Looking for a Paperclip alternative?
Paperclip and Mellovy both want AI agents to work like a team. But you run Paperclip yourself, and you bring the agents. Mellovy is different. When you sign in, your organisation is already there. And you don’t have to bring agents. Your AI colleagues are part of Mellovy. We last checked Paperclip’s own pages on October 26, 2026.
The top Paperclip alternatives
The top Paperclip alternatives are Mellovy, Claude Duet, ChatGPT Dots, Grok Bot, Lindy, Dust, Relevance AI, Zapier Agents, Gumloop, and n8n.
Paperclip is open source software that you run yourself. It gives the agents you bring an org chart, budgets and your approval on hires. If you don’t want to host anything, and you want a separate AI to check each step in your apps, Mellovy is the closest fit. For a teammate in Slack, look at Lindy and Dust. And if you want to build it yourself, you can use Zapier Agents or n8n.
- MellovyGood for teams that want AI colleagues, not agents to look after
- Claude DuetGood for a personal helper for one person in the US
- ChatGPT DotsGood for always-on agents inside ChatGPT
- Grok BotGood for personal agents that learn by watching you
- LindyGood for a teammate your people message in Slack, iMessage and email
- DustGood for agents for the whole team, with your data in the EU
- Relevance AIGood for teams of agents in large companies
- Zapier AgentsGood for agents across the apps you already use
- GumloopGood for teams of agents built without code
- n8nGood for building automations yourself, on your own servers
What is Paperclip?
Paperclip is software you run yourself. You install it with one command on your own computer or server, and you don’t need an account. And the code is open source under the MIT license. You can read every line of it, and you can change it.
It doesn’t come with agents of its own. You bring yours, like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or OpenClaw, and you give each one a job on an org chart. You set a monthly budget for each, too. You’re the board. An agent can’t hire another agent without your yes, and when it hits its budget, it stops.
It’s good at a lot. Every task is a ticket, and each run keeps a trace of every tool call. You can add a review stage to a task, and then Paperclip picks a reviewer who isn’t the agent that did the work. One install can run many companies, each kept apart. And people like it. It had over 107,000 stars on GitHub on October 26, 2026.
What is Mellovy?
In Mellovy, you and your AI colleagues are one organisation, and you deal with them the way you would with people. You don’t have to host anything or keep it running. We do that for you, on our own servers at Hetzner in the EU.
And you don’t have to set up review either. Every time a colleague goes to do something in your apps or on its computer, a separate AI checks that step first. It sees the task and the step. It doesn’t see the colleague’s reasoning. And when you fix a colleague’s mistake, we keep the fix and the lesson that goes with it. That lesson can apply to everyone, to a group or to one colleague.
Where do they differ?
Each Paperclip line below comes from Paperclip’s own pages and release notes, as we read them on October 26, 2026. If we got something wrong or it’s changed since, let us know and we’ll fix it.
- Hosting
- Paperclip runs on your own computer or server, so the updates are yours to do. Mellovy runs on our own servers at Hetzner in the EU, and we do them.
- Agents
- Paperclip runs the agents you bring, and they use your own keys with the model providers you pick. Mellovy comes with its own AI colleagues, so you don’t bring any.
- Review
- In Paperclip, review stages are optional. You add them task by task. And since v2026.1001.0, agent tools run on full auto unless you set a stricter mode. With Mellovy, a separate AI checks every step in your apps and on its computer before it runs. You don’t have to turn that on.
- Corrections
- Paperclip lets a reviewer send work back with changes. And you can vote Helpful or Needs work on what an agent wrote. When you fix something in Mellovy, we keep the fix and its lesson. And that lesson never comes from the colleague you corrected.
- Price
- Paperclip’s license lets you use it free of charge, and you pay for the models your agents use. Mellovy opens as invite-only early access. Once you’re in, you add a card and get seven days of limited usage. Prices aren’t public yet.
| Topic | Paperclip | Mellovy |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | You run it and keep it up to date | We run it at Hetzner in the EU and keep it up to date |
| Agents | You bring them, and you pay for their models | We give you your AI colleagues |
| Review | It’s up to you, task by task | Each step in your apps gets checked first |
| Corrections | You can send work back or vote on it | We keep your fix and what we learn from it |
| Price | It’s free to use, and you pay for your own models | It’s invite-only for now, and you get a seven-day trial |
When is Paperclip the better pick?
