Poke vs Vellum

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

Vellum

• People who want one assistant that remembers them across devices and chat apps
• Handing off email triage, calendar work and recurring background tasks
• Users who want to inspect or self-host the assistant's open-source runtime

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.

Vellum

• The Base plan is free to host, but model usage, web search and image generation are paid for in prepaid credits at $1 per credit.
• Included monthly usage does not roll over, and pay-as-you-go credits expire twelve months after purchase.
• The docs describe the Windows app as a dev build tied to Vellum's development environment, and no Linux desktop client is shipped.
• The iOS and Android apps are clients for a cloud assistant; they do not run a local assistant on the phone.

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.

Vellum

Long-term memory

The assistant keeps facts, preferences and people in a personal knowledge base and recalls them across conversations. On your own machine the workspace is plain-text files plus a SQLite database.

Skills for your work tools

Built-in skills and OAuth integrations cover Google Workspace, Outlook, Slack, Notion, Linear, GitHub, HubSpot, Asana and Todoist. More skills come from a catalog or are written yourself.

Permission prompts

Sensitive actions such as file access, shell commands or emailing a new contact show an Allow or Deny prompt with a risk badge until you create a trust rule for them.

One assistant on every channel

The same identity, memory and schedules are available from the web, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android apps, a CLI, Telegram, Slack, email, voice and phone calls.

Computer and browser control

The desktop app adds voice input and computer control, and a Chrome extension lets the assistant read open tabs, fill in forms and act on the page in front of you.

Cloud, local or self-hosted

Run it in Vellum Cloud, locally on a Mac or Windows PC, or self-hosted on a Linux host or your own Google Cloud project, bringing your own model API key.

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.

Vellum

• Base$0

  Free forever: a Small cloud machine (1 vCPU, 2 GiB RAM), 6 GiB of storage and managed model access paid for with pay-as-you-go credits.

• Self-hosted$0

  The open-source runtime on your own Mac, Windows PC, Linux host or GCP project, with your own model API key and no platform or machine fees.

• Mighty$30

  per month

  Small machine, 10 GiB of storage and a monthly Mighty Usage allowance. Leaves out the custom subdomain, static IP and priority support.

• CustomFrom $50

  per month

  Pick a machine size, storage tier and optional usage bundle yourself. The minimum is a Medium machine with 10 GiB and no usage bundle.

• Super$100

  per month

  Medium machine (2.5 vCPU, 5 GiB), 30 GiB of storage and Super Usage, plus an assistant email, custom subdomain, static IP and priority support.

• Ultra$200

  per month

  Large machine (4 vCPU, 8 GiB), 60 GiB of storage and Ultra Usage, with the same assistant email, subdomain and support as Super.