Manus Alternatives in 2026: For Credit Costs, Data Control or Daily Follow-Through

Which Manus alternative is best comes down to your reason for leaving. For the same kind of agent at a different price, try Genspark. For a hard ceiling on spending, Perplexity Computer. For repeating team work, Lindy. To keep memory on your own machine, OpenClaw. For personal follow-through on a Mac, Merlin. If you simply want finished deliverables, Manus may still be the right tool.

2026 gave Manus users more to think about than most software does: a sale to Meta, a reversal, a data deletion for some accounts and a new desktop app. Some of what's written about Manus has also gone stale. The notes below separate what still applies from what doesn't, then match each reason for leaving to a product, using each company's published pages.

What Manus does well

Manus is an autonomous agent that takes a task and hands back the finished work. Manus's docs describe a virtual colleague with its own computer, a sandbox with internet access and files that persist, where it can install software and build its own tools. Its homepage lists slides, websites, games, video, design and Wide Research, across web, mobile and desktop apps.

The range keeps growing. Manus 2.0, described in a help article dated October 1, 2026, adds Manus Studio for working with files on your computer, a video editor mode, a game mode, Remote Control by voice from your phone, and automations that run on a schedule or start from activity in your apps. The connector catalog covers Gmail and Outlook Mail along with the Google and Outlook calendars, and the docs name Notion, Slack and GitHub too.

Teams get a real offer as well. Manus's Team plan starts at $20 per seat a month with pooled credits and free guests who can view and comment, and the same page says Manus holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications. If you make varied deliverables, use Windows, or want video and games from the same tool, staying is a sensible answer.

What sends people looking beyond Manus in 2026

The reasons people leave Manus come down to unpredictable credit use, a year of ownership changes, where files go, and whether a task agent is the right shape for the job.

• Credits vary by task. Manus's credits page gives examples from 200 credits for a chart to 900 for a small web app. On the $20 Pro tier's 4,000 credits, that's about 20 of the first or four of the second. Monthly credits reset, and leftovers go when a subscription ends. Refunds cover tasks that fail from technical issues on Manus's side, and that page doesn't promise one for a result you just don't like.
• The Meta reversal. Manus announced it was joining Meta on December 29, 2025. On August 11, 2026, it told certain users that data they generated on or after December 29, 2025 would be deleted, with a window to back it up first, citing its move to independent operations and regulatory requirements and saying no security incident was involved. By September 1, Manus said it had resumed independent operations, with its founding team still in charge. Manus's notice doesn't say who those users were, only that they'd be told in the app or by email. Everyone else didn't need to do anything, but those affected had to back up and restore their work.
• Where your files go. Manus Studio's docs say each task is planned in the cloud and file content Manus reads becomes part of that task. Commands can read any file your user account can open, even in the approval modes. Manus stores data in the US and Singapore.
• Training terms by plan. Manus's pricing article lists a data training opt-out among the Team plan's additions, and its Team page says it never allows model training on that data. The same pages don't spell out Free and Pro, so check before you put client files in a personal account.
• The job isn't a deliverable. Manus is organized around tasks. If your problem is the reply you owe or the call you haven't prepared for, you may want something that watches for those.

Genspark: the closest swap for slides and research

Genspark's Super Agent works much like Manus. Genspark's help page describes a dedicated sandbox with a real browser, its own filesystem and code execution, carrying a request through to delivered files, and connecting to Gmail or Outlook when it needs to send mail.

The pricing is where it differs. Genspark Plus costs $24.99 monthly, or $239.99 for a year, from 10,000 credits, and it adds a weekly Free Quota for Standard-mode agents that doesn't draw down those credits. AI Slides starts at about 10 credits a page in Standard and about 100 in Ultra, and manual edits are free.

It doesn't remove the meter. Genspark's credits guide says retries and long conversations add up, and unused plan credits don't carry over. Free stops refilling at a lifetime limit, and slide export needs a paid plan. Teams pay more than on Manus, at $40 per seat a month. Choose Genspark if you mostly want decks, documents and research, and would use the weekly allowance.

Perplexity Computer: for a ceiling on what you spend

Perplexity Computer suits people whose main worry is the bill. Perplexity's credit guide states that 100 credits equal $1 and publishes ranges: 350 to 950 credits for a multi-step research report, or $3.50 to $9.50, and 2,400 to 9,800 for a data dashboard. Max accounts have a default $200 monthly spending cap you can change, and when you hit it, active tasks pause and nothing more is charged.

Computer researches with citations, writes documents, builds apps and runs scheduled jobs, on the web, iOS and Android, with connectors including Gmail, Outlook, Slack and Notion. Perplexity Max costs $200 a month with 10,000 credits. Perplexity Pro, listed at $17 a month billed annually, has no monthly credits, only weekly Computer usage that doesn't roll over, so heavy use means buying credits.

