Comparison · Checked on
Polabot vs OpenMausBot
This comparison is different from the others, because Polabot is built on OpenMausBot. OpenMausBot (also called MausBot, formerly OpenGrokBot) is an open-source app by Milind Soni and contributors that puts “your own team of AI bots, in a chat app”, running the AI command-line tools you already have. Polabot’s desktop app is a fork of it under the Apache-2.0 license, with parts adapted from Nuphos. Much of what the bots can do comes from OpenMausBot; Polabot adds its own look, a native iPhone app, a cloud service and features for running a small business.
Who each one is for
Polabot is for
People who want the same engine as a finished product: bears with classes, a native iPhone app, sync and remote access without setting up tunnels, account failover, social auto-replies and ads tools, from one team.
OpenMausBot is for
People who want a free, open-source and self-hostable team of bots, run from GitHub releases or their own server, with the widest choice of engines and a Linux build.
How Polabot is built on OpenMausBot
Polabot’s desktop app starts from OpenMausBot’s source and follows its updates. The engine underneath, the harness that runs Claude Code, Codex and the other tools on your computer, the chats, triggers, connected apps and computer use, is OpenMausBot’s work. Polabot keeps OpenMausBot’s license and its NOTICE file, keeps its own changes in separate polabot/ folders, and lists every upstream file it edits. Polabot is a separate product, made independently of the OpenMausBot project.
What Polabot adds on top:
- A team of polar bear bots in ten classes, painted to match the Polabot logo, with eyes that follow you.
- A native iPhone app that can watch a computer’s screen and take it over.
- Polabot Cloud: Google sign-in, bots, memory and routines in sync between your devices, remote access to your computer, and a webhook queue that holds deliveries for 72 hours while it sleeps.
- Several AI accounts per engine with automatic failover when one reaches its limit.
- A sessions board for every session the bears are running, and emoji reactions.
- Comment auto-replies for Instagram, Facebook and Threads, and an ads suite (Pro and Max).
- Cloud PCs rented through Polabot, and one place to pay for all of it.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Polabot | OpenMausBot |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A desktop and iPhone app for a team of always-on AI “bear bots” that work on your own computers. | “Your own team of AI bots, in a chat app”: an open-source chat app where every chat is an AI agent. Inspired by Grok Bot; not affiliated with xAI. |
| 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). | Milind Soni and OpenMausBot contributors. Apache-2.0 (relicensed from MIT); the enterprise/ folder is source-available under its own license. |
| Computers | macOS and Windows apps. Also runs headless on a Mac mini or a cloud PC. | macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows x64, Ubuntu 24.04 (beta). Can also run on a server with npx openmausbot serve. |
| Phone | iPhone app, through TestFlight first. It can watch and take over a computer’s screen. | Android 8+ and iOS 17+ apps shared through the MausBot Discord, not the app stores. The web app can be added to a phone’s home screen. |
| 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. | Its own chat app on desktop and the web: channels and group rooms, voice and calls. |
| 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. | Runs the claude, codex and grok CLIs on your machine with “your existing logins and subscriptions”. Its site also lists Cursor, Kimi, Droid, Antigravity, OpenCode, Qwen, Hermes and Pi; any ACP tool or OpenAI-compatible endpoint 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. | Yes. Each bot has its own model, computer and connected apps; group rooms route messages between bots automatically. |
| 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. | Schedules (once, on weekdays, or every 5 to 1,440 minutes), webhooks to a local receiver, and app events. |
| Connected apps and MCP | Gmail, Outlook, GitHub, Cloudflare, Railway, Notion, Slack, Stripe, Google Calendar, Discord, X and more. Anything else through MCP. | Composio connected apps (Gmail, Slack, GitHub, Notion and more), an MCP server and a headless CLI. |
| Using a computer and browser | A bot can look, click and type on the computer and in a browser when there is no API. | Cloud Linux computers through Boat (paid after a trial), a local virtual machine, or control of your own computer (macOS, Windows, Ubuntu on Xorg). |
| 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. | “Transcripts, keys, and events live in ~/.openmausbot, not a cloud.” A MausBot Cloud workspace keeps its data on the hosted server. Analytics are optional and anonymous. |
| 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: on a server with npx openmausbot serve (with Tailscale, LAN, your own domain or a tunnel), in Docker or as a service. A Business self-hosted plan is offered. |
| 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. | The app is free. Optional MausBot Cloud: Starter $15, Pro $49, Max $99 and Team $169 a month; Business $599 and Business self-hosted $299 a month. Model usage is not included. |
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.
OpenMausBot. The desktop app is free and Apache-2.0 licensed. MausBot Cloud adds an always-on cloud workspace: Starter $15, Pro $49, Max $99 and Team $169 a month, Business $599 a month and Business self-hosted $299 a month (less when billed yearly, by agreement). AI model usage is not included in any plan; your provider bills you.
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.
OpenMausBot. A harness server on your own computer owns the agent processes, and transcripts, keys and events stay in ~/.openmausbot. If you use a MausBot Cloud workspace, its data is kept on that hosted server. Anonymous analytics can be switched off in Settings.
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.
OpenMausBot. Fully self-hostable: run npx openmausbot serve on a VPS and reach it over Tailscale, your LAN, your own domain or a free MausBot address, or use Docker or a system service.
Platforms
Polabot. Desktop apps for macOS and Windows, and an iPhone app (TestFlight first). There is no Android or Linux app.
OpenMausBot. macOS (signed and notarized), Windows x64 (installer not yet code-signed) and Ubuntu 24.04 x64 (beta). Phone apps for Android and iOS are shared through Discord and connect to your computer or server.
When to choose OpenMausBot instead
- You want everything open source, including the server, and to host it yourself.
- You need Linux, or engines Polabot does not list, such as Cursor, Kimi, Droid, OpenCode or Qwen.
- You want to pay nothing and are happy to set up remote access yourself, with Tailscale or a tunnel.
When Polabot fits better
- You want a native iPhone app, sync between devices and remote access that work after signing in, without tunnels.
- You run a small business and want comment auto-replies, the ads suite and support bots set up for you.
- You want bears with classes and a team that feels like a game.
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.
- OpenMausBot on GitHub (README, license) github.com/milind-soni/OpenMausBot
- OpenMausBot releases github.com/milind-soni/OpenMausBot/releases
- MausBot — website www.mausbot.com
- MausBot — download mausbot.com/download
- MausBot — pricing www.mausbot.com/pricing
- Nuphos on GitHub github.com/nuphos/nuphos
- 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.