If you already run agents like Claude Code or Codex and want to host the software yourself, Paperclip is a good fit today. It moves fast, though. Its last four releases each came with breaking changes, so plan time for upgrades.
Pick Mellovy when you don’t want to host anything or bring your own agents. And pick it when you want a separate AI to check each step in your apps before it runs.
Which Paperclip alternative should you choose?
- Choose Mellovy if you’re a team, and you want something other than whoever did the work to check every result. You don’t want to build agents or look after them. And you’d like a Swedish company that runs from the EU.
- Choose Claude Duet if you’re in the US on Claude Pro or Max and you’ve got an invitation. And you want help with your own email and calendar.
- Choose ChatGPT Dots if you’re in ChatGPT all day and pay for Pro outside Europe, or for Business Premium or Enterprise. And you want agents that start from what ChatGPT already remembers about you.
- Choose Grok Bot if you’re already on Premium or higher on The X Subscription, and you want a few personal agents on your computer and phone today.
- Choose Lindy if you want one teammate your people can message in Slack, iMessage or Gmail. And security checks matter to you.
- Choose Dust if you want agents your whole team shares, that know what your company knows. And you want to be able to keep your data in the EU.
- Choose Relevance AI if you’re a big business that wants teams of agents working across 2,000 other tools, and you’re fine buying through a sales call.
- Choose Zapier Agents if you’re already on Zapier, and you want agents that can act in all the apps you’ve connected.
- Choose Gumloop if it’s the people closest to the job who’ll build the agents, not engineers. And you want them in Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- Choose n8n if you want it on your own servers, with a say over every step. And there’s someone on the team who’s fine with code.
Paperclip alternatives compared
| Tool | Good for | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Mellovy | teams that want AI colleagues, not agents to look after | Not public yet, seven-day trial |
| Claude Duet | a personal helper for one person in the US | Included in Claude Pro, $20/month |
| ChatGPT Dots | always-on agents inside ChatGPT | Included in ChatGPT Pro |
| Grok Bot | personal agents that learn by watching you | From $30/month on Premium |
| Lindy | a teammate your people message in Slack, iMessage and email | $29.99/month per user |
| Dust | agents for the whole team, with your data in the EU | €30 per person per month |
| Relevance AI | teams of agents in large companies | Priced per customer |
| Zapier Agents | agents across the apps you already use | $33.33/month, billed annually |
| Gumloop | teams of agents built without code | $37/month |
| n8n | building automations yourself, on your own servers | €20/month, billed annually |
How we compared these Paperclip alternatives
We haven’t tried every tool ourselves. But we’ve read what each one says it does, what it costs and how it handles security. Every fact on this page links back to where we found it. And we asked them all the same six questions.
- Where it lives
- Is it in a chat app like Slack, in an app of its own, or on a computer of its own?
- Who it’s for
- Is it for you alone, for a team, or for the whole company?
- Who checks the work
- Does something other than the agent look at the result before you rely on it?
- Who builds it
- Do you design the agent yourself, or do you say what you want and get it set up for you?
- Where your data goes
- Where does it run? Can you keep your data in the EU? And what security checks has it published?
- What it costs
- The cheapest paid plan, what’s in it, and how they count what you use.
Top Paperclip alternative for teams that want AI colleagues, not agents to look after
01 Mellovy
Mellovy is a company of AI colleagues, and you’re in it with them. They’re in departments, they have roles, and they all share your goals and standards. Each one has its own computer. And you can watch what it’s doing and take over any time you want.
When a colleague finishes something, it doesn’t get to judge it. A separate check does, and that check only sees what came out. Then it saves what it found as memory for your whole organisation, for each department and for each colleague. And every time you correct something, that’s a test for next time. Mellovy AB is Swedish, and we run Mellovy from the EU.
