daytona vs herdr
The two are close in size: 71.7k stars for daytona, 38.1k for herdr. Over the days we have tracked them daytona moved -0.8% and herdr +66.3%, so herdr is growing faster right now.
They split the axes: daytona leads on context depth, herdr on customization and privacy.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
Provides fast, stateful, OCI-compatible isolated sandboxes with dedicated kernels and persistent snapshots for running AI-generated code.
- Stars
- 71.7k
- Tracked growth
- -0.8%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 51d ago
- Language
- mixed
- License
- none declared
- Cost to run
- Hosted service — account + API key
A terminal-first agent multiplexer that runs as a single Rust binary with detachable sessions, tmux-style interaction, and a plugin marketplace.
- Stars
- 38.1k
- Tracked growth
- +66.3%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 23m ago
- Language
- Rust
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost to run
- Free, local install
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | daytona | herdr |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Whole-repo access | ●●●●● No repo context |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● Governance controls | ●●●●● None mentioned |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Configurable builder | ●●●●● Plugins & config |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Hosted cloud (API key) | ●●●●● Runs fully local |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● No model freedom | ●●●●● Other/unspecified |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● API key + quick start | ●●●●● One-command start |
Which one to pick
Pick daytona if…
Secure, stateful sandboxing — choose Daytona when you need isolated, persistent execution environments and APIs/SDKs to run AI-generated code reliably.
- Context depth: Whole-repo access (5/5 against 1/5)
Pick herdr if…
Local-first & easy setup — install one binary to run detachable, terminal-native agent sessions with plugin support and a socket API.
- Customization: Plugins & config (5/5 against 3/5)
- Privacy: Runs fully local (5/5 against 2/5)
What people want from each one
daytonaio/daytona
Hacker News: Show HN: Daytona – Open-source dev env manager from a 15-year journey drew 73 points and 24 comments.
herdrdev/herdr
Questions people ask
Is daytona better than herdr?
They split the axes: daytona leads on context depth, herdr on customization and privacy. daytona is worth picking when secure, stateful sandboxing — choose Daytona when you need isolated, persistent execution environments and APIs/SDKs to run AI-generated code reliably.
Which of daytona and herdr keeps my code private?
daytona: Hosted cloud (API key) (2/5). herdr: Runs fully local (5/5).
What does each one cost to run?
daytona: Hosted service — account + API key. herdr: Free, local install.
Full profiles: daytonaio/daytona and herdrdev/herdr. Everything else in Runtimes & sandboxes.