# Orca vs Qwen Code (slim)

> Qwen Code scores 68.7 (B) 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/orca-vs-qwen-code.md (~5,600 tokens) · this version ~2,080 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-qwen-code.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-qwen-code
- 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)

Qwen Code scores 68.7 (B) on agent readiness against Orca's 57.4 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

- Orca: C 57.4, rank #791 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orca.min.md
- Qwen Code: B 68.7, rank #273 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen-code.min.md
- 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 Qwen Code loses 4 points for them.
- Qwen Code, good for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs. Ahead on Reliability, 69 against 58; Schema & documentation, 91 against 65; Agent ergonomics, 85 against 70; Security & auth, 53 against 43; Payments & pricing, 60 against 40; Maintenance & community, 88 against 75; Transparency & trust, 66 against 54. Also Free to start without a card.

| Category | Orca | Qwen Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 58 | 69 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 65 | 91 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 70 | 85 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 43 | 53 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 75 | 88 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 54 | 66 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Orca | Qwen Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Lovecast Inc. | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 28k stars, 105k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, Qwen Code +26: Orca 65 (Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65).); Qwen Code 91 (Framework reading. A settings.schema.json in the repository, a settings reference with the type and default of each key, and an OpenAPI file for the daemon's REST API (25). llms.txt on the docs site lists the pages with a line each, though it links to HTML and the Markdown path we tried returned 404 (8). The approval-mode page says when to use each mode and the sandbox page what each method and Seatbelt profile allows (15). Approval modes, sandbox backends, filesystem and network policies are enums (13). The headless page documents json and stream-json output, and exit codes 41, 42, 44, 52, 53, 55 and 130 are documented (15). A dated changelog generated from releases (15).)
- Payments & pricing, Qwen Code +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.); Qwen Code 60 (Self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0). The CLI is free under Apache-2.0 with nothing to buy (20). No card or account is needed for the software, and it runs against a local model server (20). An agent can install and run it with no sign-up, given a model endpoint (20). Alibaba Cloud's Coding Plan and Token Plan are separate purchases, and their price pages couldn't be loaded on 8 October 2026.)
- Agent ergonomics, Qwen Code +15: Orca 70 (Harness reading. An orchestrator agent that splits work across workers in their own workspaces, chat or raw CLI, a browser and a CLI in one app (70).); Qwen Code 85 (Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. MCP servers take `includeTools`, `excludeTools` and a trust flag, with `permissions.allow`, `ask` and `deny` rules and `--exclude-tools` (20). Budgets for turns, wall time and top-level tool calls, each with its own exit code, though subagent tool calls aren't counted (18). Documented exit codes (18). `--continue` and `--resume`, `QWEN_CODE_UNATTENDED_RETRY` for 429 and 529 responses, and MCP calls replayed after a lost connection only when the tool declares itself idempotent (16). A TypeScript SDK on npm at 0.1.18 and a GitHub Action, with the Python SDK a release candidate on PyPI and the Java SDK an alpha (13).)
- Maintenance & community, Qwen Code +13: 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.); Qwen Code 88 (0.26.5 on 1 November 2026 (30). 39 stable releases from 3 August to 1 November (v0.21.4 to v0.26.5), plus previews and nightlies (20). Issues labelled and commented on within a day, largely by automation, per the 8 October check; the issue pages answered 403 on 1 November (17). The TypeScript SDK reached 0.1.26 on 29 October, while the Python SDK's newest tag is still sdk-python-v0.1.0-preview.0 (9 May 2026) and the Java SDK is an alpha (11). CI, CodeQL, a monthly scorecard and Dependabot (10). 30 + 20 + 17 + 11 + 10 = 88.)
- Transparency & trust, Qwen Code +12: 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.); Qwen Code 66 (Apache-2.0 (30). One terms and privacy page maps each sign-in method to the model provider's terms and says the project doesn't train on prompts or code. Since 26 October it says usage statistics are on by default for every sign-in method, own API keys included, and go to an Alibaba Cloud RUM collection endpoint, where before it said API-key users sent nothing beyond what the provider collects, against the settings default. It still gives no retention period and names no legal entity (20, was 18). The end of the Qwen OAuth free tier is dated 15 April 2026 and `tools.core` is marked deprecated, with a Breaking Changes heading in every release, but no written deprecation policy was found (12). Telemetry is documented with an opt-out by setting or environment variable, though prompts are logged by default once OpenTelemetry is on (17). 30 + 20 + 12 + 17 = 79.)
- Reliability, Qwen Code +11: 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.); Qwen Code 69 (Local-package reading. npm with engines node 22 or newer (re-read in package.json at 0.26.5), Homebrew at 0.26.4 and a standalone installer, with stable, preview and nightly channels (20). Public CI, and of the 15 most recent completed CI runs on main on 8 October, 12 passed, 3 were cancelled and none failed, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (22). 1,402 open issues and 334 open pull requests per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November; the triage and follow-up bots still run in the workflows (15). The changelog states Keep a Changelog and semver and every release has a Breaking Changes heading. Breaking changes shipped in patch releases 0.23.4 and 0.24.1, and again in 0.26.1 (24 October, QQ bot session isolation) and 0.26.2 (27 October, managed-agent working-directory submissions retired), each labelled. All are 0.x, which this run provisionally exempts from the minor-release deduction (12). 0.26.5, pre-1.0 (0). 20 + 22 + 15 + 12 + 0 = 69.)