Didon vs Palstora

Didon and Palstora are both personal assistants tracked by AIDiveForge. Below is a side-by-side comparison of pricing, capabilities, platforms, and ownership — sourced from each tool's live website and verified before publishing.

Didon

Didon runs as a background process on Mac, takes periodic screenshots, and feeds them through a locally-hosted Qwen-3-VL:2b model that writes a structured work journal without any manual input. You define your projects and activity categories upfront; the AI slots every window, file, and task into that context as the day progresses. The resulting logs are queryable in plain language and exportable to CSV for billing or reporting. The local-only architecture means your screen data never leaves the machine — a meaningful distinction if you're working on client material under NDA. The single-device license and Mac-only availability are hard ceilings for anyone working across machines or on Windows.

Palstora

The core loop is fast: snap a photo, the AI identifies and names the objects, and they're filed under whatever container and location you define. QR labels print free and stick to boxes — scan one and the contents appear without typing a single search term. That workflow holds well for a garage, an attic, or a studio with a few hundred items across a handful of locations. The ceiling shows up when item counts grow large or when you need bulk-edit, multi-location reporting, or anything that requires programmatic access — there is no API. Teams that outgrow the visual model have no self-hosted or export-to-database path beyond CSV and PDF.

Attribute	Didon	Palstora
Pricing	Paid	Paid
Price	€89 one-time (lifetime access)	—
Free trial	No	No
Open source	No	No
Has API	No	No
Self-hosted option	No	No
Platforms	macOS	Web, mobile (photo capture and QR scanning)
Pros	All screen analysis runs locally via Qwen-3-VL:2b, so screenshots and work data never reach an external server — which means client confidentiality obligations do not conflict with using the tool. Context-aware categorization lets you define your own project names and activity types upfront, so the AI logs time against your actual work structure rather than generic app categories you have to remap later. Auto-launch and auto-pause tied to system sleep means tracking starts from the first minute and stops the moment you step away, so idle time does not inflate your reported hours. Plain-language queries against the work journal let you ask 'how much time did I spend on Acme this week' without building a report — which matters on a Friday when a client asks and you need an answer in two minutes. CSV export of daily logs is included without restriction, so billing reconstruction and end-of-month invoicing do not require a manual audit of your own memory.	Photo-based cataloging means no forms to fill out, so the friction that causes most home inventory projects to stall never appears — you document at the moment you're putting something away. Free printable QR labels tied to physical boxes, so anyone in the household can scan a box and see its contents without knowing where the item was filed or what it's called. AI object identification names and describes items automatically from the photo, which means a pegboard of mixed hand tools gets documented in one shot rather than ten manual entries. MCP protocol support lets you query your inventory through a compatible AI assistant in plain language, so you can ask 'where are the Christmas lights?' without opening the app. Import from Sortly, Home Inventory, and Memento plus CSV and PDF export, which means your data is not locked in and switching in either direction carries a defined path.
Cons	The license covers installation on one machine only. If you work across a laptop and a desktop on the same day, one machine goes untracked — there is no sync or secondary-device option, and the only workaround is running separate instances under separate purchases. Windows support does not exist in the shipping version — only a waitlist. A team where even one member is on Windows cannot standardize on Didon, and those users have to maintain a separate tracking workflow entirely. The natural language query interface operates against the locally stored log files, but there is no described API or external integration path. Teams that need time data flowing into a project management tool, accounting system, or calendar will be copying CSV exports by hand until integrations ship — a task the vendor lists as upcoming but not yet available. The local LLM is fixed at Qwen-3-VL:2b. There is no described option to swap in a different model if analysis accuracy on your specific workflow proves inconsistent. Teams that try the tool and find categorization errors on niche technical work have no tuning lever beyond adjusting the context configuration.	No API is available, so any team or household that wants to push inventory data into a purchasing tool, trigger alerts when items move, or read inventory programmatically hits a hard wall — the only integration path is the MCP assistant connection or manual CSV export. There is no self-hosted option, which means teams with strict data-residency requirements or privacy policies that prohibit cloud storage of asset data cannot use this tool regardless of price — they move to a self-hostable asset tracker instead. The location and container model is flat enough for a home or small studio but offers no evidence of bulk-edit, batch-import by location, or reporting across large item counts — workshops or small businesses that grow past a few hundred items across dozens of containers report having to manage edge cases manually with the CSV export.

Bottom line

Didon and Palstora are closely matched on pricing model, openness, and API availability — pick by feature set and platform support in the table above.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Didon and Palstora?

Didon is Paid, while Palstora is Paid. Compare pricing, free trial, API, platforms, and pros/cons in the table above on AIDiveForge.

Is Didon better than Palstora?

It depends on your workflow. Use the side-by-side attributes (pricing, open source, API, self-hosted, platforms) to decide. AIDiveForge does not rank a universal winner — we publish verified facts so you can choose.