Best for
Best for developers who want an agent with no vendor lock-in, their own model keys, or a fully local setup.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
AI Code Comparison
OpenCode vs. OpenHands
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for engineering teams that want an open-source coding agent they can self-host and point at their own models.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | OpenCode | OpenHands |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free, MIT licence You bring your own provider keys and pay them directly. The optional OpenCode Zen gateway is pay as you go per million tokens and includes several free models. | Free, open source (MIT) The hosted Individual plan is free with up to 10 conversations per day; models are billed through your own key or the OpenHands provider at cost. Enterprise is priced on request. |
| Free trial | Free open-source agent | Free and open source; hosted Individual plan free with up to 10 conversations per day |
| Commercial use | Yes, MIT licence | Yes |
| Output | Agentic coding in a terminal, a desktop app or an IDE | Autonomous agents that plan, edit, run and test code |
| API | Local server with a TypeScript SDK | Yes, REST and WebSocket APIs through the Agent Server |
| Hosting | Not stated | Self-hosted locally, in Docker or Kubernetes, or the managed OpenHands Cloud |
| Where it runs | Terminal, a desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, and IDE extensions; open source under the MIT licence, installed through npm, Homebrew, Scoop, Chocolatey, Arch, Mise, Docker or a binary | Agent Canvas web interface, a terminal CLI, a Python, TypeScript and REST SDK, self-hosted Agent and Sandbox servers, or the managed OpenHands Cloud |
| Inline completions | No, OpenCode is driven by prompts rather than by suggestions as you type; its language-server integration feeds diagnostics back to the agent instead of offering inline completions | No, an agent platform rather than an inline autocomplete tool |
| Agent mode | Yes, an autonomous coding agent with several sessions running in parallel and the option to share a session | Yes, that is the product: agents that plan, edit, run and test code, with automations that decompose GitHub issues into tasks |
| Model choice | Yes, more than 75 providers through Models.dev with your own keys, plus local models through Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp and any other OpenAI-compatible endpoint declared in opencode.json | Model-agnostic through LiteLLM, with provider guides for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, AWS Bedrock, Azure and OpenRouter, plus local open-weight models |
| Data control | Provider keys are stored locally in the user's own auth file rather than on a server, the project states it does not store your code or context data, and local models keep the work on your machine | Runs on your own machine or in your own VPC when self-hosted; Enterprise adds SAML and SSO, multi-user RBAC and auditability |
| Ecosystem fit | Terminal, desktop app and IDE extensions, with language servers and MCP servers configurable; the optional OpenCode Zen gateway supplies models tested for coding agents | Git integrations plus Jira and Slack, and interoperability with agents that speak the Agent Client Protocol |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), On-premise | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise |
| Support | Community forum | Community forum |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized | more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries Visual Studio Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VSCodium, GitHub, Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp | GitHub, Slack, Jira, Linear |
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Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price OpenCode Free, MIT licence OpenHands Free, open source (MIT)
- Free trial OpenCode Free open-source agent OpenHands Free and open source; hosted Individual plan free with up to 10 conversations per day
- Deployment OpenCode Cloud (SaaS), On-premise OpenHands Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise
- Company size OpenCode Freelancers, Small and mid-sized OpenHands Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Commercial use OpenCode Yes, MIT licence OpenHands Yes
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
OpenCode
Strengths
- MIT-licensed and free, with no restriction on commercial use
- More than 75 model providers plus fully local models, so no vendor lock-in
- One agent across terminal, desktop app and IDE
- Local server and TypeScript SDK for embedding the agent in other tools
Limitations
- You manage provider keys and pay model costs directly, so spend is harder to predict than a seat price
- Topping up OpenCode Zen credit adds a card processing fee of 4.4% plus $0.30 per transaction
- Zen model prices span a wide range, from $0.05 to $180 per million tokens depending on the model
OpenHands
Strengths
- Open source under MIT, so it can be self-hosted, audited and modified
- Model-agnostic through LiteLLM, including local open-weight models
- One agent available as a web interface, a CLI, an SDK and a hosted cloud service
Limitations
- No inline code completion; it is an agent platform, not an editor assistant
- Self-hosting means supplying and paying for your own model access
- The free hosted tier is capped at 10 conversations per day
Plans
Pricing
OpenCode
- OpenCode $0 Open source under the MIT licence. You bring your own provider keys and pay them directly.
- OpenCode Zen Pay as you go Billed per million tokens, from $0.05 per million input tokens on the cheapest model up to $180 per million output tokens on the most expensive. Several models are free. Credit auto-reloads by $20 when the balance falls below $5, and top-ups add a card processing fee of 4.4% plus $0.30. Workspace and per-member monthly spending caps are available.
OpenHands
- Open source $0 Self-hosted under MIT, model-agnostic, with community support. You bring your own model access.
- Individual $0 Hosted cloud access with up to 10 conversations per day, API support and Jira and Slack integrations. Bring your own key, or use the OpenHands provider at cost.
- Enterprise Not stated Priced on request. SaaS or self-hosted VPC, SAML and SSO, unlimited concurrent conversations per user, multi-user RBAC and priority support.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
OpenCode
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
OpenHands
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
OpenCode https://opencode.ai · checked against the official source on 2026-09-07
OpenHands https://www.openhands.dev · no check date recorded yet
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.