Aside

Aside

Aside is a macOS browser with an AI agent that signs into your own accounts and finishes multi-step web work.

81/100Safe BetFree · from $20/monthFreemium

If you're on macOS and your automation keeps dying at login walls, Aside is worth a serious look. Local execution plus a vault that signs agents in without handing over credentials solves the exact problem most browser agents have, and the benchmark wins back up the claim. The practical pull is internal tools nobody built an API for. It's Mac-only and single-player on the lower tiers, so Windows teams should wait.

Verified 4d ago · liveness 81/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/aside

Best for
  • Operations teams automating SaaS reporting, invoice downloads, and renewals on live accounts
  • Sales reps building prospect lists and verifying CRM data across logged-in tools
  • Hiring coordinators prepping interview notes and handling onboarding/offboarding admin
  • Developers triaging CI runs and gathering release evidence via chat, CLI, or MCP
Not ideal for
  • Windows or Linux users — Aside is a macOS-only download
  • Teams needing real-time collaboration on shared agent runs outside the Enterprise tier
  • Anyone unwilling to let an AI agent act inside logged-in accounts
Visit Website

IntermediateSolo Mac user: install the browser, import bookmarks and passwords (1Password import supported), sign in to your sites, and run a first task in roughly 15-30 minutes. Adding your own ChatGPT/Claude subscription or an Ollama/LM Studio local model takes a few more minutes under Settings. Enterprise rollout with shared profiles, vault permissions, and seat management runs longer and comes withDesktopAPI availableVerified 4d ago
Pricing
Free · from $20/month
FreemiumFree tier4 plans
Learning curve
Intermediate
Solo Mac user: install the browser, import bookmarks and passwords (1Password import supported), sign in to your sites, and run a first task in roughly 15-30 minutes. Adding your own ChatGPT/Claude subscription or an Ollama/LM Studio local model takes a few more minutes under Settings. Enterprise rollout with shared profiles, vault permissions, and seat management runs longer and comes with
Runs on
Desktop
API available · 8 integrations
Who it's for
Operations leadRecruiting coordinatorDeveloper
Live sentiment
Is Aside actually worth it?

We scan live Reddit threads, YouTube comments, X posts, G2 reviews and other communities — and hand you an honest verdict in under a minute.

  • Honest verdict, not marketing
  • Real pros & cons from real users
  • Attributed quotes with receipts
Run a free scan

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Skip it if

Skip Aside if you're on Windows or Linux, need several people working inside the same agent session at once, or want a conventional browser with a large extension catalog.

The 30-second take
Price reality

Free covers a solo Mac user running a few routines a month, Pro at $20/mo fits daily deep research and unlimited routines, and Max at $200/mo is for automation at scale. Teams needing shared seats, profiles, and vault controls move to Enterprise contact-sales pricing, so budget for a sales conversation rather than a self-serve upgrade.

In short

Aside — Aside is a macOS browser with an AI agent that signs into your own accounts and finishes multi-step web work. Best for Operations teams automating SaaS reporting, invoice downloads, and renewals on live accounts, Sales reps building prospect lists and verifying CRM data across logged-in tools, Hiring coordinators prepping interview notes and handling onboarding/offboarding admin. Free to start; paid plans from $20/mo.

What's new in Aside

Checked 3 days ago

Across the latest 5 updates: 2 feature updates and 3 changelog entries.

What people actually say about Aside — is it worth it?

We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.

98 mentions across 6 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, App Store, Stack Overflow, GitHub, Lemmy) · researched Aug 20, 2026.

50% positive50% critical

Average across the 6 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.

Recurring strengths
  • +Local-first architecture keeps data on-device for privacy.
  • +Autofill sign-in avoids exposing credentials to the AI.
  • +Human approval gates sensitive actions like payments.
  • +Top benchmark scores suggest strong agent performance.
  • +Supports BYO API keys and local models like Ollama.
Recurring frustrations
  • −No community reviews to validate real-world reliability.
  • −macOS-only — excludes Windows and Linux users.
  • −No extension support, unlike traditional browsers.
  • −Credit system on free plan may run out quickly.
  • −No real-time team collaboration features.
Patterns worth knowing
Name collision with unrelated products dominates public search results
Seen on YouTube, App Store, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Lemmy
Lack of real community feedback on the AI browser itself
Seen on Hacker News, YouTube, Stack Overflow, Lemmy
Privacy and local-first architecture are key selling points
Seen on Hacker News, Lemmy
Learning curve
intermediateProductive in ~A few hours
Hidden costs people mention
  • • Credit system may require purchasing additional credits
  • • Bring-your-own-subscription may incur separate costs for ChatGPT/Claude/Grok
  • • Heavy usage could lead to higher than expected bills
  • • Enterprise features may require custom contract

