OpenClaw vs Poke

OpenClaw

• Developers and power users who want an assistant on their own hardware
• Reaching one agent from WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack or iMessage
• Teams sharing a single gateway with sessions everyone can open

Poke

• People who would rather text an assistant than open another app
• Handling email, calendar and reminders from a message thread
• Developers who want to add their own tools through MCP

OpenClaw

• There is no hosted service: you install, run and update the Gateway yourself on a computer or server.
• The software is free, but model usage is billed by whichever provider you connect, through an API key or an existing subscription.
• The iOS and Android apps are companion nodes and need a Gateway running on another machine.
• The macOS desktop app requires macOS 15 or later, and the Linux desktop app is x64 only.

Poke

• Poke has no app of its own: it works through Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram or RCS, with settings managed on the website.
• Email support covers Gmail and Outlook only; Poke says it has no immediate plans for iCloud or Yahoo Mail.
• The Free plan has a small usage allowance, and background automations and frontier models start at Pro.
• Poke Human is included only with Ultra at $199 a month, and expenses paid on your behalf are deducted from your credit balance.

OpenClaw

Self-hosted Gateway

One Gateway process on your own machine or server handles sessions, routing and channel connections. Desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux install it for you.

Chat channels

Message the agent from WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal, iMessage and other channels, 29 in all, in direct messages and group chats.

Bring your own model

Works with hosted providers such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, with gateways such as OpenRouter, and with local models through Ollama or LM Studio.

Persistent memory

Remembers preferences, projects and people from one conversation to the next, with state stored on your machine rather than in a vendor cloud.

System access and sandboxing

Can browse the web, fill in forms, read and write files and run shell commands, with a choice between full access and a sandbox.

Skills, plugins and automation

Skills and plugins extend the agent, and it can write its own skills. Cron jobs, hooks and webhooks run work on a schedule or in response to events.

Poke

Works inside messaging apps

You use Poke by texting it in Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram or RCS, including by voice message, and you can choose which channel it texts you on.

Email and calendar

Reads, searches and drafts email and schedules meetings, with full support for Gmail and Outlook inboxes, calendars and contact sync.

Recipes

Recipes set up integrations and automations in one step and can be shared with others. The directory covers apps such as Notion, GitHub, Linear and Oura.

Reminders and proactive updates

Creates reminders and gets a head start on tasks from a text, then draws on connected services and its memory to message you when something needs attention.

Custom integrations and API

Developers can add custom integrations through MCP servers, and the Poke API lets scripts, webhooks and other tools send messages to your assistant.

Poke Human

On Ultra, real-world tasks such as restaurant reservations, phone calls and orders are dispatched to a person, who sees only the details needed for that task.

OpenClaw

• OpenClaw (MIT licensed)Free

  The complete product: Gateway, desktop and mobile apps, chat channels and plugins. Model usage is billed separately by the provider you connect.

Poke

• Free$0

  Connect apps, email and calendar with a small usage allowance; when it runs out, Poke answers in a lighter mode until it refills.

• Pro$19

  per month, billed monthly

  Frontier models for complex tasks, automations that run in the background, higher rate limits and priority support.

• Ultra$199

  per month, billed monthly

  Frontier models on every action, a monthly credit pool with pay-as-you-go top-ups, Poke Human and highest-priority support.