Is OpenHands the same as OpenDevin?

Yes. OpenHands is the renamed OpenDevin project. Its published paper lists the name as "OpenHands (f.k.a. OpenDevin)", and the project was renamed when its founding contributors formed All Hands AI in 2024 (arXiv). Older tutorials and repositories still use the OpenDevin name.

The open-source parts are free to run yourself, including the agent, the SDK and self-hosting. OpenHands Cloud is the paid managed service for teams that do not want to operate their own backend, and OpenHands Enterprise is the commercial tier for larger organizations (OpenHands Enterprise). The hosted tiers are covered on the OpenHands pricing page.

Does OpenHands require Docker?

No. OpenHands runs the agent on your own machine by default and can use a local process, a Docker sandbox, a VM or a remote backend (github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands). Docker is one option rather than a requirement, though the Docker-based self-hosting path lists Docker as a prerequisite.

What is OpenHands? The open-source platform for AI coding agents, defined

OpenHands is an open-source platform from All Hands AI for running AI software-development agents that write code, use tools and open pull requests. It began as OpenDevin and now ships an agent, a CLI, a control center, and hosted and enterprise deployments. For governed work across a team, Kortix, the open-source AI Operating System, is the alternative we recommend.

Try Kortix

What OpenHands includes

OpenHands is an open-source platform for building and running AI coding agents, supported by the All Hands AI organization. Its own documentation names the parts. Agent Canvas is the open-source browser client and control center for agent conversations and automations. The Software Agent SDK is a composable Python library for building agents that work with code, and the Agent Server in the same repository exposes agent execution, conversations, tools and workspaces over REST and WebSocket APIs. A terminal CLI, a headless mode and editor integrations connect through the same SDK, and a Sandbox Server creates the sandboxed environments that host the Agent Server. An earlier Docker-based Local GUI is deprecated and replaced by Agent Canvas.

OpenHands is model-agnostic and runs where you choose. Its README lists running agents locally, in a Docker sandbox, on a VM or inside your own infrastructure, and its sandbox documentation lists Docker, a local process and a remote sandbox as the ways to run code. Any model supported by LiteLLM can drive the agent, including local servers, so OpenHands is not tied to one model provider (checked October 2026).

OpenHands Cloud and OpenHands Enterprise are the commercial layers above the open-source project. OpenHands Cloud is the managed service for running the agent without operating your own backend, and OpenHands Enterprise adds commercial capabilities and support for organizations that need self-hosted or managed deployment.

Who OpenHands is for, and when a team outgrows it

OpenHands targets software work. Its own site names platform teams automating engineering workflows at scale, teams building internal developer platforms or AI tooling, and enterprises managing large or legacy codebases (openhands.dev, checked October 2026). The unit of work is a coding task: an issue becomes a conversation, the agent runs in a sandbox, and the result arrives as a pull request a person reviews. That makes OpenHands a strong open-source pick for an engineering team, and the is OpenHands open source page answers the open-source question directly.

A team outgrows a platform that only writes code when the same agents must handle work that is not code. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System for that stage: your agents, their skills, your company memory, and every connector in one git repo you own, with the agents working on real cloud computers (Kortix docs, Kortix on GitHub). Coding stays one of the jobs: the same agents also run in Slack and Microsoft Teams, on cron schedules and signed webhooks, and return finished work such as reports and decks. The OpenHands vs Kortix comparison covers the head-to-head case in depth.

Kortix keeps the review loop that governs agent work. Session work reaches main through a change request. Merge is default-deny for agents. Any model provider with your own keys. Run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network. Self-host is free. Teams that want to run it themselves can start from the Kortix self-hosting guide.

Kortix and OpenHands, side by side

Kortix is our recommendation; the OpenHands column states what the project documents about itself.

Differences only

CriteriaKortixOpenHandssource

Open source: Yes. Open source. Read it, fork it, audit it.; Yes. The OpenHands agent and Agent Canvas are open source.
What it is: The open-source AI Operating System.; An open-source platform for AI coding agents.
Scope: Coding plus sales, support, finance, ops and research work.; Software development and engineering workflows.
What lives in the repo: agents, skills, memory, connectors, triggers.; repo customization, skills and automations.
Model choice: Any model provider with your own keys.; Model-agnostic; any model supported by LiteLLM.
Where it runs: Kortix Cloud, your VPC, or on-prem.; Local, Docker, a VM, Cloud or Enterprise.
Review: Change requests a person merges.; Pull requests a person reviews.
Best for: A team that governs agent work across the business.; An engineering team's coding agents.

The OpenHands column quotes the project's own repository and docs, checked October 2026. The Kortix column quotes Kortix's documentation. Verify each project before you choose.

The layers live in one repo you own

acme-co/

acme-co/            your whole company, as filesagents/             who does the workskills/             how your company does a jobmemory/             what it has learned so farkortix.yaml         rules, connectors and triggers

Source: https://kortix.com/docs

Kortix keeps agents, skills, memory and connectors as files in the project repo, so every change to them is a diff a person reviews.

Questions people ask about OpenHands

Short, sourced answers to the definitional questions.

Is OpenHands open source?: Yes. All Hands AI describes OpenHands as the open-source platform for building and running AI coding agents, and its documentation calls Agent Canvas an open-source browser client (openhands.dev/about). The open-source parts can be self-hosted; OpenHands Cloud and OpenHands Enterprise are separate commercial offerings. More on that is on the is OpenHands open source page.
Is OpenHands the same as OpenDevin?: Yes. OpenHands is the renamed OpenDevin project. Its published paper lists the name as "OpenHands (f.k.a. OpenDevin)", and the project was renamed when its founding contributors formed All Hands AI in 2024 (arXiv). Older tutorials and repositories still use the OpenDevin name.
Is OpenHands free?: The open-source parts are free to run yourself, including the agent, the SDK and self-hosting. OpenHands Cloud is the paid managed service for teams that do not want to operate their own backend, and OpenHands Enterprise is the commercial tier for larger organizations (OpenHands Enterprise). The hosted tiers are covered on the OpenHands pricing page.
Does OpenHands require Docker?: No. OpenHands runs the agent on your own machine by default and can use a local process, a Docker sandbox, a VM or a remote backend (github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands). Docker is one option rather than a requirement, though the Docker-based self-hosting path lists Docker as a prerequisite.

Run the team's agent work from one repo you own.

Start with one job and grow from there.