Key features
- AI colleagues that each have a department, a role and goals
- Something else checks every result you get
- Each colleague gets a computer you can watch and take over
- We pick the AI model for each task, from Anthropic, OpenAI, Berget AI or TypeSafe AI
- It connects to over 1,600 apps and Microsoft 365, and there’s a web browser for all the rest
Pros
- The colleague who did the work never checks it or writes the memory
- Not tied to one AI company
- It runs from the EU, and if you’re a business you get a contract that says how we handle your data
Cons
- Invite-only for now, so you join a waitlist first
- Prices aren’t public yet
- You can’t view the memory yet
Pricing
Mellovy opens as invite-only early access. Once you’re in, you add a card and get seven days with limited usage, and we don’t charge you during them. We’ll publish plans and prices when Mellovy opens to everyone.
Top Paperclip alternative for a personal helper for one person in the US
02 Claude Duet
Claude Duet is Anthropic’s personal agent, and it gets on with things before you ask. You message it from the Claude app on iPhone or Android. And it’s got its own computer in the cloud, so it keeps going after you close your laptop.
It brings your Claude memory, skills and connected apps along, and it asks you before it sends, pays, signs or deletes anything. Duet is a research preview. You can get it on a US Claude Pro or Max account if you have an invitation from the waitlist.
Key features
- It sums up your email and calendar for you every morning
- Bigger jobs come back as finished files, like slide decks or dashboards
- It’s got a computer and web browser in the cloud, all to itself
- It can buy things for you, with one-time cards through Link or Shop Pay
- Connects to over 6,000 apps and plugins
Pros
- It’s free on Pro and Max during the preview
- Asks before it sends, pays, signs or deletes
- Reuses your Claude memory, skills and connected apps
Cons
- Only in the US, and only with an invitation
- Not on Team or Enterprise plans yet
- No Microsoft 365, and only some of Slack
Pricing
You don’t pay extra for Duet during the preview. It comes with Claude Pro at $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually, and with Max from $100 a month. It counts against your plan’s usage limit.
Top Paperclip alternative for always-on agents inside ChatGPT
03 ChatGPT Dots
ChatGPT Dots are OpenAI’s agents that keep working in the background. Each dot has its own computer in the cloud, separate from yours, and it uses your connected apps.
You decide what a dot may do. Custom Rules let you allow an action or block it, or ask for your approval first. And an automatic review checks the risky ones. On ChatGPT Pro you can’t get dots in the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the UK or Switzerland. OpenAI is rolling out Business Premium and Enterprise worldwide.
Key features
- Starts from your ChatGPT memory
- It takes on things you want done all the time, not only one-off tasks
- Custom Rules to allow, block or ask for approval
- Automatic review of risky actions
- Its own computer in the cloud
Pros
- Lives in ChatGPT, which many teams already use
- Custom Rules give you control over what it does
- Has a computer of its own, separate from yours
Cons
- Not on the Free, Go or Plus plans
- On Pro, not available in the EU, the UK or Switzerland
- Runs only on OpenAI’s own AI model
Pricing
Dots come with ChatGPT Pro, and OpenAI is rolling them out to Business Premium and Enterprise. You don’t get them on the Free, Go or Plus plans.
Top Paperclip alternative for personal agents that learn by watching you
04 Grok Bot
Grok Bot gives you agents that keep going around the clock on a computer in the cloud. They sign in to your tools. And if you show one a task once, it can do it again. They can all run at once, and they talk to each other in group chats.
You can run Grok Bot on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone or Android, and it came out in beta on August 11, 2026. Before it does anything risky, an automatic review checks it.
Key features
- Learns routines by watching you do the task once
- Many agents at once, with group chats
- It signs in to your tools
- A marketplace of agents that are all ready to go
- An automatic review of anything risky
Pros
- Grok Bot, Grok and Cursor all draw from one weekly pool
- It’s in Premium, Super and Ultra, and that’s for you or your team. On Enterprise, an administrator turns it on
- Enterprise plans come with controls for access and auditing
Cons
- One person’s Grok Bots all share one computer
- If you go past the weekly allowance, you pay for what you use
- Still in beta
Pricing
Grok Bot comes with Premium at $30 a month, Super at $100 and Ultra at $200, and team seats cost the same. You don’t get it on the free plan or on Plus.
