Kavela vs Zo Computer

1. Your own model plan

How Zo Computer does it

Zo works with your own subscriptions. With a Claude Pro or Max plan, you run claude in Zo's terminal to log in, switch Claude Code on under Settings, AI Providers, and pick it in the chat's model picker; Zo then uses your plan instead of its built-in credits ⁴. A ChatGPT Plus or Pro plan works the same way through Codex, with a device-code login in the terminal ⁵. These connections for coding agents come with the monthly paid plans, and any plan can use your own API keys ^{3, 13}.

Zo also has its own model picker with models from several vendors and a setting for reasoning effort, and automations that run on your own keys or subscriptions keep running when your Zo credits run out ¹⁴.

How Kavela does it

Kavela supports the same two plans. With your own Claude plan, the unmodified Claude Code runs inside the agent's own cloud computer and you sign in to it yourself; with a ChatGPT plan, the agent can run Codex instead. Anyone who has neither uses Kavela's included Kav AI usage.

The choice is made per agent, so one team can mix Claude and Codex agents, and Kav hands each piece of work to the right one.

Both products run on the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already pay for. Kavela applies that choice agent by agent, across a team.

2. Managing a team of agents

How Zo Computer does it

Zo's docs describe one agent, Zo. Personas change its style and which tools it may use, and the automation runner is another instance of Zo, with all the same tools, running on the same computer ^{6, 15}. You can also run other agent programs, such as Hermes or OpenClaw, inside your Zo ².

The docs describe no manager agent, no hand-offs between agents and no calendar of tasks. Chats have a history and a search, and the Automations list shows each automation's next run time ^{7, 2, 14}.

How Kavela does it

In Kavela the lead agent is Kav. You tell Kav what you want, in the workspace chat or in Telegram, and Kav plans it, hands each part to the right worker agent, follows up and brings back the result. The workers are a standing team: named agents with their own skills, connected apps and run history, and you can hire a new one by describing the job.

Every task from every agent sits on one calendar, by day, week or month, with its start time, due time and live state, so a week of agent work reads like a week of a team's work: what is scheduled, what is running, what needs you and what is done.

One agent on one computer suits one person's work. A lead agent with a standing team suits work that has to be split up, tracked and followed up.

3. Agents that can sign up for things

How Zo Computer does it

Every Zo has an address, [email protected], and emailing it starts a conversation. Zo's docs describe it as a conversational interface rather than an inbox: emails to it start conversations and are not stored as mail, and to read your inbox or send as you, you connect Gmail or Outlook ⁸. Zo's built-in email tool sends to your own address ¹⁶.

For sites that need a sign-in, you open Zo's browser from Settings and sign in. The browser keeps live cookies for every site you sign in to and runs as a separate session from a different IP address, and a two-factor prompt in the middle of a task needs you ¹⁷.

How Kavela does it

Every Kavela workspace has its own receive-only inbox, Kavela Mail. When an agent signs up for a service on your behalf, it uses a fresh sign-up address from that inbox, waits for the verification email, reads the code or the link and carries on. The wait shows in Approvals. A workspace can hold up to 10 live sign-up addresses at once, each address lasts 24 hours, and received mail is deleted after 30 days.

With a live browser sign-in for the services that need one, agents can create the accounts a job requires and set those services up, rather than stopping to ask you to do it.

An address of the workspace's own lets an agent create the accounts a job needs without using your personal email for each one.

4. What agents need, and what they deliver

How Zo Computer does it

Zo sets what the agent may do in advance. Each persona has a tool scope, such as All access, Workspace, Read only or Chat only, or custom scopes such as comms:email, and device capabilities on your desktop follow allow and deny rules ^{6, 18}. Zo confirms before saving a new automation ⁷. The docs describe no approval cards or approval inbox ^{6, 7}.

Results are files, hosted sites and services, and automation runs, each of which is a real Zo conversation ^{19, 7}. Automation results can go out by email, SMS, Telegram, Discord or Slack, and Zo emails you when a run fails ⁷. The Files view opens spreadsheets, PDFs with annotation, databases and media ¹⁴.

How Kavela does it

Kavela collects everything your agents need into one Approvals inbox for the whole workspace. Each request is a typed card you answer where it is: connect an app, sign in to a site in a live browser, approve an action such as a post before it goes out, choose between options, or let an agent know the email it was waiting for has arrived. Other work carries on while a card waits.

What agents produce arrives as deliverables attached to the task that made them, from documents and reports to sites and files, listed under Delivered and opened in one click.

Scopes decide in advance what an agent may do; cards settle each request as it comes up. Kavela puts those requests, from every agent, in one place.

5. Many agents, running on schedule

How Zo Computer does it

Zo gives each user one persistent computer sized by plan, from 4 CPUs and 32 GB of memory on Basic to 64 CPUs and 512 GB on Ultra, always on for paid plans and with 100 GB of storage ³. A team shares one computer, so the work and the context live together ⁹, and automations run on that same computer ¹⁵. You can set how many concurrent API requests your computer accepts ¹⁴.

Automations are created by asking, for example every weekday at 8am, or from the Automations tab, and can run as often as every 15 minutes ⁷.

How Kavela does it

Each Kavela agent session works in its own cloud computer, with a shell, files, git and a browser, which starts when work starts and sleeps when it stops. One agent's work never slows another's, and work keeps going after you close the tab. The workspace's files persist between runs, so tomorrow's run starts from today's output.

Automations run on a schedule or on an event, such as a webhook or a merged pull request, and can be limited to an active window with start and end dates. There is no cap on how many are switched on at once.

One always-on machine is simple and good for hosting. A computer for each agent session lets many agents work at once without one slowing another.

6. Connecting your tools

How Zo Computer does it

Zo connects broadly. It has built-in integrations such as Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Notion, Linear, Airtable and Outlook, plus a catalog of more than 1,000 apps through Pipedream, and the agent can show an inline Connect button for an OAuth app or an MCP server when it needs one ^{1, 10}. You can also add your own API keys and secrets, sign in through Zo's browser, and let Zo use your desktop devices, including the browser, shell, iMessage and files ^{13, 14, 17, 18}. Zo checks your connected integrations before asking you to sign in through its browser ¹⁴.

How Kavela does it

Kavela connections belong to the workspace: connect a service once and every agent can use it. A service can be connected by OAuth sign-in, as an MCP server, with an API key, with custom secrets, or by signing in to it in a live browser you control. Passwords and keys go into the card, never through the model.

You can also leave it to the agent. With Let Kav set it up, the agent reads the service's documentation, works out the right way to connect it and does the setup, creating the account first if there is none.

Both products reach most of the tools a business uses. Kavela's addition is an agent that can create the missing account and set the service up from its own documentation.