CompareSwarm vs OpenHands
Swarm vs OpenHands
Both are open source and self-hosted. Pick OpenHands if you want a mature, model-agnostic coding agent with a web control center, a Python SDK and a path to Kubernetes. Pick Swarm if you want a headless platform your existing AI drives over MCP, with agents for research, design and media as well as code, and secrets your agents only see as stand-ins.
Side by side
| Swarm | OpenHands (Agent Canvas) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Self-hosted, headless AI agent platform | A self-hosted control center for coding agents and automations |
| License | Open source, Apache 2.0 | MIT |
| Where it runs | A headless service on your own Ubuntu 24.04 x86-64 machines (no macOS yet) | A laptop, Docker, a VM or Kubernetes; OpenHands Cloud as a backend |
| Interfaces | MCP tools for your AI, TypeScript SDK, HTTP API, CLI (swarmctl). No GUI beyond a setup page | Web GUI, Python SDK, TypeScript client, REST APIs, CLI; uses MCP servers as tools |
| Agents | Its own coder, finder, designer and reviewer, plus image, video and sound agents | Its own OpenHands agent on any LLM; also drives Claude Code, Codex and others |
| Your ChatGPT or Claude plan | ChatGPT plan, Claude plan through Claude Code, or API keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, Fireworks) | Yes, through the agent CLIs' sign-in; the SDK can sign in with ChatGPT |
| Several machines | Yes: one fleet MCP server over your Tailscale network | Yes: one Canvas connects to several agent servers |
| Isolation | Each job on its own branch; optional container per project; folder environments in their own container | Optional Docker container per conversation; without it, full filesystem access |
| Secrets | Typed in once; agents see stand-ins, the real value goes only to allowed hosts and is scrubbed from responses | Environment variables in the agent's runtime, masked in output |
| Automation | Schedules (cron or interval), trigger tokens for your app or CI, workflows with reviewer, send-back and script steps | Cron automations, GitHub events and webhooks; Slack, GitHub and Linear |
| Media generation | Images, video and sound | None documented |
| Price | Free. Models on your own plan or key | Free to self-host; Teams $499 a month for up to 10 users |
Pick OpenHands when
- You want a web control center to start, watch and steer coding agents yourself.
- You build in Python and want a full agent SDK, or need to run on Kubernetes.
- You want ready-made automations such as issue-to-pull-request, and a large community.
Pick Swarm when
- You already work in Claude Code, Codex or ChatGPT and want that AI to hand jobs off and read the results.
- You need research, design, images, video or sound, not only code.
- Agents should never hold real API keys: Swarm's gateway adds them only for allowed hosts.
- You want one fleet of your own machines behind a single MCP server.
Checked 24 October 2026 on github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands, docs.openhands.dev, openhands pricing. Products change quickly; tell us at contact if something here is out of date.
Questions
Is OpenHands still called OpenHands?
The project is OpenHands; its main app is now called Agent Canvas, a control center that runs its own agent and other agents.
Which one has a web interface?
OpenHands. Swarm is headless and is driven by your AI or your code; its only screen is a setup page.
Are both open source?
Yes: OpenHands under MIT, Swarm under Apache 2.0.
Do either keep keys away from the agent?
Swarm gives agents stand-ins and adds the real value only on the way to allowed hosts. OpenHands passes secrets as environment variables and masks them in output.
Updated 24 October 2026