchid vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-wajo.md) - [IronClaw vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-talorys.md) - [Orchid vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orchid-ai-vs-talorys.md) ## 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.