# Orca vs Verdent

> Orca scores 57.4 (C) to Verdent's 39.7 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-verdent
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-verdent.md (~5,250 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Orca scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Verdent's 39.7 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

- Orca: grade C, 57.4/100, rank #795 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orca.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orca.json
- Verdent: grade E, 39.7/100, rank #1336 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/verdent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/verdent.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 1500 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Orca (C)

Good for: Developers who want an orchestrator agent to split work across parallel coding agents, on desktop or mobile.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 58 against 43
- Schema & documentation, 65 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 35
- Security & auth, 43 against 33
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 75 against 61

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: Anonymous usage data collected by default, with an opt-out

### Verdent (E)

Good for: A person who wants a desktop app to plan and run several coding tasks at once, possibly on their own Claude Code or Codex.

Watch for: No CLI, print mode, API or SDK, so a pipeline can't start or read a run except through a paired chat bot


## Why the edge

### Agent ergonomics: Orca +35

- 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).
- Verdent (35): Harness reading. MCP servers per project or globally, subagents, skills and rules, but no per-tool disabling or deferred loading found (10). No output-size, turn-limit or budget controls for a run were found beyond credit balances (5). No exit codes or error format, since there is no headless mode (3). Parallel workers in git worktrees and a review column make runs reviewable and reversible, with no resume by ID documented (10). No CLI, API or SDK. A pipeline can only reach Manager through a paired Telegram, Slack or Feishu bot (7). 10+5+3+10+7 = 35.

### Payments & pricing: Orca +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.
- Verdent (20): Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Verdent subscription the agent needs. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices from $5 a month, top-up prices and the credit value of about $0.059 are public without a login (20). Free Mode and the free trial ended on 29 October 2026, so there is no free tier (0). A person signs up in a browser (0). 0+20+0+0 = 20.

### Reliability: Orca +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.
- Verdent (43): Local-package reading, as for the other closed-source harnesses. The desktop app installs from verdent.ai with macOS 11 or later and 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 stated, and the extension from the editor marketplaces, but not from a package registry (15). No public CI or test suite, since the source isn't published (0). No public issue tracker, every task runs through Verdent's servers, and no status page was found, so there is no readable record (5). A dated changelog by version, with the end of Free Mode called out in v2.18.0, but no breaking-change sections (8). 2.18.0, generally available (15). 15+0+5+8+15 = 43.

### Maintenance & community: Orca +14

- 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.
- Verdent (61): Closed service. v2.18.0 on 29 October 2026, eight days before this check (30). More than three dated releases in the 90 days from 8 August, among them 2.10.0 to 2.18.0 (20). A dated public changelog, a support address, Discord and a subreddit, with no public tracker to read reply times (8). No official SDK or MCP server to keep current (0). No public packages or CI to judge (3). 30+20+8+0+3 = 61.

### Schema & documentation: Orca +10

- Orca (65): Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65).
- Verdent (55): Framework reading for a harness. No schema for settings or output, only mcp.json examples in the standard mcpServers shape (5). Every current docs page has a Markdown twin at the same path with .md, though no llms.txt (10). The docs say when to use Agent Mode or Plan Mode and what Plan Mode can't do, but the Agent Mode page lists the actions that need approval only as "certain tool executions" and "destructive operations" (12). Modes and BYOA agent types are enumerated, permissions are not (5). Examples on the MCP, BYOA and messaging pages, and a recovery page, with no error codes (8). Version numbers and a dated public changelog (15). The archived 1.0 docs are still served beside the current ones. 5+10+12+5+8+15 = 55.

### Security & auth: Orca +10

- 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.
- Verdent (33): Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). Conversation history and tool results go to Verdent's US servers and on to Azure, Bedrock or Vertex, with zero data retention stated for Vertex and Bedrock only. Event logging to log.verdent.ai has no documented opt-out. BYOA keys stay on the machine (10). Plan Mode is read-only, Agent Mode asks before destructive commands and edits outside scope, and workers are isolated by git worktree, but there is no sandbox or network control and the approval list isn't enumerated (9). No prompt-injection guidance found, while web search and fetch results enter the context (2). Usage history in the dashboard, no audit log found (5). A security page with a disclosure address and a five-day acknowledgement, SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 42001 being pursued rather than held, no security.txt and no bug bounty (7). 10+9+2+5+7 = 33.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Orca | Verdent | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 43 | Orca +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 55 | Orca +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 35 | Orca +35 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 33 | Orca +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Orca +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 61 | Orca +14 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 55 | Verdent +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **57.4 · C** | **39.7 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Orca | Verdent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Lovecast Inc. | Verdent AI, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary. The terms of use from Verdent AI, Inc. forbid reverse engineering or copying any component, and no source is published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-10-29 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-26 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |

## Verdicts

**Orca.** An open-source orchestrator for coding agents with worker agents in their own worktrees, chat and terminal views, a browser and a CLI, on desktop and mobile, with heavy test automation. It collects anonymous usage data by default, and the cloud option's pricing wasn't found.

**Verdent.** A desktop and editor coding agent that splits a goal into parallel workers in git worktrees, with a read-only Plan Mode, MCP servers and the option to run workers on Claude Code or Codex. It has no CLI, API or sandbox, sends context through Verdent's servers, and has had no free tier since 29 October 2026.

## Before you call either

### Orca

1. See the telemetry docs on onorca.dev to opt out of anonymous usage data
2. Use the orchestration CLI to hand a large task to one agent that starts workers

### Verdent

1. Don't plan to drive Verdent headless. Hand the task to the person using the desktop app, or use a harness with a print mode
2. Start large changes in Plan Mode and review plan.md before switching to Agent Mode
3. Add MCP servers in the project's .mcp.json or ~/.verdent/mcp.json in the mcpServers shape
4. Keep work under git, since rollback relies on git and there is no sandbox
5. Budget in credits at about $0.059 each, because there is no free allowance since 29 October 2026

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Orca or Verdent?

Orca scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Verdent's 39.7 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are Orca and Verdent open source?

Orca is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Verdent.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-verdent.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-verdent.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "orca", "b": "verdent"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare orca verdent`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orca.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/verdent.json

## Other comparisons with Orca or Verdent

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---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp