# Agent Zero vs Cline (slim)

> Cline scores 60.4 (C) to Agent Zero's 54.2 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline.md (~2,500 tokens) · this version ~630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-12

Cline scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Agent Zero: C 54.2, rank #709 of 986 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero.min.md
- Cline: C 60.4, rank #526 of 986 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cline.min.md
- Agent Zero, 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 Payments & pricing, 60 against 50. Also No key needed to call it.
- Cline, good for Developers who want an agent inside VS Code or JetBrains that asks before acting and can roll back, with the same engine in a CLI. Ahead on Reliability, 80 against 57; Schema & documentation, 77 against 64; Agent ergonomics, 67 against 62; Maintenance & community, 85 against 75; Transparency & trust, 61 against 55. Also Free to start without a card.

| Category | Agent Zero | Cline |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 57 | 80 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 64 | 77 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 62 | 67 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 54 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 50 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 75 | 85 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 55 | 61 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Agent Zero | Cline |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Agent Zero, s.r.o. | Cline Bot Inc. |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2025-09-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-09-24 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 19k stars | 68k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) |