Assistly vs Cluely: an honest comparison (2026)
By The Assistly team ·
Cluely is the most famous tool in this category. It went viral with a "cheat on everything" tagline, raised a $15M Series A from Andreessen Horowitz, and put real-time AI overlays on the map. If you're comparing options, you're almost certainly comparing against Cluely, so here is a straight look at where it's strong, where users run into trouble, and how Assistly is different.
At a glance
| Assistly | Cluely | |
|---|---|---|
| Invisible to screen share | OS-level capture exclusion, included on every plan | Yes, but reliable anti-detection is a paid add-on |
| Price for the undetectable tier | $14.99/mo (everything included) | Pro ~$20/mo; "Pro + Undetectability" listed at $149.99/mo |
| Free plan | 3 full sessions/month, 15 min each | Limited (reviewers cite ~5 AI responses/day) |
| Multi-speaker context (who said what) | Yes | Not reliably |
| Works with headphones (captures call audio) | Yes | Reads screen + system audio |
| Personas tuned to your résumé/context | Yes | Limited |
| Notes & action items after every session | Yes | Notetaking on higher tiers |
| Platforms | Native macOS & Windows | macOS, Windows, iOS |
Pricing for both moves around; check each site for current numbers. Cluely's figures here are as reported across review sites in mid-2026.
What Cluely does well
Credit where it's due. Cluely's overlay does not appear in a standard Zoom, Meet, or Teams screen share. The architecture is sound and independent technical writeups back that up. It covers a broad set of use cases (sales objection handling, meeting notes, follow-up emails), has CRM integrations for sales teams (Salesforce, HubSpot), an enterprise tier with SSO, and the widest brand awareness in the category. If you want a sales-enablement suite with a big name behind it, it's a real option.
Where users run into trouble
The recurring complaints in public reviews cluster around money and reliability:
- The undetectability paywall. The signature feature, the thing the brand is built on, sits behind a "Pro + Undetectability" tier reported at $149.99/month month-to-month. The cheaper Pro plan doesn't reliably include it.
- Billing complaints. Cluely's Trustpilot rating sits around 1.8/5 (small sample), dominated by reports of surprise annual charges, refunds denied by default under the terms of service, and charges continuing after cancellation.
- Latency and accuracy. Despite an advertised ~300ms response, independent testers reported 5–10+ second delays under real interview pressure, plus transcription errors and, in Business Insider's testing, fabricated résumé details.
- Not reliably undetectable where it counts. Reviewers report Cluely being flagged within seconds on coding-interview platforms like CoderPad and HackerRank, and proctoring vendors explicitly market the ability to flag it.
- Trust. In March 2026, founder Roy Lee publicly admitted (to TechCrunch) that the $7M ARR figure he'd given the previous year was fabricated.
We cite these because they are documented in public reviews and reporting. Every tool has rough edges. But if you're paying for "undetectable," the price of that tier and its real-world reliability matter.
How Assistly is different
- Make it yours, and harder to flag. Rename the app and swap its icon so it doesn't appear as a recognizable assistant in the process list or Activity Monitor, set custom knowledge modes for your own context, and bind your own hotkeys.
- Undetectability isn't a $149 upsell. The overlay is excluded from screen capture at the OS level on macOS and Windows for every user, including the free plan. Pro is a flat $14.99/month for unlimited sessions, with no separate "anti-detection" tier.
- It tracks who said what. Assistly separates your voice from the other participants and follows multiple speakers, so its guidance answers the right person on a busy call. Cluely doesn't reliably keep that context.
- It works with headphones on. Assistly captures the call's own audio, so it follows the conversation whether you're on speaker or wearing earbuds.
- It sounds like you. Build a persona from your CV, notes, and docs, and Assistly tailors every answer to your background instead of producing generic model output that can invent details.
- You control the overlay. Configurable hotkeys let you show, hide, and drive it without touching the mouse.
- Clean record afterward. Every session ends with an organized summary and a clear list of action items.
Which should you choose?
If you want a sales suite with CRM integrations and don't mind paying premium prices for the undetectable tier, Cluely is the established name. If you want the same OS-level invisibility included by default, multi-speaker context, résumé-aware guidance, and a flat $14.99/month, Assistly is built for you.
It's free to try: 3 sessions a month with the full feature set. Get started for free, or read more on what is detectable in 2026.