# IronClaw vs Zo Computer

> IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) to Zo Computer's 43.1 (E) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zo-computer
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zo-computer.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zo-computer.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zo-computer.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: 2026-10-12

IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Zo Computer's 43.1 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistant proactive.

- IronClaw: grade B, 66.7/100, rank #288 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ironclaw.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ironclaw.json
- Zo Computer: grade E, 43.1/100, rank #911 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zo-computer.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zo-computer.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 190 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 15
- Agent ergonomics, 69 against 34
- Security & auth, 66 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 74 against 68
- 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

### Zo Computer (E)

Good for: One person who wants a hosted assistant with its own Linux machine, reachable by text message and chat apps, and who accepts that the assistant acts on connected accounts without a documented approval step.

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: The access token for the API and MCP endpoint grants full access to the workspace, with no scoped or read-only token documented


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | IronClaw | Zo Computer | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 15 | IronClaw +52 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 73 | IronClaw +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 34 | IronClaw +35 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 37 | IronClaw +29 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | IronClaw +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 68 | IronClaw +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 60 | IronClaw +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.7 · B** | **43.1 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | IronClaw | Zo Computer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | HTTP API |
| Vendor | NEAR AI | Zo Computer Company |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.zo.computer/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT OR Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Zo Computer Company's terms of service |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-14 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2025-08-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-05-20 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| 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.

**Zo Computer.** Zo publishes an OpenAPI file, Markdown docs, plan prices and a named list of the providers that receive user content. One access token grants full access to the workspace, no approval step before sending or buying was found in the reviewed docs, and no status page, rate limit or SLA is published.

## 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

### Zo Computer

1. Send `POST https://api.zo.computer/zo/ask` with `Authorization: Bearer zo_sk_...` and an `input` string. The owner creates the token under Settings > Advanced
2. Pass `persona_id` for a persona with a narrow tool set. The token itself carries every permission the owner has
3. Set `memory_mode` to `off` to keep workspace memory out of a request. The field is in the OpenAPI file and absent from the API guide
4. Do not retry `/zo/ask` blindly after a timeout. No idempotency key is documented and the request may already have sent a message
5. Append `.md` to any guide or reference URL for Markdown

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, IronClaw or Zo Computer?

IronClaw scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Zo Computer's 43.1 (E), and leads in every scored category.

### Can an agent call IronClaw and Zo Computer without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for IronClaw. Zo Computer has a hosted endpoint at https://api.zo.computer/mcp.

### Are IronClaw and Zo Computer open source?

IronClaw is open source (MIT OR Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Zo Computer.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zo-computer.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zo-computer.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "ironclaw", "b": "zo-computer"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare ironclaw zo-computer`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ironclaw.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zo-computer.json

## Other comparisons with IronClaw or Zo Computer

- [AstrBot vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [AstrBot vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [CowAgent vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [CowAgent vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [GAIA vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [GAIA vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Grok Bot vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Haven vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Haven vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Instinct vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Instinct vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zo-computer.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 ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Leon vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Lindy vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [nanobot vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [NanoClaw vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Dots vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [OpenClaw vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [Poke vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [QwenPaw vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwenpaw-vs-zo-computer.md)
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