The help page doesn't describe a general approval step for actions in connected apps, and if a free account runs out of turns mid-task, changes already made stay in place. Choose Perplexity Computer if research is most of your Manus use and you want to see the cost in dollars.

Lindy: when the work belongs to a team

Lindy suits repeating work shared across a company rather than one-off deliverables. Lindy's site calls it an AI employee that you @mention in Slack, reach by iMessage or email, and teach skills the whole team can use. It lists more than 1,500 integrations, scheduled routines, meeting notes and phone calls.

Lindy's pricing bills every active user, from $29.99 a month for 3,000 credits each, with credits pooled and top-ups at $10 per 1,000. Actions with outside impact, such as sending email, need approval, and credit-using actions pause when you run out. Free is $50 in credits that last seven days. For one person who wants the occasional slide deck, that's a poor match. For a support or sales team working in Slack, it's a natural one.

OpenClaw: to keep your agent's memory at home

OpenClaw answers the data question most directly. OpenClaw's site describes an MIT-licensed assistant whose state lives on your machine, with desktop apps for Mac, Windows and Linux, and 29 chat channels including WhatsApp, Slack and Signal. It has no subscription, no hosted tier and no paid version. You bring your own models, so any hosted model you choose can still carry its own bill and see what you send it.

You also take on the job of securing it. OpenClaw's security guide assumes one trusted operator or a team whose members trust each other, and says agents with messaging access can reach across conversations and channels by default until you restrict them. Choose OpenClaw if you're comfortable with that work. If you aren't, Manus Studio's Ask for approval mode is an easier first step toward more control.

Merlin: for daily follow-through on a Mac

Merlin, which we make, solves a different problem from Manus. This Mac app keeps context on your people and commitments from your mail and calendar. A People panel shows who is waiting on a reply and which contacts have gone silent, and Meeting Brief prepares you for calls. Merlin also records meetings, runs web errands in a separate browser, and makes documents, slides, PDFs, spreadsheets and websites in Projects.

Approvals are the other difference. When a chat request would send mail or move a calendar event, Merlin first shows a card you can read, edit and approve. In the browser, Merlin stops before paying or submitting something it can't take back, and that browser begins with no logins of yours, while Manus's Browser Operator works in your own Chrome or Edge using sessions you're already signed in to. Routines are the exception: they run unattended, so one you allow to post to Slack posts without a card.

Merlin does less in several places. It's Mac only, while Manus Studio also runs on Windows. It also isn't local-only: transcripts, notes and people records are tied to your account, though meeting audio stays on your Mac. There's no mobile app and no phone calling, and setup needs a Google login with both Gmail and Calendar, so an Outlook-only user should look elsewhere. Video editing and game building aren't among the things it makes. Browser tasks need the app open and pause when your Mac sleeps. Merlin's plans start with a free tier of 5,000 monthly credits. Pro adds 25,000 monthly credits for $29, or $278 billed yearly. Its privacy policy says personal information isn't sold and directs questions about model training terms to the team, so ask if that decides it for you.

Choose Merlin if you spend the day in macOS and Gmail, and the work you keep dropping looks like what you'd hand a chief of staff. If only your inbox is the problem, the Fyxer page covers narrower email tools.

Manus, Genspark, Perplexity Computer, Lindy, OpenClaw and Merlin compared

Manus and these five alternatives differ most in how they count usage and where the work happens. Prices are each company's own, in US dollars. A credit buys a different amount in each product, so don't compare credit totals directly.

When staying on Manus is the better call

Staying on Manus makes sense when the trouble is one you can change inside it. A few options before you move anything:

• Cost spikes on a few big jobs. Add-on credit packs never expire, though they're only active on a paid plan. That may suit uneven use better than a higher tier.
• Worried about your own files. In Studio, switch from the default Approve for me to **Ask for approval**, and give each task a single folder. A command you approve can still read any file your account can open, so read each one before allowing it.

How to leave Manus without losing work

Leaving Manus is safest in this order: try the replacement, save your files, cancel, and delete your account last.

1. Run one real task from your Manus history in the alternative, ideally the one that made you start looking.
2. Save the delivered files you need from your tasks. Manus's backup guide describes a tool at manus.im/backup, but it was written for the August 2026 change, so check it's still offered.
3. If you pay for a Cloud Computer, copy its contents off first. Stopping payment deletes its files, tools and databases.
4. Cancel. On the web, click your avatar, then Account, Upgrade or Manage, then Downgrade to Free. If you subscribed through Apple or Google Play, cancel there.
5. Delete the account if you want your data gone. Manus's steps run from your icon to Account, Edit profile, Delete account, then an emailed code. It can't be undone, and Cue shares the same account.