7 Best Ako Alternatives in 2026
Ako is an AI employee you add to Slack or WhatsApp. It gets its own handle, number and email, takes tasks on a credit meter, and builds dashboards on the fly.
It is a good fit for a Slack-first ops team. It is the wrong fit if the work lives in your inbox and calendar, where the reply has to come from you.
The quick answer: Carly is the best Ako alternative for most teams. It works inside your Gmail or Outlook, sends from your address, starts on events instead of waiting for a mention, and the agents you build run for everyone. Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Connect your inbox here.
Quick comparison
| Alternative | Best for | Reaches you by | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Work email, calendar, workflows and team agents | Email, text, web, ChatGPT and Claude | Free workflows; agents from $35/mo |
| Lindy | Per-seat agents with a visual builder | Web, email, Slack | Plus $29.99/user/mo |
| Tasklet | Buying exact agent capacity | Web chat | Free; Starter $25/mo |
| Manus | General agent with a cloud computer | Web, app | Free; $20, $40, $200/mo |
| Oz | An AI teammate in Slack and Teams | Slack, Teams, email, phone | Solo $39, Team $59, Business $89 per seat |
| Righthand | One agent that runs a small business | SMS, Slack, email, phone | Starter $99, Pro $199 per Righthand |
| Wajo Fo | Errands with a human backstop | Email, text, Slack, phone | Free with a daily cap |
1. Carly: the work alternative
Carly is an AI assistant and agent builder for the part of the day Ako is not designed for: the inbox, the calendar and the follow-up that has to come from you.
Connect Google or Microsoft and Carly reads the thread, drafts in your voice and sends from your address, so the client sees you and the mail sits in your Sent folder. It finds times, sends invites and moves meetings on your real calendar and your colleague’s. Every request carries through to the rest of the stack: the deal moves in HubSpot, the task lands in Linear, the note files in Notion. Carly connects to thousands of apps.
The bigger difference is triggers. Ako acts when it is mentioned or when a schedule fires. Carly workflows start when something happens: a form comes in, an email arrives from a specific sender, a meeting ends. The agents you build carry those workflows for the whole team, and you reach Carly from where you already are: text it, email it, add the Carly plugin to ChatGPT or the Carly connector to Claude.
- Best for: teams who want email, calendar and operations handled in their own accounts
- Pricing: free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month
- Limitations: built around work apps rather than building dashboards on the fly
2. Lindy
Lindy is the per-seat option: a visual builder where each teammate assembles agents from triggers and actions, with a large template library. Plans publish credit counts, so you can see the meter before you buy.
- Best for: teams that want to build agents visually, seat by seat
- Pricing: Plus $29.99 per user a month, with Pro and Max above it
- Limitations: seats plus credits add up fast for a whole team. See Carly vs Lindy and Lindy pricing.
3. Tasklet
Tasklet is a single agent in a chat: describe the outcome, it picks the tools, and you buy capacity in small increments instead of tiers.
- Best for: power users who want to size the bill to the workload
- Pricing: free tier; Starter $25 a month, capacity in $5 steps
- Limitations: it is a place you go and type, which is awkward for work that lives in threads with other people. See Tasklet alternatives.
4. Manus
Manus is the general agent with its own cloud computer. It researches, browses, builds files and slides, and runs long tasks while you do something else.
- Best for: research and document-heavy tasks, one at a time
- Pricing: free tier; $20, $40 and $200 a month
- Limitations: credits burn quickly on long runs, and it is not a teammate in Slack. See Manus pricing and Carly vs Manus.
5. Oz
Oz is the closest match to Ako’s framing: an AI teammate you ask in Slack, Microsoft Teams, email or on a call, with reads free and every risky action asking first. It also publishes its own comparison pages against Lindy, Manus and OpenClaw.
- Best for: teams already on Teams, which Ako does not support yet
- Pricing: Solo $39, Team $59 and Business $89 per seat a month
- Limitations: per-seat pricing, and SSO and audit only from Business
6. Righthand
Righthand is one agent that runs a small business: every invoice chased, every lead answered in minutes, the phone answered, the inbox triaged daily. It works over iMessage, Slack, email and phone for the whole team.
- Best for: owner-operators who want one agent across sales, billing and the phone
- Pricing: Starter $99 and Pro $199 per Righthand a month
- Limitations: priced per agent, and the phone is its own strength rather than an add-on
7. Wajo Fo
Fo is the errand agent: it calls the plumber, books the haircut and hands the hold music to a human assistant. It lives in Slack too, and it will collect the team’s lunch order.
- Best for: personal errands and office admin
- Pricing: free with a daily task cap; Pro unpriced
- Limitations: built for errands rather than operations, and it emails from its own address. See Wajo Fo alternatives.
How to choose an Ako alternative
- Email, calendar and follow-up in your own accounts, for a team: go with Carly
- A visual builder, priced per seat: Lindy
- Buying exact capacity: Tasklet
- A general agent with a cloud computer: Manus
- A teammate in Microsoft Teams today: Oz
- One agent for a whole small business, phone included: Righthand
- Errands with a human backstop: Wajo Fo
If the job includes a business phone line, Carly Phone gives a company its own numbers, calling, texting and an AI receptionist, set up by the Carly team. Book a call to scope it.
FAQ
Is Ako free?
Ako’s free plan is a one-time grant of 2,000 credits, which its own table puts at roughly 13 to 25 medium tasks. Paid plans run $19, $49 and $199 a month. Carly runs Zapier-style workflows free, and its AI agents start at $35 a month.
Does Ako send email as me?
No. Ako’s founder set it out as a principle: Ako is a colleague, not an extension of your identity, with its own email address. For a vendor that is fine. For a client, Carly sends from your own Gmail or Outlook.
What is the best Ako alternative for a small team?
Carly. Build an agent once, connect the team’s inboxes and calendars, and let workflows run on events for everyone, with no credit meter on the workflow steps.
Which Ako alternative works in Microsoft Teams?
Oz supports Teams today, and Ako lists it as coming soon. Carly connects Microsoft 365 mail and calendar alongside Google, so a Teams-based company can start with its Outlook inbox.
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See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
