# OpenHands vs Orca (slim)

> OpenHands scores 70.3 (BB) to Orca's 57.4 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-orca.md (~6,100 tokens) · this version ~2,580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-orca.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-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
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OpenHands scores 70.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Orca's 57.4 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

- OpenHands: BB 70.3, rank #206 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openhands.min.md
- Orca: C 57.4, rank #791 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orca.min.md
- OpenHands, good for Teams that want to self-host a coding agent with a web UI, per-conversation Docker sandboxes and scheduled or webhook automations, or embed the agent through a Python SDK and REST API. Ahead on Reliability, 90 against 58; Schema & documentation, 90 against 65; Agent ergonomics, 78 against 70; Security & auth, 64 against 43; Payments & pricing, 60 against 40; Maintenance & community, 85 against 75; Transparency & trust, 67 against 54. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.
- 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 OpenHands loses 7 points for them.

| Category | OpenHands | Orca |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 90 | 58 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 90 | 65 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 78 | 70 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 64 | 43 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 85 | 75 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 67 | 54 |

| Fact (where they differ) | OpenHands | Orca |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | All Hands AI | Lovecast Inc. |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | MIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service | MIT |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-28 | 2026-11-06 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-03 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 90k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, OpenHands +32: OpenHands 90 (Read as a local package. Official npm package @openhands/agent-canvas (Node 24 or later, plus uv), a Docker image on GHCR and openhands-sdk on PyPI (Python 3.12 or later) (20). A CI workflow (ci.yml) runs on main beside desktop, Docker and end-to-end workflows; the runs passed on every load on 1 October, and GitHub's pages refused us on 1 November, so the award rests on that check (25). 456 open issues and 395 open pull requests with priority labels and a high-priority Cloud resume bug (#17664), per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November (18). Dated release notes for every Canvas version and a written SDK rule of at least five minor releases before a public API or REST contract is removed, which the SDK followed on 28 October when it dropped the ACP curated model lists at their stated 1.59.0 deadline, but the Canvas CHANGELOG.md still stops at 1.0.0-alpha.2 (12). Canvas is 1.34.0 and the SDK 1.59.0, and the README's beta badge was removed on 23 October 2026 (commit 4d1c4d1, noted in the 1.33.0 release notes), so the product is no longer labelled beta. Only the Apps extension API keeps a beta label (15).); 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, OpenHands +25: OpenHands 90 (The Agent Server REST API has an OpenAPI 3.1 spec in the docs repository (40 paths, still labelled 0.1.0), the Cloud API has another (155 paths), SDK models are Pydantic-typed and there's a TypeScript client (25). llms.txt at docs.openhands.dev (551 lines on 1 November), with no CLI, local GUI or V0 pages in it (10). The docs have a when-to-use page and examples of good and bad task instructions. On 23 October the Deprecated Projects group (local GUI, CLI, V0) was taken out of the navigation and links to it reworded towards Agent Canvas, though the pages stay reachable by URL and the SDK architecture page still links the CLI repository (15). Confirmation policies, security analysers and MCP configs are discriminated Pydantic unions with validators (13). SDK examples are checked by a CI workflow and there are troubleshooting pages, but we found no error reference for the Agent Server (12). Dated release notes for each Canvas version in the docs (1.25.0 to 1.34.0 added since 1 October), and release tags (15).); Orca 65 (Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65).)
- Security & auth, OpenHands +21: OpenHands 64 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for goose and the other agent 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. Agent Canvas still sends a `canvas_install` event to PostHog through z.openhands.dev on first use "regardless of consent" (telemetry.ts header, re-read on 1 November), and the consent banner's box is still `defaultChecked`. `AGENT_CANVAS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1`, `--disable-telemetry`, `VITE_DO_NOT_TRACK=1` or the browser's Do Not Track setting stops all of it, the last since 1.26.0 (15). Confirmation policies (always, never, at or above a risk level) and a Docker sandbox per conversation exist, but Canvas still starts with `confirmation_mode: false` and the npm install runs on the host with full filesystem access. No network egress controls found. Local listeners bind to 127.0.0.1 with an injected session key, and since SDK 1.52.0 (5 October) DockerWorkspace publishes its ports on loopback (12). LLM, Invariant and GraySwan risk analysers and a policy-rail module, documented, all advisory (11). Conversation event logs, completion logs and OpenTelemetry tracing through Laminar, with hosted Laminar setup documented on 16 October (13). Security programme. openhands.dev's security.txt expired on 28 October 2026 (re-read on 1 November), though the responsible-disclosure policy it names still loads. A Vanta-hosted trust page per the 1 October check, and the git diff injection published as an OpenHands advisory with a CVE. CVE-2026-112346, the SDK's unauthenticated sandbox server, was published by VulnCheck on 26 October with no OpenHands advisory found. No bug bounty found. 13, down from 15 for the expired file, read as shopware's and tokeneconomizer's expired files are (still credited for the policy behind them, less than a valid file).); 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.)
- Payments & pricing, OpenHands +20: OpenHands 60 (No payment protocol (0). Scored on the paid options and the OpenHands LLM provider. The docs publish per-token prices for the OpenHands LLM provider at provider rates with no markup, and the pricing page now lists Agent Canvas free, Teams at $500 a month for up to 10 users (plus $50 a seat, 30-day trial) and Enterprise by sales (20). The MIT stack is free to self-host, and two DeepSeek models are free on app.all-hands.dev (20). It runs any model through LiteLLM, local ones included, so an agent can install and run it with no signup (20). The provider price table still lists 2025 models, so it may be stale.); 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.)
- Transparency & trust, OpenHands +13: OpenHands 67 (MIT across Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server (30). The privacy policy (effective 3 September 2025, re-read on 1 November) doesn't separate the open-source stack from the Cloud service, keeps data as long as reasonably necessary, allows training on content from the Services and has no subprocessor list (12). A written SDK deprecation runway of five minor releases, kept on 28 October when the ACP model lists were removed at their 1.59.0 deadline, and the CLI's unmaintained notice in its README without a date on the page (15). The consent prompt calls the data anonymous and the Docker page documents `AGENT_CANVAS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY`, but no user-facing page mentions the install event sent before consent (10).); 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.)
- Maintenance & community, OpenHands +10: OpenHands 85 (Agent Canvas 1.34.0 on 2026-10-27 and SDK 1.59.0 on 2026-10-28, by the repository tags (30). 29 Canvas releases (1.9.0 on 3 August to 1.34.0) and 33 SDK releases (1.40.1 on 5 August to 1.59.0) in the 90 days from 3 August, not counting the security rebuild tags (20). Issues labelled by priority, but 456 open issues and 395 open pull requests and no visible reply times per the 1 October check; GitHub's pages refused us on 1 November (16). npm, PyPI and GHCR packages current per the 1 October check (the registries didn't answer from our shell on 1 November). The unmaintained `openhands` CLI is gone from the docs navigation and the pricing page but its pages remain (10). CI on main, Dependabot, a security scan and an API-breakage check on the SDK, and security rebuilds of older images (agent-canvas 1.23.0-r3, agent-server 1.49.5-r3, 29 October) (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.)