# Kortix vs OpenHands: an open-source company system or a coding-agent harness? > OpenHands is an open-source harness for coding agents; Kortix is the open-source system that runs and governs a company's agent workforce. Canonical: https://kortix.com/blog/kortix-vs-openhands OpenHands is a strong, open-source harness for coding agents; Kortix is the open-source system for a whole company's agent workforce. Both self-host and both let you bring your own model, so the deciding question is the job. If you need agents that read and change code in your repositories, OpenHands is the specialist. If you need to own and govern the agents, skills, memory and connectors that run across a company, Kortix is the pick. ```logos label: 'Compared here:' items: - { name: OpenHands, domain: openhands.dev } ``` ## What OpenHands is great at OpenHands is an open-source coding-agent harness and developer control center that runs agents on your laptop, in Docker, on a VM, or inside your own cloud. Its repository calls it the self-hosted developer control center for coding agents and automations, and the code is open source ([OpenHands on GitHub](https://github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands), checked October 2026). - **It drives the coding agents you already use.** Agent Canvas runs the built-in OpenHands agent plus Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, or any agent that speaks the Agent-Client Protocol, and you switch between local, remote and cloud backends from the same frontend. - **Self-hosting is a first-class path.** Run it directly on a laptop, in a Docker container per conversation, on a dedicated machine, or on a server in your company's infrastructure. The repository documents each route. - **Model choice stays yours.** The project pitches bring-your-own-model and works with any LLM, including open-weight models you host yourself. - **Execution is sandboxed.** The runtime builds a Docker image per project and runs shell, file and Python actions inside it before returning observations to the agent backend ([runtime architecture](https://docs.openhands.dev/openhands/usage/architecture/runtime)). - **Automations reach developer tools.** Agents run on a schedule or a webhook and connect to Slack, GitHub, Linear, Notion and similar services. The project is mature and actively released: v1.24.0 shipped recently ([releases](https://github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands/releases); checked October 2026). ## Where a coding-agent harness stops OpenHands is built around code. Its agents read repositories, run terminals and tests, and open pull requests. That focus is the point of OpenHands, and it sets the boundary. - **The job is software.** Agent Canvas is a development control center. It does not run outbound or close the books across departments. - **Memory is per conversation, not per company.** Conversations and workspace files persist, but no single repository holds the company's agents, skills, memory and connector rules as versioned files a team reads and diffs. - **Execution starts on a host.** The documented quickstart runs the agent server directly on your machine and warns that it then has full access to your filesystem; the Docker and VM backends isolate it. That suits a developer, and it is not one isolated machine per session across an organization. - **The tool surface is developer-shaped.** Integrations center on Slack, GitHub, Linear, Notion and webhooks rather than the 3,000+ business apps a company-wide workforce touches. - **Review lands on code.** OpenHands opens pull requests on engineering changes; it does not put agent work from every department behind one reviewed change request. OpenHands does that job well, and these are the limits of the job itself. ## What Kortix does differently Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: one git repository holds the agents, skills, company memory, connector configuration and triggers, and every session runs on its own isolated Linux machine ([Kortix docs](https://kortix.com/docs)). The company is the repository. A short `kortix.yaml` declares how a session boots: ```yaml # kortix.yaml (excerpt; the manifest lives at the repo root) default_agent: ops-morning sandbox: image: Dockerfile agents: ops-morning: { connectors: [slack, stripe] } triggers: - { type: cron, agent: ops-morning, cron: '0 7 * * 1-5' } ``` - **One repo you own.** Agents and skills are Markdown, memory is files, and connector rules and triggers are config. Grep the whole company, diff any change, roll it back. - **One gate to land work.** A session runs on a branch named after it, the agent commits, and the work reaches main only through a change request a human reads as a diff. Merge is default-deny for agents. - **Any model, your keys.** Pick a model per agent, per session or per message: any model provider with your own keys, or the ChatGPT plan you already pay for. - **Every business tool.** Kortix connects 3,000+ apps in a click, plus MCP, OpenAPI, Postman, GraphQL and raw HTTP. Connector credentials are brokered server-side and never enter the machine, and you set allow, ask or block per tool call. - **Every channel you work in.** Start sessions from the web app, Slack, Microsoft Teams, CLI or API, or from cron and webhooks with nobody asking. Email is experimental, per project. - **Deploy anywhere.** Self-host on a laptop, a VPS, your VPC or on-prem, or use managed Kortix Cloud. Self-host is free. Free is $0 with 200 credits per month and 1 project. The team plan is $40 per seat per month with 2,500 credits per month per seat, pooled ([Kortix pricing](https://kortix.com/pricing), checked October 2026). Kortix is open source: read it, fork it, audit it, and self-host for free. The source is at [Kortix on GitHub](https://github.com/kortix-ai/suna). ## Where OpenHands wins If your problem is coding agents on your own repositories, OpenHands is the right tool for the job. It is open source, runs any model, isolates execution in Docker, and carries a large community and a fast release cadence. A team that wants a self-hosted development control center for code, and nothing beyond it, should start there. Kortix asks you to treat the whole company as a codebase, which is more than a coding team needs. ## The other name you'll hear: OpenClaw OpenClaw is an open-source personal AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the chat apps you already use, from Discord and iMessage to Slack, Teams, WhatsApp and 20+ more ([OpenClaw on GitHub](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw)). State, memory and credentials stay on your hardware, models and harnesses are swappable plugins, and there is no paid tier or hosted service. The OpenClaw Foundation stewards it as a 501(c)(3). For one person who wants a private, always-on agent, it is excellent, and we recommend it. OpenClaw is built for one person. A governed company platform is a different product, with a shared control plane for many people, least privilege and audit. ## Side by side ```compare them: OpenHands rows: - dimension: Open source them: Yes kortix: Yes, self-host or cloud lean: both - dimension: Built for them: Coding agents and developer workflows kortix: A whole company's agents, skills and memory lean: both - dimension: Where agents run them: Local host, Docker, VM or cloud backend kortix: Isolated Linux machine per session, thousands in parallel lean: kortix - dimension: Choose your models them: Any LLM, local or hosted kortix: Any model, your keys, per agent or message lean: both - dimension: Tool surface them: Dev integrations such as Slack, GitHub, Linear, Notion kortix: 3,000+ apps plus any MCP, OpenAPI, GraphQL or HTTP API lean: kortix - dimension: Shared company memory them: Per-conversation and workspace state kortix: Memory, agents and skills in one git repo lean: kortix - dimension: Human review gate them: Pull requests on code kortix: Every change lands as a reviewed change request lean: kortix - dimension: Coding-agent depth them: Deep focus on repos, terminals, tests, PRs kortix: Coding is one of the jobs it runs lean: them ``` ## When to pick which ```verdict themLabel: OpenHands them: You want a self-hosted, open-source harness for coding agents on your repositories. kortix: You want to own the agents, skills, memory and connectors for the whole company. ``` For one person who wants a private assistant in their own chat apps, OpenClaw is the better start. For a coding team that wants a self-hosted development control center, OpenHands is the better start. For a company that needs one governed system whose agents, memory and connectors live in a repo it owns, Kortix is the one to run. The wider field is in the [open-source Microsoft Copilot alternative map](/blog/open-source-microsoft-copilot-alternative) and [personal AI agents vs a company OS](/blog/personal-ai-agents-vs-company-os). To choose a platform rather than a harness, read [how to pick an open-source AI agent platform](/blog/open-source-ai-agent-platform). Own the whole agent workforce, not just the coding loop. Kortix is free to start and free to self-host. Get started with [open-source Kortix](https://kortix.com).