Comparison · Checked on
Polabot vs NanoClaw
NanoClaw describes itself as “Your personal AI agent. Secure. Lightweight. Yours.” It is a small, MIT-licensed alternative to OpenClaw that runs every active session in its own unprivileged Docker container, keeps credentials out of those containers, and is extended with skills rather than features. Polabot runs its bots as apps on your desktop instead of in containers, and wraps them in a chat app with an iPhone companion.
Who each one is for
Polabot is for
People who would rather not run Docker: they want an installer, an app window, a team of bots with group chats and a sessions board, and an iPhone app, on the subscriptions they already have.
NanoClaw is for
Developers who want a small codebase they can read and change, strong isolation for every session, and an assistant inside WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack or iMessage, and who are fine with Docker and the command line.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Polabot | NanoClaw |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A desktop and iPhone app for a team of always-on AI “bear bots” that work on your own computers. | “A lightweight, open-source personal AI agent that runs on your own machine”, with every session in its own container. |
| 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). | NanoCo. MIT license. |
| Computers | macOS and Windows apps. Also runs headless on a Mac mini or a cloud PC. | macOS, Linux, and Windows through WSL2. Needs Docker, Node.js 20+ and pnpm. |
| Phone | iPhone app, through TestFlight first. It can watch and take over a computer’s screen. | No phone app mentioned; you reach it through chat apps. |
| 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. | WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Teams, iMessage, Matrix, Google Chat, WeChat, email and others, each added as a skill. |
| 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. | Claude by default (Claude Agent SDK) with a Claude subscription, OAuth token or API key; Codex with a ChatGPT subscription or API key; OpenCode and Ollama can be added. |
| 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. | Agent groups, each with its own container and memory; teammate agents spawned from Slack. |
| 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. | Scheduled tasks. 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. | Skills (“Don’t add features. Add skills.”). MCP details: not stated. |
| Using a computer and browser | A bot can look, click and type on the computer and in a browser when there is no API. | Not stated. |
| 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. | On your machine. Each session sees only the files mounted into its container; credentials stay in OneCLI Agent Vault, not in the containers. |
| 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 runs on your own machine. |
| 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 (MIT). An optional free account unlocks a prebuilt image and a managed Slack app; no paid tier listed. |
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.
NanoClaw. NanoClaw is free and open source under MIT, and its site lists no paid tier. You may still pay your model provider: Claude through a subscription or API key, Codex through a ChatGPT subscription or API key, or nothing with local Ollama 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.
NanoClaw. Everything runs on your machine. Every active session runs in its own unprivileged Docker container that sees only the files it is given, credentials stay in OneCLI’s Agent Vault by default, and egress lockdown, mount rules, sender policies and human approvals can narrow access further. Anonymous setup diagnostics can be turned off.
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.
NanoClaw. Yes, that is the only way to run it: clone the repository and run its setup script on macOS, Linux or Windows (WSL2) with Docker installed.
Platforms
Polabot. Desktop apps for macOS and Windows, and an iPhone app (TestFlight first). There is no Android or Linux app.
NanoClaw. macOS, Linux and Windows through WSL2, with Docker as the only supported container runtime. No desktop window or phone app is mentioned; you use it through chat apps.
When to choose NanoClaw instead
- You want each session isolated in its own container, with credentials kept out of it.
- You want a small open-source codebase you can read end to end and extend with skills.
- You want your assistant in WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage or WeChat, and you are fine with Docker.
When Polabot fits better
- You want an installer and an app rather than Docker and a terminal.
- You want a team of bots with group chats, a sessions board and connected apps ready to switch on.
- 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.
- NanoClaw — website nanoclaw.dev
- NanoClaw on GitHub github.com/nanocoai/nanoclaw
- NanoClaw changelog github.com/nanocoai/nanoclaw/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
- NanoClaw — setup nanoclaw.dev/skills/setup/
- 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.