The term 'AI agent' gets thrown around a lot these days. It conjures up images of some all-powerful Jarvis from Iron Man, ready to manage your entire life with a witty remark. The reality? It’s usually a tangle of Python scripts, API keys, and a whole lot of late-night debugging. I’ve been in those trenches, and let me tell you, it's not always glamorous.
So, when a new platform like Nelly pops onto my radar promising you can build a whole team of AI agents without writing a single line of code, my ears perk up. Part of me is skeptical—we've been promised the no-code dream before. But another, bigger part of me gets genuinely excited. Could this be it? Could this be the tool that finally lets us build sophisticated AI workflows using, you know, just words?
I decided to take a look under the hood. This is my take on what Nelly is, who it's for, and whether it’s about to become a staple in my SEO and automation toolkit.
So What Exactly is Nelly?
At its core, Nelly is an AI agent platform. But that's a bit of a dry description. Think of it more like a command center for your own personal AI workforce. It’s not just one tool; it’s a whole workshop. You get the Nelly Studio to design and build your agents, a Chat interface to talk to them and give them tasks, and a planned Marketplace where you'll eventually be able to share or even sell the agents you create.
The entire premise is built on natural language. You don't need to know how to structure a prompt perfectly or understand the intricacies of different LLMs. You just… talk to it. You tell it what you want an agent to do, and it gets to work. Simple as that. Or at least, that's the promise.
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Building Your First AI Agent Feels… Different
This is where things get interesting. Firing up the Nelly Studio doesn't feel like opening a development environment. It’s cleaner. More intuitive. You start by giving your agent a name and a core instruction. For example, I could create an agent named "Competitor-Scan-Bot" and tell it, "Your job is to constantly monitor the websites of my top three competitors and report back on any new blog posts or major site changes."
There's no wrestling with APIs. No complex logic chains to map out in a visual builder that looks like a circuit diagram. It's a conversation. This approach immediately lowers the barrier to entry. It feels less like programming and more like briefing a new team member. A very, very fast team member.
The Real Power is in Delegation and Tools
Creating a single agent is cool, but that's been done. Where Nelly seems to be aiming for something bigger is in its architecture. It's not just about one agent, it's about how they work together.
Assembling Your A-Team with Sub-Agents
This is the feature that made me sit up straight. Nelly lets you create sub-agents. This means you can build a hierarchy. Your main "Marketing Manager" agent could have a task, say "Create a weekly content report." Instead of trying to do it all itself, it could delegate. It might pass the research part to a "SEO Keyword Analyzer" sub-agent and the writing part to a "Blog Post Draft" sub-agent.
This is a much more scalable and, frankly, intelligent way to handle complex workflows. It’s how real teams work! You break a big problem down into smaller pieces and assign them to specialists. This is a huge step up from single-purpose automation tools and I think this is gonna be a big deal for process automation.
Giving Your Agents Superpowers with Toolkits
An AI agent without access to the outside world is just a fancy chatbot in a box. It's the toolkits that make them useful. Nelly allows you to give your agents tools, like the ability to browse the web or access databases. This is fundamental. That "Competitor-Scan-Bot" I mentioned? It’s useless if it can’t actually, you know, browse the web. Giving it a toolkit is like handing it a key to the internet. This is what transforms it from a theoretical helper into a practical, task-crushing machine.
Let's Talk About The Price Tag
Okay, so it sounds powerful, but what's the damage? The pricing structure is actually pretty straightforward and, in my opinion, very well thought out for a new platform. It's a classic "start free, pay as you grow" model.
| Plan | Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 / month | Unlimited AI agents, but limited to 30 messages per 30 days. No credit card needed. |
| Pro | $9 / month | Unlimited agents, up to 10,000 messages, ability to use your own LLM, priority support. |
| Pro+ | $20 / month | Everything in Pro, but with up to 25,000 messages. |
A quick note on "messages": This isn't just you chatting with an agent. It includes every interaction, like an agent talking to a sub-agent. It's a fair way to measure consumption, just be aware of it.
The Free plan is the perfect sandbox. 30 messages isn't a lot, but it's more than enough to build an agent, test its logic, and see if the platform clicks for you. The Pro plan at $9 feels like the real sweet spot. The jump to 10,000 messages and the ability to plug in your own LLM provider (like your own OpenAI or Anthropic account) is huge for anyone looking to do serious work.
The Good, The Bad, and The… Not-Yet-Here
No tool is perfect, especially a new one. Here’s my honest breakdown.
On the plus side, the no-code, natural language interface is a massive win. The sub-agent architecture is genuinely innovative for a public-facing platform. And the clean, dark-mode UI is just pleasant to work in. It feels like a modern tool built for today's users.
On the other hand, some of the most powerful features are gated. Want to bring your own custom LLM? That's a paid feature. Fair enough, but it's a limitation on the free plan. Also, the platform is clearly still growing. The big, exciting Marketplace for sharing and monetizing agents is still listed as "Coming Soon." Same for a feature called "MCP Servers." This isn't a bad thing—I'd rather a company be honest about its roadmap—but it's something to be aware of. You're buying into a platform with future potential, not a complete, finished product.
Who Is Nelly Actually For?
So, who should be rushing to sign up? I see a few key groups:
- Marketers and SEOs: Imagine agents that automate competitor tracking, generate content ideas based on real-time trends, or manage social media replies. The potential here is enormous.
- Small Business Owners: You can build agents to handle initial customer support queries, process simple orders, or summarize daily sales data. It’s like hiring an assistant without the payroll.
- Developers & Tinkerers: For developers, this is an incredible rapid-prototyping tool. Instead of spending a day coding a proof-of-concept for an agentic workflow, you could build it in Nelly in 15 minutes to see if the idea even has legs.
It's for the doers. The people who have ideas for automation but have been held back by the technical barriers. If you've ever thought, "I wish I had a little bot to do X," then Nelly is probably for you.
Frequently Asked Questions about Nelly
How does Nelly count messages?
A message is any single interaction in the system. This includes you sending a message to an agent, an agent replying, or an agent delegating a task to a sub-agent. A complex task with multiple sub-agents will use more messages.
Can I use my own AI model like GPT-4o?
Yes, you can. On the Pro and Pro+ plans, Nelly allows you to connect your own custom LLM providers. This means you can use your own API keys for models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, etc.
Is my data secure when using Nelly?
According to their FAQ, your agent instructions, conversations, and other data are stored locally on your device's browser. This is a great approach for privacy and security.
Do unused messages roll over to the next month?
No, they do not. The message limits are based on a rolling 30-day window from your first message, and any unused messages from one period do not carry over.
When is the agent marketplace going to be available?
The marketplace is currently listed as a "Coming Soon" feature. There's no firm release date yet, but it's a key part of their future roadmap.
My Final Verdict on Nelly
I came in with a healthy dose of skepticism, but I’m walking away genuinely impressed. Nelly is one of the most promising and user-friendly takes on the AI agent builder concept I’ve seen. The team behind it clearly understands the real bottleneck isn't the power of AI, but the accessibility of it.
By focusing on natural language and a brilliant sub-agent system, they've created something that feels both powerful and approachable. Yes, it's still a growing platform with features on the horizon. But the foundation is incredibly solid. For anyone who has felt like they're on the outside looking in on the AI agent revolution, Nelly might just be the door you've been waiting for.
I'm not just going to be watching Nelly; I'm going to be using it. I have a few ideas for some SEO agents already brewing. This could be fun.
