Chorus vs Tomo
Tomo is a personal AI assistant from San Francisco startup Mapo Labs: you text a phone number over iMessage and it learns your goals, remembers context across conversations, and proactively checks in to keep you on track with habits, fitness, budgeting, and daily life. It can search the web, manage your calendar and email, join group chats, and pairs texting with a companion iOS app that generates personalized goal-tracking interfaces that evolve with you. It emerged from stealth in June 2026 with a $5M seed round led by Bain Capital Ventures and more than 10,000 paying subscribers; its site now claims 500,000+ users.
Chorus is a platform for hiring AI employees — autonomous AI agents that each run on their own always-on computer, connect to 70+ tools, and handle real work end to end. Here’s how the two compare, honestly.
At a glance
| Comparison dimension | Chorus | Tomo |
|---|---|---|
| Always-on computer | Every agent runs on its own dedicated always-on machine (4 vCPU / 8 GB) with a real browser — it keeps working when your laptop is closed. | No — Tomo is a hosted chat service reached by texting a phone number; it messages you proactively, but there is no dedicated machine, disk, or browser working on your behalf while you are away. |
| Tool integrations | 70+ integrations out of the box — Gmail, Slack, Notion, GitHub, Linear, Stripe, and more. The agent handles the auth. | Small personal-life set: Google Calendar, Gmail, Notion, Google Drive, and Apple Health, plus built-in web search, photo editing, and video watching. |
| Messaging channels | Web chat, iMessage/SMS, Slack, WhatsApp, and Telegram — and it messages you proactively when work is done. | iMessage-first (text a phone number), with group chat support and a companion iOS app (iOS 18+); no Slack, WhatsApp, or Telegram, and Android is not advertised. |
| Persistent memory | Persistent memory and files live on the agent's own disk, so it remembers last week's work. | Yes — context carries across every conversation so you never repeat yourself, including remembering photos and documents you text it; one independent review noted retention is imperfect. |
| Background automations | Scheduled jobs (crons) and background automations are built in — agents work while you're away. | Proactive check-ins and reminders that Tomo initiates on its own cadence around your goals; no user-defined scheduled jobs or background task automation described. |
| Pricing | Free plan to start (no card). Pro $20/mo for one always-on agent; Max $200/mo; extra agents $50/mo. | Free tier with limits; Tomo Pro $19.99/month or $119.99/year, higher tiers with bigger messaging limits, and promotional pricing that varies by user. |
Where Tomo shines
- Genuinely frictionless setup: you just text a phone number over iMessage, no app install or configuration required, and users reportedly engage with it 20 out of 30 days a month.
- Proactive by design: Tomo initiates check-ins on your goals and habits ("Did you finish your blog post?") rather than waiting to be asked, which is the core of its accountability value.
- Persistent memory across conversations, including multimodal input: users text food photos for calorie tracking, bank-statement screenshots for budgeting, and screen-time reports for accountability.
- Companion iOS app generates personalized software interfaces (workout trackers, budgets, habit streaks) that adapt over time as it learns your goals.
- Strong early traction and credible backing: 10,000+ paying subscribers within 3.5 months of launch, a 4.9/5 App Store rating (on a modest number of early ratings), and a $5M seed led by Bain Capital Ventures with Accel, Align Fund, Basis Set, Conviction, and Pear VC participating.
Where it falls short
- Scoped to personal life coaching and organization, not delegated work: third-party reviews note it is limited for business workflows and not suited to advanced creation or research tasks.
- No computer of its own: Tomo has no dedicated VM or browser it can log into arbitrary websites with, so it cannot execute multi-step work on services outside its fixed integration list.
- Small integration surface: Google Calendar, Gmail, Notion, Google Drive, and Apple Health, versus the dozens of business tools an autonomous-agent platform connects to.
- iMessage- and iOS-centric: the companion app requires iOS 18+, no Slack, WhatsApp, or Telegram channels are advertised, and Android support is not mentioned anywhere on the site or in press coverage.
- Plans are metered by messaging limits and pricing "varies by user" due to promotions, which makes costs less predictable; one independent review also noted imperfect memory retention and occasionally repetitive responses.
Choose Tomo if…
- You want a coach, not an employee: daily accountability for fitness, habits, budgeting, or personal goals, delivered by an AI that texts you first.
- You want zero setup and zero new apps — texting a phone number in iMessage is the entire onboarding.
- You are an iPhone user who lives in iMessage and wants light personal admin (calendar, email, reminders, group chats) woven into your existing texting.
- You value a warm, personality-driven daily companion and check-in cadence more than task execution or tool breadth.
Choose Chorus if…
- You need work actually done for you — research, browsing and logging into websites, drafting and shipping deliverables — by an agent running on its own always-on cloud computer, not a coach that reminds you to do it yourself.
- Your workflows span business tools like Slack, GitHub, Linear, Stripe, or Notion at depth; Chorus connects to 70+ integrations versus Tomo's handful of personal-life ones.
- You want scheduled jobs and automations that run in the background and report back proactively across web chat, iMessage/SMS, Slack, WhatsApp, or Telegram.
- You want to choose models (Claude, GPT, Grok, Gemini) or run multiple specialized agents; Tomo is a single assistant with no advertised model selection.
Common questions
Is Tomo better than Chorus?
They solve different problems. Tomo is a personal accountability coach that texts you to keep you consistent with fitness, habits, and life admin, while Chorus gives you autonomous AI employees that each run on their own always-on cloud computer and execute work across 70+ tool integrations. Pick Tomo if you want coaching and check-ins; pick Chorus if you want tasks delegated and completed for you.
How much does Tomo cost?
Tomo has a limited free tier, and Tomo Pro costs $19.99/month or $119.99/year through the App Store. Tomo's site says higher tiers offer more expansive messaging limits and that prices vary by user because of frequent promotions.
What can Tomo actually do?
Tomo searches the web, manages your calendar and email, sends reminders, joins group chats, and remembers everything you tell it across conversations — including photos like food pics for calorie tracking or bank statements for budgeting. It integrates with Google Calendar, Gmail, Notion, Google Drive, and Apple Health, and its companion iOS app generates personalized trackers for your goals.