Zero vs Town: Messaging-Native vs Email-Native

Town and Zero both answer to the same request: take the busywork off your plate. They go about it from opposite ends. Town starts at your inbox and your calendar and works outward from there. Zero starts in the chat apps you already text in and works outward from your whole life. If you sort them by where they feel most at home, Town lives in email and Zero lives in your messages. That one difference explains almost everything below.

Both come with real pedigree. Town was founded by Plaid's former CTO, raised a $55M Series A from a16z, and is built for exec and finance teams who run their day out of email. Zero is a do-anything intern you reach in the messaging apps you already live in, with one shared memory that leads the public tests for long-term recall and a real browser that gets the work done.

Quick comparison

Where you talk to it

This is the clearest split. Town reaches you through email, its web app, Slack, an iPhone app, a Mac app, and text message. That's a solid spread for someone whose work already runs through those places. But with WhatsApp and Telegram, Town can only read. It can see messages that come in through them; it cannot send or manage them for you. If you want to hand off a WhatsApp thread and have your assistant reply, follow up, and keep it moving, that isn't what Town does.

Zero works across the messaging apps in both directions. It's there in WhatsApp, Telegram, and across all other social platforms, through an approved business account. It reads and it sends. You can also connect your own accounts on these platforms so Zero reads and sends the messages already landing in them. For a lot of people, especially outside the US, the group chats and the business contacts and the actual back-and-forth all live in WhatsApp. Zero manages that conversation; Town watches it.

What each one runs on

Town's app for your computer is Town for Mac. You pull it up with a keyboard shortcut, and it reads your iMessages and your Mac contacts, turns your speech into text on the spot, reads the files on your computer, and searches the web. That's useful if your work sits in files on your machine, and it's the kind of access to your own computer that most cloud assistants don't touch. It is not a full web browser, though. It doesn't sign into websites and click through a checkout or a booking for you.

Zero uses a real web browser, which means it can use the sites that don't offer an easy hook-in for software, not just the ones that do. Two details matter. You get your own browser, not a shared one. And you sign in to a site once, and Zero stays signed in for you, so you don't have to do it again. When a site throws up a "prove you're human" check that Zero can't clear, it hands you a link to finish that one step, then takes over and completes the task. So the shapes are different: Town reaches into your Mac and the files on it, Zero reaches out to any website on the open web.

Payments

You might assume Town's finance pedigree puts it ahead here. It's the other way around. Town connects to tools like Stripe and QuickBooks to look up your numbers and create invoices, and that is where it stops. It reads your finances, but it can't help you buy anything.

Zero connects to those same finance tools, so it can look up your numbers too. Then it goes further. Its browser can find what you need, take it all the way to the checkout page on any site, and hand you a payment link to finish. You approve, the store gets paid directly, and Zero never stores your card or moves money on its own, so the final click is always yours. That is the difference between an assistant that only reads your books and one that can run a whole purchase for you.

Memory

Both keep a memory for each person that sticks around, and both keep AI training turned off by default, so start by giving Town its due. Town builds a running notebook on how you work and learns your writing voice well enough to draft email that sounds like you. For an assistant built around email, that's the right thing to remember, and it's a real strength in that lane.

Zero's memory is built to cover everything, not one app. Every conversation you have with Zero, on any app, feeds one memory that gets sharper over time. It isn't a flat list of facts. It keeps a timeline of what happened and when it changed, links the people and projects across your conversations, and shows you where it learned something instead of guessing. When it doesn't know, it says so rather than making something up. On the two standard public tests for long-term memory, Zero scores the best of any system, which we detail in our memory research. The edge is one memory across everything: because Zero reads and sends across all your messaging apps, the memory it builds comes from your whole life, not just your inbox.

Privacy

The two share the important part. Town keeps AI training off by default, doesn't sell your data, and scrambles it everywhere so no one can read it. Zero never trains on your data at all. Every Zero account runs on its own, not mixed in with everyone else's. Your passwords live in a vault only you can unlock, so nobody at Zero can read them, and Zero signs in for you without ever seeing the actual password. It screens the pages it reads for hidden instructions that try to hijack it.

