Comparison · Checked on
Polabot vs goose
goose, “your open source AI agent”, started at Block and now lives under the Agentic AI Foundation. Like Polabot, it can work through subscriptions you already have: its ACP providers let you use goose “with your existing Claude Code or ChatGPT Plus/Pro subscriptions”. goose is centred on one agent at your desk with many MCP extensions; Polabot is centred on a team of bots that keep working on their own, with an iPhone app.
Who each one is for
Polabot is for
People who want bots that work while they are away: several bots with their own jobs, schedules and webhooks with a queue, group chats, social auto-replies, and an iPhone app to check in.
goose is for
Developers who want a free, open-source agent at their desk, with a desktop app and CLI, 70+ MCP extensions, recipes and subagents, on a Claude Code or ChatGPT subscription, an API key or a local model.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Polabot | goose |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A desktop and iPhone app for a team of always-on AI “bear bots” that work on your own computers. | “Your open source AI agent”: a desktop app, CLI and API for an agent with many MCP extensions. |
| Made by · license | Polabot, an independent product. The desktop app is built on the open-source OpenMausBot (Apache-2.0), with parts adapted from Nuphos (Apache-2.0). | The Agentic AI Foundation (originally Block). Apache-2.0. |
| Computers | macOS and Windows apps. Also runs headless on a Mac mini or a cloud PC. | Desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux; CLI and API. |
| Phone | iPhone app, through TestFlight first. It can watch and take over a computer’s screen. | No phone app. An experimental Telegram gateway, which needs the computer to stay awake. |
| Where you talk to it | The Polabot app on desktop and iPhone: a chat per bot, group chats, and a sessions board for every running session. | The desktop app or the CLI; Telegram through the experimental gateway. |
| AI models and who bills them | Runs the official Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and Grok tools on your computer, signed in to your own subscriptions. Several accounts with automatic failover. No per-token bill from Polabot. | Existing Claude Code or ChatGPT Plus/Pro subscriptions through ACP providers (Claude, Codex, Amp, Pi), “no per-token API costs”; 15+ API providers; local models with Ollama. |
| Several bots, group chats | Yes. Each bear has a class, its own instructions, tools and AI account. Bears talk to each other in group chats. | Subagents, up to five at once by default. Group chats between agents: not stated. |
| Schedules and triggers | Daily, every few minutes or a cron line. Webhooks and an API; while the computer sleeps, deliveries wait up to 72 hours. | Recipes on a schedule, from the Scheduler page or goose schedule add with a cron line. Webhooks: not stated. |
| Connected apps and MCP | Gmail, Outlook, GitHub, Cloudflare, Railway, Notion, Slack, Stripe, Google Calendar, Discord, X and more. Anything else through MCP. | 70+ MCP extensions. |
| Using a computer and browser | A bot can look, click and type on the computer and in a browser when there is no API. | A Computer Controller extension exists; its current tools were not verified. |
| Where your data lives | Bots, their work and your files stay on your computers. Polabot Cloud keeps your sign-in, devices and synced bot settings and memory, and relays requests. | Runs on your computer. Where sessions and memory are stored: not stated. |
| Self-hosting | The bots always run on your own machines. Polabot Cloud (sign-in, sync, relay) is a hosted service; there is no self-hosted version of it. | Yes: it is a local app. |
| Price | Free ($0, one computer). Pro $12 a month ($9 billed yearly). Max $29 a month ($22 billed yearly). Cloud PC add-on from $25 a month. | Free. No paid offering mentioned. |
Pricing
Polabot. Free costs nothing and covers one computer. Pro is $12 a month (or $108 a year) for three computers, remote access and social automations; Max is $29 a month (or $264 a year) for ten computers, five spaces and the ads suite. Every new account starts with a 14-day Pro trial without a card. Your AI subscriptions are billed by their providers, not by Polabot.
goose. goose is free and Apache-2.0 licensed, with no paid offering mentioned. You pay for the model: nothing extra on a Claude Code or ChatGPT Plus/Pro subscription through ACP, per token with an API key, or nothing with local models.
Privacy and where your data lives
Polabot. The bots run on your computers, so their conversations, files and what they do on screen stay there. Prompts go straight from your computer to your AI provider under your own account. Polabot Cloud stores your account, devices and the bot settings and memory you choose to sync, and relays requests; webhook payloads are held only while queued, for at most 72 hours. See the privacy policy.
goose. goose runs on your computer and sends prompts to the provider you choose. Its documentation pages we checked do not say where sessions or memory are stored, so we mark that as not stated.
Self-hosting
Polabot. You run the bots yourself, on a Mac, a Windows PC, a Mac mini that stays on, or a cloud PC. The cloud part (Google sign-in, sync between devices, remote access and the webhook relay) is run by Polabot and cannot be self-hosted.
goose. It is a local desktop app and CLI, so it always runs on your machine. The experimental Telegram gateway only answers while that computer is awake.
Platforms
Polabot. Desktop apps for macOS and Windows, and an iPhone app (TestFlight first). There is no Android or Linux app.
goose. Desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, plus a CLI and an API. No phone app; an experimental Telegram gateway is the way to reach it from a phone.
When to choose goose instead
- You want a free, open-source agent at your desk with a large set of MCP extensions.
- You run Linux, or want local models and many API providers in the same app.
- You mostly work with one agent at a time, interactively.
When Polabot fits better
- You want several bots that keep working while you are away, on schedules and webhooks.
- You want group chats between bots, social auto-replies and support bots for a small business.
- You want an iPhone app and sync between your computers.
Sources
Checked on 14 November 2026 on each vendor’s own website, documentation, repository and app store listing. Products change often; if something here is out of date, write to hello@polabot.app and we will fix it. “Not stated” means we could not find it on the vendor’s own pages.
- goose — documentation goose-docs.ai/
- goose on GitHub github.com/aaif-goose/goose
- goose releases github.com/aaif-goose/goose/releases
- goose docs — ACP providers goose-docs.ai/docs/guides/acp-providers
- goose docs — Recipes goose-docs.ai/docs/guides/recipes/session-recipes
- goose docs — Subagents goose-docs.ai/docs/guides/context-engineering/subagents/
- goose docs — Telegram gateway (experimental) goose-docs.ai/docs/experimental/remote-access/telegram-gateway/
- Polabot: this website’s home page, pricing and privacy policy.
Product names belong to their owners. Polabot is not affiliated with or endorsed by xAI, Cursor, the OpenClaw Foundation, Nous Research, NanoCo, the Agentic AI Foundation or the OpenMausBot project.