Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Conductor vs Unstoppable

Conductor scores 41.3 (E) on agent readiness against Unstoppable's 34.7 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Unstoppable leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

Conductor E

Best for Existing Conductor users planning their move before Cloud closes on 20 November 2026 and the local app winds down in early 2027.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 60 against 30
  • Agent ergonomics, 55 against 5
  • Security & auth, 45 against 36

Watch for

No new downloads or sign-ups since 4 November 2026

Unstoppable F

Best for A developer who runs Claude Code, Codex and Cursor on existing plans and wants parallel worktrees, pipelines and phone check-ins in one app.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 45 against 25
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 0

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No API, MCP server, SDK or documented CLI for an outside agent. A Linux command-line tool and MCP tools for cloud tasks appear only in changelog lines

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Agent ergonomics Conductor +50

Conductor 55

Harness reading. Each task gets a workspace, branch, terminal and diff, with pull requests and merges from the app, and an API for integrations; not re-read in detail (55).

Unstoppable 5

These lines measure an interface an agent calls, and Unstoppable has none, so context cost, output controls and retries score nothing. For the person, a usage limit shows choices to wait for the reset or continue on credits (2 of 20). Guest use with no account, a first-run page that imports Claude and Codex projects, and few required settings. No SDK (3 of 15). Total 5.

Schema & documentation Conductor +30

Conductor 60

Harness reading. Docs for workspaces, review and merge, a Conductor API reference page linked from the docs (not read), and security and permissions pages (60).

Unstoppable 30

Graded on the interface an outside agent can use, which is none. No API, OpenAPI file, MCP server or documented command (0). unstoppable.ai/llms.txt lists the product, help and policy pages in Markdown (10). Twenty-two dated help articles explain for a person what each part does and when to use it, such as Code and Work modes and approval modes (5 of 20). No typed inputs an agent could call (0). Step-by-step examples for people and named error states such as usage limit reached and update failed, with no error responses for an agent (3 of 15). Numbered versions and a public dated changelog, which lists only four releases from 20 to 23 October 2026 (12 of 15). Total 30.

Payments & pricing Unstoppable +30

Conductor 0

No new sign-ups since 4 November, free users can't upgrade, and no price is shown. No protocol, no published price, no open free tier, no onboarding (0).

Unstoppable 30

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The app is published as free, but AI credit prices appear only after sign-in, and no pricing page exists (unstoppable.ai/pricing redirects to the home page). Plan prices of $19, $29 and $49 appear only in an 11 August 2026 blog post (10). Guest use with no account, and 10 free AI credits a day with no card (20). A person has to download and install the app, so no autonomous onboarding (0). Total 30.

Reliability Unstoppable +20

Conductor 25

Read as local software that is winding down. Installed from Conductor's own download, which stopped taking new users on 4 November 2026 (10). Closed source, so no public CI or issue tracker (0, 0). A dated changelog, newest 0.93.0 on 4 November (15). Version 0.93 (0). 10 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 25.

Unstoppable 45

Read as local software, because the product is the desktop app the owner runs, as for the other harnesses. Signed downloads for macOS Apple Silicon, macOS Intel and Windows on the download page, version 1.15.0, plus iOS and Android apps in the stores, with the supported platforms stated. No package registry (20). Closed source with no public CI or test suite (0). No public issue tracker. Bugs go through in-app feedback, email and Discord, none of which shows a record we could read (0). Version numbers and a dated changelog, but only 1.12.0 to 1.15.0 are listed and breaking changes are not marked as such (10). Version 1.15.0 (15). The hosted parts (accounts, AI credits, cloud agents, Remote Control) have no status page. status.unstoppabledomains.com covers the domains business only.

Security & auth Conductor +9

Conductor 45

Closed app. Telemetry and data handling weren't read beyond the transition notice (10 of 30). A security and permissions page (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance found (5). No audit log found (5). SOC 2 Type II report at trust.conductor.build (15 of 20). 10 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 15 = 45.

Unstoppable 36

Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 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. Activity sharing is Off for every activity type by default and secrets are removed before upload, but the privacy policy also collects usage telemetry (feature use, session activity, token and spend metrics, diagnostics) with no opt-out stated, and updates download automatically by default (15 of 30). Ask and Accept edits modes with allow and deny rules by command, file write, MCP tool and network host, deny winning, and safety rules that block force-pushes and destructive deletes. Every kind of chat starts in Full access, which skips prompts and safety rules, and local agents have no documented sandbox. Cloud worktrees get their own sandbox (8 of 20). The in-app browser stops agents acting on private sign-in pages. No other guidance on untrusted content from web pages, MCP servers or connected tools (3 of 15). Cost and usage panels, a team feed with tool-use metadata, approval rules with their origin, and an Audit Trail experiment in Labs (8 of 15). Two-factor authentication for accounts. No security.txt on unstoppable.ai, the parent's security.txt expired on 22 January 2024, its bug bounty policy link returns 404, and no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 found (2 of 20). Total 36.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runConductorUnstoppableEdge
Reliability16%202545Unstoppable +20
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26030Conductor +30
Agent ergonomics13%16.2555Conductor +50
Security & auth14%17.54536Conductor +9
Payments & pricing10%12.5030Unstoppable +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85858even
Transparency & trust7%8.85356Unstoppable +3
Negative events≤1500
TotalE 41.3/100F 34.7/100

Facts side by side

FactConductorUnstoppable
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorConductor (joining Meta)Unstoppable Domains, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary. A closed-source Mac app and hosted Conductor Cloud under Conductor's termsProprietary, under Unstoppable Domains, Inc.'s Terms of Service. No source published
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-11-042026-10-23
Terms last updatednot read yet2026-10-06
Privacy policy last updatednot read yet2026-10-08
Customer content may train modelsnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot read yetyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot read yetnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot read yetyes

How the scores have moved

Conductor

No score change since it was listed.

Unstoppable

Verdicts

Conductor

Conductor ran parallel coding agents on the Mac, and Meta is acquiring it. It has taken no new users since 4 November 2026, Cloud turns read-only on 13 November and shuts down on 20 November, and the local app winds down in early 2027, when all user data is deleted.

Unstoppable

Unstoppable runs several coding agents side by side in separate worktrees on the owner's Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor plans, with dated help articles and a public changelog. It has no API, MCP server or documented command an outside agent can call, every chat starts in Full access, and its pages disagree on which parts need a paid plan.

Before you call either

Conductor

  1. Export your data from Settings, Account, Export data before 20 November 2026
  2. Move Cloud workspaces to your Mac with Transfer to local before 13 November
  3. Plan a move off the local app before early 2027; see the agent-harnesses category for alternatives

Unstoppable

  1. Don't plan to drive Unstoppable from another agent. It has no documented API, MCP server or CLI. Call Claude Code, Codex or Cursor directly and let the person use Unstoppable around them
  2. Inside Unstoppable, check the approval mode before acting. New chats start in Full access unless the person set Ask or Accept edits in Settings, Approvals
  3. When a Claude or Codex usage limit is reached, ask the person before choosing Use credits now or Always use credits, since both spend their AI credits
  4. Keep each task in its own worktree and let the person review the diff and press Create PR, rather than pushing to a shared branch

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Conductor or Unstoppable?

Conductor scores 41.3 (E) on agent readiness against Unstoppable's 34.7 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Unstoppable leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

Other comparisons with Conductor or Unstoppable

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