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Head to head · Assistant proactive · October 2026 research run

Poke vs Zo Computer

Zo Computer scores 43.1 (E) on agent readiness against Poke's 37.6 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Poke leads on reliability. Both do assistant proactive.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 190 assistants comparisons

PokeThe Interaction Company of California Inc. · Platform F37.6/100#955 of 986 Zo ComputerZo Computer Company · HTTP API E43.1/100#911 of 986

Which one, for what

Poke F

Best for One person who wants an assistant in their text messages that reads and drafts mail, manages a calendar and reaches other apps through MCP.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 51 against 15

Watch for

No documented setting for which actions need approval before Poke sends, deletes or spends. Release notes mention email draft approval only in passing

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 42
  • Security & auth, 37 against 24
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
  • Maintenance & community, 68 against 31

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 runPokeZo ComputerEdge
Reliability16%205115Poke +36
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24273Zo Computer +31
Agent ergonomics13%16.23034Zo Computer +4
Security & auth14%17.52437Zo Computer +13
Payments & pricing10%12.53040Zo Computer +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83168Zo Computer +37
Transparency & trust7%8.85860Zo Computer +2
Negative events≤1500
TotalF 37.6/100E 43.1/100

Facts side by side

FactPokeZo Computer
KindPlatformHTTP API
VendorThe Interaction Company of California Inc.Zo Computer Company
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.zo.computer/mcp
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Poke's Terms of Service. The poke npm package (CLI and Node.js SDK) declares MITProprietary service under Zo Computer Company's terms of service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-06-252026-09-14
Terms last updated2026-03-172025-08-08
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-112026-05-20
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text

Verdicts

Poke

Hosted assistant that answers in Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram and RCS and acts in Gmail, Outlook, calendars and MCP servers. Plan prices and a status page are public. No approval settings, credential storage, model providers or retention periods are documented, and customer content trains models unless Maximum Privacy is selected.

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

Poke

  1. POST JSON to https://poke.com/api/v1/inbound/api-message with a Bearer key from Kitchen. Legacy pk_ keys work only on the deprecated /api/v1/inbound-sms/webhook
  2. Expect only {"success": true} back. Poke's answer goes to the owner's message thread, not to the caller
  3. Do not retry a POST blindly. No idempotency key is documented, and a repeated message may make Poke act twice
  4. Treat an API key as full access to the owner's mail, calendar and integrations. Create one key per automation and revoke it when done
  5. Avoid the prefilled integration link with apiKey in the query string for real secrets. Enter the key in the form or use npx poke@latest mcp add -k

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, Poke or Zo Computer?

Zo Computer scores 43.1 (E) on agent readiness against Poke's 37.6 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Poke leads on reliability.

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

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

Other comparisons with Poke or Zo Computer

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