# Cline vs Orca (slim)

> Orca scores 57.4 (C) to Cline's 52.8 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-orca.md (~5,600 tokens) · this version ~2,230 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-orca.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-orca
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Orca scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Cline's 52.8 (D), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Cline leads on reliability, schema & documentation, security & auth, payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- Cline: D 52.8, rank #975 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cline.min.md
- Orca: C 57.4, rank #795 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orca.min.md
- 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, 70 against 58; Schema & documentation, 77 against 65; Security & auth, 57 against 43; Payments & pricing, 50 against 40; Maintenance & community, 85 against 75; Transparency & trust, 65 against 54. Also Free to start without a card.
- Orca, good for Developers who want an orchestrator agent to split work across parallel coding agents, on desktop or mobile. Also No key needed to call it; No incidents deducted, where Cline loses 14 points for them.

| Category | Cline | Orca |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 70 | 58 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 77 | 65 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 67 | 70 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 57 | 43 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 50 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 85 | 75 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 65 | 54 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Cline | Orca |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Cline Bot Inc. | Lovecast Inc. |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-25 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-25 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-24 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 68k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Security & auth, Cline +14: Cline 57 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, used for all five harnesses in the 1 October batch. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Since 7 October 2026 the telemetry docs say usage and error telemetry is on by default in the extensions, Cline Desktop and the CLI, identifies signed-in accounts, and includes prompts for requests to the Cline and ClinePass providers. Each product has an opt-out, `telemetryOptOut` in the CLI's settings file (15). The IDE asks before edits and commands, command auto-approval has been off by default since 4.0.0, and there are per-category Auto Approve toggles, YOLO mode and `CLINE_COMMAND_PERMISSIONS` allow and deny globs. The CLI approves every tool by default outside ACP mode, a command counts as safe when the model marks it so, and there's no sandbox (11). No prompt-injection guidance found in the docs (4). Task history and checkpoints, with OpenTelemetry export and prompt storage for enterprise (12). A valid security.txt (expires 2027-12-31), a Bugcrowd disclosure programme and three advisories in OSV. GHSA-3cj3-hqcr-g934 now lists 3.0.30 as patched, and GHSA-5c57-rqjx-35g2 lists 2.13.0 as the last affected version (15).); Orca 43 (Harness reading. Anonymous usage data with an opt-out, per the README's link to its telemetry docs (15 of 30). Worktrees per agent and a sandboxed Linux build (12 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). A dependency-security workflow (6 of 20). 15 + 12 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 43.)
- Reliability, Cline +12: Cline 70 (Read as a local package. The `cline` CLI on npm (Node 22 or later), the VS Code extension (VS Code 1.101 or later), a JetBrains plugin and desktop builds (20). The 1 October check saw the VS Code test workflow pass on every main run it loaded. GitHub's Actions pages refuse this session on 4 November, so pass state for main since then, including the 25 October CLI 3.0.74 and extension 4.1.26 releases, is unread (15, as node-red). 645 to 730 open issues and 525 open pull requests, a stale bot that closes issues after 74 quiet days, and open crash reports such as #12493, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 4 November (13). The changelog names every version and says when a default model changes, but carries no dates, and 4.0.0 listed its removals under Changed rather than a breaking section. CLI 3.0.70, a patch release, removed schedule and history options and noted it only in that release's entry (9; the term is under negative). Extension 4.1.26 and CLI 3.0.74 are past 1.0, while the SDK (0.2.0) and desktop app (0.0.49) aren't (13).); Orca 58 (Local software. Desktop and mobile builds and a Homebrew cask (20). Unit, end-to-end and platform test workflows; pass state not read (15). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Tags to v1.4.251, no changelog file (8). Version 1.4 (15). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 15 = 58.)
- Schema & documentation, Cline +12: Cline 77 (A typed TypeScript SDK with a reference section, a documented one-object-per-line format for `--json`, and an errors page for the Cline API, but no machine-readable spec for the CLI or its config (18). llms.txt at docs.cline.bot, listing a Markdown version of every page (10). Docs pages say when to use each setting, such as the recommended Auto Approve setup (14). `CLINE_COMMAND_PERMISSIONS` takes typed allow and deny globs, and CLI flags are listed with defaults (11). CLI samples, SDK examples and the API errors page (13). A versioned changelog without dates, with dated tags on GitHub (11).); Orca 65 (Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65).)
- Transparency & trust, Cline +11: Cline 65 (Apache-2.0 (30). The privacy policy at cline.bot/privacy renders only with JavaScript and we couldn't read it. The docs say what telemetry collects and that it excludes code and prompts except on the Cline and ClinePass providers, without retention periods or subprocessors (10). Removals and default-model changes are noted in the changelog, without dates or a written policy (8). Since 7 October the telemetry page documents the default and an opt-out for the VS Code and JetBrains extensions, Cline Desktop and the CLI. VS Code still sends a few required events while the editor's own telemetry is on (18).); Orca 54 (MIT (30). Privacy and telemetry docs on the site (not read) (18 of 30). No deprecation policy (5). Disclosed with an opt-out (15 of 20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 15 = 68.)
- Payments & pricing, Cline +10: Cline 50 (No payment protocol (0). Scored on Cline's paid options. ClinePass is $9.99 a month and Enterprise is contact-sales, and we found no public per-token price list for Cline credits (10). The open-source extension and CLI need no card (20). Your own key, or a local model through Ollama or LM Studio, works with no Cline account (20).); Orca 40 (Scored on the cloud option. No protocol (0). The cloud price wasn't found on the pages read (0). The desktop app is free and MIT with no card (20). The local app needs no sign-up that we found (20). 0 + 0 + 20 + 20 = 40.)
- Maintenance & community, Cline +10: Cline 85 (CLI 3.0.74 and extension 4.1.26 on 2026-10-25, 10 days before this check (30). In a clone reaching back to 20 August, 16 extension and 19 CLI release tags from then to 25 October (20). Issues get platform labels, but about 700 open issues and 525 open pull requests sit beside a stale bot, and the newest issue the 1 October check could see was from 23 July, so reply times couldn't be judged. GitHub's issue pages refuse this session on 4 November (13). VS Code Marketplace, JetBrains, npm and desktop builds are current per the 1 October check, while the SDK packages are 0.2.0 (26 October) (13). Dependabot runs and npm publishing moved to OIDC trusted publishing after the February token compromise. CI pass state per the 1 October check (9).); Orca 75 (Tags to v1.4.251 and commits on 6 November 2026 (30). Many releases in 90 days (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current builds (15). Extensive CI (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75.)