Top Paperclip alternative for a teammate your people message in Slack, iMessage and email
05 Lindy
Lindy is a helper that works like a teammate. It remembers things and repeats jobs on a schedule. It can also join meetings and make phone calls. It’s in Slack threads and iMessage, and you can email it or use a Chrome extension inside Gmail.
It comes with more than 40 ready-made skills and connects to over 1,500 other tools. And anything that affects the outside world waits for your approval. Everyone on the team draws from one shared pool of credits, and that’s the usage you pay for. When the pool runs out, Lindy pauses. It doesn’t charge you more.
Key features
- Over 40 ready-made skills
- Remembers things and repeats jobs on a schedule
- Watches you do a task, then learns it
- Connects to over 1,500 tools
- Lets you pick the AI model for each task
Pros
- The whole team shares one pool of credits
- Pauses instead of sending a surprise bill
- Passed an independent security audit, with US health-data rules covered on Enterprise
Cons
- You pay for every active user, even someone who only mentions it in Slack
- Unused monthly credits don’t carry over
- The free credits last only seven days
Pricing
On Free you get $50 of credits for seven days, with no card. Team starts at $29.99 a month per active user for 3,000 credits, and more credits cost $10 per 1,000. On Enterprise you get a price of your own and the US health-data rule HIPAA. You also get one login for the whole company and a record of who did what.
Top Paperclip alternative for agents for the whole team, with your data in the EU
06 Dust
Dust is for agents that a whole team uses. You give each one the knowledge it needs, plus tools. You can pick from more than 20 AI models. And you talk to it in the web app, a Chrome extension or Slack.
You use Spaces to decide who can see what. And agents can run multi-step jobs on a schedule, or when something happens. You can host your data in the EU or the US. Dust says it’s passed an independent security audit and that it follows EU privacy law.
Key features
- More than 20 AI models, like GPT, Claude, Gemini and Mistral
- Agents with their own knowledge and tools
- Multi-step jobs that run on a schedule or when something happens
- Spaces that control who sees what
- It’s in the web app, a Chrome extension and Slack
Pros
- You can choose EU or US hosting for your data
- Passed an independent security audit and follows EU privacy law
- You don’t need a higher plan to use any AI model
Cons
- Unused credits don’t carry over
- The self-serve plan is for up to 100 people
- On the Business plan you only get three connected tools and five Spaces
Pricing
A free seat gets 500 credits, once. Pro is €30 per person a month, or €24 billed yearly, with 8,000 credits a month. Max is €150 a month, or €120 billed yearly, with 40,000 credits. Enterprise has a price for each customer. Prices don’t include VAT.
Top Paperclip alternative for teams of agents in large companies
07 Relevance AI
Relevance AI is a platform for building AI agents, and teams of agents that work together, without much code. You build the agents and give them what they need to know. Then you connect them to more than 2,000 other tools.
It has agents that make phone calls and join meetings, and ways to test how well an agent does. It says it has passed an independent security audit and follows EU privacy law. And it hides personal details before an AI model sees them.
Key features
- Agents, and teams of agents that work together
- Knowledge the agents can look things up in
- Connects to over 2,000 tools
- Agents that make calls and join meetings
- Ways to test how well an agent does
Pros
- Passed an independent security audit and follows EU privacy law
- Hides personal details before an AI model sees them
- Unlimited agents, users and projects on Enterprise
Cons
- No public prices
- It only lists an Enterprise plan
- To buy it, you go through a sales call
Pricing
Relevance AI only lists an Enterprise plan, with a price for each customer. There’s no free plan.
Top Paperclip alternative for agents across the apps you already use
08 Zapier Agents
Zapier Agents are AI helpers built on Zapier’s more than 9,000 app connections. You build them in the Zapier web app or the Chrome extension. Ready-made templates cover jobs like finding details about new leads and running an IT help desk in Slack.
Agents can browse the web and look things up in live data. Zapier warns that results can differ from one run to the next, so the same request may turn out differently.
