Independent category guide
Poke alternatives in 2026
The best Poke alternative is Pally if you want the same text-first assistant plus calls, purchases, and help with your own WhatsApp, all free. Martin suits voice users, and Town suits teams.
Poke deserves credit for making messaging the interface: it works in Apple Messages, RCS, Telegram, and WhatsApp, connects to email, calendar, and more than 30 apps, and makes scheduled work legible through Recipes. It has a permanent free plan and a $19 monthly Pro tier; calls, reservations, and orders go through Poke Human, a real person, on the $199 Ultra plan.
Pally
Best Poke alternative for finished personal actions
Pally keeps the no-app, text-first idea and extends it to your own connected inboxes and real-world tasks. It is the closest alternative when you want an assistant in your texts that also handles your WhatsApp, books and buys on the web, and makes calls for you, with no paid tier.
Pros
- Lives in your texts, with no app
- Connects your own WhatsApp as an inbox it reads and acts in
- Calls, books, and checks out itself, free
Tradeoffs
- Does not offer Poke's visible, named Recipes interface
Pricing: Pally is free, with almost unlimited usage limits. No waitlist or invitation. Cloud Mac is a paid add-on. See what's included
Martin
Best for voice and an app-based home
Martin is a personal assistant with an iOS app at its center and access through SMS, phone, email, Slack, and WhatsApp. It is a stronger alternative when voice mode, a talking alarm, or an app-based control surface matters more than staying entirely in a text thread.
Pros
- First-class voice mode and phone access
- Strong inbox, calendar, scheduling, and reminders
- Available through several work and messaging channels
Tradeoffs
- No permanent free tier after the seven-day trial
- WhatsApp is a channel to reach it, not an inbox it manages
Pricing: Martin's Basic plan is $35 a month, or $21 a month billed yearly. Pro is $49 a month, or $30 a month billed yearly, and adds alarm calls, email triage, proactive drafts and cc-to-schedule. Every plan starts with a seven-day free trial, and there's no free tier after it. Check latest pricing
Town
Best for configurable team workflows
Town provides a configurable Townie you reach over iMessage or RCS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, email, and its iOS and Mac apps. Its routines, editable wiki, team controls, and work integrations make it the stronger alternative for a team standardizing its assistant.
Pros
- Specific routines for inbox, meetings, research, and follow-ups
- Visible, editable memory in a Townie wiki
- Permanent free plan and team controls
Tradeoffs
- The free plan covers 30 chat messages a month
- Daily briefings and custom routines need a paid plan
Pricing: Town has a permanent free plan with 30 chat messages a month, all integrations, and a weekly briefing. Daily briefings, automatic inbox handling, and custom routines require a paid plan. Starter is $15 a month; Pro is $49, Power $99, and Power Plus $199 per user per month billed annually. New signups get a seven-day Pro trial. Check latest pricing
Folk
Best for a social text companion
Folk is a conversational companion reached through texts.
Pros
- A social presence in your messages
Tradeoffs
- Less suited to work automations
Pricing: Folk is free with every feature and unlimited chat, with up to three background routines or watchers and ten minutes a week of calls with Folk itself. Calls to businesses don't use those minutes. Pro is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with a smarter engine, unlimited background routines and 120 call minutes a month. The first Pro subscription usually starts with a seven-day trial. Check latest pricing
Notis
Best for work from connected chats
Notis runs work across connected apps from WhatsApp and other channels.
Pros
- Connected work from chat
Tradeoffs
- Less suited to personal errands
Pricing: Notis CLI is free. Messaging starts with Pro at $20 a month ($13 a month billed yearly) with $20 of monthly usage. Pro+ is $59 a month ($39 yearly) and Ultra is $149 ($99 yearly); a seven-day paid-plan trial grants $20 of usage. Check latest pricing
Lindy
Best for inbox and meeting-heavy work
Lindy handles work email, meeting notes, and follow-ups.
Pros
- Deep work and meeting workflows
Tradeoffs
- No lasting free plan
Pricing: Lindy offers $50 in free credits with no card required, but they expire after seven days. Paid Team usage starts at $29.99 per user a month for 3,000 credits, pooled across the team. Larger credit packs are available, top-ups cost $10 per 1,000 credits, and Enterprise pricing is custom. There is no ongoing free allowance advertised. Check latest pricing
Arlo
Best for calls and bookings by text
Arlo handles calls and bookings through text, with metered tasks.
Pros
- Text-based calls and bookings
Tradeoffs
- Monthly tasks are metered
Pricing: Arlo is free with $20 of usage each month, including calls and bookings. Plus is $20 a month for $100 of usage; Max is $100 a month for $500. Calls cost 25 cents per minute of talking and about 1.5 cents per minute on hold. Check latest pricing
Carly AI
Best for delegated email and calendar work
Carly AI takes delegated email, calendar, and workflow tasks.
Pros
- Delegation across email and calendar
Tradeoffs
- Less focused on personal messaging
Pricing: Carly has a free plan for MCP access, ten workflows, and calendar and task tools. Its Personal plan is $35 a month; Organization is $35 per seat a month. Paid plans add custom agents, email and SMS delegation, and credits. Check latest pricing
Bottom line
How to choose
Pally is the closest Poke alternative if you want to keep texting as the main interface while adding connected-inbox monitoring and tasks that finish outside chat. Martin is the more convincing switch for voice and app lovers, while Town is a better organizational system for teams.
Stay with Poke if named Recipes are the feature you value most. Poke is strong there.
Questions
Common questions
Is there a free alternative to Poke?
Yes. Pally is free, with almost unlimited usage limits. Town has a permanent free plan with 30 chat messages a month. Martin has a seven-day free trial but no free tier after it.
Which Poke alternative works through text messages?
Pally lives in your texts, and Martin works over SMS in addition to its other channels. You can text a Townie over iMessage or RCS too, alongside email and chat apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
What is the difference between Pally and Poke?
Both are messaging-first. Pally is free; Poke has a free plan and paid tiers with frontier models and higher automation limits. Poke can be messaged through Apple Messages, RCS, Telegram, and WhatsApp and emphasizes named Recipes. Pally lives in your texts, connects your own WhatsApp as an inbox, and finishes bookings, purchases, replies, and calls for you. Poke hands calls, reservations, and orders to Poke Human on its $199 Ultra plan.
Which Poke alternative is best for teams?
Town has the clearest team case in this list, because it offers shared workspaces, pooled credits, organization controls, a visible wiki, and more than 50 integrations.
Facts checked October 12, 2026. Pally pricing comes from its pricing section. Competitor facts and pricing come from the public sources below.