OpenHands

Who it is for

For developers, individuals, and small teams. It runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, the web, and a computer you control. License: MIT. It is in the DevOps group.

What you pay

Free plan: The README's install is npm or Docker, and the LICENSE file is MIT. OpenHands Cloud is a commercial option. We have not checked its price. Hosted price: OpenHands Cloud is named in the README. We have not checked a dollar price. Run it yourself: Setup: medium. The README's npm path needs Node.js 24 or later and uv. The Docker example checked on November 5, 2026 is tagged 1.35.0. The same README warns that an install without a sandbox can read and write files on that machine.

How to switch

• Compared with Ona. Its price on file: The October 13, 2026 post does not print a dollar price. Ona Cloud shut down on October 31, 2026. October payments and unused credits are refunded.

  You only get part of: commit and push, or open a pull request.

  Free alternatives to Ona·Move from Ona to OpenHands

• Compared with Jules. Its price on file: The homepage lists task caps and does not print a dollar price. Jules winds down on December 31, 2026. Not checked.

  You only get part of: opens a branch or a pull request, environment variables for the task, and start a task from a GitHub issue.

  Free alternatives to Jules·Move from Jules to OpenHands

• Compared with Conductor. Its price on file: The November 4 announcement does not print a dollar price. New signups stopped that day. Existing Pro users keep Pro features for free. Cloud shuts down on November 20, 2026.

  What you give up: claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and OpenCode as the agents. You only get part of: more than one agent working at the same time, an isolated git checkout for each task, and review the diff and open a pull request, and 2 more.

  Free alternatives to Conductor

How close is it?

A full score means it matches our checklist. It is not a drop-in replacement.

• 90
  Instead of Ona5 of 5 checked features. A full score means it matches our checklist. It is not a drop-in replacement.You only get part of: commit and push, or open a pull request.You point a conversation at a repository you already have. Ona's post says the code you keep is the branch the agent pushed.The README describes conversations with agents that edit the project.The README describes conversations and automations. It does not say it imports an Ona session or pushes an Ona environment.The README says agents on a server can keep running after the laptop is shut.The install is npm or Docker, and the LICENSE file is MIT. OpenHands Cloud is named. This listing did not check its price.
• 84
  Instead of Jules8 of 8 checked features. A full score means it matches our checklist. It is not a drop-in replacement.You only get part of: opens a branch or a pull request, environment variables for the task, and start a task from a GitHub issue.The README describes conversations where an agent works in a project. The setup docs say the agent can run shell commands and edit files inside its workspace.The README says agents on a server keep running after the laptop is shut. The Docker sandbox notes say conversation history survives a container replacement.The PR review guide connects a GitHub token and a GitHub MCP server, and automations can name a repository.The documented GitHub workflow reviews an existing pull request and can be given pull request write permission. It does not say Agent Canvas opens a new pull request for every task.The automations guide shows a schedule trigger, including a cron expression, plus webhook and event triggers.Settings include persistent agent memory. When it is on, new conversations can load saved memory from the workspace and the user.Settings store secrets for the active backend. The docs checked do not describe a per-task environment variable list like the Jules export.The README says automations can decompose GitHub issues into tasks. It does not describe a label that assigns one issue to the agent.
• 46
  Instead of Conductor7 of 7 checked features. A full score means it matches our checklist. It is not a drop-in replacement.What you give up: claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and OpenCode as the agents. You only get part of: more than one agent working at the same time, an isolated git checkout for each task, and review the diff and open a pull request, and 2 more.The README describes conversations and automations. It does not say several agents work at the same time in separate checkouts.Agent Canvas runs its own agent. The README checked November 5, 2026 does not launch Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and OpenCode.A conversation works in a project directory. The docs checked do not create a git worktree and a branch per task.The PR guide reviews a pull request that already exists. It does not say the app opens and merges one pull request per workspace.The setup docs list a desktop preview for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The current app is also a local server, not a Mac-only workspace app.The README says agents on a server keep running after the laptop is shut. OpenHands Cloud is named. We have not checked its price.You bring a model for the agent you run. The README does not connect a Claude, Codex, or Cursor subscription as the harness.

Related alternatives

DevOps alternatives

• Free alternatives to Bitbucket
• Free alternatives to Conductor
• Free alternatives to GitHub
• Free alternatives to Jules
• Free alternatives to Ollama Cloud
• Free alternatives to Ona

Free apps in this group

• Aider: Terminal pair programming that commits each edit to git.
• Bugsink: A smaller Sentry-compatible error store.
• Cline: An Apache-2.0 coding agent for VS Code and the terminal. No inline autocomplete.
• Continue: An Apache-2.0 IDE assistant. The repository is read-only after the Cursor acquisition.
• cState: A Hugo status page. Incidents are markdown files.
• Cursor: A coding editor with Tab autocomplete and an agent. Free is limited. The code is closed.
• Devin: The desktop editor formerly sold as Windsurf. Free includes Tab. The code is closed.
• Errbit: An older Airbrake-compatible error catcher.
• Forgejo: A community forge, GPL-3.0 since v9.
• Gatus: A health dashboard with a status page in the config file.
• Gitea: A lightweight Git forge.
• GitHub Copilot: GitHub's coding assistant. Free is capped. The code is not public.
• GitLab Community Edition: The MIT edition of GitLab, without EE.
• GlitchTip: Error tracking compatible with Sentry SDKs.
• Highlight: Session replay and errors, with a split license.
• Kener: A status page with incidents, maintenance, and email subscriptions.
• llama.cpp: LLM inference in C and C++. The license is MIT. llama-server speaks an OpenAI-style API.
• Ollama: Run open models on your own computer. The license is MIT.
• OneUptime: Status pages plus monitors, incidents, and on-call.
• OpenCode: A terminal and desktop coding agent that can open a GitHub pull request.
• Radicle: A peer-to-peer code forge.
• SigNoz: Traces, metrics, and logs in one app.
• SourceHut: Git hosting composed of small services.
• Tabby: A self-hosted completion server. Community is free for up to 5 users.
• Uptime Kuma: Uptime checks, with a public status page of those checks.
• vLLM: An Apache-2.0 model server with an OpenAI-compatible API.

Switch guides

• Move from Jules to OpenHands
• Move from Ona to OpenHands

Where we looked

• https://github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenHands/OpenHands/main/LICENSE
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenHands/OpenHands/main/README.md
• https://docs.openhands.dev/openhands/usage/agent-canvas/setup
• https://docs.openhands.dev/openhands/usage/agent-canvas/customize-and-settings
• https://docs.openhands.dev/openhands/usage/agent-canvas/managing-automations
• https://docs.openhands.dev/openhands/usage/agent-canvas/prebuilt/github-pr-review