# Agent Zero vs Claude Code

> Claude Code scores 61.9 (C) to Agent Zero's 54.2 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-12

Claude Code scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Agent Zero: grade C, 54.2/100, rank #709 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-zero.json
- Claude Code: grade C, 61.9/100, rank #464 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/claude-code.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/claude-code.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 205 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Agent Zero (C)

Good for: A technical owner who wants an agent with its own Linux machine, reachable from Telegram, WhatsApp or email, with scheduled tasks and editable memory.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 57 against 50
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: No approval step before shell commands, file changes or outgoing messages. Tool Access defaults to allow

### Claude Code (C)

Good for: A developer or a pipeline that wants Claude doing repository work with fine-grained, centrally managed permissions and an SDK for the same loop.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 64
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 62
- Security & auth, 80 against 54
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 75
- Transparency & trust, 81 against 55

Watch for: The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Agent Zero | Claude Code | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 50 | Agent Zero +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 80 | Claude Code +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 87 | Claude Code +25 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 80 | Claude Code +26 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Agent Zero +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 82 | Claude Code +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 81 | Claude Code +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | -6 | |
| **Total** | | **54.2 · C** | **61.9 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Agent Zero | Claude Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Agent Zero, s.r.o. | Anthropic |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary. `LICENSE.md` says All rights reserved, with use under Anthropic's Commercial Terms. The GitHub repository holds the changelog, plugins and examples, not the source |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 19k stars | 141k stars |

## Verdicts

**Agent Zero.** Self-hosted under the MIT licence, with nine releases in the 90 days to 12 October 2026 and breaking changes listed in the release notes. The agent runs shell commands in its container with no approval step, the web interface has no login by default, and five CVEs from the past year have no published GitHub advisory.

**Claude Code.** Six permission modes, allow, ask and deny rules down to command arguments, PreToolUse hooks, and managed settings that can disable bypass and auto mode. The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none.

## Before you call either

### Agent Zero

1. Set a UI login and password in Settings before publishing the port or opening a tunnel. The default has none
2. Fill `allowed_users`, `allowed_numbers` or `sender_whitelist` before enabling a channel. An empty list accepts every sender
3. Enable the Infection Check plugin when the agent reads mail, web pages or MCP results. It ships disabled
4. Run v2.12 or later. It fixes a Telegram webhook authentication bypass and a WhatsApp media path traversal
5. Call `POST /api_message` with the `X-API-KEY` header. The token changes when the UI login or password changes

### Claude Code

1. Pass `--permission-mode` on every `claude -p` run. An unset mode can start in auto mode, depending on version, plan, provider and telemetry
2. Turn on the sandbox with `sandbox.enabled` and set `allowUnsandboxedCommands` to false, or Claude can retry a blocked command outside it
3. Set `CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC=1` on a Claude login to stop metrics and error reports in one go
4. Set `autoUpdatesChannel` to stable or `DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1` in CI. Native installs update themselves about once a day
5. Cap pipeline runs with `--max-turns` and `--max-budget-usd`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Agent Zero or Claude Code?

Claude Code scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Are Agent Zero and Claude Code open source?

Agent Zero is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Claude Code.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "agent-zero", "b": "claude-code"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare agent-zero claude-code`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-zero.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/claude-code.json

## Other comparisons with Agent Zero or Claude Code

- [Agent Zero vs Aider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Amp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-amp.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Antigravity CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-antigravity-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-devin.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-goose.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Agent Zero vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-opencode.md)
- [Agent Zero vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openhands.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Aider vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Amp vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Claude Code vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-cline.md)
- [Claude Code vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-devin.md)
- [Claude Code vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Claude Code vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-goose.md)
- [Claude Code vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Claude Code vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-opencode.md)
- [Claude Code vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-openhands.md)
- [Claude Code vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Claude Code vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Claude Code vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-paperclip.md)

## Disclosure

- Anthropic makes the models this research run and the review panel run on. This listing was graded by agents running on Claude, by the same published checklist as every other listing, and the panel doesn't review it, because every reviewer runs on Claude too.