Claude Cowork alternatives: the open-source pick you can own

Claude Cowork is a hosted agent that takes a goal, works across your files and tools, and hands back finished work for review (claude.com/product/cowork). It is good at that job, and it is closed: Cowork runs on a Claude account or your own Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud or Microsoft Foundry tenancy, so Anthropic or your cloud provider operates the runtime (claude.com/product/cowork). A Claude Cowork alternative is software that does that multi-step work while leaving the runtime, the model choice and your files in your hands. Kortix is the open-source pick we recommend, and it starts with one git repo you own.

What Claude Cowork is, and what an alternative has to replace

Claude Cowork is Anthropic's agentic product that carries a whole task through to a finished result. You give it a goal, it works in the folders and tools you choose, it shows each step, and it returns work for review. It keeps running when your laptop closes, schedules recurring tasks, and opens sites in a browser inside its own side panel. It needs a paid plan (claude.com/product/cowork). Because Cowork is hosted, an alternative has to answer a short list of questions.

• Who operates the runtime. Cowork runs on Anthropic's servers or a cloud tenancy you rent. If your team needs the software on its own infrastructure, choose a self-hostable product.
• Which models you can run. Cowork runs on Claude, billed through your plan (claude.com/product/cowork). A bring-your-own-key alternative lets you route cheaper models where they fit.
• Where your files and credentials live. Cowork works in folders you point it at. A self-hosted alternative keeps those files and keys inside infrastructure you control.
• How work gets reviewed and landed. Cowork asks before consequential actions. A company platform also needs a gate before an agent's change reaches the main branch.

The six alternatives at a glance

Six products come up most often for teams weighing this category. Kortix is first because it is the one we recommend.

For the detail behind this table, the feature-by-feature comparison lines each option up on self-hosting, licence and model access, and the Kortix vs Claude Cowork head-to-head puts the open-source pick next to the hosted product. When you decide to move your work across, the migration guide walks through the switch.

Kortix: one repo you own, any model, your own infrastructure

Kortix is the open-source AI Management System: your agents, the skills they share, your company memory and every connector live as files in one git repo you own, so you can version, diff and roll back the whole configuration (Kortix on GitHub). Any model is allowed with your own API keys, and you can run Kortix on a laptop, a VPS, your VPC or on-prem, or use managed Kortix Cloud. Each session gets its own isolated Linux sandbox on its own branch, and work reaches main only through a change request a human reviews. Connectors cover 3,000+ apps plus MCP, OpenAPI, GraphQL and raw HTTP, with credentials brokered server-side so the raw key never enters the sandbox (Kortix on GitHub). Pricing is free at $0 with 200 credits a month for sandbox compute and one project, or Team at $40 per seat a month with 2,500 pooled credits per seat, up to 200 projects and 100 seats, checked October 2026 (kortix.com/pricing). Kortix is open source (Elastic License 2.0): self-host, read and modify the code.

OpenWork: a free desktop app for your own files

OpenWork is a free, open-source desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux where agents work on your own files, built on OpenCode (OpenWork on GitHub). Any model works: 50+ providers with your own API keys, or local models through Ollama, and no account is needed to use it locally. Teams can share skills and MCP servers and self-host the control plane. The desktop app is MIT licensed, and the org control plane under the ee/ directory is the OpenWork EE License, public code with a subscription for production beyond its free carve-outs (OpenWork on GitHub). Pick it if you are one person or a small team that wants a free agent on local files with no server to run.

Eigent: an open-source desktop workforce that runs locally

Eigent is an open-source Cowork desktop application and a local, free alternative to Claude Cowork and Codex (Eigent on GitHub). It runs a multi-agent workforce that executes tasks in parallel, with a local backend and local model integration through vLLM, Ollama or LM Studio. It is model-agnostic across cloud APIs, enterprise gateways and local inference, and it is built on CAMEL-AI with MCP and skill integration plus enterprise features such as SSO and access control. The repository is licensed under Apache License 2.0 (Eigent on GitHub). Pick it for a multi-agent desktop that runs locally under a permissive licence.

MindsHub: an agent workspace that runs almost anywhere

MindsHub is an open-source agent workspace for knowledge work and software, with interchangeable open-source agent harnesses and a choice of models (MindsHub on GitHub). It runs on your machine, in your VPC or hosted, including on-prem and air-gapped deployments. Its model router reaches frontier models from Claude, GPT and Gemini and open models such as DeepSeek, Qwen and Kimi without wiring a key per provider. Connected data runs through a secure vault over BigQuery, Postgres, Gmail, Drive, HubSpot, Notion and Linear, with credentials scoped per connection so agents never see raw keys. The superproject is MIT licensed and bundled components keep their own licences (MindsHub on GitHub). It is free to start, with Pro adding all frontier models.

Gumloop: a no-code agent builder with enterprise controls

Gumloop is a no-code agent and workflow builder, which means the people who understand a problem can build the agent for it (Gumloop). It ships enterprise controls such as VPC deployment inside your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, SAML SSO and SCIM, audit logging, SOC 2 Type II and model restrictions. Its "open-source by default" line refers to running open-source models. Gumloop itself is proprietary (Gumloop). Pricing starts at $37 a month for Pro with 20,000 credits and an 8% orchestration fee, checked October 2026 (gumloop.com/pricing). Pick it when non-engineers need to assemble agents without code.

Google Gemini Enterprise: hosted agents for the enterprise

Gemini Enterprise is Google's agent platform for enterprises: search grounded in your business data, prebuilt agents such as Deep Research, a no-code Workflow Builder and one place to manage agent access (Gemini Enterprise). Governance covers VPC Service Controls, customer-managed encryption keys, Access Transparency and data residency. The Business edition is $21 per seat a month, up to 300 seats and no IT setup, and Standard or Plus is $30, checked October 2026 (Gemini Enterprise). It is hosted on Google Cloud with no self-host, and you can bring agents built with Google's Agent Development Kit or third-party agents. Pick it if you are a large organization that needs governed agents and will accept a closed, Google-hosted runtime.

When to pick which

Pick Kortix when you want the whole company system in one repo you own: agents, skills, memory and connectors as diffable files, any model with your own keys, and every change landing through a change request a human reviews (Kortix on GitHub). Choose OpenWork if you want a free desktop app on local files with no server to run, which is the one case where Kortix is not the pick (OpenWork on GitHub). Choose Gemini Enterprise if you are a large organization that needs governed, hosted agents and has no plan to self-host. For a team running real work across departments, Kortix is the recommendation: self-host it for free, or start on managed cloud.

If you are still weighing a single rival, read Kortix vs Claude Cowork, our open-source Claude Cowork alternative guide, and Kortix vs OpenWork.

Start with one job and grow from there. Get open-source Kortix at kortix.com, free to self-host.