The other real difference is reach. Zero works worldwide, right there in the messaging apps people use across countries, especially WhatsApp, which is the default outside the US, and it works both ways. Town is email-first and built around US-style workplace tools and US teams. If you or your contacts live outside the US, especially on WhatsApp, that's the line that will decide it.

Where Zero is different

Strip away the feature-by-feature and three things separate Zero from Town.

The first is working both ways in the apps you already text in. Zero doesn't ask you to move your conversations into a new inbox or a new desktop app. It shows up across WhatsApp, Telegram, and all other social platforms, and it sends as well as reads. Town's strongest spot is email; on the messaging apps it can only read.

The second is one memory across all of it. Because Zero is in every messaging app both ways, the memory it builds covers your personal life and your work together, from a group chat plan to an inbox follow-up, and it shows you where it learned things instead of guessing. Town remembers how you work inside its email-and-calendar world; Zero remembers you across the apps where the rest of your life happens.

The third is a real browser that reaches out instead of in. Town works off the files on your own machine. Zero drives its own browser onto the open web and gets a task all the way to done, even on the sites most software can't automate.

On top of that, Zero handles flights, bookings, research, and inbox cleanup, runs any routine you describe in plain words across 100+ app connections, records and sums up your meetings with a system it built itself rather than borrowed from someone else's note-taker, and sends you a morning rundown of what your day needs. If you'd rather talk than type, the Zero ring is an optional add-on that feeds the same memory.

Who each one is for

Town is for the exec and finance crowd who live in email. If your work is drafting and sending email in your own voice, clearing a busy inbox, scheduling across Google and Outlook, and pulling numbers from Stripe or QuickBooks, Town is built precisely for that, and the ex-Plaid background shows up in the finance features. It's a strong B2B assistant for people whose center of gravity is the inbox.

Zero is for people who live in their messaging apps and want one intern that remembers everything and runs the whole day. If your real conversations are in WhatsApp and Telegram, if you want to run them both ways, if you want a browser that can book and buy and research on any site, and if you want a single memory that covers work and life, Zero is built for that. It's global, it's right there in your chats, and it treats your data as yours.

The verdict

These two don't fight over the same square of ground. Town is an assistant built around email, good with finances, with genuine strengths for B2B teams, and it's honest that it can only read WhatsApp and Telegram and only look up your finances. Zero is a full personal intern that will take on almost anything you hand it, booking, research, inbox, purchases, and any workflow you describe, as long as you have given it access, through a real browser or one of its connected apps. You just happen to reach it in the chat apps you already use, both ways, and it keeps one memory across everything, worldwide.

If your day is your inbox, Town fits it well. If your day is your messages, and you want an intern that remembers you and can do things on the open web wherever you are, that's Zero.

FAQ

Can Town send WhatsApp and Telegram messages for me?

No. Town can only read WhatsApp and Telegram, so it sees incoming messages but can't send or manage them for you. Zero manages both apps both ways, and covers more chat apps through an approved business account.

Does Town use a real web browser like Zero?

Not in the same way. Town's app for your computer is a Mac app that reads your files, iMessages, and contacts and searches the web. Zero uses a real web browser that's yours alone, signs in once and stays signed in, and finishes tasks on any site, including ones that don't offer an easy hook-in for software.

Can either one pay for things on my behalf?

Both can look up your financial data through tools like Stripe and QuickBooks. The difference is what happens next. Town stops at looking things up, while Zero's browser can find what you need, take you to checkout on any site, and send you a payment link to finish. Neither holds your card, so the final payment is always yours to make.

Which one remembers me better?

Both keep a memory for each person that sticks around. Town builds a running notebook on how you work and learns your writing voice, which is strong for email. Zero keeps one memory across every app you talk to it in, with a timeline of what changed and a note of where it learned things, and it scores the best on the public long-term memory tests.

Is Town or Zero available outside the US?

Zero works worldwide, in the messaging apps people use across countries, especially WhatsApp. Town is built around US-style email and finance workflows; it doesn't publish a hard geographic block, but its center of gravity is US teams. If you or your contacts live outside the US, especially on WhatsApp, Zero is the more natural fit.

What does Zero cost compared to Town?

Zero is free to start, or Plus at $18 a month ($180 a year), and it's in closed beta and invite-only for now. Town has a free plan that stays free plus paid tiers you pay for by credits.