Viability Score

81/100
Safe Bet

How well maintained and how widely used is Aside? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this

Recent activity
90
Traction
100
Site health
95
User sentiment
50
What the vendor publishes
60

Last calculated: October 2026

How we score →

Key Features

  • Multi-step browser agent that completes tasks on your logged-in websites
  • Aside Vault: agent-safe password manager with autofill, scoped access, and per-use audit log
  • Domain-matched autofill for login and signup fields, including long and Korean address/phone forms
  • Local Aside Memory Engine that turns browsing history into task context, on-device for all accounts
  • Human approval gating for payments, posts, and outbound messages
  • Sandbox that isolates filesystem and network access
  • Bring your own ChatGPT or Claude subscription, or your own API key
  • Local LLM support via Ollama and LM Studio without API keys
  • Hosted model selection including Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-6 Sol, GPT-6 Luna, and Gemini 3.1 Pro via Google API keys
  • Ultrabrowse for deep research (Pro and Max)
  • Routines for recurring browser workflows
  • Channels for remote control plus cloud handoff
  • CLI, REPL, and MCP tools for developer automation
  • Hardware-backed E2E encryption in the Secure Enclave with post-quantum encryption
  • Agent can work with files directly on your computer

About Aside

FreemiumIntermediateAPI availableDesktop

Aside is a macOS browser built around an AI agent that operates the sites you already use — email, dashboards, internal tools, spreadsheets — instead of waiting on API integrations that don't exist. You describe a task in plain language and it works the logged-in page the way you would: signing in, clicking through flows, handling messages, payments, and file work on your machine. It's aimed at operators, sales reps, hiring coordinators, developers, and researchers who need an agent to survive login walls and messy real workflows. The mechanics are specific. Aside Vault autofills credentials into sites without exposing them to the model, every credential use is logged, and sensitive actions like payments, posts, or messages pause for your confirmation. Local memory turns your browsing history into task context — the candidate you opened yesterday, the dashboard you check every morning — so you stop re-explaining yourself. As of the October 2026 changelogs, the local Aside Memory Engine is used for all accounts and no longer blocks macOS startup. A sandbox isolates filesystem and network access, data stays on-device under Secure Enclave-backed, post-quantum encryption, and you supply your own ChatGPT or Claude subscription or API key rather than paying a model markup. Hosted model choices have moved quickly. The September 2026 changelog upgraded hosted Claude to Opus 5.5, replaced hosted GPT-5.6 with GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, and added Gemini 3.1 Pro for Google API keys. Grok streaming rejections now fall back instead of failing the turn, and model connection status is clearer in chat. Autofill was also tightened in October 2026: it matches saved logins by domain, fills long or Korean address and phone forms correctly, and keeps unsaved vault edits across popup reopening. Aside claims the top spot on three browser-agent benchmarks — Online-Mind2Web (99.0%), BU-Bench-V1, and Odysseys — ahead of Browser Use, GPT-5.4, Claude Opus 4.8, and ChatGPT Atlas. It's a Y

Behind the Verdict

Where Aside earns its keep is the unglamorous middle of a workflow: the internal admin panel with no API, the vendor portal that wants a login, the spreadsheet on your Desktop that feeds a report. The agent signs in through Vault autofill, works the page, and files the result. If your team lives in those tools, this is closer to the thing you actually wanted than a browser extension that stalls at a password prompt. Pick it when the work is multi-step and stateful — pulling invoices, prepping interview notes, verifying CRM rows across logged-in tabs. The approval gate on payments, posts, and messages is the feature I'd point a finance lead at first, because it means the agent can touch real accounts without you watching every click. Pass if you're on Windows or Linux. Aside is a macOS download and that hasn't changed. Also pass if you need several people collaborating on one running agent session; shared agent runs live behind the Enterprise tier, not the $20 Pro plan. The $20/month Pro tier is the honest starting point for most individuals — it triples free usage, unlocks Ultrabrowse for deep research, and removes the routine cap. The $200/month Max tier only makes sense if you're burning through 40x free usage on a regular basis. Both let you bring your own ChatGPT or Claude subscription or API key, which keeps model costs off Aside's balance sheet. Closest alternative is ChatGPT Atlas if you want a general AI assistant bolted onto a browser. Atlas is the broader product; Aside is the narrower, more stubborn one about finishing logged-in work. Browser Use appeals to developers who'd rather script in Python. Aside's edge is the vault, the local memory engine, and the audit log — the boring plumbing that lets an agent run on accounts you'd otherwise never hand

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Real-world workflow fit

Concrete scenarios for the personas Aside actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.

