TODO for AI
vs 
OpenClaw
By Marcell Havlik, founder of TODO for AI · Updated
Open-source personal agent that runs on your own machine and answers in WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack and 20+ other chats, bring your own keys. Here is where each one wins, with numbers, and who should pick which.
| Fact | OpenClaw | TODO for AI |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Chat apps, CLI, desktop | Web, desktop, mobile, CLI, IDE (Zed, JetBrains, VS Code), voice |
| Models | Any provider (BYOK) | Any provider: Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, Ollama |
| Source | Open | Edge + CLI public |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
Key takeaways
- Models. OpenClaw model choice: Any provider (BYOK). TODO for AI runs any provider, Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok or a local Ollama model, on one plan, and one model can review another's work.
- Benchmark. TODO for AI scored 89.9% on Terminal-Bench 2.1 with Opus 5.5 (high) (own harness, 80/89 tasks, 2026-10-08; not an official leaderboard submission).
- Price. OpenClaw pricing: Free, MIT, donation funded. You pay each provider for tokens and host it yourself. TODO for AI has a free plan (Claude Sonnet only), then Starter $20, Pro $100 or Ultra $200 a month with any provider included.
- Where the work happens. OpenClaw gets one task done on the box you host. TODO for AI is one board your team and agents work through together, on your own PC, a cloud VM and your logged-in Chrome.
- Who should pick which. Pick OpenClaw if you want a free MIT agent and will host and secure it yourself. Pick TODO for AI if you want the cloud machine, browser and vault managed for you.
OpenClaw
Any provider (BYOK)
TODO for AI
Any providerWe are not competing for the same job
OpenClaw gets the task done.
TODO for AI organises the whole company’s work.
OpenClaw answers one question: how do I get this task done, on the box you host? So do the others — Cursor inside the editor, Claude Code in one person's session, Lindy by asking its assistant.
We answer a different one: where does the work live? One board per project, and a project for each part of the company — engineering, marketing, ops, finance, one per client. Your colleagues work on it. So do your agents, as many as you want to run, each with its own model, tools and permissions. Items carry the people who worked them and the agent that ran them, and the board filters by person, so what the company has in flight is one screen instead of a Slack thread.
That is not a team plan bolted onto an AI tool. It is the product. The agents are how items get closed; the board is what the company runs on.
What OpenClaw is, and where it stops
OpenClaw is an open-source personal agent: MIT licensed, run by a non-profit foundation, and living on your machine rather than a vendor cloud. It reads your inbox, moves your calendar, browses, runs shell commands, and you talk to it from WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack or iMessage. Any model works through your own keys, including local ones. For a developer who wants full control and nothing hosted, it is the obvious starting point.
The trade is that you become the operator. There is a gateway to run, ports to keep off the internet, a skills marketplace to vet, and a security page that publishes advisories by surface. Tokens are billed by each provider you use, and there is no cloud machine, so the agent is only as always-on as the computer under your desk.
Technical people who want a self-hosted assistant in their chats and are happy to operate it.
Three reasons OpenClaw users look elsewhere
Gateway, auth, sandboxing, plugin vetting and updates are yours. The project is candid that misconfigured instances get found.
No hosted VM or cloud browser. Always-on means a server you provision and patch.
Every key is a separate invoice with no pooled plan or spending window.
Six dimensions that decide it
OpenClaw 21/30TODO for AI 29/30How does OpenClaw compare to TODO for AI, feature by feature?
| Feature | OpenClaw | TODO for AI |
|---|---|---|
Persistent cloud VM An always-on machine. Files, logins and sessions survive between runs. | Self-hosted only | Yes |
Model choice | Any (BYOK) | Any provider |
Cross-vendor review Review GPT output with Claude, or the other way around. | No | Yes |
Drives your real browser Browser extension (Chrome, Firefox) plus cloud browsers. | Local browser tool | Yes |
Business tasks, not only code SEO, email, ads, social, CRM via CLI tools. | Yes | Yes |
Any CLI as an integration | Skills + MCP | Any binary |
Voice control | Via chat apps | Yes |
People and agents on one board Colleagues and agents work the same list. Items show who contributed and which agent ran them; filter the board by person. | No | Yes |
Many agents, each configured Each agent gets its own model, prompt, tools and permissions. Pick which one takes an item. | Multi-agent, own configs | Unlimited, per task |
Projects for the whole company Engineering, marketing, ops, finance: separate projects and agents, one team and one bill. | No | Unlimited, shared |
Team roles, pooled usage | Shared gateway | Roles + pooled |
Tool permissions | Exec approvals | Allow, approve, block |
Open runtime | Yes | Edge + CLI public |
What it costs
Free, MIT, donation funded. You pay each provider for tokens and host it yourself.
Hobby free (Sonnet only), Starter $20, Pro $100, Ultra $200. Paid plans include any model provider.