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Head to head · Assistants reached by message · October 2026 research run

Orchid vs Zo Computer

Zo Computer scores 43.1 (E) on agent readiness against Orchid's 20.2 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Orchid leads on reliability. Both do assistants reached by message.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 834 assistants comparisons

OrchidZero Email, Inc. · Platform F20.2/100#992 of 1010 Zo ComputerZo Computer Company · HTTP API E43.1/100#915 of 1010

Which one, for what

Orchid F

Best for A founder or operator who wants Gmail and calendar triage by text with approval before anything leaves.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 50 against 15

Watch for

No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent.

Zo Computer E

Best 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.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 73 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 34 against 0
  • Security & auth, 37 against 0
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 68 against 24

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

CategoryWeight this runOrchidZo ComputerEdge
Reliability16%205015Orchid +35
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.21073Zo Computer +63
Agent ergonomics13%16.2034Zo Computer +34
Security & auth14%17.5037Zo Computer +37
Payments & pricing10%12.51040Zo Computer +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.82468Zo Computer +44
Transparency & trust7%8.86060even
Negative events≤1500
TotalF 20.2/100E 43.1/100

Facts side by side

FactOrchidZo Computer
KindPlatformHTTP API
VendorZero Email, Inc.Zo Computer Company
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.zo.computer/mcp
TransportsHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceClosed service under Orchid's Terms of Service (Zero Email, Inc., last updated 16 January 2026).Proprietary service under Zo Computer Company's terms of service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last releasenone2026-09-14
Terms last updated2025-08-08
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-20
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text

Verdicts

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.

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

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.

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, Orchid or Zo Computer?

Zo Computer scores 43.1 (E) on agent readiness against Orchid's 20.2 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Orchid leads on reliability.

Can an agent call Orchid and Zo Computer without installing anything?

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

Other comparisons with Orchid or Zo Computer

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.

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