# OpenHands alternative questions, answered by open-source Kortix > OpenHands is an open-source harness for coding agents, and Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System a company owns, with its agents, skills, memory and connectors in one git repo. Cost, self-hosting and migration are the three decisions that separate them. URL: https://openhands-alternative.com/faq ## OpenHands alternative questions, answered Short answers on what OpenHands is, what a team uses instead, cost, self-hosting and migration. ### What is OpenHands? OpenHands is an open-source platform for coding agents: it runs agents that plan, write and run code against your repositories, on a laptop, in Docker, on a shared server, or in your own cloud. Its repository describes it as the self-hosted developer control center for coding agents and automations, and it drives its own agent plus Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode or anything speaking the Agent-Client Protocol ([OpenHands on GitHub](https://github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands)). ### Is OpenHands open source? Yes. OpenHands publishes its core in the open, and its terms allow use, modification and redistribution, commercial work included, with the copyright notice kept. OpenHands' own docs note that each of its public repositories carries its own terms, so the repository you run is the one to read. ### What should a team use when it outgrows OpenHands? Kortix, the open-source AI Operating System, is what teams run once agents leave the engineering team, because the agents, skills, company memory and connector rules live in one git repo the company owns. Coding agents keep working inside it, each session with its own isolated machine and branch. Session work reaches main through a change request. ### How does Kortix differ from OpenHands? OpenHands runs coding agents against repositories, while Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System a whole company runs, where the agents, skills, memory and connectors live in one git repo the company owns. Per-resource permissions for people and agents. [OpenHands alternatives](/openhands-alternatives) compares the two shapes of tool, and [a full Kortix vs OpenHands comparison](https://kortix.com/blog/kortix-vs-openhands) covers where each one fits. ### Is there a free option, and what does Kortix cost to start? Yes. OpenHands' local build is free with your own model key, and Kortix is free to start: its pricing page lists a free tier with 200 credits each month for sandbox compute and 1 project, and a team plan at $40 per seat per month with 2,500 pooled credits per seat ([Kortix pricing](https://kortix.com/pricing), checked October 2026). Self-hosting Kortix on your own machines is free as well. ### Can Kortix be self-hosted? Yes. Run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network, and self-host is free. One command, `kortix self-host start`, brings the whole stack up on a laptop, a server or a cloud machine ([Kortix docs](https://kortix.com/docs)). ### Is Kortix open source? Yes. Kortix is open source: read it, fork it, audit it, and keep your agents, their skills, your company memory and every connector in one git repo you own ([Kortix on GitHub](https://github.com/kortix-ai/suna)). It is the open-source AI Operating System, self-hosted or on managed cloud. ### How does a migration from OpenHands work? Agents and skills become markdown files, connector rules and triggers become configuration in one repo, and each session has its own isolated machine and branch ([Kortix docs](https://kortix.com/docs)). Start with one project, run it beside OpenHands while the team keeps its coding agents, then move the next project once the first change requests are being reviewed. ## How to choose between a coding-agent harness and an AI Operating System Three questions settle which shape of tool a team needs, and model quality is not one of them. 1. Who does the work? A coding harness pays off as soon as engineers delegate. A company platform starts when sales, operations, finance and support want agents of their own. OpenHands is the harness in that pair, and its focus is why its execution, memory and review model fit code. 2. Where does the work land? A pull request reviews a code change. A change request can carry anything an agent produces, from a report to a CRM update, before it reaches the main branch. Kortix puts every agent's work behind that gate. Session work reaches main through a change request. Merge is default-deny for agents. 3. What do you have to own? A harness hands you the loop and leaves memory, permissions and connectors to the tools around it. Kortix keeps the agents, skills, memory and connector rules as files in a git repo you own. Each session has its own isolated machine and branch. Three commands are enough to start a Kortix project and bring it live: ```bash # 1 · Install the CLI curl -fsSL https://kortix.com/install | bash # 2 · Scaffold a project — creates kortix.yaml + your agents, skills and runtime config kortix init # 3 · Ship it — pushes your repo and brings the whole thing live in the cloud kortix ship ``` The choice then comes down to scope: keep OpenHands for the repositories an engineering team owns, or run a company's agents in one system, with [OpenHands alternatives](/openhands-alternatives) as the shortlist. Keeping everything inside your own network is a separate decision, covered in [how to pick a self-hosted workspace](https://kortix.com/blog/best-self-hosted-ai-workspace). ## Run your whole company from one repo you own. Kortix is free to start and free to self-host. [Try Kortix](https://kortix.com) · [Compare OpenHands and Kortix](https://openhands-alternative.com/openhands-vs-kortix)