The AI you go to, or the AI that reads your messages.
Claude is Anthropic's general-purpose AI assistant. You ask it to think, write, code, or delegate desktop work through Cowork. this+that is different. It's a comms-forward AI that reads every email, Slack thread, Teams chat, Google Chat, and Telegram DM you receive, extracts the tasks, and runs workflows. Both products are MCP-native. Many teams use both.
A general-purpose AI you open and ask, or a comms-forward AI that reads your messages
Software has been here before. In the early Office days, Access was a core component because people built their own line-of-business apps. Then specialized SaaS took over, one domain at a time: Salesforce won CRM, Asana won projects, Shopify won commerce. Even though some people use Excel as a database, Access did not lose to Excel. It lost to a constellation of purpose-built apps that each nailed one job better than a general tool could. AI is at the same point. We think of it as two waves: Wave 1 is the general-purpose chat you open and ask; Wave 2 is the fit-for-purpose AI that owns one job end-to-end, with UI tailored to it (more in our essay on AI's second wave).
Claude is a Wave 1 product. Extraordinary reasoning, Claude Code for engineering, Cowork for desktop delegation, real Memory and Projects, generous pricing. It will keep doing what it does brilliantly. this+that is one of Wave 2's first products: fit-for-purpose for messages, tasks, and team workflow. The agent lives inside your inbox and chat channels, scans every message for what needs doing, surfaces tasks for the whole team, and runs workflows automatically. Both products are MCP-native, so they compose. Claude Desktop can reach this+that's DoBox through MCP. Most teams who use Claude heavily will also benefit from a Wave 2 product handling their inbox. They solve different jobs.
Feature by feature
How the two products compare across the things that matter most.
| Topic | Claude | this+that |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Agent-as-app. A general-purpose AI assistant for chat, coding, writing, analysis, and task delegation. | Comms-forward. An agent that reads your messages and acts on them without being asked. |
| Where work starts | With you. You prompt Claude in a chat, run Claude Code on a project, or hand off a desktop task through Cowork. | With incoming messages. The agent reads what arrives without being asked and surfaces what needs doing. |
| Channels read | Connectors pull content from external apps when you ask (email, calendar, drive, code, chat, project tools) plus custom remote MCP. Lookup-on-demand, not continuous scanning of incoming messages. | Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Teams, Google Chat, and Telegram, continuously. |
| Task layer | Projects organize conversations and files. Memory carries context across chats. No persistent assignable task layer for messages you receive. | DoBox. Every message scanned for tasks, surfaced as assignable items for the whole team. |
| Workflow automation | Cowork lets you delegate multi-step desktop tasks with per-action approval. Claude Code handles agentic engineering work. | Plain-language workflow builder triggered by incoming messages. 32 action types with IF/ELSE branching, loops, and sub-agents. |
| Memory / knowledge | Personal Memory across chats (auto-summarized, refreshes every 24h), organized by Project. Available on Free and paid tiers. Single-user. | The brain — a writable team and personal knowledge layer with versioning. Agents read and write. |
| Team capabilities | Team plan (5-seat minimum) with shared admin, SSO, central billing, and enterprise search. Memory and conversations are still individual. | Team task assignment, shared task view, and team-request grounding (your agent searches a teammate's brain to draft a suggested reply). |
| MCP support | Native. Claude.ai web (via OAuth), Claude Desktop, and Claude Code connect to any MCP server. | Native, bidirectional. Consumes any MCP server in workflows (HubSpot, GitHub, Linear, etc.), and exposes a public MCP server so Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any MCP client can reach your tasks. |
| Integrations | Anthropic Connectors for major SaaS apps, plus any tool via remote MCP. | Open MCP standard. Any tool with an MCP server or API plugs in. |
| Surfaces | Web, macOS and Windows desktop, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, IDE plugins (VS Code, JetBrains), Slack, Microsoft 365, API, and Claude Code CLI. | Web app, browser extension (DoBox for Gmail), and a public MCP server reachable from any AI client. |
| Pricing | Free, Pro $20/mo, Max $100/mo (5x usage) or $200/mo (20x), Team $20/seat/mo annual or $25 monthly Standard, $100/$125 Premium (5-seat minimum), Enterprise custom. | Free during beta. |
- Claude is one of the best general-purpose AI assistants available. For reasoning, writing, analysis, and code, the model itself is hard to beat.
- Claude Code is the gold standard for agentic engineering work. It runs in your terminal, reads and writes files, executes commands, and ships with judgment about what to do next.
- Cowork lets you delegate multi-step desktop tasks with per-action approval. Combined with Memory and Projects, Claude is a serious personal agent for the work you ask it to do.
- Personal pricing is generous: a real Free tier with Memory across chats, and Pro at $20/mo. The on-ramp is gentle.
- Team plan adds SSO, JIT provisioning, shared projects, workplace Connectors, and enterprise search. Standard ($20/$25 seat); Premium ($100/$125 seat) includes Claude Code and Cowork.
- Enterprise adds SCIM, SAML/OIDC SSO, audit logs (~180-day export), Compliance API, custom data retention, IP allowlisting, and HIPAA-ready posture with a signed BAA.
- A different category. The agent reads the messages you receive, not just the prompts you send.
- Reads six channels natively — Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Teams, Google Chat, and Telegram — continuously, not on demand.
- DoBox: every message scanned for tasks, with the whole team able to see, assign, and track them in one place.
- Workflows triggered by incoming messages, not just by you asking. 32 action types with branching, loops, and sub-agents.
- The brain is a writable team knowledge layer (not single-user Memory) that agents read and update as a side effect of doing real work.
- MCP works both ways: this+that consumes any MCP server inside workflows, and exposes its own so Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any MCP client can reach your tasks. The two products compose rather than compete.
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