Compare
Honest, side by side.
They win on polish and smart-home reach. Walter wins on owning it and getting real work done.
| Product | You own it, data mostly at home | Does multi-step work | Hardware | Price1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walter (beta) | Yes Runs on your PC. Voice, ears, memory local; the AI brain is your Claude account2 | Yes Background workers: research, drafts, code | Your spare PC, any screen, USB speakerphone | Software free. Your Claude plan. Cloud Link $5/mo or $49/yr, optional |
| Amazon Echo Show + Alexa+ | No Amazon's cloud | Partly Some bookings and tasks inside Amazon's services | Echo Show, about $180 to $350 | Alexa+ free with Prime, else $19.99/mo |
| Google Nest Hub + Gemini | No Google's cloud | Partly Google-only actions | Nest Hub, about $100 | Basic free; Home Premium from $10/mo |
| Skylight Calendar | No Vendor cloud | No Imports events from text and photos | About $300 (15") to $600 (27") | Plus plan $79/yr |
| Hearth Display | No Vendor cloud | No Family calendar and chores | About $600 to $700 | About $9/mo optional |
| Home Assistant + Voice PE | Yes Fully local possible | Partly Home control; LLM chat optional | $59 speaker plus an HA server | Free; Nabu Casa cloud $6.50/mo optional |
- List or street prices gathered 9 Nov 2026 from vendor pages and reviews; some are ranges. Prices change: check before you buy.
- Your words go to Claude (Anthropic) on your own account under Anthropic's terms. Audio stays on the box unless you turn on cloud speech.
Where they win today
- Five-minute setup in an app
- Far-field mics and finished hardware
- Thousands of smart-home devices out of the box
- Music services with DRM
Where Walter wins
- Runs on hardware you already own
- No ads, no upsell screens
- Does real work: drafts, research, small tools
- A character the family actually likes