Key features
- Connects to over 9,000 apps
- Jobs that start on their own
- Looks things up in live data
- Browses the web
- Ready-made templates
Pros
- A free plan with 400 activities a month
- The widest app library of the tools here
- Team accounts share one pool of activities
Cons
- Agents don’t follow the app limits that Enterprise admins set
- The same request can give different results
- Pro stops at 1,500 activities a month
Pricing
The free plan gives you 400 activities a month. Pro is $33.33 a month billed annually, which is $400 a year, for 1,500 activities. Enterprise has a price for each customer, and it adds a record of who did what.
Top Paperclip alternative for teams of agents built without code
09 Gumloop
Gumloop is a platform for building teams of AI agents that use all your tools. You can find them in the web app, in Slack and in Microsoft Teams. And each one can have its own email inbox.
It’s got more than 35 AI models to pick from, or you can plug in accounts you already have with AI companies. Company Brain lets agents answer from what your business knows. Gumloop says it’s passed an independent audit of its security. It says it follows privacy law in the EU too, and that the AI providers it uses don’t keep your data.
Key features
- Unlimited agents
- More than 35 AI models, or bring the accounts you already have
- Company Brain, so agents learn what you know as a business
- Each agent can have an email inbox
- It works in Slack and in Microsoft Teams
Pros
- On Pro there’s no limit on people or teams
- You can use your own accounts with AI companies
- It’s passed an independent security audit, and it follows EU privacy law
Cons
- An extra 8% fee on top of Pro for running your jobs
- Only five jobs can run at once on Pro
- Company-wide login, user management and a record of who did what are Enterprise only
Pricing
Pro starts at $37 a month with 20,000 credits, plus an 8% fee for running jobs, and you get a 14-day free trial. Enterprise has a price for each customer.
Top Paperclip alternative for building automations yourself, on your own servers
10 n8n
n8n is a tool for building automations, and it has AI agents too. You pay each time a workflow runs. You can let n8n host it, or run it on your own servers. And the Community Edition is free, with its code out in the open.
You build by joining blocks on a canvas, and you can write your own code when you need to. A step can wait until a person says yes. You set up your own tests, too. And n8n says it’s passed independent security audits and that it follows EU privacy law.
Key features
- You build AI agents out of blocks on a canvas
- A step can wait until someone says yes
- Write code of your own when you need it
- Chat windows to host or embed
- Tests for your agents
Pros
- No limit on users, workflows or connections, on any plan
- A free Community Edition that you run yourself
- Passed independent security audits and follows EU privacy law
Cons
- Starter allows five workflows to run at once
- Company-wide login only starts on the Business plan, at €667 a month
- Custom building blocks work only if you host it yourself
Pricing
Starter is €20 a month billed annually, with 2,500 runs. Pro is €50 a month billed annually, with 10,000. Business is €667 a month, and Enterprise has a price for each customer. There’s a free trial with no card, and the Community Edition is free to run yourself.
Questions about Mellovy and Paperclip.
- Which Paperclip alternative should I pick?
- It depends on what you need. If you don’t want to host anything or bring your own agents, Mellovy is the closest fit. If your team works in Slack, look at Lindy and Dust. If you want to build the agent yourself, look at Zapier Agents and n8n. They’re all on this page, and we took each price from the company’s own site.
- How is Mellovy different from Paperclip?
- It’s who runs it and who checks the work. With Paperclip, you host it, you bring the agents and you decide which tasks get a review. With Mellovy, we host it. And a separate AI checks each step in your apps before it runs, so you don’t have to set that up.
- Is Paperclip free?
- The software is. Paperclip is open source under the MIT license, and you don’t need a Paperclip account. But your agents use your own keys with the model providers you pick, and you pay for that.
- Can a Paperclip agent review its own work?
- Not in a review stage. When a task has one, Paperclip picks a reviewer other than the agent that did the work. Review stages are optional, though, and you add them task by task.
- What happens when a Paperclip agent hits its budget?
- Paperclip warns you at 80%. At 100% it pauses the agent and blocks new tasks. You can raise the limit and start it again. Or you wait, because the budget resets on the first of the month.
Meet your AI colleagues.
Mellovy opens as invite-only early access. Join the waitlist to be among the first invited.
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