Operations lead

You ask Aside to pull yesterday's subscription statuses and download invoices from three vendor dashboards you're already signed into, gating each payment-related step for your approval.

Outcome: Renewal review that used to take an afternoon of tab-hopping lands as a folder of downloaded invoices with a logged trail of which credentials the agent touched.

Recruiting coordinator

You tell Aside to find the candidate profile you opened yesterday, prep interview notes from their portfolio and LinkedIn, then fill the scheduling form in your ATS.

Outcome: Local memory surfaces the right candidate without re-explaining context, and the approval gate catches the outbound scheduling message before it sends.

Developer

You run a routine from the CLI that triages overnight CI failures, opens the failing build logs, and assembles release evidence into a session snapshot.

Outcome: A revocable read-only public link shares the bug hunt with the team without handing over your account access.

Use Cases

Models Under the Hood

GPT-6 AstraClaude Opus 4.8

as of 2026-10-18

Limitations

  • Aside is a browser agent, so it operates through websites you are already logged into rather than pure integrations, and it needs local installation (macOS, with Windows now officially supported).
  • Usage is credit-metered: Free gives 500 credits/month and up to 3 routines, Pro ($20/month, or -20% yearly) triples that plus Ultrabrowse and unlimited routines, and Max ($200/month) offers 40x Free usage via an early access program.
  • A local memory engine keeps browsing-history context on-device, and heavy or team-scale use requires paid tiers or Enterprise (contact sales for seats, shared profiles, and vault controls).
  • The public pages don't document rate limits or per-task credit costs, so actual usage ceilings are hard to predict.

as of 2026-10-07

Verification history

We have re-verified Aside 10 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.

  1. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  2. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  3. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  4. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  5. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  6. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it

Showing the 6 most recent of 10 verification passes.

Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.

12-month cost

Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.

Annual total
Free
Over 12 months
Effective monthly
Free
Billed monthly

Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.

Plans compared

For each published Aside tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.

Free

$0/forever

Ideal for

A solo Mac user who wants to try browser-agent tasks a few times a month without paying, bringing their own ChatGPT or Claude subscription or API key

What this tier adds

Starting tier: 500 credits/month, up to 3 routines, built-in Password Manager, and personalized local memory at no cost forever

Pro

$20/month

Ideal for

A single operator or researcher running daily deep research, recurring routines, and remote control across many sites

What this tier adds

Adds 3x Free usage, Ultrabrowse for deep research, unlimited routines, Channels remote control, and Cloud handoff; $20/month (yearly billing is 20% off)

Max

$200/month

Ideal for

A power user who automates at scale and wants early access to unreleased features

What this tier adds

Adds 40x Free usage on top of Pro and enrollment in the early access program; $200/month (yearly billing is 20% off)

Enterprise

Custom

Ideal for

Teams running agents on shared company accounts that need seat management, shared profiles, and vault controls

What this tier adds

Adds API, cron, and internal-tool triggers for agent runs, seat/billing/team-wide settings, shared profiles and vaults, and rollout plus workflow-design help

Where the pricing makes sense

The company stage and team size where Aside's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.

Free covers a solo Mac user running a few routines a month, Pro at $20/mo fits daily deep research and unlimited routines, and Max at $200/mo is for automation at scale. Teams needing shared seats, profiles, and vault controls move to Enterprise contact-sales pricing, so budget for a sales conversation rather than a self-serve upgrade.

Setup time & first value

How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Aside — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.

Solo Mac user: install the browser, import bookmarks and passwords (1Password import supported), sign in to your sites, and run a first task in roughly 15-30 minutes. Adding your own ChatGPT/Claude subscription or an Ollama/LM Studio local model takes a few more minutes under Settings. Enterprise rollout with shared profiles, vault permissions, and seat management runs longer and comes with

Switching to or from Aside

How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.

Migrating in
  • →From a manual browser workflow: install Aside, import bookmarks and passwords, and start asking for tasks in the same sites you already use
  • →From 1Password: use the redesigned password vault import, which accepts 1Password exports and surfaces import warnings
  • →From ChatGPT Atlas or another AI browser: re-point your model choice under Settings and rebuild recurring work as Routines
Migrating out
  • ↗To a conventional browser: export bookmarks and passwords from Aside, noting the redesigned vault import writes standard credential formats
  • ↗To a cloud AI browser: expect to re-authenticate every site, since Aside's local sessions and memory do not transfer off-device

Integrations

NotionFigmaGitHubDiscordInstagram1PasswordOllamaLM Studio

Resources & Guides

Tutorials & Learning

YouTube returned 6 videos for “Aside”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Aside” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Aside.

Tools that pair well with Aside

Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Aside, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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