# IronClaw vs Orchid (slim)

> 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.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai.md (~3,400 tokens) · this version ~530 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-orchid-ai
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.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: B 66.7, rank #288 of 1010 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ironclaw.min.md
- Orchid: F 20.2, rank #992 of 1010 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orchid-ai.min.md
- IronClaw, 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 Open source.
- Orchid, good for A founder or operator who wants Gmail and calendar triage by text with approval before anything leaves.

| Category | IronClaw | Orchid |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 67 | 50 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 74 | 10 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 69 | 0 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 66 | 0 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 10 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 74 | 24 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 75 | 60 |

| Fact (where they differ) | IronClaw | Orchid |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Platform |
| Vendor | NEAR AI | Zero Email, Inc. |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Licence | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | Closed service under Orchid's Terms of Service (Zero Email, Inc., last updated 16 January 2026). |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | none |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given |  |
| Popularity | 13k stars | none |