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

QwenPaw vs szn

QwenPaw scores 62.2 (B) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants reached by message.

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

Which one, for what

QwenPaw B

Best for One person who wants an assistant on Chinese and Western chat apps with scheduled digests, a consumer mailbox and file-based memory, on their own machine and with a model of their choice.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 70 against 5
  • Schema & documentation, 68 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 67 against 0
  • Security & auth, 60 against 0
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 73 against 2
  • Transparency & trust, 56 against 23

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Open source

Watch for

Usage data is on by default, qwenpaw init --defaults accepts it without a prompt, and the opt-out variable is absent from the README and docs

szn F

Best for A person who wants calls, emails and bookings done for them and has an access code.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where QwenPaw loses 3 points for them

Watch for

Early access by access code only.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runQwenPawsznEdge
Reliability16%20705QwenPaw +65
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26810QwenPaw +58
Agent ergonomics13%16.2670QwenPaw +67
Security & auth14%17.5600QwenPaw +60
Payments & pricing10%12.56020QwenPaw +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8732QwenPaw +71
Transparency & trust7%8.85623QwenPaw +33
Negative events≤15-30
TotalB 62.2/100F 7.3/100

Facts side by side

FactQwenPawszn
KindAgent harnessPlatform
VendorAgentScopeNomadic Futures
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTP, stdio
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Closed service. No terms of service were found on theszn.ai. A privacy policy and an acceptable use policy (both last updated March 2026) apply.
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-09-11none
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity36k starsnone

Verdicts

QwenPaw

Mail tools ask for approval by default, automatic mail handling may not delete permanently, and the security docs list what each sandbox backend fails to enforce. Usage data is sent by default, the default approval level passes every tool call no rule flags, and no privacy policy or security advisory is published.

szn

szn is an errand assistant in early access that makes calls, sends emails and books for its owner, free during the preview for people with an access code. No outside agent can call it, no terms of service or legal entity appear in its policies, and its privacy policy says nothing on training.

Before you call either

QwenPaw

  1. Set QWENPAW_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=true before qwenpaw init --defaults or qwenpaw app. Both send usage data without asking
  2. Set approval_level to STRICT or SMART in agent.json. The default AUTO runs every tool call no guard rule flags
  3. Set dm_policy and group_policy to allowlist with allow_from on each channel. Both default to open
  4. Set QWENPAW_AUTH_ENABLED=true before binding beyond 127.0.0.1. Requests from localhost skip login even then
  5. Keep mail tools on ask for send_message, delete_message and delete_thread, and turn on Mail Access Control with automatic handling

szn

  1. Don't plan to call szn from another agent. It answers only its web app, iMessage, SMS and email for the owner.
  2. Tell the owner they need an access code to start, and that the acceptable use policy makes them responsible for confirming actions.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, QwenPaw or szn?

QwenPaw scores 62.2 (B) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Are QwenPaw and szn open source?

QwenPaw is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for szn.

Other comparisons with QwenPaw or szn

Disclosure

szn 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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