OpenHands vs orca
The two are close in size: 86.2k stars for OpenHands, 62.0k for orca. Over the days we have tracked them OpenHands moved +6.4% and orca +242.8%, so orca is growing faster right now.
orca leads on noise control. OpenHands does not take any axis by a clear margin.
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
A backend-agnostic, self-hosted developer control center that lets you run and switch between local, remote, and cloud agent backends without reworking your workflows.
- Stars
- 86.2k
- Tracked growth
- +6.4%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 15h ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Free to self-host; optional paid OpenHands Cloud/Enterprise
Runs any CLI coding agent side-by-side in isolated git worktrees (including remote SSH worktrees) with a desktop app and mobile companion for steering and comparison.
- Stars
- 62.0k
- Tracked growth
- +242.8%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 17m ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Use your agent subscriptions / API keys
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 | OpenHands | orca |
|---|---|---|
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 | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● None mentioned | ●●●●● Manual review & basic filters |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Configurable backends/profiles | ●●●●● Custom prompts & scripts |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Self-hostable | ●●●●● Can run fully local |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Bring-your-own model | ●●●●● Any agent / BYO key |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● One-command start | ●●●●● One-click install |
Which one to pick
Pick OpenHands if…
Self-hosting — run agents locally or on your own servers and connect multiple backends while keeping data in-house and integrating with tools like GitHub and Slack.
Pick orca if…
Flexible agent support — run your preferred CLI agents locally or remotely, fan prompts across parallel worktrees, and review/merge results from a single desktop + mobile UI.
- Noise control: Manual review & basic filters (3/5 against 1/5)
What people want from each one
OpenHands/OpenHands
Hacker News: OpenHands: AI-Driven Development drew 1 points and 0 comments.
stablyai/orca
Hacker News: Orca – Live Programming Environment drew 290 points and 58 comments.
Questions people ask
Is OpenHands better than orca?
orca leads on noise control. OpenHands does not take any axis by a clear margin. OpenHands is worth picking when self-hosting — run agents locally or on your own servers and connect multiple backends while keeping data in-house and integrating with tools like GitHub and Slack.
Which of OpenHands and orca keeps my code private?
OpenHands: Self-hostable (4/5). orca: Can run fully local (5/5).
What does each one cost to run?
OpenHands: Free to self-host; optional paid OpenHands Cloud/Enterprise. orca: Use your agent subscriptions / API keys.
Full profiles: OpenHands/OpenHands and stablyai/orca. Everything else in Multi-agent orchestration.